For capturing the World Telemarking Freeskiing Championships at Alyeska Resort this spring, Anchorage skier Paige Brady earned fame, a few sponsorship goodies and a redoubtable label.

Whore.

Brady, the two-time state skimeister from Service High, tops the list of featured athletes on the Web site of the ski film company Powderwhore. Wedged in between "store" and "contact" at the top of the company's page is a link to the firm's featured "whores." Leading off the alphabetical listing is Brady, followed by such notable skiers as Will Cardamone, Nick Devore and Megan Michelson.

"My mom extremely dislikes the name," Brady said. "She was a little offended by it at first. But they're the main telemark ski film company out there."

Anchorage moviegoers can watch Brady in action Thursday night when the Bear Tooth Theatrepub screens the hourlong freestyle skiing documentary, "Flakes," in which she joins some of the country's best telemarkers on powder from Haines to Utah to Argentina.

For Brady, the journey from cross-country queen to telemark titan includes five years on the University of Nevada Reno nordic ski team.

"Paige is the new girl on the block," the Powderwhore Web site reads. "She burst onto the free ski comp scene ... (and) then she takes the title of world champion at Alyeska. She used to nordic race in college, so she'll kick your butt up the mountain also."

Brady tried telemarking for the first time after her freshman year in college.

"I just fell in love with telemark skiing," she said. "I would ski as much as I could in springtime when I was done (cross-country) racing for the year. I did my first big mountain competition after NCAAs in Maine two years ago."

And while cross-country helped Brady with balance and feeling comfortable on her skis, "they're definitely different. Nordic skiing involves a lot more training and being really focused."

Her body reacted differently to big-mountain telemarking too. Despite racing in state and national championship events, "I never got nervous in nordic skiing like I did in big mountain. I guess it was newer to me, but I don't know why."

Try steepness.

The world championships at Alyeska began with "a complete rollover at the top," Brady said. Skiers dropped into the steep, invisible to competitors behind them. Not until they passed a Red Bull sign at the finish line were they back in sight.

"You try to make a fluid, aggressive line, looking like you know what you're doing," she said. "But you're skiing over massive amounts of exposure where you definitely can't fall at all. And, despite that, you've got to push yourself."

Before Alyeska, she finished second at the 13th Annual U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Telemark Championships in Crested Butte, Colo.

In "Flakes," Brady skis the Wasatch Range in Utah, primarily Little Cottonwood Canyon. It was exhilarating and challenging at the same time, she said.

"It was fun to explore some new terrain, but every day was storm day -- whiteout conditions. It snowed an awful lot. But I got to ski some amazing snow."

Brady's not sure where big-mountain telemarking will take her, but she's not expecting it to pad her bank account.

"There's not any money in telemark skiing," she acknowledged.

Still, there are memorable powder days, she's become a world champion and there are opportunities for fun.

This spring, Brady, who works at Skinny Raven downtown, helped organize what she called "the ultimate RV trip" for women telemarkers. She and several other top competitors rented a 30-foot Clippership RV and stuffed it with "over a dozen skis, cowboy boots, hair dryers, ice axes, a bag of grapefruits, a keg of Moose's Tooth amber and white lacy body armor."

They parked the rig at the base of Alyeska for the World Telemarking Freeskiing Championships before hitting the road to ski in Thompson Pass and head for the big hills near Valdez.

"I was really excited to go to Alaska with a group of just girls, all telemarking. It was my first all-girl trip, which is crazy because girls should get out and ski together more often.

"We planned to make a trip spending some quality time doing real girly things together -- like driving to all the amazing mountains we could find and hiking up and skiing down."

Perhaps, she said, next spring could see a rerun.