A mid-mountain fog layer had moved in as we slid off Carpenter Express. Tasia pointed her bright-blue Faction skis down the fall line and into the cloud, carving effortlessly through the soft, fresh snow down Solid Muldoon — turns she learned running gates as an alpine ski racer.
I quickly lost her in the soup and I tried in vain to keep up as she ripped down the pitch, seemingly on autopilot.
Stifel U.S. Freestyle Ski Team aerialist Tasia Tanner is comfortable with her life. At 22, she’s already earned her bachelor’s degree (at 18), has a master’s in cybersecurity management, works as an IT manager at the Waldorf Astoria Park City (now among her biggest fans), and spends time cruising the runs of her childhood resort at Deer Valley.
She’s also vying for a spot on the 2026 Olympic aerials team for Milan-Cortina. This Friday, she’ll be soaring high into the starry evening sky at the Intermountain Health Freestyle International World Cup.
Tanner grew up in Salt Lake City and Park City, attending Rowland Hall before migrating to the Winter Sports School. Her career started in alpine racing. But a knee injury in high school changed her trajectory.
“I had that crisis of self where I was no longer around my friends,” she said, recalling the injury rehab. So she experimented with a new approach to skiing through FLY Freestyle and became hooked on aerials.
I skied up to Tasia on the flats of Solid Muldoon.
“You know, this is one of my favorite places to stop — especially during Sundance,” she said, smiling. “Let me tell you, the people-watching with their outfits on the lift is next level!”
I love to stop on the mountain for whatever reason. This seemed like a good plan to me as we stood evaluating the Carpenter fashion show.
What especially struck me about Tasia was her approach to sport as an element of her life — not her whole life.
“You know, I’ve never really had idols,” she said. “I’ve kind of looked at it as, you know, they’re just people.”
So, while she may not have had idols, she quickly pointed out an Olympic moment. At the 2018 Games, Parkite Maddie Olsen found herself in the aerials superfinals.
“She had a shot at a medal if she competed a lay-full — a less difficult trick,” said Tanner. Olsen threw a full-double full — her first time ever on the final jump of her career. Tanner, then 15, was philosophical. “Maddie just left it all out on the hill. That’s something that not a lot of people do — doing what YOU think would fulfill YOU the most.”
This season, she’s watched contemporaries starting to make their moves. She’s happy for her friends Lauren Macuga, winning her first World Cup, and Rell Harwood, taking X-Games gold.
“Watching these women I went to high school with and seeing them succeed has been really cool,” she said.
Standing on the knoll of the aerials jump on White Owl, we talked about what motivates an athlete to huck themselves 70 feet in the air on skis.
“In the grand scheme of things, I’m very proud of the point I’ve gotten to in the sport,” she said. “But I have something else there that defines me as a person. Aerials is not my entire identity.”
Standing at the top of the in run is a place of anticipation for an aerialist. The three seconds in the air is operational. The joy comes with landing. To manage her anticipation, Tanner turns to music — heavy metal (influence from Dad) like Amorphis or Lacuna Coil.
“I reserve my heavier music for jumping just because I kind of think my frontal lobe is developing a little bit. I’m sitting there, and I’m looking at this jump, and there are days that I’m like, I cannot believe I’m doing this. Then I get into the mindset of ‘OK, you’ve got hundreds of hours of practice under your belt. Let’s just think of a song and not really think of anything else.”
Friday night, her coach, Stanislav Kravchuk of Ukraine, will be on the knoll, shouting commands to her as she soars skyward, twisting and turning. Stas, as he’s known, was fifth at the 2002 Olympics on the same hill.
“I’m a very smiley person,” laughed Tanner. “But my main emotion is sadness — I get upset if I don’t do well. There’s a balance between all of that.”
As she stands at the top, Stas will radio up to coach Matt DePeters.
“He’ll be like, ‘Is she smiling? Is she having a good time up there?’ If not, he’ll say something quirky into the radio, and I’ll start smiling. It’s just enjoyable to have fun with your coach, right?
“It’s a sport. It’s supposed to be fun!”