Cody Winters spent his summer washing windows around Routt County, but the Steamboat Springs-raised snowboarder will spend his winter in Europe competing on the world’s biggest stage. 

Winters just finished his fifth year running his business, Winters Window Washing, and he uses the money he makes to supplement his snowboarding career. He is a rare athlete who competes in both Alpine and boardercross events, making him one of the busiest snowboarders on the planet. 

“I’m the first person to do it in eight years on the World Cup,” Winters said. “Last year was figuring out how it works and the best ways to go about it. I spent a lot of time and energy thinking about scheduling this season, picking and choosing what races to do and which ones are best for me.”

According to Winters, he was able to schedule approximately 80% of the World Cup events in both boardercross and parallel competitions. His season starts Dec. 1 and will consist predominantly of traveling and race days all winter. 

Winters acknowledged the lack of training days and rest, but he said he loves to travel and is stoked to create as many opportunities for himself as possible. 

His mind has been focused on one thing since the end of last season. 

“I want to win a World Cup for sure in parallel, in slalom or GS,” Winters said. “It has been super close for me the past two seasons. I have qualified first after the first run five different times now and ended the season last year with a fourth place. It is right there.”

In boardercross, Winters plans to earn a top-16 finish. In his third year on the U.S. Snowboard Team, he understands the challenge, but believes it is more than doable with hard work. 

Winters and the boardercross team are currently training at Waterville Valley Resort in New Hampshire to prepare for the first World Cup event in France at the start of December. 

The mountain is currently closed to the public, giving the team a chance to train privately. Winters and about a dozen other athletes are actively building a training course that he estimates to be a 45-second course with big jumps and bank turns. 

Winters said having the mountain to themselves is an important chance for the team to get their “training legs back under” them because the race is coming up quickly. 

Winters will fly to Europe at the end of the month and plans to remain there all season, living out of his suitcase. He said he is more excited than ever to get back on the snow and go head-to-head with the world’s best. 

“Those first few turns back, you always forget how fun snowboarding actually is, and then once it is taken away from you for a while and you are able to do it again, you’re like ‘Hell yeah, this is sick,'” Winters said.