The following article was originally printed in the November 2025 Issue of Slush. To get more articles and subscribe, click here.

I didn’t know Cooper Branham before we did this interview. Although I suppose that’s the point of the Up Next category—to discover people you haven’t heard of before. At least that’s one way to look at it. The flip side of that would be to say that the Up Next section is to blast up-and-coming riders before they’re the next big thing. But to look at someone like Cooper—to dive into his riding like I did before we spoke—and say that he rides like anything but a seasoned vet is simply wrong. Maybe you’ve heard of him, or maybe you haven’t, but to say he’s Up Next would be inaccurate. He’s not up next—he’s been here.

DOB: 03/31/1997

Stance: Regular

Sponsors: Nidecker, Backcountry Access, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

Where are you living right now?
I'm living in Washington in the summers. I grew up out here in the Northwest, in Gig Harbor, Washington, just south of Seattle. But the last five, going on six, winters I've been going out to Jackson Hole and living there for the wintertime.

Why Jackson?
I met Cam FitzPatrick in 2019, who has been in the game for a long time and grew up in Jackson. So Cam invited me up to Jackson to film with him on a movie project, and I also had gotten a Kings and Queens invite. That next winter, I ended up spending five weeks in Jackson Hole. It was right before COVID happened, but all I could think was, why am I not moving here? I didn't really have anywhere to be at the time, and I was trying to get more into the backcountry, so it was an obvious choice.

What's the scene like in Jackson? And I guess the follow-up to that would be, how do you see Jackson's place in snowboarding overall?
The Jackson scene is awesome. Honestly, I think it’s been a really good fit for me. And then just for snowboarding in general…it ebbs and flows with Travis coming through, Guch coming through, Blake and Cam, and these tiers of riders over the years. I think it's very tight-knit for the professional snowboarding community—the people pursuing it at the highest level. And then beyond that, there are some really good riders who live there that nobody's ever heard of. It's a really good community where you can go out and rip any given day and find a good crew of friends and go ride powder. I'd say it's pretty ski dominant, you know? But you get this pocket of snowboarders who are super passionate, and I think that's what's drawn me toward it. It's rugged, and there are a lot of true, real boarders out there.

Did you come up through the contest scene, or did you just—I mean, being from Washington, were you just always in the backcountry scene?
Yeah, growing up in Washington, I never even really knew what the outlet would be to compete in snowboarding. I don't think I had the drive. I grew up skating a lot. I started snowboarding around the same time. I was six years old when I got on a skateboard and a snowboard. I competed in some skate contests, and I kind of realized it wasn't really what skateboarding was for me. Competing didn't resonate. I just had some shop sponsors, and then I always wanted to snowboard more. I was about an hour forty-five from Crystal Mountain, and I'd go as much as I could, which usually meant weekends as a kid. From there, I went to school in Colorado, ideally just to board more and be in parks and just learn more about it. I just kind of learned what I wanted, and I started taking avalanche courses when I was 21. I was super inspired by Travis Rice and Torstein Horgmo and their movie projects when I was growing up, and I think I just naturally found a path into that kind of riding.

You mentioned avalanches. I heard you're super dialed-in with the knowledge and safety part of backcountry snowboarding. Do you have a routine before you go out or a checklist of sorts to make sure things are going to go the way you hope they go?
I'd say the number one piece of that has been formal training, but then also community—learning from people who know a lot about it and can shed a lot of knowledge. One of the biggest people being Bryan Iguchi. Learning how he has operated and approached the mountains over his career has taught me a lot. One thing that I've taken away—you could read a book or learn from a class as much as you want, but getting time in the field, especially knowing where you're at locally, like whether you're in your own backyard or on a trip, spending the time to learn what's been going on that year, not just in the recent past on the avalanche bulletin but looking at the broad spectrum—that's my routine, I guess. If I'm in Jackson and I've been there for the last month and a half, I know what's been going on in the snow. I bounce ideas off other people who've been in the area, and I look at the bulletin. A lot of times, I'll text with one of the avalanche forecasters in the area and just kind of talk about what's been going on because they know that we're out trying to build jumps and hit bigger terrain. I just gather as much information as I can. If I'm not in my local area and say I'm on a trip, I try to find resources that are living in the area, talk to people who know it a little better than I do, and just look for the signs to help mitigate stuff.

I heard that if you aren't, like, the first five people to drop into Corbet’s for the contest, it just gets so gnarly. Is that true?
Yeah. I think there’s one year where it stayed like a bubble bath in there for a while—nice and soft. But it's a difficult contest to have the stars align on. And I would agree. I think there’s one year where I was in the first ten, and it's like, go for it—whatever you're feeling.

Do you have a craziest thing you've seen go down on it?
By far, it was Hans hitting the wall. He did the back 270 wall ride—or maybe you call it back 3 wall ride. That was by far the craziest thing I've seen go down.

Any shoutouts?
Tom Pelley. He's been a huge part of just the growth, you know? A lot of people have inspired me along the way, but he is a great advocate for the team. Obviously, I gotta thank my parents too. Wouldn't be anything without that inspiration.