The Guptas: San Carlos’ first family of skiing

For context, the freestyle skiing these three compete in consists of 220 yards of steep terrain with about 17 bumps, commonly referred to as “moguls,” and two large jumps. Competitors finish the course anywhere as quick as 22 seconds, and some bumps can be the size of Volkswagen Beetles. It’s the ultimate culmination of speed, precision, creativity, and acrobatics on a ski slope.

Ashish remembers first taking Alisha, his oldest daughter, to the slopes when she was eight. Ashish, a ski enthusiast himself, was filming a video for a sales team conference called “Game On.” He hired a stunt double ski expert to do all the jumps and tricks, and at the end, Ashish would say a few motivational words about discipline, practice, and excellence to his sales team.

After the pro nailed all the tricks in just a few runs, he insisted on taking Alisha skiing. He’d take her skiing for about four hours before reporting to Ashish, “She’s good enough to join a team.” The rest is history.

Family goes all in

Alisha would join her first ski team that same year, the Squaw Free Team (now known as Olympic Valley Freestyle Freeride). Jonny Moseley, a 1998 Olympic gold medalist, and Shannon Bahrke, a three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic medalist, highlight the program’s most notable alums.

With Alisha locked into a competitive ski team on the weekends, it was inevitable Annika and Aditya would be surrounded by the sport. Ashish remembers 2017, California’s highest-ever precipitation average in more than 100 years, to be a huge turning point for his family and the sport. This year would show his kids love and dedication to want to be great at skiing.

“These kids never said they didn’t want to get up,” Ashish said. “It was cold, icy, rainy — it didn’t matter. Every year we have about three, four all-nighter Tahoe trips on the road. That year we had, I think I counted, 10 all-nighters.”

Annika and Aditya would follow in their older sister’s footsteps while competing for the Olympic Valley Freestyle Freeride team, but both admittedly had to find their own love for the sport as well.

Finding their love for the sport

For Annika, that came at nationals her freshman year. Competing in duals where you’re head-to-head against someone else, Annika was competing against U.S. Ski Team member, Nessa Dzieman.

“I got to talk to her at the top of the course and she was super supportive and kind,” Annika said. “Even at the end I got a big hug from her and it just made me want to be like her.”

Aditya, who was downhill skier originally, actually wasn’t that much into freestyle at first. It took him going all the way to Park City, UT, where the World Cup happened to be taking place at the time, and Aditya got to see some of the best skiers in the world go down the course first-hand. Aditya remembers it being an inspiring experience that made him strive for the World Cup someday, himself.

Dedicated to the sport

While the historic snowfall of 2017 certainly kept snow on the mountains for a while, the 2020 Covid pandemic would solidify the three kids’ dedication to the sport. While businesses were closing left and right, the Lake Tahoe ski resorts would stay open and afloat.

“Being able to still keep up that passion when I wasn’t able to keep up with other things was just so much fun,” Alisha said. “We were able to ski every day or every other day, and it just became something I really looked forward to and relied on.”

Two years later, all three spent time in India exposing locals to mogul skiing. This was a unique opportunity for all three and a way to stay involved with the sport in the California off-season. With snow only accessible during the summer in countries like Australia or Chile, all three kids will still train year-round even if they don’t ski year-round.

Sometimes they’ll do summer training at Mt. Hood in Oregon or Whistler in Canada because both resorts have glaciers. Other times all three will just take advantage of trampoline and airbag training with their ski team in Tahoe to train different tricks before trying them on snow.

All of the hours spent training on the weekends in Tahoe or teaching in India have been worth it, however, as the accolades for all three speak for themselves.

Hard work is paying off

All three have competed and earned podium spots at their divisional competitions, and then qualified and competed in Junior Nationals and Nationals. Alisha and Annika have qualified to compete in the NorAm Cup (against competitors from the US and Canada), and Aditya is hoping to be invited next year.

In March, Aditya and Annika competed at the Far West Divisional Championships in mogul skiing where they grabbed podium finishes, and at the Junior US Nationals at the Utah Olympic Park. A week later, they left for the US Nationals in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire to represent their Olympic Valley Freestyle Freeride Team.

When asked about their favorite part about freestyle skiing, the community of friendships and memories they’ve built over 10-plus years of skiing in Tahoe was certainly mentioned. The creativity and opportunity for any kind of jump or trick they wanted seemed to do the job as well.

For example, Annika still remembers the day she landed her 360 mute air in a competition — a trick where skiers rotate in the air while crossing their skis and grabbing them in mid-air. She landed it twice in one competition while having a perfectly clean run otherwise. Similarly, Alisha’s favorite run came in the first competition of the year, landing a backflip that she’d been practicing for a while.

“You can choose what tricks make sense for you and what you like to do,” Alisha said. “Same with skiing, you can really have your own style.”

Developing a routine

Now after doing their Tahoe weekly weekend trip for several years now, the Gupta family has it on lock. They leave San Carlos for Tahoe on Friday at around 8:30 p.m. to avoid traffic, and they drive back on Sunday at 6 p.m. after the day’s competition or training. Laundry is in and out of the washer and dryer by Monday so they can then do it again on Friday.

“It’s hard to call it a sacrifice when it’s something that your kids love and are putting so much effort towards,” Avani Gupta, the kids’ mother, said. “It really makes it worth it. It’s definitely a change in lifestyle, but we’ve also built a really great community (in Tahoe). At this point, it’s just muscle memory.”

On top of this, both Annika and Aditya also play soccer for Sequoia during the winter. They played games on two nights of the week during the season while practicing the other three days. Then, on Friday night, it’s time to pack the bags.

“It’s taught me a lot about time management,” Annika said. “It’s nice to have coaches who are OK with me missing a little bit for another sport.”

To make matters more interesting, Aditya picked up lacrosse this spring for Sequoia also. His weeks now consist of lacrosse five days a week, club soccer on the weekdays as well, then skiing on the weekends.

Avani Gupta said that both she and her husband once sat down with their kids and explained how if they’re going to do as much as they do, they will need to be accountable for every aspect of their life, including classwork and schoolwork.

“They’ve done all they needed to do to make this happen which makes it easier for us,” she said.

Providing an outlet

As for Alisha, the Club Snow team at UCLA has been a perfect opportunity to maintain her love for the sport while also having an outlet and community aside from her rigorous studies. The closest mountain, Mammoth, is five hours away, but it will never stop Alisha from pursuing her passion and still improving her craft.

“I’ve been really fortunate with the snow team at UCLA,” she said. “After skiing almost every weekend in the winter it would’ve been really difficult not to be able to do that in the winter. It’s a really great community of people who are really just psyched to go skiing or snowboarding even if they didn’t compete in high school.”

While Los Angeles is obviously far from being a frozen tundra, Alisha represented her school in the most impressive way possible at the 2024 USCSA National Championship in Lake Placid, New York. She finished first place in the women’s free-ski overall category while finishing third in Slopestyle and also receiving first-team, scholar All-American honors.

Success and passion outweigh potential risks

But it’s not all fun and games. There’s always the risk of injury.

Ashish vividly remembers a time when he couldn’t make Aditya’s competition, and Aditya injured himself at the competition falling on his back on a backflip. On the phone, Ashish had never heard him cry from pain like that. Similarly, while Avani films all the kids’ runs, she admits that she’s often not watching fully.

Still, both can agree that the joy they get from their kids doing what they love and have practiced so long to achieve outweighs any kind of concern or worry.

Not only have all three been admirable people and athletes of the ski community, but they also understand that having this opportunity is a gift and should be cherished.

“It’s less about the win and more about the journey,” he said. “The way each one of them has managed their journey with grace and empathy has been very fortunate. There’s always a sense of accomplishment for them, which just makes us feel like we accomplished something, too.”