2021 Burton US Open Snowboarding Championships Cancelled

27th May 2020

Last modified on May 14th, 2021

The Burton US Open Snowboarding Championships was scheduled to take place 1 – 6 March at Vail in Colorado but “ongoing uncertainties around the COVID-19 pandemic” have led officials to cancel it.

“This was a difficult call to make since we’re so many months away from the next Burton US Open, and we’re not sure what will be happening with the pandemic nine months from now,” said Burton CEO, John Lacy.

“After playing out multiple options for the 2021 event, we realized there is too much at stake due to the potential public health risk and the financial risk for Burton to invest millions in an event that could end up being cancelled.”

The Burton Open is the longest-running snowboard championship, since 1983.

“This is disappointing for everyone. The riders, crowds, brand partners and crews who work the event are all what has made the Open the favorite event of the snowboarding community for 38+ years,” Lacy said.

“It’s more like a snowboarding family reunion than anything else, and the impact of this decision is widespread throughout the snowboard community. But as disappointing as it is, protecting the long-term health of this community is what’s most important. If we need to miss a year of the Open to help slow the spread of COVID-19, we’ll get through it.”

It follows the organisers of the Cortina 2021 World Championships asking the International Ski Federation for a postponement until 2022.

See here for that earlier PlanetSKI story, Cortina wants to postpone next years world championships to 2022

Many other major events in the mountains will be going through similar scenarios – wondering whether it is worth investing huge amounts of money and time with the future looking so uncertain due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Here at PlanetSKI we detect a growing realisation that next winter may be far from business as usual with resorts looking at a variety of possibilities for the season of 2020/21.

Related stories:

What may a ski holiday look like next winter? Part One.

What may a ski holiday look like next winter? Part Two.

However, we do think skiing and snowboarding will be going ahead with resorts open.

It will just likely be a different experience next winter.

Many of the alpine countries are opening their international and internal borders next month and it will be interesting to see how the summer tourist season on the mountains develops.

Some of the UK ski tour operators also report that “at last things are beginning to look a bit more positive”.

Here at PlanetSKI we’ll keep you posted…