- Wynter McBride of Ogden, who skis for the Snowbasin Sports Education Foundation, is one of eight skiers on the 2026-27 Stifel U.S. Freeride Team. She took third at Val Thorens in her first Freeride World Tour season and finished sixth overall.
- This story sits inside Utah's skiing lane and connects to the larger statewide sports picture.
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November 11, 2026
November 11, 2026
5 min / 1,053 words
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Ogden's Wynter McBride is one of 13 athletes named to the 2026-27 Stifel U.S. Freeride Team, which U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced on Oct. 14. The roster lists her hometown as Ogden, Utah, and her club as the Snowbasin Sports Education Foundation.
The team has eight skiers and five snowboarders and heads into its first season under U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the organization said. Stifel also became the official title partner of the freeride team, covering both the ski and snowboard athletes. McBride is one of three women on the ski side.
A rookie year that ended on the podium
McBride reached the Freeride World Tour (FWT) for the 2026 season after winning her category in the 2025 FWT Challenger series in the Americas, according to U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Her sponsor SCOTT lists the same season on her résumé as "2025 Overall IFSA Qualifies & Challenger Champion."
Her first Tour season, drawn from the FWT's rankings and rider page, went like this:
- Baqueira Beret Pro (Spain): fifth place, 4,095 points
- Val Thorens Pro (France): third place, 6,400 points. The FWT posted her third-place run on Jan. 26, 2026
- YETI Alaska Haines Pro (Final 1): fourth place, 6,150 points
- YETI Xtreme Verbier (Final 2): sixth place, 3,925 points
The Georgia Pro and Fieberbrunn Pro were cancelled in 2026, according to the FWT, and McBride competed in both Finals. Her best three results counted toward the season total of 16,645 points, which put her sixth in the ski women's overall standings. Lou Barin of France won the title that season, and the FWT lists Sybille Blanjean of Switzerland second.
SCOTT also lists a third-place finish at the 2026 King's & Queen's of Corbet's on her accomplishments, and a fifth at Baqueira Beret.
From coaching juniors to a Tour podium
According to the FWT's rider biography, McBride entered her first freeride competition in 2022 as an adult. After years coaching the junior team at Snowbasin, she decided that competing herself would make her a better coach. Four years later, the biography says, she was standing on an FWT podium.
"Raised at Snowbasin above Ogden, Utah," the FWT writes, McBride rides with the strong, direct style her home mountain demands. Snowbasin's own history page notes that the steep run off Mt. Ogden cut in 1941 is now part of the 2002 Olympic downhill course.
The Snowbasin Ski Team's website, run by the Snowbasin Sports Education Foundation, describes a freeride pathway for skiers aged 9 to 18, including a Competition Freeride program built around the International Freeskiers & Snowboarders Association's five fundamentals: line choice, control, technique, fluidity, and style and energy.
In her own words
In a Q&A published by her sponsor SCOTT on Feb. 17, 2026, McBride described how skiing started for her. "I got into skiing at a young age with my family. My parents worked between Nordic Valley and Snowbasin so my siblings and I could all get passes. We skied a lot as a family," she said.
Asked about home, she answered: "Home is in Ogden. Born and raised there. I love it." Asked to describe her style, she said, "I try to be a smooth, stylish, and powerful skier."
She also named her goal for the tour. "I am super motivated with competitions right now. I would love to land on more podiums and win some events on the Freeride World Tour," she said. Outside skiing, she told SCOTT, she loves to mountain bike, do yoga, and cross train with weights, and she also loves music and art. The FWT's biography adds that she recently began yoga teacher training and lists painting among her interests.
The 2027 Freeride World Tour calendar
McBride is on the FWT's list of qualified ski women for 2027, one of 53 riders in the field. The tour's six stops, as the FWT published them:
- Baqueira Beret Pro, Spain: Jan. 16-17, 2027 (weather window Jan. 16-21)
- Val Thorens Pro, France: Jan. 25-26, 2027
- Georgia Pro, Mestia: Feb. 20-21, 2027
- Fieberbrunn Pro, Austria: March 3-9, 2027
- YETI Snowbird Pro by Stifel, Utah (Final 1): March 16-17, 2027
- YETI Xtreme Verbier, Switzerland (Final 2): March 27-28, 2027
The FWT says the top 60 percent of riders after the first four events qualify for the Finals, with rankings set by each athlete's best three results. The Snowbird event is the first of the two Finals, and the FWT notes that it returns to the Tour for the first time since 2014 on Mount Baldy. Whether McBride competes there depends on making The Cut in the opening four stops, which begin in Spain in January.
Utah in the freeride picture
Ross Tester, listed on the team roster as a University of Utah skier from Truckee, California, is also on the Stifel U.S. Freeride Team. U.S. Ski & Snowboard says Tester finished third overall on the 2026 FWT, behind Toby Rafford in second. The FWT's Snowbird announcement names Tester among the Snowbird-linked riders on its 2027 roster.
Among the ski women, the team also includes Molly Armanino and Lily Bradley. Armanino and Kai Jones won bronze at the inaugural FIS Freeride World Championships in Andorra in February 2026, per U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
What's next for Wynter McBride
The tour opens its 2027 season at the Baqueira Beret Pro in the Spanish Pyrenees, with its event village scheduled for Jan. 16-17, 2027. From there the tour moves to France in late January. McBride told SCOTT she wants more podiums and wins, and her 2026 results gave her a podium, two Finals appearances and a top-six overall finish to build on.
Key facts:
- Athlete: Wynter McBride, Ogden, Utah; Snowbasin Sports Education Foundation (skier)
- Honor: Named Oct. 14, 2026 to the 13-athlete Stifel U.S. Freeride Team (eight skiers, five snowboarders)
- Road to the Tour: Won her category in the 2025 FWT Challenger series in the Americas
- 2026 FWT results: Baqueira Beret 5th, Val Thorens 3rd, Alaska Haines Final 4th, Verbier Final 6th; 16,645 points, sixth overall in ski women
- Origin story: Entered her first freeride competition in 2022 as an adult after coaching the Snowbasin junior team, per the FWT
- 2027: Listed among qualified ski women; the first FWT Final is the YETI Snowbird Pro by Stifel, March 16-17, 2027, in Utah
- Next start on the published calendar: Baqueira Beret Pro, Spain, Jan. 16-17, 2027
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