Sundance replacement announced as Shaun White launches Snow League in Park City

Park City Ski & Snowboard youth athletes pose with Shaun White and Snow League athletes Maddie Mastro, Ryan Wachendorfer, Nick Goepper and Hunter Hess during a pop-up session at the base of Scott’s Bowl at Park City Mountain before Tuesday’s announcement that the resort will host a 2027 Snow League stop. Photo: TownLift // Rebecca Brenner

At the base of Scott’s Bowl, local youth athletes joined White and top Snow League competitors ahead of the announcement that Park City Mountain will host a 2027 tour stop.

PARK CITY, Utah — Early Tuesday, local skiers and snowboarders joined Shaun White and Snow League athletes Maddie Mastro, Ryan Wachendorfer, Nick Goepper, and Hunter Hess for a pop-up session at the base of Scott’s Bowl at Park City Mountain. There, on a custom-built terrain feature, local youth athletes watched some of the sport’s top competitors up close and stepped for a morning into the world White says he is trying to build — one that links youth development, elite competition, and the future of winter sports in a town long tied to all three.

White and Park City Mountain announced Tuesday that the resort will host a Snow League stop Jan. 22-24, 2027, bringing the league’s second season to Utah and returning a 22-foot halfpipe to Park City Mountain for the first time since the 2019 FIS World Championships.

 

Similar Reads On TownLift

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Snow League (@thesnowleague)

The three-day event will feature halfpipe snowboarding and freeskiing, along with live music, fan experiences, and broader town programming, according to organizers.

For White, the Park City stop is both strategic and personal.

He said the league was built in part around what he wished had existed when he was competing: a true global tour that centered athletes, offered equal pay for men and women, and put the sport’s best riders in the world’s best destinations.

“This is really something that I always wished was around when I competed,” White said. “To truly have a tour start to finish that puts the athletes on this sort of pedestal.”

White said Park City was one of the first places the league considered. He landed the first double McTwist 1260 there, made the 2010 Winter Olympic team there, and trained at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

“Coming back to Park City feels like a homecoming,” he said.

League executives framed the stop as more than another event on the calendar. Ian Warda, the league’s chief operating officer, called the resort “the epicenter of the winter sports universe” and said building the halfpipe would create a platform for training and progression, not just competition.

“We always knew the next expansion site for The Snow League was going to be in a place that didn’t have a 22-foot halfpipe,” Warda said. “This is going to be a platform for progression, training, development, and competition.”

That point carried weight beyond the league itself.

Sophie Goldschmidt, president and CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, said the event would bring both world-class competition and badly needed training infrastructure to Park City, where many national team athletes already live and train.

“There aren’t as many halfpipes as we want and need in the U.S.,” Goldschmidt said. “So this is a big, big step forward.”

The local youth presence became one of the clearest throughlines of the day.

Park City Mountain Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Deirdra Walsh said the resort saw the event as a chance to connect its history with the athletes who will shape what comes next.

“I think about the youth,” Walsh said. “For those athletes that are the future Olympians, that are the future Snow League athletes, that they get to watch and be inspired when they see this 22-foot halfpipe out there and the incredible athletes there.”

White made a similar point when asked for advice to local kids who want to compete in the league one day.

“I hope they’re inspired by the athletes that come through,” he said. “I hope that they feel like this is for them in the future.”

He said one of the league’s goals is to create a clearer path than the one he experienced — from amateur competition to professional events and, for some, eventually the Olympics.

That Olympic thread also ran through the day.

Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of the Park City Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, called the halfpipe “hallowed ground” and described the event as both an economic driver and part of the community’s longer-term preparation for the 2034 Winter Olympics.

“This is not only going to be an economic generator for all of Summit County, but also a real opportunity to continue to position ourselves as a premier destination and really focus on our Olympic legacy,” Wesselhoff said.

The timing carries its own significance. The Jan. 22-24 weekend has long been associated with the Sundance Film Festival, which is moving to Boulder, Colorado. Snow League leaders openly acknowledged that shift, describing the event as an opportunity to help define what comes next for Park City in late January.

“Obviously big shoes to fill with the Sundance time slot,” White said, “but we’re excited about it. We see that as an opportunity, and we want to do the town of Park City proud.”

Mayor Ryan Dickey struck a more local note in a short toast, telling the crowd that events like this reaffirm Park City’s identity.

“These opportunities remind us that we are a ski town,” Dickey said. “This is part of our DNA.”

Snow League CEO Omer Atesmen said the organization wants the Park City stop to extend beyond the competition venue, with most of its activation happening throughout town.

“We want to make this something that is unique to Park City and something that matches Park City itself,” Atesmen said.

But the strongest image of the day came before any of it was announced — local kids sharing snow with White, Mastro, Wachendorfer, Goepper, and Hess, getting an up-close look at athletes they could one day hope to join.

For a league built around the future of snowboarding and freeskiing, it was a fitting way to begin.