HIGH-FLYER

PALMER — Leif Mumma’s speed and soaring ability have brought him to new heights at international freeride skiing competitions. The 18-year-old Mumma is set to graduate from Palmer High School at the end of the fall semester and spend the winter sliding down snowy slopes all around the world.

Mumma began skiing just after he had figured out walking on two feet. He’s been skiing 70-80 days a winter since he was very young, spending as much time as possible at the family’s cabin in Girdwood.

“I was always the first one at the gate for North Face to open up,” Mumma said.

The North Face is Alyeska’s iconic run that features the longest double black diamond run in North America.

Not surprisingly, his family members were among his first teachers on the slopes. Leif is not the first to take skiing seriously in the Mumma family. His 74-year-old father Rod still shreds with him and his older sister Brittany raced competitively on downhill skis.

“She’s a really good skier,” said Mumma. “I still ski with my dad all the time. He always goes on all the trips with me and he’s fun to ski with.”

Mumma entered his first skiing competition at 12 years old and from there, he was hooked. He began to spend the winter months skiing with a group of his talented friends and perfecting his craft. Mumma has been homeschooling his spring semesters so that he can spend more time on the slopes. Mumma’s talent on the mountain has earned him a sponsorship from Icelantic Skis in Denver, on which he rides in competition.

At just 17 years old, Mumma’s style is high risk, high reward. In Alaska’s mountain backcountry that offers some of the best skiing in the world, the risk of an avalanche can be deadly.

“The most important is just get that beacon, probe and, shovel, and be knowing what you’re doing when you’re out there,” Mumma said. “I haven’t really been in anything too gnarly yet but hopefully I don’t. It’s just important to have a backup plan and to be able to say, we might as well not hit this today because if it goes bad it’s going to go really really bad. I’ve learned a lot from going out with my sister and her friends out in the backcountry.”

Mumma trains for his skiing competitions in the summer by leading a demandingly active lifestyle. Mumma mountain bikes every day and competes in mountain running races, keeping his legs in shape. Mumma also suited up for the Palmer Moose football team this fall, and he likes the similarities between football and skiing. When returning kicks, Mumma has an entire field to get creative with, similar to when he stands at the top of a slope choosing a line down the mountain.

“The more prepared you are, the stronger you are, the less likely you are going to eat it coming down. The more you’re out in the mountains skiing around, the more prepared you are going to be when it comes to competitions or when it comes to skiing the gnarlier terrain,” Mumma said. “I’m always just kind of like, get down as fast as possible. I usually don’t really realize what happened until I get down to the bottom.”

Alyeska had a four-year gap in between Mumma’s first junior freeride competition and the next one they hosted in 2016. Without opportunities to showcase his moves locally, Mumma began to travel outside for competitions and had a great deal of success. Mumma won the Snowbird Regional and took second at the Grand Targhee National in 2016. Mumma suffered a broken thumb and wrist injury in January of 2018 and was unable to enter most competitions after a stellar 2017 season, when he won the Mount Baker Regional and finished second at the Snowbird Regional. Mumma has been on team USA for the Junior Freeride World Championships twice. As a result of his success in skiing, Mumma has traveled to Andorra and Austria for competitions. Mumma’s strategy is to go as fast as possible and catch as much air as he can, hoping he doesn’t crash.

“I’ve either been towards the top in the comps or crashed hard,” Mumma said. “My run at the World Championships last year was really good, until I got eaten up in some avalanche debris in the runout of one of the cliffs. There was like some big massive frozen ice balls in the run out.”

Mumma is no stranger to snow safety, learning everything he can from his family and coaches. At a competition in Andorra, Mumma was required to wear an inflatable avalanche backpack during the competition. Though his style is risky, as his results can prove, he lands most of the jumps he takes.

“My strategy when it comes to the comps is find the most fluid run down the mountain and get the biggest air I can, just because I’ve found I’m pretty good at stomping the bigger cliffs,” Mumma said.

The freeride world tour had it’s first attempt in Alaska in 1991, and eventually organized events starting in 1996 including the Extreme Verbier competition in Switzerland that draws some of the top skiers to one of the most challenging faces in the world. The Freeride World Tour officially began in 2008 and the Junior Freeride World Tour hosts over 70 events for the 1,800 riders worldwide. Riders are judged on the difficulty of their line down the mountain, fluidity, control, air and style, and technique. Riders can rack up points on the national circuit by winning smaller events to qualify for bigger competitions. Riders can earn a score up to 100 based on their performance in the five criteria, but the rules are purposefully left nearly blank. Aside for the required safety gear, riders are completely in control of how they want to attack the mountain. The face is not groomed and there is no time limit.

“The freeride comps are really cool because there’s no competition really. They just give you two boundaries on either side and a start gate and a finish corral and then you get to pick any line on that face that you want and it just becomes like a massive family down there. I’ve got homies down in Salt Lake and down in Bozeman and Canada and I can pretty much go anywhere and I’ve got some friends to ski with, and they’ll come up here and ski around,” Mumma said.

The atmosphere at a freeride ski competition is more about the love of being out in the snow than the love of winning. Riders react positively to seeing their competitors perform, even if it has impacted their standings negatively.

“I’m never really focused on trying to be better than everybody on the mountain. I figure whatever looks the most fun on the mountain and whatever I’ll have the most fun doing, whether it’s spinning off a cliff or flipping a jump, I figure that’ll be a good time,” Mumma said.

Mumma prefers the untouched canvas of the mountains surrounding Girdwood, and often takes a moment to stop and appreciate the beauty that surrounds him in the mountains.

“It’s one of the only sports where you get to look back up at the mountain and see exactly what you did without having a camera or anything, because you get to see your tracks and it’s fun to paint your track on the mountain,” Mumma said. “When you’re riding up the lift or when you’re skinning up, looking around knowing you’ve got it better than anyone else does just sitting around in an office building or in the classroom.”

Mumma is preparing for a long season in 2019. He will compete in a national competition at Snowbird in January, return to Alyeska for a regional competition, hit Stevens Pass in Washington, and go to his favorite competition at Kicking Horse in Canada. Mumma then hopes to perform well at Nationals at Grand Targhee and at another competition in Revelstoke Canada so that he can enter the North American Championships in good standing for the World Championships. Mumma also credits Alyeska Freeride coaches Alex Else and Collin Gordon.

“They’re probably a big inspiration to me because those guys are just two of the best skiers I’ve ever seen and they’re never afraid of just about anything on the mountain,” Mumma said.

Mumma looks up to Riley Leboe, Mike Henitiuk, Matt Margetts and Joe Schuster, better known as the ski group Seeking Nirvana. Mumma is not seeking fame or fortune from his talent on two planks, but simply wants to continue to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle in the Alaskan backcountry. Mumma plans to take avalanche rescue courses during the winter, should he choose to become a skiing guide. He plans to attend the University of Alaska Anchorage next fall.

“If I can get into somehow making money by only going out and hitting the cliffs and skiing some fun lines, I’m definitely down with that, but if that doesn’t work out, I could definitely get into guiding or something like that,” Mumma said. “As long as I’m out every day skiing what I want to ski, I’ll be happy.”