Top Five Fridays: September 11, 2026
A skier enjoys some of the frothy goodness that Smuggler’s Notch, Vermont is known for. Find out why they’re in the news this week in highlight #3! Image: Smugglers Notch Resort on Facebook.
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the September 11, 2026 edition! This time around, ski news has brought us some heavy pre-season vibes, as our recap starts in a way that’s familiar to our mid-winter rhythm: with coverage from the world of FIS. That’s going to be a meaty one as we discuss details of some big changes that are being explored, but don’t worry, from there things become much more digestible. Following that highlight, we’ll move onto a multipass double header, with updates coming to us from both Alterra and the Indy Pass. Finally, rounding things out this week, we have some pretty devastating news to share from Chile, where one ski area’s fantastic season has gone up in flames. Of course we’d hate to send you off into the weekend feeling down, so we’ll be sure to share some top edits (or in this case, ski movie trailers) from the week before calling it a day. Sound good? Then let’s get started!
#1: At a Council Meeting This Week, FIS Mulled Some Massive Decisions. Can You Say "Annual World Championships"?:
Ever wonder where some of the biggest decisions in skiing go down? Turns out, it’s just your run of the mill, a U-Shaped conference table. Image shot by Alexandra Blum for Action Press. Sourced via the FIS Official Website
As we slowly creep further and further into September, we begin to exit those long, hot summer days and enter shorter, cooler ones. Along with those cold autumn mornings, we begin to see subtle reminders that fall is fast approaching and winter won’t be far behind. If you’re in a part of the world where the leaves haven’t started to change quite yet, don’t worry, we assure you it’s starting to happen where we are. If that reassurance isn’t enough, perhaps consider this: the first FIS Alpine World Cup race of the year is just 6 weeks away, scheduled to take place as always in Sölden, Austria.
With preseason excitement beginning to grow, we thought it would be appropriate to kick things off this week with coverage from FIS itself, where a 2 day council meeting was held this week in Thun, Switzerland. Now, to be sure, most of these 2 day meetings come and go without much attention as the discussion is more day-to-day than big picture. This week’s meeting felt different though, as multiple bigger picture ideas were discussed, including topics like more frequent World Championships, a long-term competition calendar, and new wildcard athlete rules. To be clear, the conversations that were had in this meeting were very exploratory and nothing discussed here is final. That said, in each case, the groundwork was laid for council members to take the next step in exploring the concepts. Let’s take a closer look at each one.
First up in our coverage of this exploratory meeting is the discussion surrounding the possibility of expanding the World Championships. As it stands, all FIS disciplines feature a World Championship event every other year, in odd years. This coming season for instance, will feature the 2027 World Championships, with the next iteration occurring in 2029. This week however, it was proposed that the World Championships be held more frequently, moving from every odd year to every odd year plus every non-Olympic even year. Put into practice, that would mean that if this rotation were effective immediately, 2027, 2028, and 2029 would be World Championship years, with 2030 being an Olympic year. The cycle would then start over again in 2031.
At the moment this idea is still very young, and requires a ton of careful consideration as there are many pros and potential cons to weigh. On the “pros” side of things, more regular World Championships would give FIS sports an annual opportunity to showcase a “big event” that would ideally stretch further into mainstream audiences. The goal of that of course would be all of the things that come from greater visibility: ad revenue, broadcasting revenue for the FIS and national teams, more exposure for athletes which would lead to bigger brand deals - the list goes on. While that side of the conversation feels like a no-brainer, the FIS is being wise in their approach as there are a number of other considerations to make. For instance, does the somewhat rarity of the World Championship event actually make it more intriguing? That is, if it was held every year, would it lose its luster? Additionally, what would the added effort mean for the resources of national teams? While major players likely wouldn’t have an issue supporting their athletes, smaller nations might have a harder time supporting theirs on what would essentially be an annual basis. Furthermore, what would that do to the regular event calendars? Adding an annual championship would inevitably shorten the number of events within a regular season - a calendar year is finite after all.
Speaking of calendars, that was arguably the second largest topic of discussion over the two day period. In this meeting, the idea of restrategizing the way the annual calendar for each discipline is created was discussed. As it stands, each spring the FIS releases a preliminary calendar for each discipline, and sometime in late Summer it’s approved and unveiled. Typically the approved calendar varies only slightly from the preliminary one, and by and large the preliminary calendar is similar to the year prior, with only slight modifications. It’s a system that’s worked well enough, but also one that’s somehow both inconsistent enough to lean on long-term planning, and so consistent that most years feel similar to the one prior. To fix these woes, the FIS has begun discussing the potential for creating a, you guessed it, “long-term calendar.”
Now, details of what this calendar is exactly remain vague as the council has only just begun to explore it. That said, the obvious key element of this restrategization would be planning FIS events years in advance. Rather than planning and releasing one year at a time, this new methodology would call for at least a 2, if not 3 year calendar to be created. In addition to that, one of the other elements of this plan would be more regional clustering. At face value, this would simply mean coordinating the schedule so that athletes compete in a region for longer periods of time before moving on. While details of this haven’t been fleshed out yet, we take this to mean that the calendar could do something like a “North America Month”, where say the month of January is exclusive to North America. Should this come to fruition, it’ll be interesting to see how the multi-year element plays into things. For instance, if 2027 is heavily European and Eurasian, would 2028 be skewed more heavily towards North America and Asia? We truly don’t know, but at this exploratory moment, it’s an interesting thought. One of the elements that makes this so challenging is the tension between the legacy FIS powerhouses, the FIS’s desire to explore new markets, and the revenue generated by host nations. As you can tell, this one gets pretty tricky pretty fast, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Finally, the third discussion that was had at this meeting that caught our attention was the idea that the FIS might expand their wildcard policy. As you might recall, this policy first came about over the summer of 2024 as a result of Marcel Hirscher announcing his intentions to un-retire from ski racing. At the time of his announcement, there was no “pre-qualification” process that would allow one of the best skiers of all time to immediately return to racing. Instead, he would have to go through the qualification process again and earn his way back to the tour. As a result of his announcement, the FIS quickly implemented a wildcard rule that allowed those with legendary qualifications to instantly return. That wildcard rule was then taken advantage of by Lindsey Vonn last season, who immediately proved its value with her remarkable season.
This week, the FIS discussed the possibility of expanding that concept beyond alpine skiing and into the rest of its disciplines. The idea of course would be to formalize criteria that would allow legends from each discipline to return to the sport. At the moment, it also opens the door to the possibility of streamlining other athletes who could compete, but may not have the FIS points required to. A great example of this would be Kai Jones, who competed in last year’s Freeride World Championships despite not having any FIS Freeride World Tour competition history. In that event, he took third, proving his ability to compete despite not having FIS points in the bank.
At the moment, all of these topics are sky’s-the-limit, broadstroke type ideas that are in their very initial stages of conception. As a result of this week’s meeting, each one was deemed worthy of further exploration, meaning that while none of them are sure bets, all of them stand a real shot of being executed on in the coming years. When and if any of that happens, we’ll be sure to let you know. For now, check in with coverage from SkiRacing.com, or the FIS’s own press release.
#2: The Indy Pass Delivered: 35 New Destinations Were Added This Week, Highlighted by Smuggler’s Notch. Passes Are Back on Sale:
Ok, after that massive whammy of a highlight, let’s tap the brakes a bit and get into some simpler topics. First up on that list is a follow up to our bonus highlight last week, where we shared that the Indy Pass was set to go back on sale at the start of this week, coinciding with the announcement of new resorts being added to the pass. Now that that information is public, here’s what we’ve learned this week.
First, the highlight of the expanded Indy Pass roster is undoubtedly the addition of our (literal) neighbors, Smugglers’ Notch. As you might recall, Smugglers’ Notch was purchased last Spring by a small, regional multi ski area operator known as Bear Den Partners. This group also owns Burke Mountain in Northern Vermont, as well as Berkshire East in Massachusetts and Catamount in New York. One of the hallmarks of this ownership group is that they pride themselves in their community-first approach to ski area ownership. That ethos is reflected in their official announcement, where Bear Den CEO John Schaefer writes, “We want someone from Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, or somewhere else who has always wondered about Smuggs to come visit. We want them to stay overnight in mountain lodging, eat in the village and around Jeffersonville, bring their families, and maybe fall in love with the place. A rising tide lifts all boats. And yes, we want the additional revenue those visits can generate when the mountain has room for them.”
In other words, for Smuggs, this move isn’t meant to be a partnership that brings hoards of people and business to the mountain, but rather one aimed at bringing a modest increase in traffic that they hope will economically benefit the entire community. In addition to that quote, there are plenty of other Smuggs-centric pieces of information regarding both this partnership and Schaefer’s vision for the resort. Iif you’re a Smuggs local, we recommend giving the press release a read.
As for the Indy Pass itself, the popular multi-pass product added a total of 28 alpine destinations and 7 XC destinations to its roster this week. While most of these additions are small to mid-size resorts, the geographic variety of the ski areas is impressive. Looking at the list of 28 alpine resorts, nearly one third (9) are in Europe, three are in Japan, two are in Canada, and two are in Alaska - which kind of is Canada, geographically speaking. For those with your calculators out, that means that yes, there are 12 new ski areas in the continental United States. And as for the award for “New Indy Pass Partner with the Coolest Name?” Well, that indisputably goes to Snow Resort The Cupid Of Romance, in Japan.
Of course what good is all of this news if you can’t buy a pass? Well, while the Indy Pass is known to sell out quickly, we can confirm that all tiers of the pass are currently available. We’ll leave the pass product research to you, but for what it’s worth, the Indy Base Pass, which includes 2 days at each of their 300+ resorts, starts at $419. To learn more, head on over to IndySkiPass.com.
#3: Alterra Announces New Ikon Partners in Asia, as Well as a $350 Million Infrastructure Investment:
Is it just us, or does this view from China’s Beidahu Ski Resort look eerily similar to skiing in the northeast? Image: Beidahu Ski Resort on Facebook
Next up in ski pass news this week are a couple of big announcements from one of the other giants in the game: Alterra. This week, the company announced two major moves: further expansion into Asia, and a massive financial investment into their resorts. Let’s start in Asia.
Just yesterday, Alterra announced that Madarao Mountain Resort in Japan, as well as Beidahu Ski Resort and Lake Songhua Resort in China have become Ikon Pass partners. In doing so, Alterra has elevated their Asian offering to 14 destinations, with 10 in Japan, 3 in China, and 1 in South Korea. Connecting this topic to this week’s Indy Pass news, it’s interesting to note that that pass includes access to 28 ski areas in Japan, meaning that if you were to own both an Ikon and and Indy Pass, you’d have access to a combined 38 Japanese ski areas, or 76 days of skiing. While this is only tangentially relevant to this week’s news, our research for this topic uncovered a fact that we think our audience will appreciate: Japan is home to approximately 450-500 ski areas (which is down from about 700 at its peak). For comparison’s sake, the United States has roughly 475 currently. Maybe it’s just us, but we had no idea Japan, which is approximately 1/26th the size of the U.S. and is latitudinally equivalent to the entire East Coast, has just as many ski areas as the United States. A simple, yet surprising statistic.
In other Alterra news, the company also announced a massive $350 million investment into infrastructure across its suite of resorts. Amongst the biggest announcements from this new spending package are two projects that we’re already aware of. First, is the expansion of Mont Tremblant, which we covered from the resort’s perspective last week. This week, we learn just a little more about the project from Alterra’s perspective: the project is expected to cost approximately $42.5 million CAD. The second highlight piece of this announcement is the inclusion of Deer Valley’s continued expansion. While a majority of the resort’s new terrain was opened last year, this week’s press release reminds us that there’s more to come this season in the form of the new Hail Peak Express which accesses an additional 200 acres.
Ultimately, the meat of this week’s newly announced spending spree comes in the form of infrastructure across several ski areas. In the worlds of snowmaking and avalanche mitigation, projects are being planned for Palisades Tahoe, Mammoth Mountain, June Mountain, Solitude, Deer Valley, and Winter Park. While there are too many individual projects to cover here on Top 5, we would argue that the highlight is the significant expansion into avalanche mitigation equipment. At Palisades Tahoe, Alterra is planning to spend about $3.2 million on six Gazex and Gazflex exploders, five Wyssen avalanche towers, and a CATEX cable system in The Funnel at Palisades. At Mammoth and June Mountains, Alterra is installing a combined 16 Remote Avalanche Control Systems. Sticking with the comparative mindset that we seem to be in this week, it’s interesting to compare this investment to European ski areas, where avalanche mitigation hardly exists at all. Those of you who have skied in Europe know, as soon as you leave a groomed run, even in the middle of the resort, you’re in uncontrolled terrain. Here in America, it’s very different, and massive infrastructure projects like this are the reason why worry-free skiing of ungroomed terrain within resort boundaries is a hallmark of the North American ski experience.
All in all, while it would be easy to say that none of this week’s announcements from Alterra are particularly game changing, the summation of each highlight is the ultimate story here: as a business, Alterra is currently thriving. To learn more about the Ikon Pass’s expansion into Japan and China, click here. To learn more about Alterra’s massive investments, click here.
#4: A Fire Broke Out Last Week at Nevados de Chillán. While a Hotel is Lost, There Are Thankfully No Injuries to Report:
Finally, rounding things out this week we have the unfortunate task of sharing some catastrophic news from way down south. There, a ski resort called Nevados de Chillán, which is located about 100 miles east of Concepción and 350 miles south of Valle Nevado, suffered a major fire this week. The incident began at about 5 PM local time on Sunday, when reports of a fire on the top floor of the resort’s primary hotel, Hotel Alto Nevados, first came in. Fortunately, hotel staff reacted quickly, enacting emergency protocols which resulted in everyone safely evacuating the building. That’s the massive silver lining here: there were no injuries or deaths as the result of this conflagration.
The bad news though, is that the fire proved to be incredibly destructive. Initially, the hotel reported that the fire was being managed and there was no additional risk to other structures. Unfortunately, that proved inaccurate as a notorious regional weather phenomenon known as “puelche winds” were in effect, exacerbating the blaze. In short, this weather event is a weather pattern in which warm, dry winds blow in from the eastern slope of the Andes mountains and into the Chilean valley. While this weather event is typically limited to bringing the same amount of annoyance that any gusty conditions would bring, in this case the warm, dry winds that blew up to 55 miles per hour not only fanned the flames of the fire, but also caused it to leap to other nearby structures. Ultimately, by the early hours of Monday morning, the Hotel Alto Nevados was said to be a total loss, while the ski area’s ski school, cafeteria, and equipment rental buildings were also affected by the fire.
Again, we want to reiterate that nobody was hurt in this incident. That said, that doesn’t mean everyone went unscathed. As you might guess, with a situation like this, there wasn’t time for hotel guests to pack up and leave. As a result, countless traveling guests were suddenly left with nothing more than the clothes on their back. Amongst those staying at the hotel were 30 members of the FIS Masters circuit, who were in town to compete in the season opening event scheduled for this weekend. Unfortunately, not only did Nevados de Chillán cancel those races, but these 30 Masters racers also lost an incredible amount of equipment.
As for the resort itself, operations were suspended throughout Monday as staff got a read on the situation. Since then, the resort has slowly begun reopening what it can, including portions of its ski operations. At present, the resort’s website is reporting that skiing terrain is nearly fully open again. Ultimately, there’s no bigger story or takeaway to share with this one. Sometimes, things just happen. In this case, we’re extremely grateful that the staff at the Hotel Alto Nevados reacted quickly enough to prevent anyone from getting hurt. To learn more about this, check out the report from SnowSportsNew.com, or visit the Nevados de Chillán website to read their latest announcements.