The following article was originally printed in the October 2024 Issue of Slush. To access the full article click here.
Ellie Weiler had a year so massive, you’d have to have been orbiting a distant planet to miss it, and even then it’d be possible you might have caught word. From snatching the win at Jill Perkins’ Round Up, taking the title of World Quarterpipe Champion, bagging the Rookie Award at the Uninvited Invitational, and turning heads at the inaugural XGames Women’s Knuckle Huck—she’s been on fire. For us, it wasn’t just about the wins. Ellie tore her ACL (again) in 2022 after going too big on a jump in Switzerland where she also ripped up her menisci and bruised a bone while she was at it. Recovery? Both knees opened up, months spent in a brace, and grinding it out with blood-flow restriction cuffs. It was a brutal comeback, but she’s back with the hardwear to show for it.
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So I was thinking my first question would be: If you had to really decide what the most "Colorado" thing about you is, what might that be?
Stan, you said these were going to be easy! Oh my gosh. Oh man... maybe my love for Copper laps would be the most "Colorado" thing about me. I came up when Breck and Keystone were really firing, and then when I was finally able to hit those parks, they kind of disappeared. So Copper is the home mountain now, and I love it.
I saw you a lot this summer at Mount Hood, and I was hoping you could give me the backstory about how you ended up hiking the halfpipe with Shannon Dunn?
Oh my gosh, it was amazing. I have no words to really describe it. I just heard there might be a halfpipe this summer, and it wasn’t there during week one, or it came on Thursday of week one. So I spent the rest of the week, and week two, hiking the pipe. It was in a spot where there was no tow, so it kept the pipe nice and neat. It was super fun. One day I rolled up, and there’s Shannon, Leslee, Chad O., and Todd Richards. I was like, "Well, if they’re hiking the pipe, then I’m going to hike it too and see what happens." It was absolutely insane getting to hike with them. They’re legends. Shannon kept coming back on different days, and it was so fun to ride with her. I met her at the World Quarter Pipe Championships, so it was really great to get to ride with her more.
If I’m not mistaken, she was inspired to keep hiking and landing tricks because you were riding.
Yeah, but it goes both ways. I was like, "Dang, she’s out here trying things!" That’s my goal—to be able to do that and just keep riding. It’s kind of like what goes around comes around. She’s stoked on me, I’m stoked on her, and we just feed off each other’s energy.
This year, you obviously had a pretty big season in terms of results, but all in a non-traditional contest route, right?
Yeah, definitely.
Between Jill Perkins' event, the World Quarter Pipe Championship, and then winning the Rookie Award at The Uninvited, how does that compare to FIS results?
That’s interesting because this past year, I told myself I was coming off a really big knee injury—surgery number three on the knee—and I thought, "Okay, I’m just going to do contests that’ll be fun." It’s different though. With Jill’s event, The Uninvited, and the quarter pipe, you’re all hiking together, and I’ve never been a super consistent rider. So getting multiple chances to try tricks and have fun while feeding off that energy is so different from an FIS contest, where I kind of describe it as “hurry up and wait."
You wake up that morning, get to the mountain, do warm-ups, and then wait for your run. You get in line and... you’re still waiting. Then you do your run, and wait for your next one. It’s this stop-and-go process, and you only get two, maybe three, chances to land everything. So they’re really different. It’s hard for me to compare all-day events with contests where the girls are usually done competing by 11:00 or 11:30. That part is fun, because you have the rest of the day to go snowboard, but the vibe is just so different.
Are there certain things that FIS contests give you that non-traditional contests don’t?
I’d say FIS contests give you a platform to see if you can put it down under pressure. Not that the other ones don’t, but in FIS, you get that one opportunity—maybe two, depending on the format—to really land everything. There’s an added pressure. At The Uninvited, I probably tried that switch front board same-way 20-plus times. In an FIS contest, you just don’t have that luxury of time.
Now from what I understand, you’re a bit of a coach at heart, right? From your soccer days to doing some coaching at Beyond the Boundaries. I was wondering if you’re consciously coaching yourself while riding?
Interesting. I’m actually coaching soccer right now too, so it’s funny you brought that up! But I’d say it depends. If I’m just riding on a powder day, no, I don’t think so. Obviously, there’s stuff you want to try, but I don’t think I consciously coach myself. I think I do more film review if I have footage, then try things out. If I’m really working on a trick, though, then yeah. In those situations, I’m usually getting tips and advice from other people too. So I’d say it’s a team effort, not just me coaching myself.
I feel like you have a great mindset when it comes to snowboarding, especially in a competitive setting. What do you do to get focused and hyped? Do you watch something? Is it a music thing? How do you lock in?
Interesting. I’ve gone back and forth on listening to music while riding. I feel like I have a good system now—wireless headphones that are still connected by a wire because I’m always scared I’m going to lose them. But yeah, I’d say music or watching PartyLaps The Movie 2 on YouTube is a classic with me and the kids I grew up riding with. It was actually taken down for a while due to copyright, but they put it back up. There’s this one section of the film that’s silent now, but it’s still good.
For my final question—since we started with Colorado, I’d like to wrap it up with Colorado. If you had to choose one word to describe Colorado riding conditions, what would it be?
“Amazing.”I haven’t ventured too deep into the backcountry, so my powder days and experiences are a bit limited. But I’ve had some amazing days in Colorado riding pow. And if you’re training for FIS slope style contests, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to train at Copper with their three-jump pack. It doesn’t make sense to me that Colorado gets hated sometimes, but Colorado has everything.