KAPPL, Austria – With one shot to impress judges, Anjah Morgan-Smith knew going big to land a medal at the 2025 YETI Freeride Junior World Championships was the only way to ride.
When planning a challenging, yet alluring line that stands out on the snowy mountainside of the iconic Quellspitze face in Kappl, Austria, the 16-year-old with the ski skills from Canmore saw what she needed to do: take flight on a nearly 30-foot drop with the very real danger of hitting exposed, jagged rock.
Although, the mighty risk reaped a fruitful reward as Morgan-Smith’s smooth landing in powder got thumbs up from the judges and secured a junior world championship silver medal on Jan. 13.
“It was really just crazy in my mind,” said Morgan-Smith. “I got down to the bottom and I knew I had put down a good run, but I wasn’t sure if it was good enough to land me on the podium. When I found out I was sitting in second after my run, I was just overly thrilled. I was honestly just so proud of myself because I knew I had put so much work into this.”
Freeriding, or big mountain, is competitive skiing and snowboarding with no set courses or groomed snow. The sport’s point system rewards skill, tricks, jumps and clean riding, all in about a two- or three-minute ride from top to bottom.
Your average Canmore Collegiate student, when Morgan-Smith hits the books her true homework of late has been studying old videos of freeriders and checking out the layout of different mountain venues, figuring out the best line down and a signature style that fits.
“When you’re in the run, you’re locked and you’re ready to go,” said Morgan-Smith. “I feel like if you’re nervous going into it, it’s not going to give you a good landing and you're not going to have the best techniques for getting out of it.”
The Bow Valley-raised skier has been skiing since she was two years old. Following in her older sisters’ footsteps, Morgan-Smith has been freeriding for nearly a decade at this point. With a strong base in the sport, it’s motivating for freeride athletes like Morgan-Smith that there is a very real possibility that bigger things in the sport are coming.
In summer 2024, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) put freeride skiing and snowboarding under its banner, setting up the discipline to become an Olympic sport in the near future.
“I think that’s an ultimate dream of mine, even just [competing] on the world [freeride] tour,” said Morgan-Smith.
IFSA Junior Freeride Series results
While Morgan-Smith put on a show overseas, Bow Valley freeriders from Ullr Big Mountain were getting their own style points closer to home at the Jeep Junior Freeride Series, mixed with Canadian and U.S. athletes, at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, British Columbia, from Jan. 16-19.
In the U12, Boone Burks finished second overall.
In the U15 female, Sophie Erfle won gold and her sister Emerson finished fifth, while in the U15 male category, Ullr had six boys in the top-15, with Logan Penner finishing the best of the bunch in sixth.
In the U19 male, Seth Sands took fourth overall and Walker Hutchison finished ninth.
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