The Freeride World Tour Is Headed To Snowbird, Utah
If you heard the rumors, they were true. The Freeride World Tour is coming back to Snowbird, Utah, this winter.
The YETI Snowbird Pro presented by Stifel, as it’s called, will go down sometime between March 16 and March 22, 2027, depending on weather and conditions.
Mount Baldy is the planned venue, per a release that added the most exciting action will take place in a spot called the Amphitheater, where skiers and snowboarders will find techy lines and big cliffs.
“It’s a big bench that ends in like a variation of 15 to 40 foot airs out the bottom, maybe bigger if you wanted to single some of them,” said Andrew Pollard, a former FWT competitor and longtime Snowbird and Alta local, of the Amphitheater. “And the coolest part about it is it’s right in front of the crowd.”
Pollard thinks that the in-person viewing experience should be one of the Snowbird Pro’s main draws. At some of the Tour stops he competed in, he said few people watched in person. That shouldn’t be a problem come March.
“What’s going to be awesome about this is, I know that Snowbird and the local intermountain freeride community is going to come out in full force,” he said.
Photo: Otto/Freeride World Tour
Nicolas Hale-Woods, the FWT’s CEO, told POWDER that Mount Baldy isn’t the only zone under consideration. He said that the FWT used another venue, Silver Fox, as a backup in the past because of an avalanche on Baldy.
“We’ll be looking at other options, and we’ll take it from there with Snowbird mountain operations and ski patrol,” Hale-Woods said.
Regardless, the return of the globetrotting series to Snowbird and the lower 48 will likely be met with joy and maybe disbelief from U.S. skiers.
While the FWT hosted an event in Alaska last winter and spent several years hosting events at Kicking Horse, British Columbia, it hasn’t come to Snowbird in more than a decade. Despite a growing fanbase on this side of the pond, most FWT stops now take place in Europe.
Hale-Woods previously told POWDER that this isn’t what the FWT wants. On Wednesday afternoon, his tune hadn’t changed. He said that, including juniors and qualifiers, 11,000 licensed competitive freeriders exist, and almost half of them are American.
Given the interest, Hale-Woods said, it’s obvious the FWT needs an event in the U.S.
“Not only in Alaska, but in the heart of where riders come from,” he said.
FWT events are typically funded about 50-50 by the FWT and host destinations. Historically, in North America, this was “very hard to achieve with a resort,” said Hale-Woods.
He didn’t go into the specifics of the FWT’s partnership with Snowbird, but a catalyst Hale-Woods highlighted was freeride’s upcoming debut as an Olympic sport, a potential crossroads that’s been celebrated, debated, and hailed as an opportunity to build more momentum for freeride. Utah is set to host the 2034 Winter Olympics.
After that news broke, discussions between the FWT, Snowbird, and another group that’s working on the event, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, became, as Hale-Woods put it, “more and more constructive.”
Business aside, Snowbird certainly fits the bill. The resort offers classic terrain and reliably churns out absolute rippers. Snowbird has also long hosted competitive freeride events, including the FWT in 2014, as well as juniors, qualifiers, and other pro events. Snowbird’s first freeride competition was in 1998. There’s a lot of history among the peaks.
“This is a coming home sort of event, not necessarily a new stop,” said Pollard.
Pollard may get a full-circle moment when the show comes to town. Past competitions at Snowbird piqued his interest in freeride, like the now-defunct Freeskiing World Tour.
As a grom, he’d hit the same features the pros did after the events, which helped build his confidence. Years later, he’d become an FWT contender. Now a freeride coach, Pollard is looking forward to his pupils having a similar, inspiring experience.
“There’s gonna be kids that get to meet their heroes and give them a high five at the bottom of their comp run,” he said.
Hale-Woods tipped his ski helmet to Snowbird’s place in North America’s freeride mythology.
“One really clear thing is that Utah and Snowbird—in terms of history, riders, community—are very important to freeride and its future,” he said. “We are stoked to start this collaboration again.” So are Snowbird and U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
“This has been a landmark year for freeride at U.S. Ski & Snowboard,” said Sophie Goldschmidt, U.S. Ski & Snowboard president and CEO, in the release, pointing to her organization’s newly revealed freeride team. Now, she said, “We’re proud to help bring the Freeride World Tour back to our home state of Utah.”
Dave Fields, Snowbird president and general manager, said in the release that his resort is thrilled to have the FWT. “We’re excited to see how these athletes will push themselves and the sport, and to share that experience with our guests and the broader freeride community,” he said.
The big announcement does come with a notable caveat for the 2027 FWT schedule, though.
While mainstays like Fieberbrunn, Austria, and Verbier, Switzerland, are returning, Alaska isn’t—a potential bummer and tradeoff for fans. Hale-Woods said Alaska is on hold because the FWT can’t cover two U.S. events for budget reasons.
But he added that, in the future, the FWT hopes to have both Alaska and Snowbird on the calendar during the same year. As for Snowbird, Pollard had some advice worth following given this season’s stacked FWT roster.
“People should come and watch this shit live. It’s gonna be the best show,” he said.
Freeride World Tour 2027 Calendar
- Baqueira Beret Pro, Spain: January 16 to 21
- Val Thorens Pro, France: January 25 to 30
- Georgia Pro, Georgia: February 20 to 26
- Fieberbrunn Pro, Austria: March 3 to 9
- Snowbird Pro, Utah: March 16 to 22
- Xtreme Verbier, Switzerland: March 27 to April 4
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