LEFT, TOP TO BOTTOM “As anticipation below grew, Lupe harnessed his inner focus with each step to the top of his inrun. With an entire crew at the spot to maintain the inrun and landing, Lupe was determined to see his mission through.” Photo: Christian Raguse “A valley-sweeping heatwave in Salt Lake City during the second half of the winter proved troubling to urban skiers in the area. As the afternoon heat was taking a toll on the carefully sculpted inrun and landing, Lupe dialed in his speed and a 270 onto the flat end of a concrete wall.” Photo: Christian Raguse LEFT TO RIGHT Lupe at a friend’s house in West Hartford, CT. The crew frequently went to a local ice rink to grab snow from the Zamboni, filling up a friend’s parent’s car with tarps to stack as much snow as possible in the trunk. Anything to keep skiing into the summer. Photo: Hagearty Family Archive “At a rail jam put on by Jarrod Moss and Ski Sundown, CT, I was trying a 50-50 and ended up splitting the rail. My facial expression in this photo still makes me laugh every time.”—Lupe Hagearty. Photo: Hagearty Family Archive The following year, in 2011, his paternal grandmother dipped into her retirement fund to send Hagearty to Water-ville Valley Academy in New Hampshire for his junior year of high school. The move gave Hagearty the chance to focus on his skiing without distraction while making connections with other rising pros and the ski industry at large. But it wasn’t until 2013 that he got his first big break. Hagearty snagged a few shots in the Dakine team edit along-side Tanner Hall at Windells Ski Camp on Mount Hood, OR, that summer, then was featured in a La Familia edit with Hall and Ahmet Dadali. Though he didn’t actually film with the legendary freeskier, Hagearty decided to reach out to Hall the following fall. “I saw he was still around Keystone, CO, so I sent him a Facebook message telling him how stoked I was to be in two edits with him,” Hagearty says. Hall, quick on the draw, asked if Hagearty wanted to link up and film. “I ended up filming and chilling with T-Hall every day for the month of November for his Inspired series ‘Winter Jungle.’ I’m getting goosebumps just thinking back to that experience—a huge turning point in my career. It felt like my dream of becoming a pro skier and filming for ski movies could happen.” The reality at the time read a little differently. Very few “pro” skiers make a living from skiing, and even fewer do so fresh out of high school. To support his newfound momen-tum, Hagearty painted houses during the week and catered on weekends. But his month with Hall would prove formative. Hagearty cites the former X Games champion’s hard work and dedication as well as Hall’s longevity in a sport that has very few veterans as setting the example for his own skiing. Through Hall, he also met producer Eric Iberg, which eventu-ally led to Hagearty’s first film project, a webisode series with Inspired Media called “The Style Files.” “I really feel that is what put me on the map,” Hagearty says. “Iberg helped me understand the logistics of the ski-film world. He showed me how you can hustle to make things work.” That hustle typically involved putting his body on the line nearly every time he clicked into skis. Hagearty broke his pelvis while skiing street. Shortly after recovering, he dislocated his elbow on another urban feature in Idaho. Out of money, he relied on a friend’s airline points to get back to Salt Lake City, where he drove his manual-transmission car with his arm in a sling all the way back to Colorado. He remembers the pain and swelling becoming unbearable and then getting stuck overnight on Vail Pass. “That was one of those times where I would ask myself, ‘What the hell am I doing? Is this worth it?’ Dealing with injuries and being really broke in the early years can wear you down. It’s tough to put your heart and soul into something and feeling like you’re not getting anything back at times,” he says. Lupe Hagearty 077
The Ski Journal Volume 15, Issue 3: Page 77
