It’s not looking good out there in many parts of the world, but just this last week, some major closures were announced in our world. Sadly, this seems to be a sign of the times but we remain hopeful that there’s more winter to come and we will all be riding pow in the near future. Editor’s Note: These atmospheric rivers better save our damn winter.

LBS Canceled for 2024
Just today, Mt. Baker announced that the longest-running snowboard contest in history will be postponed to 2025. Citing their social media, they said, “…the current warmer weather and precipitation we have been experiencing up at the ski area has impacted the viability of the snow in the Natural Halfpipe. This combined with a change in the forecast to less of a cool down as was expected leads us to the very unfortunate conclusion that this year’s race will need to be rescheduled to next season. While the digging crew has spent days repacking snow onto the berms, the meltoff continues to [out pace] our efforts and yesterday it became apparent that the race could not move forward as planned.” For more information, visit their website, but we’re already looking forward to the return of the LBS in 2025.

Kings and Queens of Corbet’s Canceled for 2024
Yet another iconic gathering in the winter sports culture—Jackson Hole’s Kings & Queens of Corbet’s—announced last week that their annual event held on one of the most iconic on-resort features in the world would be called off. Citing their post, Jackson Hole stated, “Mountain Operations,Event Leadership, and current/former competitors worked together yesterday to assess conditions in the Couloir for the competition scheduled Feb 3-10. 80” of snow has blanketed the Resort in the past two weeks and the mountain is open wall-to-wall. However, Corbet’s Couloir requires specific weather factors to fill in properly ad create a competition-worthy environment that supports landing mind-blowing tricks and carrying high speed throughout it. Unfortunately, this last storm didn’t deliver what we needed. Upon first-hand inspection of the snowpack within the Couloir, the competitors greed that conditions are not at the level needed to run an entire competition.” Looks like the crowning of a new King and Queen of Corbet’s will have to wait another year, yet Jackson Hole did explicitly state that the Couloir is open on-mountain to skiers and snowboarders with expert abilities.

Brandywine Backcountry Closure
It’s not just ski resorts feeling the heat (literally). Yesterday, in a post by @powdermountainsnowmobileclub, it was announced that one of the most iconic British Columbia backcountry zones is in pretty rough shape. They stated, “Due to the recent atmospheric river we have lost significant snow along the road and many creeks have opened in Brandywine Bowl and Chocolate Bowl. There has been a lot of slide activity as well. 

We have made the decision to close the PMSC Booth at Brandywine for the remainder of the week and would advise against travelling in the backcountry at this time.” 

While things are looking pretty dire at the moment, all we can do is hope for snow and go find some safe snow to ride while we deal with a relatively historically bad winter in most parts of the globe. Or we can all just hop on a flight to Japan.