As we are all painfully aware, COVID-19 has dramatically impacted our lives this year, leaving the future shrouded in uncertainty. There is little it hasn’t touched and, going forward, this now includes POWDER Magazine. On October 2, we were notified by our parent company A360 Media, LLC (formerly American Media, LLC) that our entire editorial staff will be placed on indefinite furlough, effective November 20, 2020, when operations of the magazine, our website, and our social channels will be paused. We do not know if or when this hiatus will end.

We do know, however, that in the coming days, we still have work to do—and two more issues of the magazine to make. This week, we’re completing the special Gear Guide issue that will be available, for free, in ski shops across the country next month. When you go looking for it, consider bringing a six-pack for the shop employees. It’s the right thing to do in times like these.

Our biggest undertaking still is this year’s Photo Annual, which will be on newsstands November 16. This Photo Annual has long been the most collectible issue of the magazine each volume. With POWDER’s future unknown, this particular Photo Annual promises to be extra special. Do not miss it.

Beyond that, we do not know what will become of POWDER, only that its absence for any amount of time will be felt deeply by those of us who have been captivated by its words and images along its 49-year journey.

We hope that it has offered you a home; a place for skiers to come for humor, reflection, inspiration, honesty, and a small taste of the joy we know can only be found, as the founding editors articulated, in getting away from the crowd to a place where there are no lines, no lift towers, no snow fences, no bodies in the way. Just snow.

See you there. Powder To The People, always.
—Sierra Shafer, Editor in Chief