Pete McBride knows watersheds—intimately, instinctively—from the frosted peaks where they’re born to the parched canyons where they disappear. A native Coloradan, McBride spent the first half of his life on skis, racing gates and chasing winter, before photography and rivers carried him down a different path.

After decades documenting the beauty and vulnerability of rivers—especially the Colorado—across film, print, and countless miles on foot, McBride has returned to his skiing roots to collaborate with Wagner Skis. Their shared mission: to tell the story of water, frozen and flowing, through art and craft.

The result is the Watershed Series—four custom ski designs that weave McBride’s award-winning imagery across Colorado-built Wagner topsheets. Each graphic traces a different chapter of the river’s journey, from snowy headwaters to its thirsty desert terminus.

In collaboration with American Rivers and The Nature Conservancy, the four designs remind us that every turn we make on winter snow is part of a much bigger system. The storms we celebrate, the flakes we chase, the mountains we love: they’re the source of the waterways that sustain us and the West. Learn more about Pete McBride and his ski designs here.