A Beloved Ski Shop in Breckenridge Struggles to Overcome Bankruptcy When Chuck Ginsburg talks about how rewarding it is to completely rekindle someone’s love for skiing after adjusting their ski boots, or about supplying a young alpine racer with a World Cup-caliber ski setup, it’s easy to forget his ski shop is in jeopardy. A Racer’s Edge, one of the oldest and most respected businesses in Breckenridge, Colorado, filed for […] Industry News Shauna Farnell | July 10, 2026 0 Comments
Strict Fire Bans in Place in Colorado Mountains for Holiday Weekend As anyone in Colorado right now knows all too well, wildfires are rampant. Following the worst snow season on record, little rain and persistently windy, dry weather, every mountain community in the Colorado Rockies has issued a Stage 2 fire ban coming into the Fourth of July weekend. This means that absolutely no fireworks (not even sparklers), campfires, charcoal grills, […] Industry News Shauna Farnell | July 1, 2026 0 Comments
The Evolution of Alta Ski Area’s Powder Photography Alta Ski Area in Utah is the third-highest snowfall ski resort in the United States, with an annual snowfall of 540 inches. With Alta’s impressive powder precedents, it’s no surprise that it produces phenomenal powder photos. Inevitably, the process and products of the photography that takes place in Alta have evolved over the years. One of Alta’s most notorious powder […] Featured Article Breya Bergom | July 1, 2026 22 Comments
75 Miles to Montreal: From a Vermont Comet Hunt to a Canadian Skyline The boundary between northern Vermont and southern Quebec is a beautifully blurred line. Longtime residents recount local legends of the 1970s – before border regulations tightened – of wilderness enthusiasts dropped off deep in the Vermont mountains, simply to see if they could navigate their way back to Montreal. They frequently did, with ease. The geographic reality matches that rugged […] Featured Article Jacqui Davis | June 17, 2026 0 Comments
The Low-Snow Survival Guide: How to Find the Last Stashes of Snow This Spring Low snow backcountry skiing this spring means rethinking the usual objectives. The usual zones can look white from the highway and fall apart at the trailhead. In a year like this, habit gets expensive fast. Your favorite tour from two winters ago can still be thin, baked, and disconnected, even if the next drainage over is holding cold snow from […] Featured Article Clay Malott | April 13, 2026 0 Comments
Lessons I Learned in the Backcountry The following are some insights I’ve gained while backcountry skiing. After writing a conditions report on the Silver Couloir, Colorado, I was reminded of the first time I tried to ski it. I got horribly lost after dropping into the wrong line. The couloir we skied cliffed out with a 130-foot drop, and we ended up stranded on the mountain […] Featured Article Greg Obernesser | April 5, 2026 0 Comments
Mont-Sainte-Anne, QC, Set to Start the Resort’s Biggest Infrastructure Investment in Nearly 40 Years Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, is about to undergo the mountain’s biggest infrastructure investment in nearly 40 years. Once seen as the largest ski resort on Canada’s East Coast, Mont-Sainte-Anne has declined in prominence over the last 30 years due to competition and aging infrastructure. With the announcement of a CAD 100 million (USD 72.5 million) investment into on-mountain infrastructure, Mont-Sainte-Anne looks to […] Industry News Brett Currie | April 5, 2026 1 Comment
Spring Skiing With Deep Snow Pack and Great Conditions at Banff Sunshine, Mt. Norquay, and Lake Louise Ski Resort, AB Spring skiing is where Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise Ski Resort, and Mt. Norquay separate themselves from other resorts. The SkiBig3 resorts are located in Banff National Park, Alberta, where snow quality is consistently great season after season. The Canadian Rockies deliver what most skiers and snowboarders desire: reliable, dry, high-quality snow from early November through late spring. Related: SkiBig3’s Endless […] Industry News Gregg Frantz | April 4, 2026 0 Comments
Dodge Ridge, CA: Lock in Affordable 2026-27 Season Passes Before April 30 Dodge Ridge, California, just completed its 75th season, celebrating its family roots, quaint atmosphere, and heritage. Dodge Ridge, located in the Central Sierra Nevada mountains, is the Central Valley and Bay Area’s closest skiing. It has 1,600 vertical feet, more than 800 acres of terrain, and 11 lifts—a family resort with something for everyone. Dodge Ridge is also a member […] Industry News Dominic Gawel | April 3, 2026 0 Comments
Chasing the Second Season: Why Mammoth and June, CA, Peak in Spring There is a quality to California’s Eastern Sierra in spring that reads like a mythical tale to those of us out East. While we are used to the intimate, tightly packed forests of the North—and the frantic race for end-of-season turns on the last patches of slushy snow—the Sierra enters its ‘second season’ on an entirely different scale. As other […] Industry News Jacqui Davis | April 3, 2026 0 Comments
More Than Just a Sticker: How Mips Is Changing Helmet Safety in Skiing You may have noticed a small yellow sticker on Mikaela Shiffrin’s helmet that reads “Mips.” You may have also spotted the same sticker on your own helmet. But what does it actually mean? SnowBrains spoke with Mips CEO Max Strandwitz to better understand what the technology does and why it has become increasingly common across snow sports and beyond. Related: […] Featured Article Julia Schneemann | March 28, 2026 0 Comments
Go Deeper with Confidence: How to Plan Better Ski Tours In ski touring and life, knowledge is power. Cliché? Sure. But rooted in truth? Absolutely. As backcountry travelers, we constantly make informed decisions, one after another. Skin up the face, or boot the ridge? Stick to the trees, or head into the alpine? Making these choices not only affects whether we ride pow or crust, but can be the difference […] Gear Spencer Cox | March 27, 2026 0 Comments
Banff Sunshine, AB, Set to Host High-Energy Cold Steel Rail Jam After Fresh Powder Dump Spring might be on the calendar, but winter is still very much alive at Banff Sunshine, Alberta — and it’s setting the stage perfectly for one of the resort’s most exciting park events of the season. The resort is gearing up to host the Cold Steel Rail Jam presented by SMITH this Saturday, March 28, bringing a high-energy freestyle session […] Industry News SnowBrains | March 26, 2026 0 Comments
Sunski Hands Out 300 Pairs of Sunglasses to Ski Resort Staff at Pain McShlonkey Classic at Palisades Tahoe, CA Ski resort employees at Palisades Tahoe, California, got more than just sunshine during this year’s Pain McShlonkey Classic—they walked away with fresh shades and a whole lot of appreciation. California-based eyewear company Sunski showed up in force on March 21, handing out roughly 300 pairs of alpine sunglasses to on-mountain staff as part of the event’s festivities. Set up on the […] Featured Article SnowBrains | March 26, 2026 0 Comments
Bear Valley Mountain Resort, CA, Will Be Open Until at Least This Sunday It has been a tough ski season out West. Below-average snowfall, warm temperatures, thin coverage, and bare spots have plagued most of the region’s ski resorts, with some not even opening at all this year. So far, 11 California ski resorts have closed for the season, and many others have announced earlier-than-usual closing dates. Palisades Tahoe closed a full month […] Industry News Gregg Frantz | March 26, 2026 0 Comments
For Over 30 Years, Snake River Brewing Has Been the Go-To Après Spot in Jackson, WY Long before Jackson became a year-round destination with polished lodges and global name recognition, Snake River Brewing was already there. Since opening in 1994, the Brewpub has quietly earned its place as one of the town’s original après-ski gathering spots, a place where cold fingers warmed up around pint glasses and powder days were replayed one story at a time. […] Featured Article Brent Glogau | March 25, 2026 0 Comments
Spring Skiing Road Trip Around the Epic Lake Tahoe Ski Resorts: Day 1–Northstar California Resort There’s no question that Lake Tahoe is home to some of the most beautiful ski resorts in the country. But what’s truly special is access to three unique resorts offering world-class terrain and amenities, all on the Epic Pass. Within the Tahoe region, Northstar, Heavenly, and Kirkwood Ski Resorts provide everything that you could want, need, and possibly be looking […] Featured Article John Cunningham | March 23, 2026 0 Comments
The Soul of the Notch: Why Smugglers’ Notch, VT, Stays Uniquely Memorable Vermont’s Smugglers’ Notch is love at first sight. Sure, it’s not its refined and “epic” neighbor, but it wouldn’t be right for this landscape if it were. “Smuggs” feels like a hug and a secret. The name itself is a hand-me-down from the rebels who used these talus caves to move everything from cattle to hooch across the line. That […] Featured Article Jacqui Davis | March 23, 2026 0 Comments
Why I’ve Trusted Jans Mountain Outfitters in Park City, UT, With My Skis & Boots For The Past 8 Years There are a lot of ski shops out there. For the past eight years, since I moved to Park City in 2018, I’ve trusted Jans with just about everything that touches my feet or clicks into my bindings. Boots, liners, mounts, tunes… all of it. And when you ski as much as I do (sometimes in critical spots), that trust […] Featured Article Miles Clark | March 23, 2026 0 Comments
March Madness Ski Resort Edition, 2026: A Nail-Biting Round 1 to Start Round 1 of SnowBrains’ 2026 March Madness Ski Resort Edition saw 32 matchups featuring some of the best ski resorts from across North America. In Round 1 alone, over 65,000 votes were cast by SnowBrains followers across social media platforms to help decide what the best ski resort in North America is. Related: March Madness Ski Resort Edition 2026: Vote […] Featured Article SnowBrains | March 23, 2026 0 Comments
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