Sponsors: Volkl, Tecnica, Marker, The North Face, Scott USA, Giro, Clif Bar, Squaw Valley

Ingrid Backstrom grew up in Seattle, Washington, where she spent her winters skiing down the nearby mountains and her summers hiking back up them on backpacking trips with her parents and two younger brothers. After graduating from Whitman College, the call of the mountains drew her to Squaw Valley, California, to put in what she thought would be a yearlong stint as a ski bum. It only took a few freeskiing contests, however, for Ingrid to realize that she had found her niche, and that she'd be calling the mountains home for a long, long time. Ingrid's star is on a phenomenal rise, as her string of first-place titles shows. She recently won awards for "Best Female Performance" and "Breakthrough Performance" (for her segment in Matchstick Productions' film Yearbook) at the 2005 Powder Magazine Video Awards. When she's not skiing, Ingrid still stays outside as much a possible, running and biking to relax and keep fit. Ingrid is grateful for the opportunities that her sport brings her, especially getting to travel and ski with "amazing people around the world."