Guides
5 Winter Events Worth Planning Around
The best ski trips aren’t only about the skiing. Cowboys trading horses for slalom gates, ice sculptures rising in a Vermont village, the fastest racers alive chasing crystal globes, a snowboarding homecoming, and live music under the Tetons are five more reasons to build your season around the calendar.
Steamboat | Stowe | Stratton | Sun Valley | Jackson Hole
Cowboy Downhill
When: January 2027 | Steamboat
There are ski events, and then there’s Cowboy Downhill. Nothing makes the case more convincingly that Steamboat is a ranching town with a ski resort, rather than a ski town with some ranches.
For one day each January, professional rodeo cowboys and cowgirls swap horses for skis. The course is as wild as it sounds: a timed dual slalom, a jump, then a person to lasso and a horse to saddle before the finish line. Once that wraps, everyone lines up for the Stampede—first rider down wins.
It started in 1974 when Billy Kidd, Steamboat’s director of skiing, and Larry Mahan, a six-time world champion cowboy, talked a handful of ProRodeo stars into driving up from the Denver Stock Show for a day on the slopes. Most of them had never skied, and they had such a good time it became an annual event. Today more than 100 compete, drawn from riders entered in the National Western Stock Show along with rodeo royalty, stock contractors, and past winners who return as ”legends.“
Festivities start mid-morning in Gondola Square with 4-H animals, a roping clinic, and food, before the race takes the mountain at 1. Admission is free.
Good to know: The date tracks the National Western Stock Show in Denver, landing on the third Monday of January. Confirm before booking.
Stowe Winter Carnival
When: January 2027 | Stowe
Stowe brings winter beyond the mountain each year, and the centerpiece is ice. Professional and amateur carvers work blocks of it into sculptures across the village on Demonstration Day, then compete in a National Ice Carving Association–sanctioned competition at The Alchemist Brewery.
Around it sits a full week of programming: more than 20 activities including snowgolf, snow volleyball, ski movies, and a kids’ carnival.
Good to know: 2027 dates aren’t posted yet, but the carnival typically runs the third or fourth weekend of January
Homesick
When: March 2027 | Stratton
Snowboarding started in Stratton: it’s where Jake Burton Carpenter tested early boards and where the U.S. Open ran for decades before moving west in 2012.
Photographer Gary Land documented those years, and he and Barry Dugan of Burton later founded East Street Archives to preserve them. Homesick started in 2023 to bring the archive to life for a weekend each year.
Snowboarders come to spend three days on the same hill as the people who built the sport, including Zeb Powell, the Stratton Mountain School grad turned X Games medalist, and Ross Powers, 2002 Olympic halfpipe gold medalist and director of snowboarding at SMS.
Good to know: The events are open to anyone who registers, either per event or as a full-weekend package. Spectating was free in 2026.
Stifel Sun Valley Finals
When: March 20–25, 2027 | Sun Valley
The Audi FIS Ski World Cup Finals is the circuit’s closing stop. The top 25 men and women in the world race downhill, super-G, giant slalom, and slalom, with season-long titles and crystal globes decided across six days.
Sun Valley last hosted in 2025, when Mikaela Shiffrin took her 101st World Cup win in slalom and Lindsey Vonn, at 40, became the oldest woman to podium in World Cup history.
Bald Mountain has been reworked for the encore. Trees were thinned on the Warm Springs side, terrain reshaped, and the finish area rebuilt entirely, with organizers still weighing a move of the men’s downhill start to the top of Warm Springs.
Racing is only part of the week, which also features the 5850 Fest concert series, skijoring, and public bib draws.
Good to know: Dates are confirmed. In 2025, the races, most concerts, skijoring, and bib draws were free to attend (no ticket required).
Rendezvous Music Festival
When: Late March or early April 2027 | Jackson Hole
Jackson Hole closes its season with a two-day festival at the base of the Tetons.
Through March, the resort runs its Road to Rendezvous series, which includes free live music slopeside under the Aerial Tram every Saturday afternoon. The last of those shows lands on festival weekend, and is free to anyone on the mountain.
The main ticketed main event takes place in Teton Village, headlined last year by The Flaming Lips with Umphrey’s McGee and Blake Horstmann.
Spring skiing at Jackson Hole is underrated, with longer days, softer snow, and the mountain running at a completely different tempo.
Good to know: Dates move year to year. In 2026 the resort ran half-off lift tickets across festival weekend, and START buses between town and Teton Village were fare-free on show night.
Explore other itineraries
Guides
5 Winter Events Worth Planning Around
The best ski trips aren’t only about the skiing. Cowboys trading horses for slalom gates, ice sculptures rising in a Vermont village, the fastest racers alive chasing crystal globes, a snowboarding homecoming, and live music under the Tetons are five more reasons to build your season around the calendar.
Steamboat | Stowe | Stratton | Sun Valley | Jackson Hole
Cowboy Downhill
January 2027 | Steamboat
There are ski events, and then there’s Cowboy Downhill. Nothing makes the case more convincingly that Steamboat is a ranching town with a ski resort, rather than a ski town with some ranches.
For one day each January, professional rodeo cowboys and cowgirls swap horses for skis. The course is as wild as it sounds: a timed dual slalom, a jump, then a person to lasso and a horse to saddle before the finish line. Once that wraps, everyone lines up for the Stampede—first rider down wins.
It started in 1974 when Billy Kidd, Steamboat’s director of skiing, and Larry Mahan, a six-time world champion cowboy, talked a handful of ProRodeo stars into driving up from the Denver Stock Show for a day on the slopes. Most of them had never skied, and they had such a good time it became an annual event. Today more than 100 compete, drawn from riders entered in the National Western Stock Show along with rodeo royalty, stock contractors, and past winners who return as ”legends.“
Festivities start mid-morning in Gondola Square with 4-H animals, a roping clinic, and food, before the race takes the mountain at 1. Admission is free.
Good to know: The date tracks the National Western Stock Show in Denver, landing on the third Monday of January. Confirm before booking.
Stowe Winter Carnival
January 2027 | Stowe
Stowe brings winter beyond the mountain each year, and the centerpiece is ice. Professional and amateur carvers work blocks of it into sculptures across the village on Demonstration Day, then compete in a National Ice Carving Association–sanctioned competition at The Alchemist Brewery.
Around it sits a full week of programming: more than 20 activities including snowgolf, snow volleyball, ski movies, and a kids’ carnival.
Good to know: 2027 dates aren’t posted yet, but the carnival typically runs the third or fourth weekend of January
Homesick
March 2027 | Stratton
Snowboarding started in Stratton: it’s where Jake Burton Carpenter tested early boards and where the U.S. Open ran for decades before moving west in 2012.
Photographer Gary Land documented those years, and he and Barry Dugan of Burton later founded East Street Archives to preserve them. Homesick started in 2023 to bring the archive to life for a weekend each year.
Snowboarders come to spend three days on the same hill as the people who built the sport, including Zeb Powell, the Stratton Mountain School grad turned X Games medalist, and Ross Powers, 2002 Olympic halfpipe gold medalist and director of snowboarding at SMS.
Good to know: The events are open to anyone who registers, either per event or as a full-weekend package. Spectating was free in 2026.
Stifel Sun Valley Finals
March 20–25, 2027 | Sun Valley
The Audi FIS Ski World Cup Finals is the circuit’s closing stop. The top 25 men and women in the world race downhill, super-G, giant slalom, and slalom, with season-long titles and crystal globes decided across six days.
Sun Valley last hosted in 2025, when Mikaela Shiffrin took her 101st World Cup win in slalom and Lindsey Vonn, at 40, became the oldest woman to podium in World Cup history.
Bald Mountain has been reworked for the encore. Trees were thinned on the Warm Springs side, terrain reshaped, and the finish area rebuilt entirely, with organizers still weighing a move of the men’s downhill start to the top of Warm Springs.
Racing is only part of the week, which also features the 5850 Fest concert series, skijoring, and public bib draws.
Good to know: Dates are confirmed. In 2025, the races, most concerts, skijoring, and bib draws were free to attend (no ticket required).
Rendezvous Music Festival
Late March or early April 2027 | Jackson Hole
Jackson Hole closes its season with a two-day festival at the base of the Tetons.
Through March, the resort runs its Road to Rendezvous series, which includes free live music slopeside under the Aerial Tram every Saturday afternoon. The last of those shows lands on festival weekend, and is free to anyone on the mountain.
The main ticketed main event takes place in Teton Village, headlined last year by The Flaming Lips with Umphrey’s McGee and Blake Horstmann.
Spring skiing at Jackson Hole is underrated, with longer days, softer snow, and the mountain running at a completely different tempo.
Good to know: Dates move year to year. In 2026 the resort ran half-off lift tickets across festival weekend, and START buses between town and Teton Village were fare-free on show night.
Explore other itineraries