“This was one of the coolest lines of my career, but it almost didn’t happen. Sammy Carlson, Andy Mahre and I were in Haines, AK, and had been waiting for hours for the evening alpenglow. When we finally loaded the heli, a radio call came over about a fatality on Haines Pass. It was vague on details, and we headed out anyway, quickly knocking out three spine lines. Later we learned the accident occurred on the same elevation and aspect as our objective; had we known, we definitely would have made other plans.”— Lexi DuPont Photo: Will Wissman RIGHT • “I’ve been flying with my dad in his 1955 Cessna 180 since I was a baby. But, it wasn’t until he took me to Nantucket, MA and put me in the front of a biplane with a parachute strapped to my back that I wanted to get my pilot’s license. You can do all the tricks you can on skis in the sky as well: Backflips, spins, corks, slashes and skids, all with the wind in your face. I’m hooked.”— Lexi DuPont Photo: DuPont Family Archives T he adventurers and the boundary busters of the DuPont family are an inspiring bunch, but the name also has a more controversial heritage. As an environmentalist and hu-manitarian, Lexi has struggled with the legacy of the DuPont chemical company, with E.I. DuPont’s role in bringing gun-powder to the United States and the destruction that followed, and with the impact a company like DuPont has had on the country’s natural places. But Lexi is battling her surname’s darker connotations, trying to balance the realities of the past by trying to live intentionally and sustainably today. Besides her efforts in Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan and Standing Rock, Lexi recently bought a house: A 500-square-foot, off-grid geodesic dome, tucked into the woods outside of Ketchum, ID, into which she recently moved. And that’s just the beginning. Lexi sees her success in the ski world as a platform for larger endeavors, aimed at things beyond what is, in the end, a sport. “I’m living and working in a world that is always about going bigger,” Lexi says. “Ski a bigger peak. Jump a bigger cliff. I want to go bigger too, but not just as a skier. I want the work I do in this world to be about so much more than me and the sport I love. I want to use my voice, my talents, my skills to amplify what is possible. My mom and dad always told us that the only way to fail was not to try. So this is me trying.” Not bad for Little Miss Hotpants.
The Ski Journal Volume Eleven, Issue Two: Page 65
