Northeast skiers who have spent years hearing our conditions ridiculed by their western friends who call us the “ice coast” are enjoying a little schadenfreude right now, with conditions so crummy beyond the Rockies that an international freestyle skiing competition is moving east.
The Intermountain Health Freestyle International competition was supposed to be held next month at the massive Deer Valley resort in Utah, where it’s regularly held. But Utah, like most western states, is in the midst of a snow drought that has delayed openings, shut down lifts and ruined many a Christmas vacation.
As a result, plans have changed for the freestyle event, which involves aerial maneuvers — skiers getting airborne to do eye-popping things — as well as solo and dual racing over nasty mogul fields.
The aerial portion will now be held at Lake Placid, New York, and the mogul events held Jan. 15 an 16 at Waterville Valley on Lower Bobby’s Run, scene of the Freestyle Cup for three years.
Waterville Valley has a long history with freestyle skiing; in 1969, it launched what is says was the first freestyle instruction program in the United States.
“This event carries added significance as the final qualifying stop for athletes aiming to compete in the 2026 Winter Games, raising the stakes and intensity,” noted a Waterville Valley statement. “With less than one month to go, Waterville’s mountain operations, snowmaking, grooming, and event teams are going all hands on deck to prepare the venue and deliver a world-class competition worthy of the sport’s elite.”
The move from Utah was necessary because warm temperatures and light snow have bedeviled the west all winter. Snowpack is particularly bad in California, Nevada and Oregon right now, with less than 10% of typical snow depth in some places, and even the Rocky Mountains are seeing less than half of their usual precipitation. Add in warmer-than-average temperatures, and western conditions for skiing and snowboarding have been poor, at best.
Compare that to New England. Snow conditions at most ski areas in New Hampshire are at least at normal for this time of year. Many avoided the freezing/thawing “ice coast” conditions that in past years left many gazing jealously at deep power out west.
In Vermont, the skiing is particularly good. The well-known snow stake on Mount Mansfield, the Green Mountain’s highest peak, reported the most Christmas Day snow since 1954, and a few resorts have topped 100 accumulated inches already.
Although American skiing started in the Northeast, we’ve long been left behind by Western states. The National Ski Areas Association says Northeast snow-sports resorts saw 12.5 million visits last winter, compared to 26.5 million in the Rocky Mountains and 24.7 million in what it calls the Pacific region, west of the Rockies.
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