Already the biggest ski resort in Quebec, Mont Tremblant made headlines this week when the announced definitive plans to add 1 chairlift, 8 trails, and 62 acres of skiable terrain. More on that in highlight #3! Image: Mont Tremblant on Facebook.

Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the September 4, 2026 edition! This week, we’ve got a little bit of everything, from unwanted updates to public television in the UK, an antitrust lawsuit in Italy that parallels the instances we’ve been seeing here in North America, and expansion updates from two major ski areas in the Northeast. Oh, and did we mention that it snowed for the first time this season in North America? Well, it did, which means winter is just around the corner! Find out what you need to know there, as well as plenty of other fun facts, in this week’s installment of Top Five Fridays! Let’s dig in.

#1: It’s Official: The First Signs of Snow Have Arrived in North America:

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Kicking things off this week, the biggest news in skiing this time around is decidedly simple: North America has officially had its first taste of winter. Starting on Sunday of this week, we began catching reports of snowfall at a handful of mountain peaks in the upper northwest. Here in the U.S. the first signs of winter appeared at Crystal Mountain, Washington, where snow capped their highest elevations. According to their Instagram post, the iconic King peak received most of the dusting, while surrounding high peaks also turned white.

From there, just a day later and just a little bit North, several ski areas in British Columbia also received a dusting of snow. As you might guess, snowfall at this time of year is hyper-regional, with this occurrence affecting very specifically the high peaks area where the Canadian Rockies meld into the Purcell Mountain range. In this region, the furthest resort south to receive a dusting was Panorama, which sits on the eastern edge of the Purcells. Just to their north, Kicking Horse Mountain, which also sits on the frontier of the Purcells, also received a dusting at upper elevations. Finally, heading roughly 50 miles east of Kicking Horse and into the Canadian Rockies, both Lake Louise and Banff Sunshine Village also received their first dustings of the year. Interestingly enough, Banff Sunshine completed its season not so long ago, having reopened with a special summer session that ran until July 5th this year. While there is no official award for “least time between snow”, if there was, it would have to go to them this year, as it’s been under 2 months between their closing day and the first snowfall of the year.

And that’s really all there is to say here, just a quick, easy highlight to kick things off this week! While none of these resorts received a skiable amount of snow, it does feel appropriate that the first signs of the white stuff came during the first week of September. From here, it’s simply a matter of time.

#2: The Recent Conclusion of the Dolomiti Superski Antitrust Investigation May Hint at Possible Outcomes for the North American Version of the Story:

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Ok, after that nice and easy initial highlight, we’re going to jump into a story that’s just a little bit denser: in Italy, Dolomiti Superski has just been found guilty of violating antitrust laws, and has agreed to reimburse guests the equivalent of $35 million.

Now, just to be fully transparent, this particular story didn’t break this week - it’s actually about a month old at this point. That said, we just came across it this week and it feels particularly relevant to share in light of the mounting antitrust lawsuits happening here in America.

In order to fully understand this story, you have to first understand just what exactly Dolomiti Superski is. Located in the Italian Alps, Dolomiti Superski isn’t one specific ski area, but rather 12 individual ski areas nestled together in the Dolomite mountains. Amongst these ski areas are some very recognizable FIS venues, such as: Val Gardena, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Kronplatz, and Alta Badia - as well as others. In other words, Dolomiti Superski isn’t just a conglomeration of small ski areas. Rather, it’s the largest combined ski network in the world, consisting of major ski areas, and giving guests access to a combined 450 chairlifts, roughly 750 miles of trails, covering roughly 1,500 square miles of land.

For the purposes of this story, it helps to think of Dolomiti as the same type of operation as the Ikon or Epic Pass, only every resort is packed into a geographically smaller area. Like these passes, Dolomiti Superski sells an overarching pass that provides access to the full suite of ski areas - not just one. Also like Ikon/Epic, guests are also able to buy individual lift tickets at each ski area. The only practical difference for the purpose of this story, is that all of the resorts are within a specific region.

With all of that in mind, an investigation was launched by the Italian Antitrust Authority back in July 2025. That investigation centered around claims that Superski had conspired with the 12 ski areas to raise prices, violating their own bylaws in doing so. Specifically, the investigation looked into whether Superski overstepped by working with each ski area to set their individual prices, as well as imposing limits on each ski area regarding the sale of their lift tickets via a third party supplier. While the issues may seem niche or even obvious business moves, the result was that Superski was effectively inhibiting free market practices in the region by enforcing pricing across the resorts and limiting their sales channels. Ultimately, the Antitrust Authority concluded that these tactics did violate the law, and Superski is being held accountable for their transgressions.

For Superski’s part, they appear to be taking the outcome in stride, saying they welcome the decision. As payment, the company has agreed to roughly $35 million in either refunds or discounts for any customer who was affected by the ticket pricing. For those looking for a credit on their accounts, Superski will be offering them 30% back on the money they spent there between 2022-2025. For those wanting a cash refund, Superski will be sending checks for 20% of what they spent.

For our purposes here on Top Five Fridays, we thought this was an interesting story to share as it pertains to the ongoing lawsuits here in America. While the two antitrust situations aren’t identical, there is plenty of overlap thematically. In particular, we found it interesting that Dolomiti Superski’s own bylaws were pulled into consideration. If you caught up with us last week, then you likely remember that the latest lawsuit filed here cites Vail’s violation of their own Code of Ethics. Keeping in mind that we’re discussing two entirely different legal systems, it’ll be interesting to see how similar the outcome of the case here in America is to the one in Italy.

To learn more about this story, check out a translated version from IlNordestQuotidiano.it, or the more succinct version from Reuters, here.

#3: Two Northeast Mountains Announce Expansion Plans, Satisfying Very Different Skier Types:

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In other news this week, we want to share a couple of quick highlights from here in Northeastern North America, where two resorts have just announced expansions.

Starting in nextdoor New Hampshire, Loon Mountain has just shared plans to make skiing off of Black Ridge official. A longtime favorite zone for expert locals, Black Ridge is an expansive zone located to the looker’s left of North Peak that features steep, natural terrain. This week, Loon has announced that, thanks to a new partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, they’ll begin the process of officially glading the area in early 2027, presumably with an official opening slated for the 27/28 season. When it does open, it will consist entirely of hike-to, gladed terrain only. There will be no additional chairlifts added and no clear cut trails. Instead, to access the zone, guests will have to take North Peak Express Quad, enter the area through a gate, and then take on a traverse that could be as long as 1.25 miles and involve some amount of hiking. For those of us in the East, this sounds like your typical sidecountry traverse. Notably, when the zone opens, Loon will have added 272 acres of gladed skiing - a significant boost from their current measure of 35 acres. Additionally, the size of the mountain will grow 67%, from 403 acres to 675 acres. While locals will likely lament the loss of their “private” sidecountry zone, it’s an exciting development for the mountain who can now officially market the expert level gladed terrain. For more on this, check out the press release from Loon.

Elsewhere in the Northeast this week, we also caught an update from Mont Tremblant, Quebec’s largest ski area. For those of you who’ve been to Mont Tremblant, you’re likely already familiar with its somewhat unique layout. On one side of the mountain is a vibrant base village, complete with all of the shops, condos, and restaurants you could ever need. On the backside of the resort, is a simple base lodge with plentiful parking. And then, there’s a third, somewhat awkward side zone, serviced by the Soleil Express. With just a few trails leading to this lift and no public base area at all, this portion of the mountain has long been underutilized. This week’s news however, might change that.

In an announcement made on Tuesday, Tremblant shared plans to add a second chairlift in the Soleil region, opening up a new zone called “Timber Summit”. This new peak will be accessed by a quad chair, bringing skiers to 8 new runs - most of which will be beginner and intermediate terrain. At the base area, the resort will also add a 1.1 acre beginner ski area, giving new skiers a portion of the mountain to call their own while simultaneously giving purpose to the Soleil base area. Finally, putting the icing on the cake, is the fact that this base area is the future home of a Club Med resort, which is set to open in 2028. All said and done, while Loon’s expansion news focuses on giving more to experts, Tremblant’s expansion is the opposite, giving more terrain to new and casual skiers. To learn more about this, check out the press release from Mont Tremblant.

#4: The End of an Era: The BBC’s Iconic Ski Sunday Series Has Come to an End Under Alex Kay-Jelski’s Increasingly Tumultuous Leadership:

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Rounding things out this week is a bit of a sad news story for our friends over in the UK who’ve grown accustomed to watching Ski Sunday throughout the winter. This week, it was announced that the iconic tv program will not be continuing this season after a successful 50 year run. It goes without saying that fans across the world have been expressing their disappointment all week.

Initially appearing as part of the BBC’s Sunday Grandstand program in 1978, Ski Sunday primarily focused on competitive alpine race coverage for the first 30 or so years. Then in 2008, Grandstand went off the air, giving Ski Sunday space to become a program entirely on its own. In the subsequent 20 years, the show ranged in length from 30-60 minutes, but always appeared in the early evening hours on Sundays. Much like the fluctuation in length, the contents of the program also continued to evolve over the last 20 years as the sports of skiing and snowboarding also grew in breadth. What was once a program focused on competitive alpine coverage ultimately became much broader, with segments touching on all aspects of the sports.

Unfortunately though, all of that has come to an end as it was announced this week that the program has been discontinued. According to the BBC, “Changing audience behaviours and the tough financial decisions needed to meet savings requirements mean BBC Sport must continually review how it delivers value for licence-fee payers and serves audiences across all platforms.” In other words, leadership at the BBC essentially decided that the program wasn’t being watched enough to justify spending public funding to continue producing it.

Interestingly enough, the cancellation of Ski Sunday continues a trend of BBC’s current leadership angering sports fans in general. Earlier this year, the BBC’s head of sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, rustled the feathers of many sports fans by sharing his position that the network doesn’t need to broadcast live games in order to stay relevant. Instead, he suggested that simply showing replays would be enough to stay in the game. Additionally, during the World Cup, Kay-Jelski didn’t send his expert soccer panel to the U.S. for coverage until the semi-finals round. Escalating that tension even further, reports came out just last month that the staff of popular football program “Match of the Day” had serious concerns about his leadership. In other words, while this week’s story is ski specific as it’s the cancellation of coverage in the UK, it’s also a story that affects the much larger world of sports fandom on the island. To learn more, check out coverage from The Guardian.

#4.5: Indy Pass Set to Add More Resorts Next Tuesday, Passes to Go Back on Sale:

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Before wrapping things up this week, we want to share a real quick half-highlight to give you an update regarding some information we shared last week. As you might recall, in our coverage of the new Snow Pass, we briefly mentioned that the Indy Pass wasn’t currently on sale. While that was true at the time, we learned this week that the Indy Pass will not only go back on sale next Tuesday, September 8th, but will also announce an additional 30 ski areas for the pass. We’ll likely circle back on this next week once the list of additional ski areas has been announced. Until then, we wanted to make sure to give you a heads up that passes will go on sale on Tuesday, just in case you’re interested! To learn more, check out the Indy Pass website.

#5: And Now, Your Edits of the Week: The NY or Die Crew is Back to Highlight More New York Shredding With the Trailer For, “More Than a City”:

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Who Did it Better, Max Hitzig in Valle Nevado…?

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… Or Hank Stowers in Las Leñas?

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Finally, Did You Know Alta Used to Allow Snowboarding? Learn That Fact and Much More From this Recent Panel Discussion:

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*Discussion regarding issues with snowboarding at Alta starts at about 15 minutes!

Written by Matt McGinnis on 09/04/26