Top Five Fridays: January 17, 2025
After competing on yet another scaffolding jump last weekend, the World Cup Big Air circuit has moved back to real snow for this weekend's event in Klagenfurt, Austria. Image: FIS Snowbarding on Facebook
#1:FIS Alpine Recap: Lauren Macuga and Lindsey Vonn Make Massive Statements in St. Anton:
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the January 17, 2025 edition! This week, we continue to bring you FIS World Cup coverage as the U.S. Team is coming off yet another strong showing, with a veteran athlete logging back to back impressive results, and a rising start earning a career best. Once we’ve brought you up to date from the world of FIS Alpine, we’ll share the latest fallout from Vail as the Park City protest has created quite a ripple effect, before checking in on the world of BOA boots, and finally wrapping things up with a quick triple highlight from the world of freeride skiing. We’ll give you all the details regarding those topics shortly, but before we do, let’s start by recapping World Cup Alpine action.
As you might remember from our coverage last Friday, this past week was set to be a busy one on the World Cup schedule, with the Women’s circuit competing in a total of three races, and the men scheduled for another two. Starting with the women, as always, the FIS World Cup circuit found itself in St. Anton, Austria, for a Downhill race on Saturday, followed by a Super G on Sunday. For the Americans, there’s been a few big stories this season. One of those, of course, is the return of Lindsey Vonn, whose unretirement was mixed with varying degrees of excitement and skepticism. Then, in her first race back, she earned a very respectable 14th place finish in a Super G race in St. Moritz. That result, while not a podium, top 5, or even top 10 finish, was enough to make the world say, “Ok Lindsey, very impressive! We didn’t think you had it in you, but you proved us wrong.” This week though, changed the narrative once again.
In last weekend’s Downhill race at St. Anton, Lindsey Vonn cruised to a 6th place finish - her best result in nearly 7 years. As it turned out, that race was particularly fruitful for the American team as rising star Lauren Macuga followed Vonn’s lead with a 9th place finish of her own, while Breezy Johnson finished in 11th. Zooming out for a moment, let’s take a second to appreciate just how impressive that is: the American team packed three athletes into the top 11 of a race, without the leader of the team competing. What’s even crazier than that stat though, is what happened a day later.
Following up Saturday’s impressive performance, the ladies team returned to snow on Sunday for a Super G race. In that event, Lauren Macuga accomplished something that we suspected she might be capable of back at the end of December. That is, Macuga earned her first ever World Cup podium. And not only that, but she earned her first ever gold medal, logging the fastest time by a full .68 seconds. Even more remarkable though is the fact that Macuga wasn’t the only U.S. athlete earning an incredible result in this race. Joining her in that discussion was once again Lindsey Vonn, who finished in fourth place! Keep in mind that conversations surrounding Vonn this Fall started out with speculation regarding her return to the circuit, which evolved into, “yeah, but can she still ski?”. Now, after this weekend, Vonn has successfully removed all doubt, and is suddenly a podium threat. Of course not to be lost in all of the excitement surrounding this race is the fact that athletes Jacqueline Wiles and Keely Cashman also earned points, finishing in 24th and 28th respectively.
From the exciting weekend in St. Anton, the women’s circuit moved on to Flachau, Austria for a slalom race on Tuesday. There, the strong results continued for the team, as Paula Moltzan earned a very respectable 6th place finish, while Nina O’Brien finished in 20th. Looking ahead, the women’s circuit is currently in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, for a Downhill race tomorrow, followed by a Super G on Sunday. From there, the action continues as they head to Kronplatz, Italy for a Giant Slalom race on Tuesday. You can preview the full calendar here.
On the men’s side of things, the schedule was slightly calmer as the circuit stuck to just one location last weekend, competing in a Slalom and Giant Slalom race in Adelboden, Switzerland. In the first of those two races, the Slalom, Jett Seymour led the way for the U.S. Men, earning a 17th place finish, followed by Ben Ritchie who finished 21st. A day later, in the Giant Slalom race, River Radamus earned the result of the weekend for the men’s team, with a 10th place finish. Joining him in the points was Patrick Kenney with a 23rd place finish. Looking ahead, the men have back to back triple race weekends, with Super G, Downhill, and Slalom races scheduled for this weekend in Wengen, Switzerland, followed by the same trio of races a week later in Kitzbuehel, Austria. You can preview those races here.
#2: The Park City Patrol Strikes Are Over, But for Vail, the Corporate Headaches Keep Coming:
After 10 months of stalled negotiations and 12 days of striking, the PCPSPA is claiming victory in their battle for fair wages. Image: Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association on Facebook
Next up in ski news this week is a continuation of the Park City ski patrol strike story. For those of you who are a bit sick of hearing about the patrol strike, don’t worry, we have some good news: at this point we’re past that portion of the story. Now, we’re on to the aftermath of that situation, with a couple of stories that fall under our “Business 101” course. For the sake of brevity, we’re going to assume you’re all familiar with what happened in Park City over the holidays, and how the ski patrol’s strike affected the thousands of guests who descended upon the destination resort. If you somehow don’t know the details of that story, feel free to revisit our coverage from January 3rd, when we shared news from the climax of the situation. If, on the other hand, you are familiar with the recent events, read on as we examine some of the ripple effects.
The first ripple on our list is news directly from Vail Resorts and the management team at Park City, in which they have acknowledged that the guest experience was not up to snuff over the holidays. In a statement issued by Park City, COO Deirdra Walsh said, “We deeply value the trust and loyalty of our guests, and while Park City Mountain was open during the patrol strike, it was not the experience we wanted to provide.” In an effort to make things right, the resort announced that they will be offering a 50% per day credit for all passes purchased between December 27th and January 8th. Guests who are eligible for this credit will receive an email in March which will provide a promo code that they can use to have the credit applied to their account. Then, they’ll be able to use the credits towards day tickets next season. Interestingly, this move comes a week after a class action lawsuit was filed in which the plaintiff claims that the resort downplayed and withheld information regarding the impact of the strike on operations, costing them over $10,000. The current size of that class action lawsuit is in excess of $5 million. While this concession from Vail is likely in reaction to this lawsuit, whether or not it has an impact on it is yet to be seen.
Speaking of legal matters, we also caught wind of another potential lawsuit facing Vail as a result of the impact of the strikes. In our coverage on the 3rd, we mentioned that stock prices had tumbled in the wake of the strikes. In this report from PR Newswire, it’s cited that Vail’s stock price dropped 6.56% on January 2nd, 2025. Now, NY based law firm, Pomerantz Firm, is “investigating” whether or not, “Vail Resorts and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.” To be clear, this news does not mean that Vail committed any unlawful acts, and from our perspective, it seems somewhat unlikely that they did. What’s more likely is that investors saw the situation unfolding, saw how it could spread to other resorts, and decided to pull their money. Still, the investigation alone is yet another headache for Vail.
Ultimately, our takeaway from these additional updates is pretty simple: unionized ski patrol outfits have a ridiculous amount of leverage. While it was a fact that we were aware of prior to Park City’s strike, the fallout from it has had far more of an impact than even we expected. The lesson here? Ski Patrol truly is invaluable, and well worth paying a living wage to. While we hope this story has all but run its course, you already know we’ll be back with more updates if they come our way.
#3: Like it or Love it, Double BOA Boots Are Here:
A closeup of the new 2026 Nordica Speedmachine 130 BOA DD Ski Boots, featuring the all new double BOA technology. To hear our initial thoughts, check out the On Snow Review that went up earlier today!
Alright, now that we’ve got a heavy lift out of the way, let’s move right along to a topic that you’re most likely already aware of: double BOA ski boots have officially entered the chat. Last season, we saw the introduction of single BOA boots, with the cable & ratchet based adjustment system replacing the bottom two buckles of the boot. While brands like Salomon, K2, Atomic, Fischer, Head, Nordica, and Tecnica all created their own unique shells, the boa implementation was the same across the board. In the past year, it’s been a polarizing technology amongst skiers, as those who have it love it, and many who don’t remain skeptical of the technology’s usefulness or durability. While that conversation is ongoing, there’s now a new element to discuss.
Introducing: BOA’s new Dual Dial system. Unveiled on Wednesday in a bit of an all out press blitz, multiple brands have announced their version of the new double BOA system, where a second dial has been implemented to replace the top set of buckles. Just like the initial round of BOA introductions, the second dial’s system is the same across all boots from all manufacturers, with the difference being the shells and liners. For instance, earlier today, we shared our first impressions of the new 2026 Nordica Speedmachine 130 DD BOA. That boot, as you might guess, takes the shell of the classic Speedmachine 130, and replaces the top buckles with the BOA system.
Alongside the introduction of BOA’s Dual Dial system, comes plenty of questions of course. First on everyone’s list most likely is, “is this a good idea?” In other words, both consumers and those with plenty of product experience such as ourselves certainly have questions as to whether or not BOA on the top cuff will outperform buckles. For our part, we’re coming into it with a healthy skepticism and an open mind, much like how we approached the initial round of BOA. That said, we were quickly won over by single BOA, and are hopeful that double BOA will steal our hearts in the same way. Beyond questions regarding the product itself, are also the questions of what comes next. For instance, now that we have double BOA, will we still have single BOA? Interestingly enough, we’ve already caught some glimpses of 2026 boots where there’s now a top BOA, but buckles on the bottom. To us, that suggests we’re experiencing a time similar to that of the early days of rocker, when the industry has stumbled upon something great, but is still fine tuning the best way to use it. If that’s the case, we suspect it’ll take a few seasons for the dust to settle and the best BOA setup to emerge. Until that happens, you can bet we’ll be here testing and reviewing multiple BOA iterations, sharing with you what we’ve learned. That’s an effort that got underway earlier today, when we shared our first impressions of the 2026 Nordica Speedmachine 130 DD.
#4: Triple Freeride Update: The Freeride World Tour is Officially Underway, the FWT Junior Freeride Championships Are a Wrap, and the 2025 Nendaz Backcountry Invitational is in the Books!:
Finally, rounding out our coverage this week is a triple freeride highlight, bringing you up to speed on the latest from the sport. At the top of that list is the quick announcement that the 2025 Freeride World Tour officially got underway earlier this morning with the first stop of the tour having successfully taken place on a new face at Baqueira Beret. At the time of this writing, the event hasn’t quite concluded, so be sure to check back next week for our full recap. In the meantime, if you’re as eager to watch the competition as we are, you can check out the full replay here.
In other Freeride World Tour news, the Junior division held their World Championships this past Monday, in Kappl, Austria, where the best skiers and snowboarders in the world under the age of 18 competed on the daunting Quellspitze face. If you remember back at the end of last April, we brought you coverage of the IFSA Junior Freeride Championships that took place in Breckenridge. That event was the penultimate competition leading up to worlds, offering the last chance for athletes in South America, the U.S., and Canada to earn enough points to secure a coveted Junior World’s invite.
On early Monday morning, last year’s entire body of work resulted in one run from the top of a legitimate big mountain face, amongst the best athletes in the world. On the women’s side of the sport, a total of 15 riders were invited, with 5 from the U.S. and Canada. Notably in attendance at the event was our very own Emily Crofton, coaching local Mad River Glen and occasional Stowe ripper, Lynsey Nagle. On the men’s side, the division swelled to a field of 25, with a combined total of 10 athletes from U.S. and Canada. Across the two divisions, the 40 teenage skiers put down mindblowing runs, complete with some audacious efforts that went terribly wrong, some audacious efforts that went incredibly well, and some moments of heartbreak as one small error resulted in a crash.
Spoiler Alert: If you plan to watch the event, don’t read the next paragraph!
At the end of the day, on the Women’s side, it was Snowbird’s Hannah Baldwin who took home the gold with strong skiing throughout an excellent line choice. On the Men’s side, it was France’s Noah Peizerat who took home the gold with a high speed run that featured not only the most 3’s of the day, but also two of the biggest. Fortunately for Peizerat, he was able to land each feat cleanly, ultimately putting on full display the fine line between success and failure in this sport.
Finally, before rounding out our freeride highlight, we also want to quickly mention that the 2025 Nendaz Backcountry Invitational (NBI) was held this past weekend. If you remember from our coverage from last year, the NBI is a unique one off event that merges slopestyle with backcountry skiing, as organizers build park style jumps in a low angle freeride setting before asking competitors to put down their best runs. The result is a true spectacle, as riders from multiple walks of life use the unique venue to showcase their talents. Unfortunately we don’t have the capacity to give the event full coverage this year, but we do encourage you to watch the replay. If you do, keep an eye out for the first ever double backflip by a woman in a freeride competition, as well as the first triple from a man in a freeride competition!