Angel Collinson hangs out at the Northern Chugach Mountains while filming with Teton Gravity Research for its newest movie, The Dream Factory. Photo by Adam Clark.

Angel Collinson has been on the rise ever since she came on the big-mountain ski scene a few years ago. At 21 years old, she has won the Freeskiing World Tour in 2010, 2011 and came in second overall this past season. The industry has taken note, including the Teton Gravity Research production team. This year, TGR took Angel up to the biggest venue of all – Alaska – to film for our newest movie, The Dream Factory.

We caught up with her to find out how it was to shred with skiers she grew up admiring, what she has planned for women’s freeskiing, and why she may forgo a ski trip to South America to bang nails at home in Utah.

On the opportunity to film with TGR in Alaska:

I got the call from TGR this January asking if I'd like to film with them. I was already committed to a full season of big mountain competitions, but filming with TGR has always been a dream of mine and I wanted to make both agendas work. The first trip was with Erik Roner up to Haines, Alaska. It was cool to have a small group, and Erik was really great with tips and advice to help me feel more comfortable in the new situation of heli-skiing and filming. Because of my busy comp schedule, I could only be up there for a week. I still learned a lot.

On Alaska, round II:

The other trip I took with TGR was up in the Northern Chugach, flying out of the Knik River Lodge, with Dana [Flahr], Seth [Morrison] and Sage [Cattabriga-Alosa]. By the time Dana and I got up there in mid-April, a lot of the snow was good, [but] it wasn't good enough to be filmable. It has to be almost perfect. It was frustrating, and we didn't ski that gnarly of lines. That being said, we still got to ski some sick lines, and the last day we were up there were the biggest lines we had skied yet.

On showing up ready to charge on a new stage:

My racing background has laid out a really good foundation for strong technique, so when I'm on top of something gnarly, I'm excited and confident, ready to fire it up.

Looking at all the [AK] terrain, I thought to myself: "I know I can ski that, and ski it fast and well too, if the conditions were right," and knowing that definitely made me recognize where I've come to in my skiing, looking up at huge lines knowing they are definitely within my ability. I feel like I have been training my whole life for Alaska lines.

Angel Collinson rips a line in Alaska's Northern Chugach Mountains. Photo by Adam Clark.

On stepping it up to the next level:

I am going to transition into other travel and film projects [instead of competition]. It's hard to improve your skiing when you are traveling and competing all the time — you don't have a lot of training time. I can't wait to actually have time to improve, and my focus is on working on tricks and bigger airs. Once I feel like I can confidently throws tricks off of most cliffs and consistently stomp big airs, I might do a comp here and there — those are the things that I want to bring into the competition field.

On moving out of the parents house:

Well, my brother John and I are still living in Little Cottonwood Canyon with the fam, spending every day building a house as a family at the mouth of Little Cottonwood. Our goal is to have the house done by the fall, and then John and I will move in together. I can't wait to share a house with just him. He's always been my best bud and favorite person to ski with.

Yesterday I was taking down ski posters and magazine cutouts from the room I lived in since I was little, and there were all these pics of Sage, Seth, and Dana. It was crazy to be like, I was looking at these pics when I was 10 years old and getting fired up, and now I just got done with an AK trip filming with them! A dream come true.

On appreciating - and accomplishing - life:

While it's cool to have a lot of distinguished accomplishments, if you didn't have fun while doing them, to me they are not as meaningful. And on the flipside, maybe you didn't really accomplish anything but look back on the time period and it brings warmth to your heart and you feel like you are really ALIVE. To me, that's a success, and something to be proud of — to look back at accomplishments, or lack of, and say, "Yeah. I'm doing it! I'm living, I'm happy, and I appreciate everything I got." To come out of a season feeling like that is what I'm the proudest of.