The following article was originally printed in the October 2026 Issue of Slush. To get more articles and subscribe, click here.

By: Norm Schof

When speaking of grief in an interview, it’s hard to know how deep to push the conversation. Even when I’m writing this intro, I worry that I’ll overshadow who Elena Hight is by talking about what happened to her, about losing her partner, Mike Gardner, in the mountains. And I don’t want Elena to be overshadowed, because as a snowboarder her career is important. From contest firsts to pushing limits in the backcountry, Elena Hight has been influential in a way that has truly made our sport better. But the things that have happened to her off the board are important too. Loss is, plainly speaking, terrible. It compounds those questions that so many of us, as snowboarders, ask ourselves time and again: What am I doing? What do I want to do? Why am I here?

I don’t mean to trivialize the situation here. Obviously, finding peace and purpose exists to varying degrees of importance depending on the stage of a person's life. I just know that finding solace is a vital part of existing. And after speaking to Elena, I know that so much of that solace many of us find comes from the same place. It comes from snowboarding.

How has everything been? How was last winter?

Last winter was a challenging one for me. I haven't had a hard winter like that in a long time, actually. But as with all winters, the people that I got to spend time with were the highlight. There really is nothing better than spending time in the mountains with people you love.

Challenging why?

A lot of reasons, but the weather, the snow, that was really hard to nail. Of course there were days here and there, but overall it was warm and quite the challenge.

What were you working on? 

I spent most of the winter filming for Full Moon two, so I spent a lot of time up in Canada with the girls. I love Canada and all the people up there so we definitely made the most of the days that we got.

Were you on Denali too? 

That was two winters ago. I was able to go up to Denali in May 2025. It was my first trip up there with my good friend Tailer Gray, who's a badass.

How was that? It was like, what, 20 days up there?

It was such a good adventure. We had such a good time. I have never done a trip like that with just one other person on a glacier for that long. The cool thing about Denali is it's super social and approachable. There are a lot of people around. If you're going up the West Buttress, it's like you're on this solo expedition, but there's a lot of people also in the same zone. It's super social in a weird way. Ever since I met my partner who passed, Mike Gardner, I've been pretty interested in high altitude snowboarding and just tapping into that a little bit more. And so Denali is one of the, I don't wanna say easiest, but most accessible high altitude peaks for snowboarding. And so I started there. It was awesome, and it was really hard. It's really cool to go up high. It’s a different world up there. Denali's up at 20,000 feet, so there’s not much oxygen up there [laughs].

I'm sure it was a good learning experience, but, leaving that, do you feel like you want to go explore other kinds of high altitude snowboard adventures?

Yeah, it was a good testing zone. I did pretty well all things considered. High altitude is one of those things, you just never really know how your body's gonna do. Even people that go to altitude a lot, sometimes it hits you differently. But it was such a cool experience. There's just something about being up high that's hard to describe. It definitely challenges your mind and body in a way that is unique from anything else I've experienced. I would love to do some stuff in some bigger mountains here soon. That's hopefully on the horizon.

I want to go back a second, and I know this might be hard to talk about, but you mentioned losing your partner. And obviously we lost Jeff Keenan, Alex Pashley, all in the mountains. And I guess this is just to say that the mountains are this dangerous place. I just wonder what keeps you coming back to them, or has it never been even an option in your mind not to return? 

Our community has lost so many special people over the years, and especially recently I think it's natural to question our choices. Is this worth it? Are the mountains giving more than they're taking? You know? Like, are we crazy for choosing this path, knowing the risks? I mean, I think I have gone through all of those scenarios in my head, questioning all of those things. And ultimately for me, the mountains have always been a place—like snowboarding has always been a place—of reprieve and a place to reflect and learn in a space that makes sense to me. Ultimately, I really truly believe we are the lucky ones to be able to experience those high highs and these low lows. Our lifestyle brings us to these incredible states, you know, riding powder with your friends and exploring and, and whatever type of snowboarding you're into. But it also brings you into really low lows, whether it's through loss or different experiences that you have on the mountains. And, I believe that that's truly living. So when I question if it’s worth it, are these moments of suffering—is the juice worth the squeeze? I always come back to: well, this is life, and this is the journey, and, of course it's worth it.

I don't know if this is just some strange juxtaposition or maybe it’s all just life, but are the high highs helping you with the low lows? And I guess that's me just asking: even though the mountains are dangerous and can take from you, are they also a place that helps you with grief?

Absolutely. I mean being out in nature, being on my snowboard, it has helped me in my lifetime process basically everything I've ever gone through. Nature is like my church. And I think a lot of snowboarders feel that way. You don't know what to do, so you go snowboarding to process. I mean, none of us are getting out of here alive, so, how can you find the things that help you process the hard stuff in life. And I think snowboarding is that in so many ways for me.

How are you? How are you doing in life? 

In my process?

I mean, I don't wanna harp on this  if it’s not something you don't want to talk about.

No, I mean, I think I've been in a very…intense stage of life with losing my partner, and all that comes with that. And grief is interesting. They say it's not linear, and you hear stuff like that all the time, but until you actually experience the dips and then the reverts back to where you were six months ago, it's hard to actually conceptualize that because life is so linear in so many ways. So I think I am finding some peace in the chaos that is life. But it's been a journey. It's been a lot of learning and a lot of letting go and figuring out—I think the biggest part for me, or one of the biggest things is like, when you go through a big life event like losing a partner, I think you lose a lot of yourself too. And so you're not only questioning life and what you do, and how you continue on without your person, but all of a sudden you're also questioning, who am I? And who am I now? And what does that mean? And what does that look like? So, that's where I'm at.

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