LIVIGNO, Italy — Normally, like most people, the holidays are the busiest time of year for United States free skier Alex Hall. From Thanksgiving to New Years, he’s booked. Sometimes he’s competing.
Most of the time? He’s filming. Whether it’s riding rails in public places or finding the gnarliest, steepest staircase to jump over, Hall’s passion has become making ski videos.
Ski videos, consumed on YouTube or social media by the general public, have become more than passion projects for athletes in their free time. They are a commercial vehicle – branding opportunities for a sport that receives the spotlight for two weeks and then largely disappears for the next 306.
To end 2025, though, Hall, 27, took the year off. Not because he wanted to.
“Honestly, it just didn’t line up with the schedule,” Hall said before competing at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
