skier

Projected season opening date: By Thanksgiving, if Mother Nature cooperates, or by Yule on Dec. 21 at the latest.

What makes it special: Only 45 miles from Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Mountains, Mt. Baldy has 26 runs spread over 800 acres and three mountains. It also has a respectable vertical descent of 2,100 feet with wide-open glades, tree runs, bowls, moguls, groomed runs, cornices and quarter pipes. For those who don’t ski or snowboard, Mt. Baldy also offers snow tubing.

What’s new this season: With upgrades, Lift No. 3 now features more comfortable carriers to the top of Thunder Mountain at 8,600 feet. Chair No. 4 on the west side has a new drive and control system, allowing year-round use with both uphill and downhill loading when conditions permit. Continuous improvements to snowmaking are also helping Mt. Baldy open earlier each season. The resort’s former Last Name Brewing has rebranded as Mt. Baldy Brewery.

Lift ticket prices: Mt. Baldy season passes are currently on sale through Christmas Day: adults are $549 (regularly $799), teens and seniors are $449 (regularly $639) and children under 12 are $279 (regularly $399). You can pre-purchase lift tickets online for a discount. Walk-up tickets are $129 on busy days when the mountain is in full operation.

Pro-tip: Mt. Baldy has the most steep runs in Southern California. Advanced and expert skiers and snowboarders might want to head to Chair 1 to try “Nightmare,” a 36-degree slope that maintains its drop for 1,000 vertical feet.

To date, Ryding has achieved seven World Cup podium finishes, capped by his historic gold in the Kitzbuhel slalom.

In the aftermath of that race, Ryding said he had “never stopped believing, never stopped trying” – encapsulating his “Northern grit” and determination to rise to the top of the sport, despite the odds being stacked against him.

Unlike most of his global peers, Ryding was not brought up on snow.

His first experience of skiing came as a six-year-old on a plastic dry slope in Pendle, Lancashire, while he did little training on snow until he was 13. He continued to race on the dry into his early twenties.

He had a late breakthrough to the top circuit of the sport, earning his first World Cup points just a few weeks shy of his 26th birthday and not adding any more until two years later.

It was in Kitzbuhel, Austria, that he stood on a World Cup podium for the first time with silver in 2017, while his most recent medal, a bronze, came in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, in December 2023.

His best finish at the Olympics is ninth at Pyeongchang 2018, but Ryding feels he has “left something on the table” at the Games, where he will be watched by his nearly three-year-old daughter, Nina.

“I think ninth is not a true reflection of my ability,” he said.

For one last season, Ryding will train with British team-mates Billy Major, 28, and Laurie Taylor, 29. They have big boots to fill, but follow tracks that have taken British skiing to a whole new level.

“Hearing kids openly and talk normally about World Cup podiums, it almost makes me laugh, because this is nuts,” said Ryding.

“I don’t necessarily go to a race thinking of podiums, but the next generation are certainly thinking that.

“The belief that I’ve given to the next generation, I absolutely see it, and I’m really excited to see what that becomes for the next 20 years.”