TCR | August 11, 2026 — Kelly Slater Just Bodied Medina at 54, Portillo's Road Is Still Buried

Published August 11, 2026

August 11, 2026

The Forecast

The GOAT isn't done yet

Kelly Slater is 54 years old and just combo'd Gabriel Medina at Teahupo'o. Let that settle for a second. The wildcard drew a near-perfect heat in psycho surf, threading barrels that would make most pros in their twenties reconsider their career path — and he did it in the Round of 32 at the Outerknown Tahiti Pro. Meanwhile, the Andes keep doing Andes things: Valle Nevado is still sitting on 414cm, Portillo is at 284cm but its road has been buried for over 20 days — guests are literally helicoptering in — and Chilean ski officials are publicly berating the government to figure it out. Las Leñas just climbed to 241cm across the border. Film season teasers start dropping in four days, and the anticipation is building like a December storm cycle. The southern winter is fat. The northern summer is restless. And Kelly Slater apparently still has things to prove.

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Fresh Tracks

◆ Powder Magazine

Portillo's Road Has Been Buried for 20 Days and Chilean Ski Officials Are Losing It

Over 200 inches of snow buried the international road to Portillo, and guests have been helicoptering in for a week. Chilean ski officials are publicly calling on the government to "learn to live with the snow" — a sentence that hits different when your base is pushing 300cm.

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◆ Stab Magazine

54-Year-Old Kelly Slater Just Combo'd Medina at Psycho Teahupo'o

Three heats ran. Only three. Because the swell was that heavy. And the 54-year-old wildcard with nothing left to prove went out and dropped a three-time world champion in pumping, terrifying Teahupo'o. Some people just refuse to let biology make their decisions.

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★ TGR

Jack Coyne Tells Stories Without Words at Mt. Baker

"I want to tell a story without saying a word through my snowboarding." Jack Coyne's Baker laps are the kind of mid-summer snow content that scratches the itch — smooth, creative, and proof that the Pacific Northwest breeds a different kind of rider.

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◆ SnowBrains

New Zealand's Ohau Snowfields Get Blessed with 'Spackle'

It's not powder. It's "spackle" — a unique NZ snow classification that fills in the gaps and makes thin cover suddenly skiable. Ohau's celebrating, and honestly, when your hemisphere is running lean, you take what the sky gives you and call it a win.

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The Edit

Michaela Kiersch moves through V14 boulder problems at Gotthardpass, Switzerland, with the kind of quiet intensity that makes the grade feel secondary to the craft. Hazel Grace (8B+), Power of Zero (8B), and a handful of other classics — all shot and edited by Giuliano Cameroni with Dave Graham lurking as a special guest. It's a patient, beautifully composed climbing film that respects the rock and the process of getting up it.

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@Giuliano Cameroni · @Michaela Kiersch · @Dave Graham

Off-Piste

⛷️ Mikaela Shiffrin showed up at Denver Broncos training camp for a jersey swap with QB Bo Nix — she got a Broncos jersey, he got a Denver Summit FC kit. Off-season crossover content we didn't know we needed. Unofficial Networks

🏔️ Cervinia just announced "The One" — a €197 million, 3S cable car that'll cover 6km and 1,500 vertical meters in under 17 minutes, connecting the Italian resort to Plateau Rosa and the Zermatt ski system. Infrastructure spending that actually moves the needle. InTheSnow

🎿 Summit at Snoqualmie is dropping Ikon Pass reservation requirements for next winter. One of Seattle's go-to mountains finally trusting that maybe the crowd-control experiment ran its course. Powder

👑 King Charles III publicly reflected on surviving the 1988 Klosters avalanche that killed his close friend Major Hugh Lindsay — 38 years later, calling it "a close thing." A reminder that the mountains don't care about titles. SnowBrains

Dropping

Jones FASE Binding System — Jones expanded its quick-entry FASE binding to three models for the 26-27 season, and the pitch is compelling: step-in speed without requiring proprietary boots. That's been the holy grail of snowboard binding tech for decades — everybody wants the convenience, nobody wants to be locked into one boot. The FASE system uses a flip-lock mechanism that works with standard boots, and early reviews from Japan have been genuinely enthusiastic. If you've been waiting for quick-entry that doesn't come with an asterisk, this is worth watching.

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Conditions Check

Chile firing

Valle Nevado holding at 414cm, Portillo at 284cm, La Parva at 239cm — the road to Portillo has been buried for 20+ days but the skiing up there is absurd. →

Argentina good

Las Leñas climbed to 241cm and is skiing deep; Chapelco is scraping by on 30cm — a tale of two countries within one country. →

New Zealand thin

Treble Cone is open but running on a 5cm base — they're calling spackle snow a win and honestly, respect the hustle. →

Australia mixed

Falls Creek is the bright spot at 58cm and open; Perisher and Thredbo are barely registering at 3cm each — the Aussie season is still waiting for its moment. →

Oregon / Summer thin

Timberline is open on Palmer but reporting 0cm base depth — summer glacier skiing at its most committed. →

Alps — Summer thin

Zermatt is open on an 8cm base for summer glacier laps; Hintertux is technically open but showing 0cm — high-altitude persistence mode. →

At 54, Kelly Slater is still getting barreled at the heaviest wave on earth. What's your excuse for not going skiing this week?

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