COPPER MOUNTAIN U.S. GRAND PRIX – USA – 13-15 DEC
Copper Mountain keeps bringing the goods, year in and year out, and last season was no exception as the resort welcomed it’s long-running Grand Prix halfpipe competition back again, while also adding big air World Cup action to its slopes for the first time since 2017/18. “The Athletes’ Mountain” has played host to halfpipe World Cup competition dating back to the 2012/13 season, and remains a highlight every year.
MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN U.S. GRAND PRIX – USA – 31 JAN – 4 FEB 2024
Once again Mammoth Mountain is set to host the biggest Park & Pipe week of the season, with the full freeski and snowboard, slopestyle and halfpipe World Cup tours slated to descend on the Californian resort for a packed week of action to take us into February. Mammoth is an OG FIS Freeski World Cup stop, with hosting duties dating back to the 2011/12 season, and the U.S. Grand Prix remains a legendary name in freeskiing and snowboarding. When the sun’s shining and Mammoth is firing, there’s few better places to be on earth.
CALGARY SNOW RODEO – CAN – 15-17 FEB 2024
The 2023/24 FIS Freeski halfpipe season will wrap up with a double-header at Calgary’s WinSport Canada Olympic Park, one of the most historic venues in all of freestyle skiing. Site of World Cup competition dating all the way back to 1981, there are few places on earth boasting a deeper freestyle pedigree than the Albertan city. A long list of the very finest freestylers and freeskiers to ever do it have made their mark in Calgary, including Eileen Gu, who claimed her first World Cup win there in 2019/20 and now has five total victories at the venue. With the crystal globes in the house and set to go out to the season’s best shredders, Calgary won’t be one to miss.
THE HEAVY HITTERS
WOMEN
EILEEN GU – CHN – 20
Simply put, she’s the most famous snowsports star on earth right now. Already on her way to stardom when she landed on the podium at her first World Cup back in 2019, Gu sent it to the stratosphere when she earned halfpipe gold, big air gold and slopestyle silver while representing China on home soil at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. Gu now spends her much of her time busy walking the runway in Paris, starring as the face of some of the biggest luxury brands on the planet, or studying quantum physics at Stanford University. However, when she’s not wrapped up in such trivial pursuits as those, she’s still a pretty good skier. Scratch that – she’s still the best damn skier in the freeski world, and while we might not see a lot of her this season, when we do we expect it’ll be at or near the top of the podium.
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