Shaun White's The Snow League Sets New Standard

Featured Image: Adam Moran, The Snow League

Winter 2025/26 is on track to be the heaviest freeski competition season in recent memory. The Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy, have already and will continue to receive a lot of attention, but several other noteworthy events should be high on your radar as the flakes start coming down. And perhaps none will be more historic than The Snow League.

Crafted by Shaun White, the League is a new global halfpipe competition circuit that stands apart from existing competitions thanks to its unique bracket-style format and record-setting prize purse (the freeski prize purse alone is a staggering $580,000).

With up-and-comers competing against some of halfpipe's greatest legends, The Snow League will likely become a new favorite in the ever-expanding world of skiing. Let's dive into the schedule, competition format and athlete lineup.

Schedule

After the success of last year's inaugural event, which featured only snowboarders, The Snow League will be welcoming freeskiers into the mix for the coming winter. However, with the Olympic schedule in February, freeskiing will only be present at two of the three stops.

December 4-6, 2025 | Snow League China - Yunding Snow Park

Freeski and Snowboard

February 27-28, 2026 | Snow League Aspen - Buttermilk, Aspen Snowmass, USA

Snowboard

March 19-21, 2026 | Snow League LAAX - LAAX, Switzerland

Freeski and Snowboard

Freeski Athlete Roster

It's hard to wrap your head around the level of talent that will be on display here. With 12 Olympians with 13 Olympic medals between them, these riders will lead halfpipe skiing into this new era.

Women's Freeski:

Amy Fraser, Cassie Sharpe, Li Fanghui, Hanna Faulhaber, Svea Irving, Zoe Atkin, Rachael Karker, Eileen Gu

Men's Freeski:

Nick Goepper, Hunter Hess, Gus Kenworthy, David Wise, Brendan Mackay, Birk Irving, Luke Harrold, Fin Melville-Ives

Zoe Atkin (left), Nick Goepper (center) and Hunter Hess (right) are three skiers we'll be watching closely during The Snow League this winter

Competition Format

Natural Selection Ski was the most recent major event in freeskiing to introduce a bracket-style comp, and both athletes and fans alike had glowing reviews. Just think March Madness with twenty-foot airs and a few more grabs. Quarter finals will consist of four head-to-head brackets, and riders will be seeded based on their global [World Cup] ranking, with each matchup decided in a best-of-three format," according to the official press release.

The description continues, "the first athlete to claim two runs advances through the bracket to the semifinals and final, where they’ll battle for the prestige of the inaugural Snow League freeski podium, as well as a share of the event prize purse and valuable points toward the Snow League World Championship title."

It will be interesting to see how skiers adapt their runs depending on who they are competing against. With this new format, you only have to beat one other skier, so studying your opponent and fine-tuning a specific run will take precedence over massive airs.

Additionally, riders must drop in on both the left and right walls on their first two runs. This adds another level of complexity, as normally, athletes can focus on dialing in one full run, but now must map out two separate plans that involve starting on either side of the pipe. 

At the end of the day, it's sure to boil down to consistency. With so many runs, stamina will be one of the most decisive factors.

Prize Purse

While an interesting format and fan-favorite skiers are both immense draws to the Legue, the cash prize is possibly the most engaging, and it sets a remarkable precedent for other snow sport competitions.

$580,000 will be on the table across the two freeski events in China and Switzerland, with the prize money being split equally between the men and women.

First - $50,000

Second - $25,000

Third - $10,000

Fourth - $5,000

Additionally, $80,000 will be split between the top three men's and women's finishers at the end of the season, awarding an extra bonus to the overall Snow League freeski champions. This amount of money is unheard of in freeskiing, and it's beyond refreshing to see a real movement to put money in the hands of athletes. Hopefully, it will force other competitions to match this level of financial investment.

Of course, most of us won't be able to travel the globe in search of live coverage this winter. Thankfully, watching will be easy, as each stop of the League will be streaming in 175 countries this winter. For those in the United States, you'll be able to catch highlights from each stop on NBC, as well as local stations depending on your region.

There are plenty of reasons to tune into The Snow League this winter, but above all, the skiing will be top-tier, and that alone should have you hooked. Gus Kenworthy will be making his return to the comp scene, Nick Goepper is looking stronger than ever in his halfpipe push, Eileen Gu has immense competition on all sides; we could go on and on, but anyway you look at it, the Legue will be impactful for years to come, so you better start paying attention.