Oskar
Lighthiser

Hello, My name is Oskar S. Lighthiser and I am a 16 year old Big Mountain/Freeride skier based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. I was born in San Fransisco, California and only lived there for a short 14 months before moving out to Helena, Montana where I had my first ever experience on skis with my dad. I only lived there for about 2 and a half years before moving out to Salt Lake City, Utah where I have been living ever since. My second ever experience on skis happened when I was 9 years old. I was very into ice hockey at the time but my dad had a good feeling that I would enjoy skiing more as from his own experience skiing a lot and working at Snowbird a while ago, so he decided to take me up to Alta ski area for my first real experience on skis. I only went up 2 or 3 times that season in the spring taking lessons and He was absolutely right, it was more fun than I was willing to admit at the time. After this experience, I ended up not going back for a while due to the COVID pandemic and some other things. In the spring of the 21-22 season when I was 12 years old, I ended up picking it back up for about 5 or so days of my spring break. The 22-23 season, the record year was when it started to pick up for me as far as I remember, I finally had the opportunity to have my first ski pass and I remember going up to Alta and skiing with some of our family friends who are really good skiers. The season following that was when I believe my passion for skiing was born and it has only continued growing ever since. Nowadays, During the winter I usually ski about 100 + days a year and I just don't know what else to be doing other than skiing when there's any sight of snow. I currently compete in IFSA free ride competitions in the u19 category alongside my good friends. As much as I love competing, the true pinnacle for me when it comes to skiing is, true, real big mountain extreme skiing. Skiing big steep, gnarly lines, making good turns, throwing some tricks, progressing, and simply just having a good fun time in the mountains. I think freestyle is an amazing part of free ride and I am interested in adding more tricks to my bag, however for me, its more about the skiing the big mountain, and the freedom of finding cool lines on completely natural terrain where there is more excitement and things are a little less predictable. What you just finished reading is a little glimpse of my passion for skiing and how I spend my winters. During the summer I usually travel to South Korea to visit my family. Some of my favorite things to do when I'm not skiing include, going on adventures, being outside, mountain biking, hiking, spending time with friends/family, building things, playing guitar, and flying RC models.