Top Five Fridays: August 15, 2025
Friends will have another reason to high five next season, as Vail Resorts just announced a 50% off program for friends of Epic Pass Holders. More in highlight #1! Image: Breckenridge Resorts on Facebook
#1: Introducing “Epic Friend Tickets” - Vail’s New Buddy Pass Program:
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the August 14, 2025 edition! Now that we’re entering the second half of August and our Annual Ski Test has just been released, the pre-season vibes are really starting to set in. That feeling is further stoked by this week’s news, as three of our four highlights provide a preview of what’s to come. We’ll get to those stories in just a minute, but first, we want to share with you a pretty big announcement coming from the world of Vail.
This week, Vail Resorts announced a new program for Epic Pass holders, called, “Epic Friend Tickets.” Set to replace the pre-existing Buddy Tickets and Ski With a Friend tickets, the new Epic Friend Tickets allow Epic Pass holders to buy a daily lift ticket for a friend at the simplified price of 50% off. Compared to previous offerings, in which you could save up to 45%, but would vary depending on date and location, the new Epic Friend Ticket is generally a much larger discount, and one that’s much easier to understand as it’s the same rate at every mountain, on every day. Not only that, but those who buy an Epic Friend Ticket can also use the cost of that ticket towards the price of an Epic Pass next season. The goal here, of course, is for Vail to retain these Epic Friends as longterm customers.
Now, any time a company offers anything for 50% off, little alarm bells go off in the heads of economists across the world. In this case though, Rob Katz is adamant in saying that this move is not in any way a reaction to a decrease in Epic Pass sales, daily ticket sales, or revenue. Instead, it’s a proactive move to continue growing the sport, and therefore his customer base by making the sport more financially and socially accessible. In his words, “If you ski or ride, chances are someone brought you into the sport, and we want to make it easier for you to pay it forward. Epic Friend Tickets are the next step on our nearly two-decade-long journey to find ways to make skiing more accessible to more people.”
For Katz, it’s the first substantial change that he’s made at Vail Resorts since returning as the CEO back at the end of May. At that time, he stated that his 3.5 year hiatus from his leadership role had given him time to learn and reflect, allowing him to return to the role with a refreshed vision. Part of that vision was the alignment of all the company’s stakeholders, chief amongst which are the guests. As such, this new initiative feels like something of an olive branch, where Katz is meeting the challenge of affordable daily lift tickets head-on, offering a way for new and/or occasional skiers to get on the mountain for a reasonable price.
Of course, zooming back out again, it’s worth noting what 50% off of a window lift ticket means. These days, it’s not uncommon to see a $250 ticket price, meaning one of these Epic Friend Tickets would still be $125. While this is substantially cheaper, and the $125 can be used towards a season pass the following year, it’s still a $125 ticket. For those lamenting the days of affordable skiing, we’re not so sure that this will check the box. Still, it’s a step in the right direction, and an interesting sign of things to come under Katz’s second term. To learn more about this, check out the press release from Vail Resorts, or Katz’s conversation with Ski Mag.
#2: One Week and Three More Forecasts Later, We Still Don’t Really Know What This Winter Has in Store For Us:
Now that we’ve got our only actual “industry news” story out of the way, let’s move onto some winter previews! Getting that theme started this week is a highlight that we’re absolutely certain Bob will love discussing in the video version: early winter weather predictions. Making things even more fun for Bob, is the fact that we’re seeing two new forecasts this week which seem to contradict the report from NOAA that we shared last week, as well as new insight from NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) arm.
The good news though, is that we tend to like these new forecasts much better.
If you’ll recall, last week’s prediction was pretty ho-hum for most of us, with NOAA’s prediction showing mostly even chances of seeing above or below average temperatures and precipitation for much of the U.S., giving us the same emotional disposition as the shrug emoji. This week though, two new forecasts came out that are much, much more exciting.
First up in this double header is the always highly anticipated Farmers’ Almanac prediction. Without diving too deeply into their predictive methods, let’s just say the Almanac’s forecast tends to be based more on observation than meteorological models. That said, estimates give them an approximately 50-80% accuracy rate, which means they’re right more than they’re wrong. And as for their prediction this year? Well, it appears that they’re giving us the Oprah treatment, with New England getting snow, the Midwest getting snow, the Northern Rockies getting snow, and both West Coast regions getting “wet” with average or below average temperatures. In other words, the Farmers are predicting cold temps and plenty of precipitation across the skiing regions of the United States.
The second new forecast we caught this week comes to us from popular YouTube meteorologist Direct Weather, who takes a more meteorological approach to their forecast. As you’ll see in the video accompanying this highlight, the Direct Weather forecast starts with an analysis of the current La Niña / El Niño situation, as well as water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. From there, they extrapolate what that could mean for the winter ahead based on historical data. So, with that data in mind, what’s the conclusion? Well, it’s pretty similar to the Farmer’s Almanac forecast, with the Midwest, East Coast, and New England all receiving very cold, very wet weather. Specifically, in the Pennsylvania, New York, and New England areas, Direct Weather is calling for “Huge Snowstorms” and “The Worst of Winter”. Unfortunately though, this forecast is a bit more lopsided as the Pacific Northwest and Sierra Mountain regions are relegated to “Much Milder” and “Very Dry” forecasts, while the Rockies fare only slightly better with “Average Snowfall”.
Finally, before wrapping this highlight up, we do want to bring up one additional update from NOAA, whose National Weather Service has just made a slight adjustment to their predictions. Last week, the forecast was for a neutral winter, with no El Niño or La Niña. This week, they’ve tweaked that a little bit, suggesting that there might be a mild variety of La Niña occurring in late Fall and early Winter. Should that happen, it wouldn’t be a long enough or powerful enough variety to affect their predictions. As always though, we’ll simply have to wait and see what happens!
#3: One to Watch: Elisabeth Bocock:
Elisabeth Bocock is currently flying so under the radar that we couldn’t even find any of her World Cup races on YouTube. We have a feeling that might change this season. Image: Elisabeth Bocock on Instagram
Next up in our 2025/206 Winter Preview is Elisabeth Bocock - a U.S. Ski Team athlete who flew under the radar on a stacked Women’s team last season. As a rookie, Bocock competed in her first year on the World Cup Circuit last year, earning 9 World Cup starts amongst several additional Nor-Am Cup startsl. Across her World Cup appearances, Bocock’s results topped out at 14th. A solid result to be sure, but not exactly attention grabbing results, especially on a team in which several athletes are capable of podiuming in any given race.
But here’s the thing: Elisabeth Bocock is just 19 years old. Her 14th place finish? That was in the final Giant Slalom race of the regular season - a race in which her competitors were all pushing their limits in order to qualify for finals. Even more impressive, is the story of her first ever World Cup race - a Giant Slalom event in Killington. There, Bocock finished in eighth after her first run. So has Elisabeth Bocock arrived? No, not yet. But when you look at her flashes of potential, and you look at the team around her, it’s hard to believe this 19 year old athlete isn’t a name we’ll be discussing at length in the future.
As for what lies ahead this season, Bocock suddenly has a surprising goal: to qualify for the Olympics. While it might seem like a stretch, there are a number of factors playing into Bocock’s favor that could ultimately lead to this result. For one, her results from events on the Nor-Am circuit this season will boost her start position on the World Cup from the 50’s, into the mid 30’s. As we’ve seen numerous times in this sport, start order can matter quite a bit when you factor in the weather component. Secondly, Bocock is young. For her, this means she’s able to gamble a little bit more as she knows that mistakes at this stage in her career won’t be quite as costly. If she missed the Olympics this time around, she’ll have more chances. As a result, she’s free to ski a bit faster and a bit looser than her competitors. Finally, the third factor at play here is that we’ve already seen glimpses of her potential. After finishing in 8th place after run one in Killington, both Bocock and the world quickly realized that this young athlete is one to watch. Of course to know the outcome of this story, we’ll have to do just that once the FIS World Cup season resumes in late October. Until then, we’ll turn you over to SkiRacing.com to learn more about Bocock’s story.
#4: Born and Raised in Brooklyn, the Rivers Triplets Have Their Sights Set on Representing the Jamaican Alpine Ski Team in the 2026 Winter Olympics:
Finally, our last highlight this week is a story that’s been bubbling up since early Summer, but one that we haven’t had a chance to cover here on Top Five Fridays. This week though, we felt like enough was enough, and we’ve decided to share this story with you, regardless of how long ago it came off the presses.
The story we speak of is that of the Rivers triplets - three siblings born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, who are currently setting their sights on representing Jamaica in the 2026 Winter Olympics. If that sentence gives you Cool Runnings vibes, we get it, but this story isn’t exactly that.
Born 2007 to a Jamaican mother and an American father, the fact that Henri Rivers IV, Henniyah Rivers, and Helaina Rivers are triplets may not be the most surprising aspect of their upbringing. No, what’s more surprising is that they were raised in Brooklyn by certified ski instructors and alpine race coaches. Despite living in the heart of the city, the Rivers parents felt pulled to raising their children in the world of snowsports - from tubing and ice skating locally, to snowboarding and ski racing at Windham Mountain, the now semi-private ski area located 3 hours north of Bedford-Stuyvesant. For the triplets, it was a life-changing decision, as they immediately fell head over heels for the sport (though, not literally we hope). By the time they were 5, all three triplets had begun competing in friendly alpine races. Shortly after that, they signed up for the Windham Race Factory. By the time they were teenagers, the triplets each showed enough promise and passion for the sport that their parents decided it was time for boarding school. For Helaina and Hanniyah, that meant Holderness Academy in New Hampshire. For Henri Rivers IV, it meant Stratton Mountain School in Vermont.
In the three years since, these three athletes have continued competing and honing their skills. In 2024, Henniyah and Henri were invited to represent Jamaica at the Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea. That experience opened their eyes to a new dream: representing Jamaica in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
As it stands, Henri is very, very close to meeting that goal, needing just 2 more FIS points to secure his invite. Meanwhile, Henniyah and Helaina are reportedly in South America competing in an effort to secure enough points ahead of the January 18th deadline. While these two have their work cut out for them, it remains a dream of all three to compete in Italy together, being able to represent their mother’s home country while simultaneously inspiring and diversifying the sport. As with Elisabesth Bocock and the aforementioned weather forecasts, all we can do for now is wait and see what happens. But, also like the other stories, we’re eager to watch that of the Rivers Triplets unfold in the season ahead. To learn more about their story, check out this report from SkiRacing.com, or this one from the FIS itself.