Heavy Wind And Snow Forces Cancellations At 'Birds Of Prey'

💨🌨️ Unfortunately, due to wind and heavy snowfall, today's Men's Downhill at Beaver Creek has been cancelled. ❌ #fisalpine pic.twitter.com/FtCNgZzf2N
— FIS Alpine (@fisalpine) December 2, 2023

While most skiers and snowboarders throughout Colorado were probably watching the heavy snowfall this past weekend with joy, fans of the Alpine World Cup were probably leaning more towards the disappointed side of the spectrum.

Beaver Creek’s Xfinity Birds of Prey Men’s Alpine World Cup was fully cancelled this past weekend due to high winds and heavy snowfall. The first race of the weekend, Friday’s downhill, was initially delayed around 8:15am on December 1 before it was fully cancelled around 12:30pm because of high snowfall. Saturday’s race, also a downhill, was cancelled by 8:44am as a result of both wind and snow. Sunday’s Super G race, much like Saturday, was canceled by 8:23am because of high winds.

❌ 💨 Too much wind this morning in @bcworldcup. The Super G race had to be cancelled. We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers and the hardworking team. Your dedication is the true spirit of this sport. Hope to have a better weather for next races.#fisalpine pic.twitter.com/p3jPDgFgUI
— FIS Alpine (@fisalpine) December 3, 2023

The Men’s World Cup Downhill race in Zermatt-Cervinia was also cancelled earlier this year. As a result, there’s been only one men’s World Cup race so far this season, a slalom race at Gurgl in Austria. Two men’s races are set to take place this up coming weekend at Val d’Isere in France, a giant slalom and a slalom.

This past weekend’s Women’s Tremblant World Cup went off without any major problems. Mikaela Shiffrin took third place both Saturday and Sunday, finishing behind Petra Vlhova (2nd) and Federica Brignone (1st) on Saturday and Lara Gut-Behrami (2nd) and Federica Brignone (1st) on Sunday.

@federicabrignone Back to Back 🏆🇮🇹

What a race!! Another incredible win for @federicabrignone , who claimed her 10th World Cup Giant Slalom’s win! The podium is completed by Lara Gut-behrami and Mikaela Shiffrin!#fisalpine #wintersport #ski pic.twitter.com/kUtTkxx6IW
— FIS Alpine (@fisalpine) December 3, 2023

A full cancellation at the Birds of Prey is definitely sad. I managed to make my way up there for one of the races last year and had an absolute blast. But it’s impossible to be really upset when the cancellation is the result of a big dump of snow. Beaver Creek has had a nice 15 inches of snowfall over the past seven days, with 8″ touching down in the last 48 hours.

Good thing the World Cup will be returning to Colorado in March for the Stifel Aspen Winternational!