“Arianna deep in FWT action in Fieberbrunn, Austria. She is a strong skier, pushing hard at all times, but also incredibly smooth. Arianna is also a very good surfer and that feeling, that attitude, transfers well between water and snow.” Photo: Dom Daher Words Drew Tabke “ THE garden at my house right now is just a mega, mega real image of myself,” Arianna Tricomi says in her unhurried, lyrical voice. “It’s a little wild, but the garden just grows and grows. Like me. I’m a mess, but I keep on growing.” Still, a cursory look at Tricomi’s accomplishments testifies to the abundant personal yield she sees reflected in her gar-den. Three-time champion of the Freeride World Tour. The 2018 European Skier of the Year. Global Red Bull athlete. Rising star in a variety of ski films and productions such as La Luce Infinita: Tales from the North . Fluent in six languages. Cer-tified physiotherapist. Aspiring alpine climber and mountain guide. And to hear her tell it, accomplishing all of this was quite easy. Natural. Unsurprising. Of course, in reality, such achievements are anything but easy. Although Tricomi exudes a disarmingly easygoing vibe, peppering her stories with cliché Americanisms you’d hear in any tram line in the American West, those three world champion trophies didn’t simply sprout from the proverbial dirt one morning. A seed that developed into a generational talent, Tricomi credits her success to her unique alpine envi-ronment and the hands that nurtured her ambitions from an early age, letting her grow wild and change the trajectory of freeskiing in the process. Tricomi is sitting on her patio, drinking a beer and marveling at her garden while the sun sets on the surrounding pastoral alpine landscape. After six years spent living in the vibrant city of Innsbruck, Austria, she bought this place in the quaint village of Tulferberg in 2020. It’s walking distance to the tiny Glungezer ski resort. North across the Inntal valley, the Northern Limestone Alps cut a jagged line across the horizon, demarcating the border between Germany and Austria. Stretching imposingly across the southern horizon are the Central European Alps, including the nearby Ötzal, Stubai and Tux ranges. Farther south still, sit the fabled Dolomites, which cradle Tricomi’s childhood home in Alta Badia, Italy. Taken as a whole, this is Tyrol; home to an embarrassment of world-class skiing—over 120 ski resorts packed in close proximity to one another. It may be the most fertile place on Earth for growing world-class skiers like Tricomi, but at the moment she’s more into talking about her own unruly patch of dirt and vegetables. 040 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 15, Issue 3: Page 40
