GROWING UP

Sierra grew up in Park City, Utah, skiing with her three brothers. They were home-schooled as the family trawled around America, competing in the USSA ski racing circuit with their World Cup ski racer dad as chief coach. “We formed Team Quitiquit!” says Sierra.

But then when Sierra was 15 years old, the family fell apart after her older brother JD was killed in a car accident. “By the time I turned 18, the sadness became overwhelming,” Sierra told Outside Magazine. “The only sure place I knew to find happiness was with skis on my feet.”

Sierra was sent off to boarding school in Switzerland, before training as a massage therapist in Costa Rica and working the desk at K2 Aviation in Alaska during the summer.

It was only when Sierra’s mum convinced her to try out for the hit TV show, America’s Next Top Model, that her life changed forever. “I was such a tomboy, but somehow I got selected to be on the show. I didn’t make it very far, but it gave me the confidence that I could model.”

From there, Sierra signed with a modelling agency. A year later, she was plastered all over billboards in Times Square as the face of American Eagle.

CLASH OF CULTURES

It’s tough balancing between the world of professional skiing and modelling for big name brands. But luckily for Sierra, skiing is a seasonal sport. Winter is spent hiking and skiing, from the spines of Alaska to the tree-lined powder runs of Japan. Then in summer, it’s back to modelling and saving for the next snow season. But there are sometimes clashes in schedules.

“The modelling deals can be so insane. I’ve been on ski shoots and just had to say no to modelling jobs, so I can stay on the trip filming and skiing.”

Usually modelling jobs come to Sierra, but this summer she went to Los Angeles to join in castings and hunt out the work for herself.

“It was miserable, making my whole existence around trying to be pretty and acceptable for someone else,” she says. “It’s not healthy for your mental space. It made me realise, even though I could be pretty well off financially if I put my head down to it, I wouldn’t be happy.”

Instead Sierra picks the modelling contracts that are right for her and spends the rest of the time doing what she loves. “I know my passion – and that is skiing. I know what makes me happy and makes me tick. Modelling just doesn’t give me those same feelings.”

“In the ski industry, people are like, you’re so thin for a skier! And I’m like, dude I can’t eat anymore, I’ve been trying to gain weight. Then I step into the other shoes of modelling, and I’m the curvy girl. Which is it? Am I too skinny or not skinny enough?” she laughs.

She has seen first hand what happens when people get too hung up on what they should look like, rather than accepting their bodies as they are. “I now know that I might not look like every other girl on set, but I’m happy, healthy and that’s good enough for me.”

Eating healthy nourishing food, practicing yoga and keeping a balance outlook has kept Sierra on track. Oh yeah, and butter. She loves butter. “I’ll bring my model friends to the snow. They’re trying to eat kale salads when it’s zero degrees out – and they can’t figure out why they are so miserable and cold. I’m like, girl you need like steak and butter.”

FROM FALL LINES TO FILMS

Sierra has a new film out this month called How Did I Get Here, which started off as a superficial look at her rise as a skier and model. Soon it started to delve into more deeply intimate aspects about her life.

Since her eldest brother’s death, she has been struggling with her youngest brother’s addiction to heroin. Then her mum was deeply ill after being diagnosed with a class V inoperable brain aneurysm and she lost a close friend in an avalanche last year.

“It was a really exhausting couple of years. Anyone who has trauma in their family knows, it just weighs you down. Trying to be a professional athlete and giving it 110 per cent every day is exhausting in itself.”

But Sierra knew she wasn’t alone in going through tough times. She has stayed close with her mother and brothers who she calls her best friends. “I always knew time would heal. I can look back now and know these things were truly blessings. It’s given me a new perspective on life. I feel facilitated to handle the challenges of life – and not sweat the small things.”

So what was it really like, having a camera delving into the painful moments of your life? “It was incredibly challenging to put myself out there and be so vulnerable,” says Sierra. “But at the same time, it’s been really healing to just say it all as it is.

“When you live in the public eye, everyone gets boiled down to something. I’m the skier-model. I never really felt that represented who I was. How Did I Get Here, is such an honest portrayal of who I am and how I got here.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Aside from tearing up powder in Argentina, Japan and Alaska, Sierra has got big plans for the coming year. She is going to attempt to live an entire year without single-use plastic, documenting it all on camera.

“We grab a plastic water bottle, take a few sips and it goes to the trash. We don’t realise that that plastic water bottle never goes away. I thought it was time to take my commitment to the next level – and I’m stoked to learn more, share the journey and challenge myself.”

From humble beginnings as a ski tech and massage therapist to jet-setting the world in search of powder, Sierra has come a long way – but she certainly doesn’t take any of it for granted.

“I’m always pinching myself. Every day I can’t believe I get to ski for a living. I’m so grateful. As many things as I had going for me, many more were trying to tear me down. I just feel lucky I ended up where I did.”

Watch Sierra’s new film, How Did I Get Here, on iTunes now.