Big mountain skier Matilda Rapaport has died, after being caught in an avalanche while filming in Chile on July 14.
Rapaport, who was one of the top big mountain skiers in the world and ranked number four in the 2016 Swatch Freeride World Tour at the time of her death, was filming a commercial outside of Farrellones in Chile when the avalanche struck.
According to reports, she was under the snow for a long time and fell into a coma due to complications resulting from lack of oxygen.
At thirty years old, Rapaport had left a former career in alpine ski racing to become an integral member of the freeride community.
“Extremely warm and kind. Skiing with her was always the way skiing should be —fun”
“Matilda was an extraordinary athlete, traveling the world to find her passion, ride steep terrain and share her bright smile,” said Rapaport’s sponsor Red Bull, in a statement.
After ranking in the top tier of the Freeride World Tour for several years, Rapaport won the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships in 2011, among her many other accomplishments.
Following the news of the accident, tens of thousands of views and hundreds of messages of support from the ski community were posted online.
Johan Jonsson told POWDER about Rapaport’s tragic death, saying “Matilda and her way of approaching life and people was a big inspiration to me.”
“I hope that she will stand as a great example in the future. Always positive, never judging. Very smart. But most of all extremely warm and kind. Skiing with her was always the way skiing should be —fun.”