Top Five Fridays: May 2, 2025
Meet the Aspen Divas, Aspen's very own all women's synchronized ski team. More on them below! Image: Aspen Snowmass on Facebook
#1: POWDR Decides to Retain Mt. Bachelor Indefinitely, Announces Crucial Infrastructure Upgrades:
At Mt. Bachelor, the mountain’s future is no longer in question as POWDR has announced that they’ll not only be holding onto their ownership of the ski area, but also investing heavily into its future. Image: Mt. Bachelor on Facebook
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the May 2, 2025 edition! This time around, we happen to have a pretty fun highlight reel to share with you as we take a break from some of the denser industry topics we cover. Instead, this week brings us a trio of athlete-centric highlights. We’ll get to those in just a moment, but before we do, there is one ongoing story that we need to talk about: the latest updates from Mt. Bachelor, who’s been dealing with ownership uncertainty all season. That is, until now.
For those of you who’ve somehow managed to dodge this story all year, here’s the ultra fast recap: back in August when it was announced that POWDR Corp had sold Killington to local investors, it was also announced that POWDR had plans to sell a few of their other resorts, including Mt. Bachelor. Following that announcement, Mt. Bachelor locals immediately organized in an effort to buy the mountain, much like the local investors in Killington had. Fast forward to March 14th, when we last covered this story, and that local effort had taken a substantial hit as it was announced that they were unable to submit their formal bid ahead of POWDR’s deadline. Since then, there have been two significant updates in this story.
The first update is the big one: about a month ago, in the beginning of April, it was announced that POWDR had had a change of heart and no longer plans to sell Mt. Bachelor at all. While we don’t know the exact reason for the change of plans, we do know that POWDR plans to retain ownership of the ski area “indefinitely.” As a result of solidifying the ownership plan moving forward, there’s also been a second update in this story: POWDR has announced plans for two significant upgrades for the resort that will put it in position to further modernize its infrastructure.
While it’s not a particularly exciting upgrade, the more important of the two is the plan to upgrade the resort’s power supply. Specifically, POWDR plans to install approximately 12 miles of power lines, upgrading the decades-old supply from a 5 megawatt system to 10 megawatts. Additionally, an auxiliary line will also be implemented to act as a backup should the main line go down. Noting that power lines don’t come with the same level of excitement as new lifts or terrain expansions, it still remains a crucial update for the mountain. Once the project is complete after the summer of 2026, not only will Mt. Bachelor be able to run their current lifts without interruption due to lack of sufficient power, but it will also open the possibility of upgrading current lifts or adding new lifts to the resort. In other words, this is a foundational development that will enable the resort to continue growing into the future.
The other planned upgrade for the ski area is a new biomass facility that will allow the resort to burn forest debris, turning it into heat and hot water, thereby reducing its reliance on propane. Again, not a terribly exciting update, but an important one for the resort.
As for the future of local ownership? Well, that pursuit is dead, “indefinitely.” Of course that doesn’t mean that it will never happen, and in some ways this is actually a positive development for the group. Afterall, had POWDR sold Mt. Bachelor to a corporate owner, the odds of locals ever buying it back would be infinitesimally small. Now, there remains a chance that one day POWDR will once again choose to sell the resort, and if that were to happen, the locals would have some pre-existing momentum. For now though, that dream’s on the back burner. Until then, catch up on the latest with this story by checking in with Oregon Live.
#2: Ski Mountaineer Mali Noyes Absolutely Smashes Chuting Gallery Speedrun Record:
Hopefully we’ll see more official edits from Mali’s Chuting Gallery missions, but for now this 10 minute cut serves as a great introduction to the athlete.
Alright, now that we’ve got the newsy-news out of the way, let’s have some fun! From here on out this week, we’ll be sharing stories highlighting athletes with unique and highly impressive endeavors. First up on that list? Nordic skier turned badass ski mountaineer, Mali Noyes.
Earlier this week, on April 27th, Mali became the first person to ever ski every line in The Chuting Gallery in less than a year. Not only that, but she did it in just 47 days. For those of us who aren’t Salt Lake locals, allow us to provide some context here: in 1998, skier Andrew McLean published a book called, “The Chuting Gallery: A Guide to Steep Skiing in the Wasatch Mountains.” In it, he breaks down approximately 93 lines in the mountains surrounding Salt Lake that require a varying level of expertise to conquer. While McLean’s intention wasn’t to challenge people to ski every line, Noyes decided to do not only that, but to ski every line in the book in as short a time as she could.
On March 12, Noyes clocked out of a nursing shift and just hours later found herself on her first mission. From there, Noyes proceeded to knock off lines from the book in rapid succession, oftentimes completing multiple descents in a single outing. Spurred on and at times accompanied by her mentor and teammate, Cody Townsend, Noyes methodically worked her way through the 93 lines described in the book, carefully assessing avalanche conditions, rope rappelling into chutes, and crossing rivers along the way. When all was said and done, it took Noyes a total of just 47 days to complete the mission she set out on, absolutely smashing any previously set records. While it’s unclear as to whether or not any other athletes have tried to speedrun the feat, we do know that the author of the book himself took about five years to complete all of the lines, while ski guide Noah Howell did it in 13. In other words, while we may not know what the previous record was (as we’re not sure anyone ever tried to ski the Gallery as quickly as possible), we certainly know what it is now: 47 days.
All in all, this story boils down to a simply amazing accomplishment from an incredibly talented athlete. To learn more about Noyes’s accomplishment, check out the writeups from Ski Mag and Powder.
#3: Synchronized Swimming? Synchronized Skiing? Meet the Aspen Divas:
Just a taste of what synchronized skiing looks like in action, courtesy of the 2011 Austrian Alpine Skiing Demo Team.
Next up in our “interesting profiles” edition of Top Five Fridays, we bring you the story of the Aspen Divas: Aspen’s all women synchronized ski team. As you know, here on TFF we love talking about all aspects of our sport, from ski racing to ski jumping, freeride to freeskiing. One discipline we’ve never discussed though, is the growing niche sport of synchronized skiing. The sport is, as you could probably guess, is a lot like synchronized swimming, where a team of athletes are all tasked with completing a routine in a highly choreographed manner. This week, after years of neglecting the sport, we’ve decided to share its story with our audience. After all, there’s been some chatter about bringing it to the Winter Olympics, and the Colorado Sun has just published an excellent highlight of the Aspen Divas.
As per usual with any Colorado Sun piece, this story gives us a ton of information to consider. Headlining that list for us, is the fact that this relatively new sport is tightly linked to ski instructing culture. Here in the U.S., that means most synchro skiers are Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) certified, and often work as instructors at the mountain they compete for. Building on this connection is the fact that the current “high levels” of the sport are all deeply ingrained within instructor culture. Case in point: the premier event for synchronized skiing has long been the demonstration at the Interski Congress, a gathering of global ski instructors that takes place every four years. At this event, each nation brings its top ski instructors to put on a range of demonstrations for the other nations. One of those demonstrations is the synchronized ski event.
The other aspect of this story that’s highly interesting, and one that might be specific to the Aspen Divas, is just how discombobulated and passion driven the sport is. Keeping in mind that this is a sport driven by ski instructors, it’s worth noting that athletes are doing this in their free time after spending most of their weeks working. It’s also worth noting, that at least in Aspen, its ties to instructing means there’s a significant amount of international skiers on the team. Specifically, on this year's team, there were two Americans, four Argentinians, one New Zealander, one German, and one Spaniard. Of the nine athletes, roughly half are here on J-1 visas, meaning there’s uncertainty each year surrounding whether or not they’ll be able to return the following year. That factor, mixed in with a high rate of turnover and annual tryouts, make every season feel like a bit of a restart for the Divas who spend considerable time perfecting their highly calculated routines. Still, for those on the team, it’s worth it as the sport encourages them to push their technical skills while also creating an incredible bonding experience amongst the team. For them, it’s the passion that makes it worth it.
For us, we just find the whole genre of skiing quite interesting. The culture, the athleticism, the precision - all of these are things that we can relate to enough in our own world of skiing that when you watch a synchronized ski run, it’s easy to see the incredible abilities of these athletes. Unfortunately, there isn’t a ton of synchro ski content out there yet, but you can get a better idea of this sport by watching some videos on YouTube or checking out the Aspen Divas on Instagram. From there, we recommend giving the full writeup on Colorado Sun a read to deepen your appreciation.
#4: Remember the Name: Griff Pinto is a 13 Year Old Backcountry Skier Logging Over 500k Feet of Vert Every Year:
Finally, our last profile this week also comes to us by way of the Colorado Sun, and is also incredibly impressive. This time, we’re sharing the story of 13 year old Griff Pinto, a Silverton local who’s downright addicted to backcountry skiing. According to the Colorado Sun, his story goes like this: Griffen was just 8 years old when the pandemic hit. When it did, he made the call to dive head first into backcountry skiing. The following winter, when he was 9, Griff asked his parents if he could be homeschooled so he could ski more. While saying, “yes,” to a 9 year old who essentially just asked if he could drop out of school to ski more might sound insane, that’s exactly what Griff’s parents did.
As it turns out, this story is just as much about Griffen’s parents and mentors as it is about him. After saying yes to his request, his parents Cliff and Kim put together a structured plan to ensure that this homeschooling venture would remain educational. Since then, Griff has woken up at 6 AM, six days a week, to complete 45 minutes of exercise and balance training before taking to the mountains. That effort has paid off in a tremendous way as Griff is now the one setting the pace up the numerous ascents to be found in the San Juan mountains surrounding Silverton.
Of course just because Griff is a kid, it doesn’t mean the risks he’s taking in the mountains are any less significant. No one knows this better than his dad, who is a volunteer with the Silverton Medical Rescue Team. As such, a significant amount of his education is related to avalanche awareness and safety in the mountains. In addition to learning those lessons from his parents, numerous other members of the Silverton community are contributing to Griff’s mountain education. Local legend John Shocklee, who works as a professional ski and river guide, is one. Legendary skier & ski photographer Sven Brunso is another. The list continues but the point is the same: Griffen is getting a world class education in backcountry skiing.
And the results are showing. When we came across this story, one of the first things we did was check out Griffen’s Instagram account, where he’s amassed 5.3k followers. If you were to stumble across one of his POV videos without context, you likely wouldn’t realize you’re watching a 13 year old. Griff is out there skiing adult size lines, and taking them on with confidence and speed. While we don’t know what the future holds for this young athlete, we do know that he’s currently crushing life and his story is sure to be a fun one to follow. For more on this, check out the writeup from the Colorado Sun and give his Instagram page a visit.
#4.5: Bonus Headlines That Didn’t Quite Make the Cut:
The FIS Has Just Announced the Initial Rosters for Next Year’s First Ever Freeride World Championship
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJJ58Saz-zm/?img_index=1
Source: https://www.freerideworldtour.com/fis-freeride-world-championships/
The Government Wants to Decrease the Availability of J-1 Visas, Worrying Ski Resorts
Early Numbers Showing a Slight Decrease in Skier Traffic in Colorado
Source: https://www.vaildaily.com/news/colorado-snow-economy-lackluster-season/