OGDEN — Wynter McBride, 25, of Ogden, never could’ve predicted she’d be skiing professionally one day.

When she and her three siblings would go up into the mountains as kids, it was all about fun.

“We started skiing really young,” she said. “Dad worked up at the mountain so that we could get passes. We’d go up there every weekend and ski as a family. There was never any pressure or expectation for us to compete or do anything — we all just enjoyed being in the mountains and spending time together.”

But the competition bug was still lurking on the mountainside.

Photo supplied, Wynter McBride

“I started competing in local rail jams,” she said. “My mom was working at Nordic Valley on the ski patrol and I think it was something for her to put me and my older sister in to do to kill time. That kind of started my interest in competition skiing.”

She said that after competing in local rail jams, she ultimately took a job coaching the freeride ski team at Snowbasin Resort in 2019.

Not that McBride was overly familiar with the style at competitive level at the time.

“At that point, I didn’t really know what freeride competition was, I just knew I wanted to ski a lot,” she said. “That was kind of my in, ‘OK, if I coach on weekends, I can ski more.’ I kind of just fell in love with it because I like working with kids and showing them the type of skiing I really enjoy — just skiing all over the mountain and learning how to jump and do tricks. That really started my professional ski career.”

Then a desire to improve her coaching abilities became the opportunity of a lifetime.

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“With the juniors, they would compete in these junior freeride competitions, so we’d go to Solitude and Snowbird and Park City and I would coach them for these competitions,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’ve never done this. I don’t know what it’s like to stand in a start gate.’ So I decided to sign up for an adult competition — so that I could be a better coach was my primary reason. After that, I fell in love with it. I was so hooked.”

But what is freeride skiing?

McBride said it distinguishes itself from other forms of skiing in several ways.

“Freeride is an extreme sport where you’re given the face of a mountain,” she said. “It can be really steep, it can be not so steep — 25-40 degrees is generally what people are skiing for these venues. There’s rock faces, chutes, couloirs — then as a competitor, you get to look at the venue with binoculars and then you have to decide what you’re going to ski.”

She said that a competitor will assess what geography they could use to their advantage that fits their style. Skiers can also add tricks to their run to accumulate additional points.

Since 2022, McBride has been competing in professional freeride events, elevating herself to one of the sport’s highest positions in the past couple of years.

“I never really expected to be competing on the Freeride World Tour,” she said. “I always thought it would be cool and I always looked up to the people who are competing on the Freeride World Tour, but I was doing it because it was a fun way to challenge myself and a good way to meet friends all over the U.S. in these mountain towns. … Last year, I was able to compete in the highest level of qualifier event and I did really well last year — first, second, third, fourth place in the competitions I did, never below a fifth place — which got me into the Challenger Series which is what qualifies you for the Freeride World Tour.”

She said in North and South America, only two female skiers will make the cut for the Freeride World Tour.

“People that compete on the Freeride World Tour end up being professional skiers and they go film movies,” she said. “They don’t have to work a traditional job. All I’ve ever wanted is to ski a lot.”

McBride noted she is currently fifth overall on the Freeride World Tour.

Her father, Mike McBride, who serves as the communications director for Ogden City, said he quickly saw Wynter had a passion for skiing.

“When I was teaching them all, it was always more about ‘pizza feet’ and ‘French fries’ more so than competing — it was always about fun,” he said. “To see that she still has fun makes me so proud. Then, she’s so humble about being good.”

He said he’s very proud to see what Wynter has accomplished over the years on the slopes.

“To look back and reflect on the fact that we never put her in any training, she was never on the ski team, there was never any formalized coaching other than her mom is a pretty excellent mountaineer,” he said. “My fatherly reaction has just been so proud to see her living her dream and doing it in a really beautiful way.”