The Winter X Games are much more than just a weekend of skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling competitions. It is an entire production that takes an army to plan, implement, and execute. From the athletes to media and TV production, to security, medical staff, and physically building/maintaining each of the courses, there is so much that goes into the making of X Games. The 25th annual Aspen Winter X Games is officially wrapped, and across 18 unique disciplines, 54 medals have been awarded.
There are a lot of different types of crowds you can find on the mountain, but it's not as hard as it might seem to avoid packed areas if you know what you're doing. The video outlines 7 main factors that cause ski resort crowds. Lift infrastructure can create crowds through limited uphill capacity, poor line management, flashy lifts, and more. These can be avoided by staying on expert or less-popular lifts early or late and planning end-of-day routes ahead of time.
Conditions ReportAspen, Colorado, most famously known for hosting the annual Winter X-Games competition, is home to four different mountains that all make for excellent and unique skiing and snowboarding experiences. In the midst of an eerily dry Colorado winter, Aspen has the most skiable terrain in Colorado right now, with several thousands of acres open for riding across all skill levels.
Day two of X-Games was a nice show, with three different sports to watch. Yep, Snowmobiling is back. Several events got postponed because of how much snow fell overnight and throughout the day, so it was a bit chaotic at times, scrambling from one event to another, but I will never complain about snow falling, and it made for an active day. Celebrities, including Justin Bieber, Gunna, Johnny Knoxville, Alvin Kamara, and Alex Bregman, showed up to X-Games today to participate in the fun.
The massive project, known as the Rhydycar West development, will also include both indoor and outdoor activity centers, up to 418 hotel rooms, possibly 30 woodland lodge units, around 830 car parking spaces, and a large water park. Councilor Andrew Barry brought up that the council's main reasoning for moving forward with the project is the welfare of the local community. In a statement to the local council, Barry stated: "We need positive economic solutions."
With the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics just two weeks away, Ester Ledecká delivered a timely reminder of her dominance in Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom (PGS), powering to victory at the World Cup in Simonhöhe, Austria, on Friday, January 23. The 30-year-old Czech star dominated the women's event in her first Snowboard World Cup start since 2024, defeating Michelle Dekker of the Netherlands in the big final.
With only 14 days until the XXV Olympic Winter Games commence on February 6 it is time to start looking at the highlights of the Olympic calendar. There will be a total of 116 medal events at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games. We have highlighted some of the favorite events for the two weeks, with a focus on Alpine and Freestyle skiing events. We will highlight Snowboard and Nordic events in a separate post to keep it visually digestible for readersa LOT is going on!
Cody Cirillo and Matthew Tufts set out to do something that sounds simple until you picture the map, the season, and the wind. In the dead of winter, they bike-packed and skied their way around Iceland on a 1,000-mile, 35-day, human-powered loop. Their new film, A Hundred Words for Wind , released December 18, tracks the whole push, from ice-choked roads and sideways rain to those rare, hard-won windows when the mountains finally opened long enough to climb and ski.
Arctic air and a Friday-Saturday storm deliver the best Colorado refresh to the southern and central mountains, with lighter but high-quality snow farther north. Snow levels start modestly higher early, then crash through the event, so conditions trend drier and fluffier as temperatures drop into Saturday night and Sunday morning; next week looks milder and mostly quiet after the cold weekend.
New Hampshire, like several states in New England, is home to a ton of abandoned and forgotten ski areas. Many of them have completely faded, recognizable only by the slight appearance of a trail or two. Others still have buildings, lift parts, and other lost equipment spread throughout the area. Mount Whittier in West Ossipee, New Hampshire, is one of those abandoned areas that still visible through buildings and gear. Avery Zucco explored the area, finding lift poles, buildings, gear, and much more.
After a long dry stretch, skiers and riders in the southern Rockies finally have reason to celebrate. A new storm system is tracking across the Four Corners, promising a solid shot of fresh snow for Colorado and northern New Mexico-potentially the most exciting accumulation of the season so far. Expect those deep purples on the maps to make a welcome appearance on the slopes by the weekend.
It has been an eventful few months for the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere. An unusually early sudden stratospheric warming episode in late November appears to have factored into a weakened and distorted polar vortex at times in December, likely causing extra waviness in the polar jet stream. This helped fuel extensive intrusions of frigid air into the mid-latitudes, contributing to cold snaps in North America, Europe, and Asia, and priming the atmosphere for disruptive winter storms in January.
OlympicsWith the start of the Milano-Cortina Olympics just a few weeks away, Tamarack, Idaho has been gearing up for a wide array of Olympics themed events during the games. Long before the start of the games, the resort will continue to offer excellent conditions for carving out some GS turns or ripping through the bumps. In between runs, the Seven Devils Taphouse will be streaming coverage from the games every day from their start on February 6 to their end on February 22.
President Trump has proposed building a luxury ski resort on Mount Hermon that straddles the Israel-Syria border. It fits Trump's style of trying to ease conflicts and battles with incentives like bold real estate visions that would bring economic opportunities to the region instead. However, the idea faces huge practical, political, and security hurdles. For now, the luxury ski resort on Mount Hermon remains only a proposal, and has no confirmed site, no announced funding, and no construction timeline.
Alaska is a hot spot for grizzly bears, easily home to the most of any of the 50 states. There are an estimated 30,000 across the entire state, representing over 98 percent of the United States population. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages the population, ensuring that the population remains healthy and grizzly bear viewing opportunities stay abundant.
Ramos is a Barcelona-based staff photographer for Getty Images, with a career spanning news, international conflicts, and high-profile sports coverage-including the Winter Olympics. Ramos received an Award of Excellence in the Sports Photographer of the Year category for his full portfolio of sports coverage from 2023, including the World Athletic Championships, Tour de France, Alpine Ski World Cup Finals, surfing sessions in Portugal, and more.
When winter takes hold in the Eastern Sierra, the Bridgeport Winter Recreation Area (BWRA) becomes a popular destination for backcountry enthusiasts. Powderhounds flock to this area during the cold winter months, usually with snowmobiles. Shortly after you turn onto Highway 108 (Sonora Pass), the snow starts, and the journey begins. Located seven miles up the snow-covered highway, the BWRA is the gateway to remote and technical terrain in the heart of the Sierra.
From mapping and land ownership to avalanche forecasting, weather, and now high-resolution satellite imagery, onX has become a go-to platform for people who spend real time in the mountains. Today, we get into the nuts and bolts - how onX Backcountry actually works, how big their team is, how many people are using it, what problems they are trying to solve, and why their user experience stands out in an increasingly crowded space.
The Quebec resort, located northeast of Quebec City along the St. Lawrence River, confirmed Monday that it would shut down operations for the remainder of the winter after failing to reach a new collective agreement with roughly 300 unionized employees, according to The Canadian Press. Workers represented by the Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs du Massif, affiliated with the CSN, have been on an unlimited general strike since January 2.
Dozens of skiers and snowboarders were treated to complimentary pizza and hot chocolate after requiring evacuation from a chairlift at Lutsen Mountains in northern Minnesota in the midst of bitter cold and windy conditions. Bring Me The News reports fire crews and ski patrol responded to scene at around 9:30am on Saturday morning when the chairlift malfunctioned in 56+mph winds and subzero temperatures. Rescuers focused on getting kids and more vulnerable people down first before fully evacuating the 40+ stranded guests.
