The 2025 Toyota Waterville Freestyle Cup: Course Build and Competition Recap

For the second consecutive year, Waterville Valley hosted the Freestyle World Cup. The 2025 Toyota Waterville Freestyle Cup required cooperation from local businesses, and all other local stakeholders. To those who had a part in the success of the event, we cannot thank you enough for the continued support.

As you may already know, Waterville Valley has a rich history of Freestyle Skiing. Since opening the first Freestyle Instruction Program in 1969, Waterville Valley, “The Birthplace of Freestyle Skiing,” has hosted several world-class freestyle ski competitions, including the Freestyle National Championships, National Open Championships, and the Hot Dog Competition: National Championships of Exhibition Skiing.

The planning, construction, and execution of the 2025 Toyota Waterville Freestyle Cup began months in advance. We partnered with Prinoth Snow Groomers to build the course, with groomer Ben Finn taking the lead. Starting on Monday, January 13th, Ben worked tirelessly from sunrise to sunset throughout the week. Having grown up skiing at Waterville and previously working as a groomer here in the mid-2000s, this project was a true homecoming for him. "It’s awesome to see World Cup competition back in Waterville Valley," Finn shared with us.

The top of the Lower Bobby’s in preliminary stages of the course build.

A view of the action from the Granite Outdoor Rock City Vendor Village.

Technological innovations have created intuitive features in modern snow cats, allowing for options and adjustability for groomers. The Snow Groomer being used for the course build is a Bison X Winch. The Bison X Winch is equipped with GPS based snow depth technology, just like a fishing or depth finder for a boat. The machine Ben is using to build the course has a touch screen, and on the screen an operator is able to see exactly how much snow there is beneath them. “With the mogul course build this year we have a 3D model of the course on the screen. In years past we were using paint marks and ribbons tied to trees, so having it on the screen in the cat now speeds up the process and we are a lot more precise,” Ben explained.

After building the mogul course with small bumps first, it was then time for skiers and snowboarders to “slip the course,” slowly weaving through the moguls to build them up to proper size and shape. Volunteers, Snowsports employees and anyone willing to help spent a lot of time throughout the week preparing the course, digging shovels into the ground over and over to “chop” the snow in the landing zones. A huge thank you to volunteers and our own Snowsports employees who chopped multiple times a day the week leading up to the competition and during the competition as well. Next, fencing was placed around the course, along with signage from our sponsors who helped make the event possible.

For an event of this size, it was truly all hands on deck. Starting in early January, every department at the resort played a role in making the Freestyle Cup a success. From the Grooming team hauling equipment up to Lower Bobby’s, to the Facilities team providing transportation for production crews, athletes, and more, no contribution goes unrecognized. The event wouldn’t have run as smoothly without the incredible volunteers who helped across the mountain both during the week leading up to the competition and throughout the event itself. Events like the Toyota Waterville Freestyle Cup truly bring the Waterville community together.

Our Food and Beverage team provided food to all athletes, and VIP guests in the Sunnyside Lodge.

Volunteers and US Ski Team working to build course in the week leading up to the competition.