To dedicate a chapter of your life to anything the way Lupe Hagearty has dedicated his first 30 years of life to skiing is an achievement beyond recognition. Medals and awards just won’t do it justice. If you’re not familiar, LH is a freeskiing icon who has been a professional skier for over a decade. He was never on any big competition circuit. The bright lights Lupe has spent his life under are those in the street. He’s stacked enough clips in his career to make an entire Google server malfunction. Maybe not quite, but he truly is one of the greatest film skiers of all time. That’s what earned him a spot on the now retired X Games Real Ski in 2021. There was intense debate online regarding whether or not Hagearty was metaphorically robbed of medal that year. He lost a few key sponsors after not winning the competition, and while some wondered what he would do next, Lupe knew that opposition was nothing new to him.
This opposition is at the heart of Lupe Hagearty’s story. For him, skiing was never a country club experience, but rather an escape from an incredibly challenging home life. Addiction, money troubles and death were all tragedies that his childhood brought him. But the bright escape for Lupe was not drugs, it was skiing. This a kid from Connecticut took the cards that were dealt and has made the absolute most out of them. Words won’t do his story justice, so it’s best that I stop and you smack that play button. Thank you for all you’ve given skiing Lupe. The sport is better off because of you.
From YouTube:
Lupe Hagearty, a household name in the professional freeski world, provides an intimate look into his life and decade-long ski career in this acclaimed documentary film.
Lupe has always had to hustle for everything in his life. After his mother passed suddenly when he was 5 and his father battled addiction, he and his sister struggled to make ends meet. When his extended family took him skiing in Vermont to escape life at home, he fell in love with the sport.
Now 30 and living in Salt Lake City, Lupe has had a successful career as a pro-skier for over a decade, filming with legends Tanner Hall and Tom Wallisch and competing in X Games Real Ski in 2021. But the challenge is far from over. Despite living out his dream, Lupe still struggles to have the financial security to one day have a family of his own, grinding each year to renew sponsorships and continue living out his dream.
As the Christmas holidays approach, he travels home to his family in Hartford, CT, confronting his difficult past and reflecting on his career, trying to figure out what is next…
