The park and pipe season heats up with two separate events taking place in China.

At Secret Garden Resort, many notable halfpipe snowboarders and freeskiers will be taking part in The Snow League’s second-ever event. Meanwhile at Shougang Park in Beijing, the FIS World Cup circuit features its second big air competition in as many weekends.

Below is a preview of each event and a breakdown of how to watch.

The Snow League is a new contest series developed by Shaun White. It shakes up the format of traditional halfpipe competitions, while also adding the intrigue of a season-long championship race.

This first season of The Snow League includes four events, the first of which actually took place last March. Only snowboarders competed at that first event, but now the freeskiers have joined the mix for this one, which takes place at the same resort that hosted halfpipe at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Snowboarders will compete in all three of this winter’s events, while the freeskiers will skip February’s contest (due to the timing of the Winter Olympics) and return for the finale in March.

Here's the twist. Eight athletes will be seeded and compete head-to-head in a knockout bracket. This knockout stage starts with the quarterfinals, then moves to the semifinals and the finals. In each phase of competition, two athletes compete in a best-of-three format, with the first athlete to win two runs moving on to the next round. Athletes must drop in from opposite sides of the pipe on their first two runs of each round, which adds more variety since everyone will need to plan out two separate runs.

The first two days of competition will be dedicated to snowboarding (one day of qualifying, one day of finals) before freeskiing takes the spotlight on the final day.

Snowboard Halfpipe

• Date: Thursday, Dec. 4
• Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
• Platform: Peacock

Of the four leading riders in men’s halfpipe, three of them will feature in this contest. The Japanese trio of Ayumu Hirano, Ruka Hirano and Yuto Totsuka, who won the first Snow League contest, all return for their second Snow League event. Scotty James is the big name absent from the field.

While the Japanese riders are considered the favorites in the men’s event, there’s a lot to watch for here. During the offseason, several riders landed triple corks during training sessions and could look to add that trick to their contest runs ahead of the Milan Cortina Olympics. That list includes New Zealand’s Cam Melville Ives and up-and-coming American riders Alessandro Barbieri and Joey Okesson. Melville Ives, who has landed both regular and switch versions of the triple cork, is a potential breakout candidate this season.

In the women’s contest, Sena Tomita defeated Team USA’s Maddie Mastro in the final of the first Snow League event, and both riders will compete again this week. Gaon Choi and Sara Shimizu are among the other notable names. U.S. star Chloe Kim is not in the field.

In total, 20 men and 16 women are on the start list for Secret Garden. Only eight riders from each event will advance to the knockout stage, which can be seen live in the U.S..

Freeski Halfpipe

• Date: Friday, Dec. 5
• Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
• Platform: Peacock

For freeskiing’s debut at The Snow League, eight men and eight women will take part in the event. There's no qualifying round, so the competition will start with the quarterfinals.

Eileen Gu will be competing in a halfpipe event for the first time in nearly a year. Since her star performance at the last Winter Olympics, she’s primarily focused on halfpipe and has been nearly-unbeatable. She’s the favorite in the women’s event but will face an early challenge with her quarterfinal matchup against 2025 X Games champion Cassie Sharpe. Reigning world champion Zoe Atkin could also provide a challenge if both skiers make it all the way to the final.

The men’s field includes Nick Goepper and Fin Melville Ives, twin brother of the aforementioned Cam. Both skiers are contenders for Olympic gold, though the other leading candidate, Alex Ferreira, is not taking part in this event. Goepper, who switched from slopestyle to halfpipe during this Olympic cycle, is planning to debut two new tricks at some point this season, one of which is a switch double misty 1260.

Also of note is the return of Gus Kenworthy, who hasn't competed since the 2022 Winter Olympics. He announced in May that he was unretiring and would be attempting to qualify for a fourth Games.

Elsewhere in China, the FIS World Cup circuit continues with its second big air event of the season.

This backdrop may look familiar from the Beijing Olympics. The event will take place at Shougang Park, where a permanent big air scaffolding ramp was built in the middle of an industrial park.

Athletes can earn points toward the quota allocation list that serves as the basis for determining Olympic quota spots for slopestyle and big air. However, unlike the freeski event at Secret Garden, this one doesn’t serve as a selection event for the U.S. Olympic team in either sport. Therefore, Troy Podmilsak, who won the men’s freeski contest, and many other notable Americans are not competing.

Freeski Big Air

• Date: Saturday, Dec. 6 (late Friday night)
• Time: 12 a.m. ET
• Platform: skiandsnowboard.live

While the top U.S. men are missing from the field, there’s still a lot of strong international talent on the start list, such as Luca Harrington, Birk Ruud, Matej Svancer, Miro Tabanelli and Tormod Frostad. Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut, who earned bronze in big air at the 2022 Winter Olympics, could use a strong result, as he seeks to qualify for Milan Cortina after missing last season due to injury.

Three-time Olympic medalist Mathilde Gremaud and last week’s big air winner, Kirsty Muir, headline the women’s field.

Snowboard Big Air

• Date: Saturday, Dec. 6
• Time: 5 a.m. ET
• Platform: skiandsnowboard.live

Reigning Olympic champion Su Yiming returned to the top of the podium as he landed a pair of 1980s and electrified the home crowd at Secret Garden. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him repeat that feat in Beijing. His Chinese teammate, 19-year-old Ge Chunyu, will be looking to follow up on his breakout 2nd-place performance.

Last season’s World Cup champion, Taiga Hasegawa, was going big last weekend but couldn’t quite land the cab 2160 he was trying to put down. The 20-year-old from Japan could keep trying to push the sport’s progression with big spins in Beijing.

Meanwhile, an interesting battle is brewing for roster spots on Canada’s Olympic slopestyle and big air team. With two of the four spots essentially locked up already, Mark McMorris, one of the greatest contest riders ever, could miss out on Milan Cortina and needs strong results. One of his teammates, 17-year-old Eli Bouchard, has been turning heads with innovative tricks that, at times, appear to completely defy the laws of physics. Bouchard has quickly emerged as one of the sport’s most exciting young riders and is in the mix for one of those two remaining spots.

Japan swept the women’s podium last week, but the return of Great Britain’s Mia Brookes is likely to shake things up. The 18-year-old is coming off back-to-back seasons where she won the Crystal Globe for snowboard big air.