Top Five Fridays: April 10, 2026
Your 2026 IFSA U19 Ski Men Champion, Seamus O’Neill, getting a read on the finals venue during inspection at this year’s Junior Freeride Championship.
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the April 10, 2026 edition! This week is another interesting one, as this time around we kick things off with our annual Junior Freeride Championship coverage - the pinnacle event in the Junior Freeride scene, and a preview of athletes that are destined to make the Freeride World Tour one day. After wrapping up that coverage, we’ll move onto back to back stories that touch on controversial times for two different ski resorts. Finally, for our last highlight, we’ll share two retirement updates from the U.S. Ski Team before capping things off with a handful of excellent edits. With that, let’s dig in!
#1: The 2026 Junior Freeride Championships at Kicking Horse Resort Are a Wrap! Here’s What the Future of Freeride Looks Like:
If you happened to notice my absence last week, I like to think I had a good reason: I was at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort for the IFSA Junior Freeride Championships (JFC), coaching athletes from the Mad River Glen Freeski team. If you’re a regular reader of Top 5, then you’ve surely seen our coverage of the Freeride World Tour. To give this story a little context, the IFSA is the organization that runs the FWT development pipeline and qualification process in North and South America at both the junior and adult levels. In the junior world, which consists of athletes under the age of 19, the Junior Freeride Championships are the biggest event of the season in the Americas. Not only does it require a season-long qualification process in which only the top 45-60 athletes per category qualify, but it also is the deciding factor in regards to which athletes win the entire season, and who gets the illustrious invite to Junior World’s next January. In other words, this is as big as it gets for juniors in the American Freeride World.
This year, JFCs took place in Kicking Horse, Canada - one of the premier freeride resorts in North America. Having hosted multiple Freeride World Tour events in the past, as well as Challengers just two weeks ago, the resort has both the venues and competence to pull off an incredible Freeride event. While every edition of JFCs is a unique journey chock full of storylines regarding venues, weather, and individual athletes, this year’s iteration stands out as one of the best ones yet. Between being the largest ever Freeride event with a total of 290 of the best ski and snowboard athletes in the Americas, the sheer level of ability at this event, and the fact that this year’s iteration featured livestreams for each category’s qualification and finals runs, this was inarguably the most comprehensive and impressive event yet.
With that premise set, let me just say, the action didn’t disappoint. WIth four full days of competition, there’s no way I could possibly call out each and every impressive moment. Instead, I’ll highly recommend spending some time watching the complete livestream coverage of the events. If you do, keep in mind that the athletes at the U19 level could be just one year removed from making the Tour - they may be juniors, but you’ll find yourself blown away by the level of riding. From massive 360’s on Whitewall’s Bermuda Triangle (Henry Lantz, Ian Tuttle, Carden Tomic), to the first ever cork 720 in a U15 Female event (huge shout out to Rylee Watson), to Ryan Lapp’s insane cork 7 on the most prominent feature on Whitewall - to countless other jaw dropping moments, the level of riding at this event was absolutely insane and shows just how much potential this sport has as the junior level continues to push the envelope.
Of course, what every athlete came to JFCs for was a chance to win at the biggest event of the year and to earn their final points of the season. For some athletes, the result of the competition was heartbreak, whether from lost skis or runs that didn’t go as planned. For others, it was an incredible triumph, as points earned at this event resulted in massive opportunities, confidence boosts, and recognition. For the top U19 athletes, it also meant solidifying their sport in the overall rankings and earning an invite to Junior Worlds. Regardless though, I can confirm: win or lose, every athlete that competed is going to reflect on this week in Kicking Horse as nothing short of amazing.
Before wrapping this up, as a coach of the Mad River Glen Freeski team, I want to give a huge shout out and congratulations to not only our athletes, but also those who traveled West with us from Smuggler’s Notch, Jay Peak, Green Mountain Academy, and Holderness. All of the athletes from these teams showed up in a big way out there and made the East Coast proud. While we may not have the same high alpine terrain to train on, the conditions and terrain we do have makes us some of the strongest skiers out there, and athletes from these teams proved that in a big way this week.
Additionally, I want to give a shout out to two athletes in particular. First on that list is U15 athlete Hazen Abbott from Smugglers Notch, who won his division at JFCs, giving him the points needed to take home second place overall on the season (having missed 1st by just 3 points).
Finally, one last shout out is in order for Seamus O’Neill, who I am extremely fortunate to have been able to coach over the last few years. After qualifying for the event in 1st, Seamus deftly handled the most challenging zone on the finals venue, ultimately finishing in 5th place in the event. More impressive though, is that along with that result, Seamus won the season as the top ranked U19 Men’s athlete for the second straight year - an absolutely incredible and unheard of accomplishment. From here, Seamus will have the option to return to Austria to compete in World’s next January before beginning his adult career with an FWT invite in his sights.
For more on this, we highly recommend checking out all of the livestream replays over on the IFSA’s YouTube account.
#2: Crans Montana Locals Miffed by Vail’s Seemingly Premature Closure of the Resort:
Despite having excellent coverage, Vail has ended Crans Montana’s season. Despite local outrage, resort officials insist that it’s necessary in order to begin summer construction plans ahead of the 2027 FIS World Championships. Image: Crans Montana on Facebook
In other news this week, we caught a story coming to us out of the Sierre district of Valais, Switzerland, which is home to mountains like Crans Montana, Verbier, and Belpap. There, late winter snowfall has led to some incredible spring skiing conditions despite a dry start to the season. In fact, things have been going so well in the region that some ski areas like Belalp have actually extended their season, while Verbier is expected to remain open all the way through 4/26. In other words, things are shaping up to be one of the best spring seasons in recent memory. That is, unless you ski at Crans Montana.
Earlier this week, despite having plenty of snow, the Vail Resorts owned ski resort called it a season on Monday, disgruntling locals in the process. Compounding upon the terrific snowpack complaint, the closure also coincides with the start of Easter vacations in the region, meaning all of the kids who would love to use their ski passes at Crans Montana during their vacation are out of luck. So too, are the local businesses who would have benefited from the additional tourism. As a result of these factors, locals started a Change.org petition imploring Vail to open the resort this week. While that effort was unsuccessful in reaching that specific goal, it has circulated quite a bit on the internet already, and stirred up the same type of anti-Vail rhetoric that we’ve seen pop up whenever the company upsets a mountain’s local population.
For Vail’s part, they cite the reason for the closure as necessary in order for them to start large scale lift maintenance and infrastructure upgrades in order to be ready to host the 2027 FIS Alpine World Championships. Noting that our neighbor to the South, Killington, also had to adjust its springtime operations last year in order to complete lift maintenance to support further FIS events, this stance actually checks out. Still, it’s a tough look for Rob Katz who’s just shy of a year in his second stint as Vail’s CEO. For Katz, reputation management has to be a high priority as he steers Vail through precarious times, and any social outcry regarding the company is unhelpful at best. To learn more about this, we suggest giving the coverage over at SnowBrains a read.
#3: As Utah’s Nordic Valley Ski Area Considers a $1B+ Base Village Investment, Locals Weary of Immense Development:
See that small section in the lower left that’s highlighted in green? That’s the current size of Nordic Valley. Everything else? That’s the proposed expansion. Image: Save Our Canyons.
Next up this week, is news from Nordic Valley Ski Area, in Weber Country, Utah, a small ski area that’s currently dwarfed in both size and social recognition by its two closest neighbors: Snowbasin and Powder Mountain. That might not be the case for long though as the resort’s owners look to begin work on a massive expansion of the resort’s terrain.
Approved back in 2024 by the Weber County Commission, Nordic Valley Ski Area is on the verge of beginning the process of completely transforming the resort by way of greatly expanding the mountain’s trail network, lift infrastructure, and skiable acreage. At present, the resort’s footprint is approximately 500 acres, accessible via 5 lifts. Should the current Master Plan come to fruition, the resort would expand to approximately 3,500 skiable acres, add nearly 2,000 feet of vertical, and see the construction of 2 gondolas, 12 chairlifts, and 3 surface lifts. Perhaps most importantly though, it would also create an access point to the resort from North Ogden, making it much easier to get to. Interestingly enough though, none of this is this week’s news. This week’s news is that story of a development proposal that shines a light on what looks to be the resort’s end goal.
Late last week, we began catching some reports that an investment group called Clyde Capital Group had submitted a proposal for a massive development at the base of Nordic Valley. Priced at somewhere between $500 million and $1.4 billion, Clyde Capital’s development plan called for nearly 800 livable spaces, 50 units of employee housing, and roughly 56,000 square feet of retail space. While local residents have begrudgingly accepted the expansion of the ski resort itself, this massive base area project was immediately met with backlash and concern. Despite promising to make a significant economic impact on the area - to the tune of an annual GDP of between $129 million and $162 million during the construction phase, and $10 million to $12 million in annual tax revenue once completed, locals don’t seem interested. For them, they prefer the slower way of life that they moved to Eden to find, and worry about the amount of headaches such a massive project would bring to their area. It’s a position that’s easy to understand. Fortunately for them, Clyde Capital Group’s senior director of project strategy Robert Behuni followed up this surprise proposal with a reassurance: the base village proposal was essentially just a litmus test to learn more about what might be required if they ever wanted to pursue that style of development. Still, having seen the proposal, locals remain weary of the long-term direction of the resort.
For more on this, check out the initial proposal announcement via Deseret.com, as well as local reactions via Fox 13.
#4: As U.S. Ski Team Athlete Jared Goldberg Announces His Retirement, Vonn Says She’s Not so Sure:
Still recovering from her Olympic injury, Lindsey Vonn recently spoke with CNBC, sharing her plans moving forward - including a possible return.
Finally, rounding things out this week is a quick double header check in with two of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team’s more seasoned veterans as they make decisions regarding their futures. On the men’s side of the sport, we learned this week that Jared Goldberg has officially announced his retirement. For Goldberg, it’s the conclusion of an impressive 15 year stretch on the team, after having first made it back in 2011. Since then, he’s had a solid career, featuring two Winter Olympic appearances in 2014 and 2018, as well as appearances in the last five World Championships. Additional accomplishments include 7 top 10 finishes and a second place finish in a Super G at Val Gardena in which he missed the top spot by just .01 seconds. Most importantly though, Goldberg’s role on the team had evolved to become that of a leader. Having been part of the U.S. team for well over a decade, Goldberg’s relentless work ethic and experience became crucial in creating the current U.S. speed team’s culture. Now, after 15 years, Goldberg has announced his retirement and is heading to one of the most logical places we can think of: the beach. We wish Goldberg the best in his retirement, and congratulate him on an impressive career! For more, check out the report from the U.S. Ski Team.
On the other side of the team, the Women’s side, we have another pseudo retirement update, and this one’s far more intriguing: Lindsey Vonn hasn’t ruled out a possible comeback. In a wide-ranging 15 minute interview with CNBC this week, Vonn talked us through a number of aspects of her life, including her recovery and future plans. In terms of the former, it sounds as though things are going incredibly well as she says she expects to be off crutches in just a few weeks. Considering how intense the leg injury was that she suffered just two months ago, the idea of her leg being able to bear weight is pretty insane. Of course, that doesn’t mean her recovery is complete. From here, Vonn will eventually need to have the hardware that’s in her leg removed, as well as an ACL reconstruction surgery before she finally enters the homestretch.
Speaking of homestretches, for those who assumed that this year would be the last we’d see of Vonn racing, there’s a chance you might be wrong. While it’s too soon to know for sure, Vonn explicitly states in the interview that she hopes her crash wasn’t her final FIS run, and that she hopes to be able to make “one more run”. Whether that means one more race or one more run at a season up for interpretation. Regardless, what we do know is that her return is far from certain, as it hinges mightily on how well her muscles are able to recover from her injuries. With an ACL surgery still on the horizon, it’s too soon to know for sure whether Vonn will be able to race again. For now, the plan for her is to continue her recovery, get the remaining surgeries, and then begin assessing how she feels as she rehabs. When it comes to torn muscles, mobility can be affected, so it’s truly impossible to know what her odds are until she can start rehabbing in full. That said, if we know anything about Lindsey Vonn, it’s that there’s very little that can hold her back. For more on this, check out the report from USA Today.