Matilda Rapaport Hargin

Matilda was a caring, smart, supportive, determined, daring, passionate, and humble person who inspired many. She was also an extraordinary athlete and entrepreneur - pursuing a career in professional freeride skiing while running her own businesses.

Matilda’s passion for skiing started at the local ski club in Stockholm and she became one of the most talented young ski racers in Sweden. After deciding to follow her passion for freeride skiing she became a highly respected, beloved member of the freeride community. For several years she ranked in the top tier of the Freeride World Tour - winning the world’s hardest freeride competition, the Xtreme Verbier, in 2013 and the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships in 2011 and 2016. Matilda also featured in several acclaimed freeski movies, such as the all-women productions Shades of Winter, Pure, and Between, and wrote for the international Women’s Health magazine.

Even though she loved skiing the most, Matilda also proudly pursued a career off the mountain. By the age of 27, she had graduated from Stockholm School of Economics, managed a hotel in the Swiss Alps for three years, and started two companies within consulting and recruitment. Her ability to follow her passion and at the same time pursue a different path made her unique, and a role model for young women. Matilda was the most lovable person that you would ever meet - caring deeply for her husband, her family, and her friends. Considering the warm and genuinely kind person she was, it was sometimes hard to imagine how tough she was on the mountain. She was and always will be an inspiration.

Matilda passed away on July 17, 2016, only 30 years old, after she was caught in an avalanche while filming in Chile.