Krystin Norman lays one out while filming for Young Bucks at Crystal Mountain, WA. Pushing each other to progress on skis is what initially bonded Krystin and Delilah Cupp. Photo: Eric Sales

Sometimes you meet someone and things just click. For Delilah Cupp and Krystin Norman, that happened four years ago on a bootpack at Alpental, WA. Until then, Krystin hadn’t had many women ski partners who she felt shared the same goals. Delilah, fresh out of college, had been used to seeing women as competitors in dude-filled ski groups. 

While the two skiers (seven years apart in age) have very different personalities, they share a mutual love and dedication to pushing themselves on skis and bikes. The result is a collaborative, goofy and supportive friendship, chronicled in Young Bucks. In between ripping skiing in Washington’s North Cascades, Crystal Mountain, and Alta, UT, Krystin and Delilah shine a light on how special partnerships in the mountains can be. 

The Ski Journal: How did you two first meet?

Delilah Cupp: We met during the first winter I spent in Washington back in 2020—the best winter of my life to date! Krystin and I were introduced by a mutual friend of ours (photographer Colton Jacobs) on a very deep day at Alpental and continued to link up to ski with the two of us and our boyfriends at the time, Sage and Peter. The four of us really clicked as a group and Sage and I jokingly referred to Krystin and Peter as the “old bucks” while we were the “young bucks” due to our roughly seven-year age difference. 

Krystin Norman: The very first time we actually met was skiing separately at Washington Pass, but it was a quick interaction. Delilah had lost part of her binding and stopped to ask me and my friends if we had seen it on the road. A couple weeks later, my friend Colton invited me to join him to ski at Alpental on a powder day.

Delilah (left) and Krystin (right) are all smiles while filming in the North Cascades, WA. Photo: Colton Jacobs

Tell us about your ski backgrounds. How do they vary and balance each other in your friendship?

Krystin: My ski background is a little bit of everything. I’ve been skiing since I was just shy of  3 years old. I grew up across the street from Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe, CA and ski raced from age six through 10, then switched to freestyle mogul and acro/ballet skiing from age 10 through 14. In high school, I coached freeride skiing at Mount Rose, but when I moved to Boulder for college I stopped competing and focused on school and skiing for fun. When I moved to Seattle for my first job out of college, I started coaching freeride skiing at Crystal Mountain and competing in local Freeride World Qualifier (FWQ) events, and at the same time started getting into backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. I think our time competing in FWQ events is the reason why we clicked so well as ski partners in terms of our interest in progression and skiing challenging terrain.

Delilah: I grew up ski racing and followed that track very intensely until I was 16. I definitely envy Krystin’s foundation in freestyle since I’ve found it a lot less natural to learn tricks as an adult, but I am grateful for my strong foundation in ski fundamentals and am impressed that Krystin has a similar foundation, despite having never gone through ski racing training. 

How did the idea for Young Bucks evolve?

Delilah: We wanted to capture how we learn from one another—skiing in our favorite local freeride zones with a contrast to Krystin showing me the ropes on a major peak ascent in the spring. Unfortunately, I did not make it to the spring due to a knee injury in April so we had to nix what was intended to be the major event of the film. I had a lot going on during this time mentally (third season-ending injury in a row combined with a breakup and an identity crisis), so we stalled on finishing filming for a while as I was not ready. We hired creative director Shannon Corsi to come in and lift our spirits up off the floor and give us some confidence in what we had captured already and what we could make out of it. 

What were some memorable moments from filming last season?

Krystin: The first thing that comes to mind is taking Delilah out for her first PNW spring skiing outing that involved minor alder bushwhacking and seeing her experience a scrappy low-snow forest approach, then road skiing on the way out. Some good character building happened that day.

Delilah: Krystin is, shall we say, not the most natural speaker on camera. So when we set out to film the interview portion, she definitely needed a little juice (a.k.a. beer) to get her going. At one point she casually reached over and chugged a Super Hard Seltzer (8% ABV) at 10 a.m. to loosen up for the microphone. When I say chugged I mean chugged—very out of character for her as a generally fairly reserved person. It was impressive.

Golden light in the North Cascades, WA. Photo: Colton Jacobs

Pushing your limits is a big topic in the film. How would you describe your approach to pushing yourself in the mountains?

Krystin: I like being pushed in my skiing by seeing friends try new things or talking through new tricks. I also love when I can trust a friend to look at something and tell me if they think I should go for it. When you ski with friends long enough, they know what you are capable of and words of encouragement are so much more meaningful and reasonable. 

Delilah: Seeing someone who I feel is near my skill level go for something that makes me nervous and succeed at it inspires me to try things that scare me. Especially in sports like skiing and mountain biking, where so much of the action we see is by men, seeing other girls accomplish something makes it feel so much more in the realm of possibility for me. With Krystin, I love watching her enter steep technical lines with speed and confidence, or hit big drops that are above my comfort zone to help me stretch that zone a bit. 

Delilah getting playful on a deep bluebird day at Crystal Mountain, WA. Photo: Jason Hummel

Krystin, what have you learned from Delilah?

Krystin: I’ve learned a lot of Gen Z slang from Delilah and how to style wearing baggier pants. Just kidding…sort of. But Delilah has taught me a ton about a lot of the complexities of working with brands and filming/producing that I didn’t consider before. She’s also taught me a ton about filming on a bike, something I’ve never done before and I have a lot to learn about how to look more stylish when I ride!

What about you, Delilah?

Delilah: I was 21 when I first met Krystin and consider her to be a pivotal person in my transition from viewing other female athletes as competitors to comrades. I was extraordinarily competitive growing up and was right on the edge of the “only room for one of us” moment as I got into freeride skiing. My first instinct upon meeting Krystin—the only other female skier in our big crew of men—was competition and jealousy, but spending time with her on skis helped me to quickly kick that instinct and appreciate supporting each other and other women in progression together. It’s more fun to ski with girls anyway!