The Snowbound Expo is happening November 14 and 15, 2026 at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. To get your special $8 early bird tickets to this epic outdoor event, use the code “EXPLORER” at the link below.
This article was created in partnership with the Snowbound Expo.
Winter is coming.
And for skiers and snowboarders across the Northeast, the ultimate way to kick off the 2026-27 season is with a trip to the Snowbound Expo at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut on November 14 and 15.
Snowbound Expo is the annual gathering place for the region’s snow sports community. This year, the event is entering a new era as it moves to Mohegan Sun’s Earth Expo and Convention Center, bringing together hundreds of brands, resorts, retailers, athletes, and outdoor enthusiasts for what promises to be the biggest Snowbound yet.
At the center of it all is the Expo’s incredible speaker lineup.
The Inspiration Stage will feature Olympians, world-class snowboarders, filmmakers, freeskiers and other influential voices from the snow sports world. Whether you’re a lifelong skier or snowboarder, someone getting ready for your first season, or simply someone who can’t wait for winter to return, there will be plenty of inspiration to take home.
Here are six speakers we’re especially excited to see at this year’s Snowbound Expo. (And check out five features at this year’s Expo we can’t wait for here.)
Travis Rice
If you follow snowboarding, you likely don’t need much of an introduction to Travis Rice.
Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential snowboarders of his generation, Rice has spent his career redefining what is possible on a snowboard. A pioneering freeride snowboarder and filmmaker, he has become known not just for riding some of the world’s most intimidating terrain, but for helping push the entire sport forward.
One of his biggest contributions came with the creation of the Natural Selection Tour, an event built around head-to-head competition on natural and naturally enhanced terrain. The tour has become one of the premier showcases of high-level snowboarding and reflects Rice’s broader vision for where the sport can go.
For anyone who loves big-mountain snowboarding, this is one speaker you won’t want to miss.
Luis Medearis
A filmmaker, snowboarder and community leader, Luis Medearis has quickly established himself as an important voice in a sport that continues to evolve. He is the founder of the Technically Doing It Crew, a snowboarding crew created to provide a space where black and brown snowboarders can connect, ride, and thrive together.
Medearis has also made a name for himself behind the camera, working with major outdoor brands and documenting the people and culture surrounding snowboarding.
At Snowbound, he’ll be part of the Sunday screening of “Life Sure Is Sweet,” alongside rising snowboarder Egan Wint and the Technically Doing It Crew. The session will include a film screening and an opportunity to meet the stars.
Jessie Diggins
Few athletes in American winter sports have a more impressive résumé than Jessie Diggins.
The Minnesota native became a household name at the 2018 Winter Olympics when she helped the U.S. women’s cross-country ski team win its first-ever Olympic gold medal. Since then, she’s continued to make history, becoming the first American to win the Tour de Ski and the first American to win an individual World Championship title.
Diggins has accumulated 21 World Cup victories, 60 World Cup podiums and six World Championship medals, making her the most decorated U.S. cross-country skier in history.
Diggins also has strong connections to the Northeast, having spent her formative years training and racing with Vermont’s Stratton Mountain School Elite Team.
On Sunday, Diggins will present “The Medal That Didn’t Matter Most.”
Tom Wallisch
Tom Wallisch grew up in Pennsylvania, where the mountains aren’t exactly known for their massive vertical drops or endless powder days. Instead, he embraced what the East Coast did have: local ski areas, rails, terrain parks, streets and plenty of creativity.
That approach helped turn him into one of the most recognizable freeskiers in the world.
Wallisch is an X Games gold medalist, former U.S. Freeski Team member and AFP Slopestyle World Champion. He has appeared in more than 25 ski films and even holds a Guinness World Record for the longest urban rail slide on skis—an astonishing 424 feet.
Kimmy Fasani
Kimmy Fasani’s story goes far beyond snowboarding. A pioneering freeride snowboarder, Fasani was one of the first women to land a double backflip and she built her reputation riding challenging backcountry terrain. But her career has also been defined by her willingness to use her platform to advocate for women, mothers, and survivors.
In late 2021, just months after giving birth to her second son, Fasani was diagnosed with stage 3 inflammatory breast cancer. After undergoing intensive treatment, she returned to snowboarding and earned a podium finish at the Natural Selection Tour in 2023.
Her journey is documented in the feature film “Butterfly in a Blizzard,” which follows five years of her life and explores snowboarding, motherhood, identity, resilience, and her experience with cancer.
Dean Blotto Gray
Dean “Blotto” Gray is an artist, storyteller, and creative whose work has taken many forms over the years, including photography, scrapbooks, abstract painting, immersive installations, travel books, photo shows and collaborations with outdoor and lifestyle brands.
What ties it all together is a fascination with memories and human experiences.
His subjects frequently involve snowboards, skateboards, and other ways of interacting with the outdoors, but the people and places surrounding those activities are just as important. His work captures the culture around adventure—the personalities, environments and fleeting moments that might otherwise disappear.
Gray was raised in the Southwest and has traveled extensively through his work, but he now lives on the East Coast and considers himself at home wherever his work, family and friends take him.
Use the code “EXPLORER” to get your special $8 tickets here.
