Top Five Fridays: January 9, 2026
Jessie Diggins, the most successful XC ski racer in U.S. history, has just added to her accolades. More on that in highlight #4.5! Image: Jessie Diggins on Facebook
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the January 9, 2026 edition! This week, the news cycle is “update” themed, as we have several continuing stories to bring you, starting with coverage of the Telluride ski patrol strike, where two major developments occurred over the course of the last seven days. In addition to that topic, we also have an update from Nederland, CO, where the town had previously announced plans to purchase Eldora, and an update from Jackson Hole, WY, where details surrounding this year’s iteration of Kings and Queens of Corbet’s have just been revealed. Plus, as always, we’ll bring you up to speed on the latest from FIS sports & share several excellent edits. If this sounds like the kind of thing you’d be into, go ahead and forge on, because we’ve got quite a bit to talk about this week!
#1: FIS Results - Alpine Race Results - Paula Moltzan Achieves a Goal, Shiffrin Finishes Second, & the Entire Women’s Team Continues to Dominate the Team Standings:
Kicking our conversation off this week, we bring you the latest results from both FIS World Cup Alpine circuits. Last week was another light one for both the men and women’s teams as the Tour eases itself back into its post-holiday routine. On the women’s side of things, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia hosted a Giant Slalom and a Slalom race, while Madonna di Campiglio, Italy hosted a Slalom race for the men. Despite the limited action, we do have some results to discuss this week.
The first of two races held in Kranjska Gora last weekend was a Giant Slalom race, happening last Saturday. Much unlike the races that were held in Semmering a week prior, both the course and conditions in Kranjsak Gora were reportedly all time, paving the way for a result that we’ve been eagerly awaiting ever since the first race of the season: Paula Moltzan has found the podium again. After run number one, Moltzan was sitting in 2nd, leading a pack of four athletes who all finished within a tenth of a second of 1:01.70. In other words, while she was in an excellent position heading into the second run, it was still anyone’s race. Then, in her second run, Moltzan logged another impressive time, separating herself from most of the pack. When all was said and done, she finished in 3rd place, .47 seconds off of first. For Moltzan, whose stated goal at the start of the season was to become a consistent podium threat, the result spoke volumes. Looking back at her results on the year, Moltzan now has 2 podiums in 12 races and has either finished in the top 10 or DNF’d trying in all but one race. If the goal is to threaten, we would argue that Moltzan has become very threatening this season.
Of course as is always the case with the Women’s team, it wasn’t just Moltzan earning points and solid results. In this race, several of her teammates joined her. Following her lead, Mikaela Shiffrin finished in a very respectable 5th place position, while Nina O’Brien earned her second best result of the year with an 8th place finish. Behind them, Elisabeth Bocock finished in 14th, while AJ Hurt rounded things out with a 25th place finish. All in all, it was yet another impressive race for the U.S. Team whose athletes made up nearly a third of the top 10 results, and put 4 in the top 15. But, the weekend wasn’t done.
A day later, the team saw similar success in the Slalom. In this race, Mikaela Shiffrin led the way with a 2nd place finish. Yes, you read that right: for the first time this season, Shiffrin didn’t win a Slalom race. Instead, she only finished in second, proving that maybe, just maybe, she is human like the rest of us afterall. Interestingly, however, is the fact that while Shiffrin finished just .14 seconds behind Switzerland’s Camille Rast, she also beat third place by 1.83 seconds. In other words, it’s almost as if Shiffrin didn’t slow down at all, but rather Camille Rast has suddenly sped way up. Between this result and Rast’s frustrations with Shiffrin’s course adjustments two weeks ago, we suspect that the competition between these two athletes will continue to grow, creating one of the central storylines in this year’s Olympics.
Of course, just like in the Giant Slalom event, Shiffrin is far from the only U.S. athlete with results worth celebrating in the Slalom. Finishing behind her, in fourth place, was Paula Moltzan who continued her threatening ways, followed by AJ Hurt in 13th, Nina O’Brien in 19th, and Elisabeth Bocock in 30th. As has become tradition for the Women’s team, it was another solid showing with several athletes earning points. Looking ahead, the ladies’ circuit will take them to Zauchensee, Austria for a Downhill and a Super G race this weekend, before moving onto Flachau for a Slalom race on Tuesday.
On the Men’s side of things, it was unfortunately a different story. For them, the only race offered this week was a Slalom event in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, and as we know, Slalom is not the speciality of the men’s team. In this particular event, no American earned points, although Benjamin Ritchie did make finals. Unfortunately, his qualifying time meant he had to push the throttle in his second run, which ultimately resulted in missing a gate, skiing out of the course, and earning a DNF. The good news for the men’s team though, is that they’ll have two opportunities to bounce back this week, as Adelboden, Switzerland is set to host a Giant Slalom and a Slalom race this weekend. You can preview those events here.
#2: After 13 Contentious Days, Telluride Ski Patrol Gives in to Community Pressure to End Their Strike. Resort Set to Reopen This Weekend:
While there’s not a ton of new information in this 10 minute conversation with the Colorado Sun’s Jason Blevins, it serves as a solid recap of all that’s happened in Telluride over the last couple of weeks.
Next up this week: more updates, and a temporary conclusion to a story that we’ve been covering for the last couple of weeks as the Telluride Ski Patrol strike has shut down the tourism based community. When we left off last week, things weren’t looking so good for the patrollers as the mountain seemed intent on finding ways to open without their normal ski patrol staff, seemingly closing the door on any additional negotiations. Caught in the crossfire throughout this conflict has been the town’s economy, as everything from local shops, to eateries, to lodges have seen a steep decline in business during the holiday season as a result of the resort’s closure. At the time of our report last week, it was hard to see how this conflict would move forward.
And then, two things happened.
First, Telluride opened the resort on Monday without the ski patrol union. Now, we say, “opened,” but really what that meant was that they opened two trails, serviced by one lift and two conveyors. To do so, they leaned on four patrollers who were reportedly ineligible to join the union (and thus not a part of the strike), as well as a contingency of additional patrollers and EMS workers. In other words, the mountain opened, but in very limited and sketchy fashion.
Despite the opening, the town itself remained embroiled in conflict. With the resort being more or less closed, it ended up being local businesses feeling the impact far more than the resort itself. As such, members of the community began pleading with ski patrol to end the strike - not because they don’t support the patrollers - but because, in their written words, “this strike is not hurting Chuck Horning.” On Wednesday of this week, a Change.org petition went live in an effort to unify the voices of the community who both recognize the ski patrol union’s struggles, but also wanted the strike to end so that the entire community wouldn’t be put through the wringer. That same day, nearly 100 local business owners and workers marched through downtown echoing similar sentiments: while they supported the patrollers, the strike clearly wasn’t working as intended.
Then, finally, just yesterday, news broke that the union had agreed to a new contract, paving the way for Telluride to open in full this coming weekend. In the end, the union did not earn the wages they requested and were forced to compromise on compensation. While that may seem like a loss, and technically it is, there does seem to be a new sense of unity in the town: a mutual disdain for Telluride Golf & Ski’s owner, Chuck Horning. While the community itself has had a contentious relationship with the man for years, his callous response to the strike and willingness to let the town’s economy suffer has united the community in their disapproval of the resort’s owner, which will likely lead to further pressure on the 81 year old to move on. In the words of the Change.org petition, “Real change in Telluride will not come from a picket line that Mr. Horning continues to ignore. It will come from a unified community effort. We need the economic engine of the mountain running so that we have the resources to address our concerns through political and legal channels.”
So, while the story of the 2025-2026 Telluride Ski Patrol Protest has come to a close, we have a feeling that a larger story is just beginning. To learn more about the latest, check out the report from ColoradoSun.com.
#3: Nederland, CO Board of Trustees Approves Purchase Agreement for Eldora Mountain:
Two visitors exploring a trail map at Eldora, the mid-size ski area in Nederland, CO that figures to be a key part of the town’s economic plan well into the future. Image: Eldora on Facebook
In other “Colorado ski towns and their relationship to their local mountain” news, we have a much different and much more positive story coming to us out of Nederland, CO, home to Eldora Mountain. If you read along with us this summer, then you might already know the story of what’s happening there, but if not, here’s the quick recap:
Back in July of 2025, the town of Nederland and POWDR Corp announced that they were having serious discussions regarding the sale of Eldora to its hometown of Nederland. Despite an estimated price tag of $100M - $200M, the small 1,500 person town with an annual budget of $3.2M shared that they had a plan to buy the resort in a way that wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dollar: the sale of municipal bonds backed by revenue generated by the resort. In other words, the town hoped to raise money for the purchase, leveraging the existing business, and thereby securing an asset that would not only be free to taxpayers, but would actually be a significant economic contributor well into the future. In many ways, the concept was both genius and a no-brainer. There was, of course, a catch: in order to move forward with this concept, there would have to be quite a few conversations had, contracts agreed upon, and approvals in place.
This week, we learned that the plan has taken a massive step forward as the town’s board of trustees voted unanimously to approve an asset purchase agreement for the resort. That agreement put in writing all of the details surrounding the transaction between POWDR Corp and the town, outlining all of the property, buildings, equipment, inventory, and more that the town would be receiving in their $120M purchase from POWDR. With that agreement in place and approved, it marks one of the last significant hurdles needing to be cleared in order for this plan to proceed.
From here, while there are a few more i’s to dot, t’s to cross, and contracts to sign, it should get much easier. In order for this deal to get done, a few contingencies need to be met. First, the U.S. Forest Service must agree to issue a new special use permit to the town of Nederland in order to continue operating the resort on their land. Second, the town will need to complete a new agreement with Alterra to keep the resort on the Ikon pass. Between these two line items, it’s likely that things will go smoothly as neither of these are new negotiations, they’re simply transferring existing agreements to new owners. Finally, before the deal can be finalized, the town of Nederland’s board of trustees will need to approve a bond ordinance to allow for the fundraising portion of this plan to begin. If all goes to plan, that is expected to happen at a meeting on February 20th. Should that occur, Nederland will be well on its way to owning its own ski resort and potentially transforming itself as a city. To learn more about this, check out the report from Post Independent.
#4: Jackson Hole Announces Roster and Dates for the 8th Annual Kings and Queens of Corbet’s Competition:
For our last full highlight of the week, we want to share with you just a quick update coming to us out of Jackson Hole, where the resort has just announced its roster and plans for its 8th iteration. Now, at this point most of you should be pretty familiar with this event as we tend to cover it every year (except for 2024, when it was cancelled due to low snow). In case you’ve somehow missed the memo though, the event is pretty straightforward: a selection of skiers and snowboards from across the freestyle/freeride spectrum gather at the top of Jackson’s famous Corbet’s Couloir and proceed to chuck themselves off of it. And when we say chuck, we truly mean it. While most of us mortals would be happy to nervously roll into it, tips down style, these athletes have the audacity to build a jump at the top, allowing them to huck massive airs and double flips off the ridge. If you’ve never seen it, hit play on the accompanying video - you’ll quickly see why we get so fired up about this event.
Coming to us in its 8th year, we don’t expect much to change in regards to the format. Like other years, we suspect athletes will build 1-2 lips on top of the couloir, while the mountain builds a park style booter at the bottom. Between the two hits, there will likely be a handful of additional jumps and natural features for athletes to play on. Also like other years, the event will be peer-judged, meaning that instead of having a panel with a rubric based grading system, the King and Queen of Corbet’s will be chosen by the riders themselves. Speaking of which, that’s where we expect this year’s event to differ from year’s past.
This year, the athlete roster for Kings and Queens feels like a bit of a passing of the torch. On the men’s ski side of the event, reigning champion Tim McChesney will not be in attendance, paving the way for a new winner in the category. On the women’s side, while last year’s champion Ana Eyssimont will be back on the roster, two time people’s choice winner Veronica Paulsen has opted to sit this year out, and will instead be partaking in the event as a commentator. For those of you finding that name to be familiar but unable to place it, Paulsen is the athlete who has attempted double backflips into the couloir multiple years in a row, and despite coming incredibly close, never quite put one to her feet. Despite never stomping, Paulsen has certainly contributed to the event’s appeal in a major way.
As for the athletes that will be there, the lineup on both sides is incredibly exciting, featuring a solid mix of returning athletes and first timers. On the men’s side, we’ll see the return of Alex Hackel and Tristen Lilly - two competitors whose entrances last year had our minds completely boggled. For newcomers, we’ll see rapidly rising star and Freeride World Tour rookie Kelly Hilleke take on the course for the first time, alongside fellow freestyle freeriders Kendall Goodman, Toby Rafford, and several others. On the women’s side of the event, 2022’s ski Queen Piper Kunst is set to return, as well as last year’s aforementioned champion, Ana Eyssimont. Joining them however are newcomers Wynter McBride, who will be competing on this year’s Freeride World Tour, and Valerie Festavan, who has competed in all aspects of the sport, from freeride, to ski racing, and even rail jams.
All in all, it’s looking to be another exciting year for the event, which is scheduled to occur sometime between 2/7-2/14 depending on the weather. To learn more about this year's roster, format, and prize money, check out the official event page on the Jackson Hole website.
#4.5: Diggins Finishes 2nd in Final Stage of Tour de Ski, Giving Her Her Third Tour De Ski Victory:
Finally, rounding things out this week, we want to very quickly give a shout out to U.S. Ski Team XC athlete Jessie Diggins, who just won her third ever Tour de Ski Event. If you read along with us last week, you know that she was on the cusp of winning the biggest multi-stage contest on the World Cup calendar, and just needed one solid result in the last stage to secure the victory. A week later, we’re pleased to report that Diggins has done just that, having finished in second place and just 8.8 seconds back from Norway’s Karoline Simpson-Larsen in the final race of the event: a 10km Mass Start Free event. As a result of that time Diggins finished the 5 stage event a full 2:17.7 ahead of second place. In doing so, she earned her third, and likely final, Tour de Ski event. You can learn more about her most recent accomplishment here.
#5: And Now, Your Edits of the Week: You’ve Never Seen a Ski Segment Quite Like This: Watch This Footage from Armada’s “Ornada” Premier, Scored by a Live Band:
Candide. That’s All You Need to Know:
Watch Noah Gaffney Ski “The Fingers” at Palisades Tahoe, Top to Bottom, in 3 Minutes:
The Borat of Skiing is Back: Check Out Hotdog Hans 6:
*** Warning: Edit Contains Some Language and Inappropriate Concepts. It’s Pretty Entertaining Though. ***