On a snowy evening at the base of Buttermilk Mountain, the freestyle snowmobile competition kicked off at the 2026 X Games.
A cheering crowd of hundreds wound its way up Panda Peak to get a glimpse of the action.
“We’re probably about 40 feet high,” said one of the competitors, Canadian snowmobiler Brett Turcotte.
Snowmobilers launched off jumps to perform aerial acrobatic tricks, like backflips, front flips and seat grabs. X Games leadership brought the sport back to Aspen this year after a six-year hiatus.
Judges scored athletes based on several criteria, including style, difficulty and execution. The best score wins.
Turcotte is an eight-time X Games gold medalist who has competed in every snowmobile discipline at the games. He also participated in this year’s freestyle.
“We’re using a new takeoff ramp this year too,” he said. “So, everything’s just been expanded bigger. The tricks are bigger. There’s more hang time.”
The course features two new ramps with an 80-foot gap, so athletes are in the air longer than in previous years.
Some events are staples at the X Games, like the ski superpipe and the snowboard knuckle huck, but others rotate in and out.
Previous X Games leaders phased snowmobiling out during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the new CEO, Jeremy Bloom, brought it back.
“We’re really excited about getting back into growth mode in action sports, certainly in X Games,” he said.
Persistent dangers
Snowmobiling can be a dangerous sport. Two athletes crashed and went to the hospital during this year’s competition.
During the freestyle competition, Canadian Brandon Cormier took off from one ramp to land on another, but the crowd could tell that he was not going to land it. The announcers exclaimed, and then went quiet as Cormier disappeared behind the second jump.
Swedish snowmobiler Marcus Ohlsson also crashed in almost the same way. He passed out on the course and was treated for a back injury at the hospital.
Both men are set to make a full recovery.
Parker Lathrop is Pitkin County’s Deputy Chief of Operations. He said that emergency personnel prepare for crashes like these weeks ahead of the event, knowing the risks.
“There are some dangers inherent to snowmobiling, especially the way they do it here,” Lathrop said at a safety briefing at Mountain Rescue Aspen before the snowmobile competitions began.
“We adjust our staff appropriately to address the possibility of what could go wrong.”
The only athlete to die during the winter X Games in Aspen was a snowmobiler. American Caleb Moore competed in the freestyle competition in 2013, where he was struck by his snowmobile.
Lathrop was at the X Games when Moore died. He said his team cannot make snowmobiling events safer, but they can adjust their response.
“We want to make sure we’re providing the best service we can in case something like that happens again,” Lathrop said. “We hope it never does, but there are inherent dangers with those sports, so we want to make sure we're prepared locally.”
High risk, high reward
Canadian snowmobiler Brett Turcotte earned his ninth gold medal at the X Games this year, securing a first-place podium finish in the freestyle competition.
This was a redemption arc six years in the making after he suffered two of his own crashes at the 2020 X Games.
“It’s tough,” Turcotte said after winning. “We're all competitors, but we’re also all really good friends. So, seeing some of your homies go down like that is really tough, and having to compete like that is really hard on the mind.”
Turcotte was grateful to have snowmobiling back in the X Games this year because there are not many opportunities to showcase the sport otherwise.
“This is the biggest stage for snowmobile competition,” he said. “To come back here and walk away with two more medals in my collection is an absolute dream.”
CEO Jeremy Bloom has not confirmed whether snowmobiling will return to the X Games in Aspen next year, but Turcotte will continue performing in the sport he loves at other competitions and filming with his friends.
