You know that “this is it, this is the good stuff” feeling that you get when riding bikes with your best friends? Delilah knows now that nothing beats riding with good friends in beautiful mountain settings. But that wasn’t always the case.

She and her older brother Cody started racing bikes as kids, and she would reluctantly join him at local races. Cody and her mom quickly became enamored with mountain biking and began traveling to races across the state. They even built trails around their house. “Being a particularly stubborn kid who liked to go against the grain, I refused to ride bikes with them and insisted that I hated mountain biking for years.”

It wasn’t until she moved to Park City, Utah, for ski training that she fell in love with mountain biking. She lived with (Santa Cruz rider) Keegan Swenson’s family, who showed her around the local trails. It became a way for her to explore her local area, spend time outside, make new friends, and complemented her strength training as a young ski racer. When she left ski racing at age 16, her bike became a natural replacement for skis. 

Today Delilah loves both sports, though she has stepped back from competition. And fortunately, she seldom has to choose between skiing and riding bikes, since the weather does it for her. “I love skiing for many of the same reasons I love riding bikes—as a creative outlet to express my personal style in the sport, to get outside in stunning mountains, to scare myself a little bit and try to master my fear, to connect with friends new and old, and for the fashion show, of course.”

If you left for a big mountain bike trip tomorrow, what are 3 things you couldn’t live without?

A good crew, a good outfit, and a bag of spaghetti.

Photos // Sage Vogt