[Back To Work] Two FIS NorAm Cup stops in February 2026. Weather that kept compressing the format. And a breakthrough that changed the tone of the season: Ashton Salwan landed his first bFdFF in Lake Placid, then earned his first NAC win in Lac-Beauport.
Built Without Perfect Days
Some weekends are about results.
NorAm Cup weekends are about standards — the kind you can hold when weather rewrites the schedule, when formats compress, and when the same jump has to show up on demand with no extra tries and no perfect runway.
This 2026 stretch included two NorAm stops: Lake Placid, USA (Feb 7–8) and Lac-Beauport, Canada (Feb 27). Across both venues, conditions shaped the timeline — but the work still had to land.
The Hard Return
Lake Placid, New York arrived with weight. Just weeks after learning he wouldn’t be going to the Olympics, Ashton returned to a place where the dream had felt close — a venue full of memory, expectation, and unfinished feelings. Motivation was hard to find. And on top of it all, he battled illness through the stop.
But NorAm doesn’t pause for timing.
You show up anyway — and you jump.
Lake Placid also opened with weather disruptions that tightened the window and raised the stakes. Still, the progress arrived anyway: Ashton landed his first bFdFF in competition with a score of 104.87 — the kind of step that changes what the rest of the season can become.
Not perfect conditions. Not perfect timing.
Just execution.
He left Lake Placid with a clear signal: the next level wasn’t “in progress” anymore. It was starting to show up under pressure.
When Winter Doesn’t Cooperate
Then came the 20-day gap between stops — and Utah turned brutal. The season had been defined by scarce natural snowfall and heavy dependence on snowmaking just to keep terrain running. No triple kicker to practice on. A double kicker made of man-made snow. And no decent free skiing to fall back on. It was the kind of stretch where you don’t “stack reps.” Progress had to come from whatever training windows existed under poor conditions.
One Day, Two Events
Lac-Beauport delivered the most honest version of NorAm: forecast pressure, a condensed schedule, and a field that forces you to be sharp right now.
With weather threatening the weekend, the format tightened and the timeline compressed — both scheduled events were pushed into one day. Fewer chances. Faster turnaround. Less room to “warm into” the hill.
That’s when aerials gets honest: trust the takeoff, stay patient in the air, and finish the jump.
On Feb 27, Ashton did exactly that. He earned 1st place in the opening Lac-Beauport event — landing his skill-of-the-season, bFdFF, in event training and twice in competition — in a win built on difficulty, control, and a standard that finally looked settled.
In that winning final, he posted a 107.52 — the kind of number that doesn’t come from a “good day.” It comes from a jump that’s beginning to stabilize at the level he’s chasing.
And in true NorAm Cup fashion, the day didn’t end with a celebration lap. It ended with another start list — another chance to prove it again.
Tour Snapshot
- Feb 7 — Lake Placid (USA): 4th
- Feb 8 — Lake Placid (USA): 6th
- Feb 27 — Lac-Beauport (CAN) Day 1: 1st
- Feb 27 — Lac-Beauport (CAN) Day 2: 7th
- Season finish: 2nd overall (NorAm Cup)
The Finish Line
When the season closed, Ashton finished 2nd overall on the NorAm Cup.
He missed the guaranteed 2026/27 World Cup starts — one of those technical outcomes that doesn’t always reflect the season’s trajectory. But the signal from this block wasn’t perfection — it was range. A win on a compressed day, a miss the same day, and a Lake Placid stop fought through illness and low motivation. That’s not a finished product. That’s a season where the ceiling got higher — and the next job became making the top result easier to repeat.
The Bigger Picture
Competition doesn’t hand out certainty. It tests what holds when conditions don’t — when the schedule squeezes, when weather changes the plan, and when Ashton has to deliver on demand regardless of headspace.
This stretch showed what holds.
And it changed the tone of the season: not because everything went perfectly, but because the work started landing for real.
