Girls Who Rip: Lexi DuPoint

Make no mistake, it’s the DuPont women Alexis, “Lexi” duPont gets her badassery from. 

“We have a pretty badass monarchy,” the 34-year old professional big mountain freeskier says with a smile. “A few years ago, I finally had that ‘aha’ moment of like, oh, it's in my blood.”

Many may associate the duPont name with Lexi’s long-ago relative, who brought gunpowder to the United States from France and subsequently created one of the wealthiest companies and families in American history (recently listed by Forbes). But for Lexi, when she talks about herself and her journey to becoming one of the most decorated and successful big mountain freeskiers in the world, it’s the duPont women she credits. 

Her Aunt Kitten? She and her sister were the first female team to fly across America. 

Her dad’s mom, Alice? The first woman to fly the Amazon in the 1920s.

Her mom, Holley? The first woman to do a backflip on skis. 

“Our family's always instilled that we can do whatever you want to do and do it well. And there were no restraints, no holding back that because you're a female, you can't do it. If your brothers, your uncles, your dad did it, you should do it.” 

And so, with posters of her mom and her high ponytail doing backflips on skis over Lake Tahoe, it’s no surprise Lexi was drawn to the snow at an early age. 

“If you didn't want to go skiing, you're sitting at home alone,” Lexi explained. “So you better learn how to ski.” 

Lexi took to the challenge and adventure just as duPont women before her did, ski racing her way through childhood and her teen years. It was in college she found the Freeride World Tour. A student at the University of Colorado Boulder, a friend convinced her to enter an event in Telluride, Colorado.  

“I called my mom who was a free ride or mogul champion, so she's was really familiar with judged sports. She's like, ‘Lexi, you need to wear something that stands out.’ So she sent me her old 70s mogul pants, they were like bright pink with these orange circles on the knees and like stripes on the side. She's like, ‘you go up to the judges, and you introduce yourself.’ So I introduce myself and, and then I was asking the older girls what to do and they’re like ‘ski down as fast as you can.’ 

So I get to the top of the mountain and I just like pin it, straight line Palmyra peak, which is like one of the bigger peaks in Telluride and like straight line, the whole thing to the bottom. And there on the announcement there call me ‘Little Miss Hot Pants.’ And then at the award ceremony, I got third place. I'm like holding the big check above my head and I'm like, ‘This is so much fun. The community, the people, I just loved it.” 

And so, the passion was found and fueled. Lexi went to Alaska shortly after, terrain so unique and perilous it stands alone in big mountain free skiing. 

“The mountains are huge and really steep and they just shoot right out of the ocean. These big coastal storms just plaster these, pretty much, cliffs with snow then as the snow starts to build and fall it creates these spines,” duPont explained of the terrain. “Then there's also the blind rollovers. Trees don't grow on the slopes. So, if you're in Colorado on big mountains, you have a lot of indicators to look for of trees, where you're going to ski. In Alaska you can only see two to three feet in front of your skis the majority of the time. And a little indent, like tiny little change in shadow, could mean a certain death, like a cliff or where you don’t want to go.”

For duPont, the untamed terrain provided the perfect canvas for her to make her mark. And for more than a decade, she earned awards, starred in films, all for her jaw-dropping, superhero style skiing. 

While she continues to thrive in the mountains, her recent focus has shifted back to her “badass monarchy” roots with the creation of Sister Summit. 

“It’s the best thing I've ever done,” duPont said with a smile. “It brings me so much joy, like I just pop out of bed every morning so excited to get on phone calls and on the computer, which is not like me in the past at all, all summer long.” 

The 2022 summit featured the top 10 female skiers and snowboarders, a five-woman media team, an all-female guide team, and an all-female speaker series. Each day the women would go out in groups of four or five, plus a photographer and ski to their heart’s content in the Canadian wilderness of Revelstoke, BC. The evenings featured the speaker series where the women dove into topics like diversity, the environment, entrepreneurship, breathwork, meditation, nutrition, negotiation skills, and backcountry avalanche training. 

“The reward is greater than anything, I've experienced down on a mountain on my own or with my small team,” said duPont. “Seeing those girls at the end of the event, all holding hands crying in the cat, like this newfound tribe. And that just being the first one--this is going to have such a crazy ripple effect throughout the world. And that's where we want it. We want to take that energy and momentum to offer this to all women, not just professional athletes, you know, anyone that wants to get out there.” 

And that is the duPont legacy that continues through Lexi; badass females, empowering and supporting the next generation of women. 

Want to see more Girls Who Rip? Check out our other interviews here!