Inland Northwest ski race teams will likely be making some changes to their programs to limit pandemic related health risks and keep kids and parents safe. Registration for these ski racing teams should begin as normal this fall but check in early to keep up to date on any COVID-related changes to each mountain’s ski race program.

• Mt. Spokane Ski Race Team: Mssrt.org
• 49 Degrees North FAST Program: Ski49n.com/mountain-services/race-program
• Lookout Pass Race Team: Skilookout.com/race-teams
• Schweitzer Alpine Racing School (SARS): Sars.snowproportal.com
• Silver Mountain Alpine Racing Team (SMART): https://www.silvermt.com/index.php/ski-ride/alpine-race-team

Originally published as “Ski Racing Programs Take Young Skiers to the Next Level” in the Family Winter Sports Guide in the Nov.-Dec. 2020 issue.

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Oliver (Ollie) Peck: age 5, skier at 49˚ North

Landon McCaffree: age 10, skier at Mt. Spokane

Kendal Brumet: age 11, skier at Lookout Pass

Libby Collins: age 12, skier at Silver Mountain

Family Winter Sports Guide sponsored by Ski the Northwest Rockies association.

Amy McCaffree has been a freelance writer for Out There since 2006, and is Out There Kids columnist and special section editor. She started skiing in 9th grade, taking lessons with her junior high Ski Club at Ski Acres at Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains. Since winter 2003-04, she has been a season pass skier at Mt. Spokane.

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Some people enjoy a day on the mountain by skiing miles and miles of corduroy. Others love deep, endless powder days, and many just like being in the mountains with family and friends. For myself, skiing is crushing levels of g-forces, suits tighter than a second skin, ice, and obscenely skinny skis. I compete for the Mt. Spokane Ski Race Team as an alpine racer, and my path down the mountain, if all goes well, is one of rhythm and flow, arc-to-arc turns, and clean, powerful skiing from top to bottom.  

The Olympic sport of alpine racing showcases the athlete’s diverse skill set across four distinct events: slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom, and downhill. There is (unfortunately, for my finances) a unique pair of skis required for each of these events that differ in length, stiffness, and size of turn radius. 

Slalom gives us the shortest, slowest, yet most rapid-paced event. You will see racers launch out of the start to arc around the hinged poles, called gates, often knocking them down in order to ski the tightest line. The short skis used for slalom (165 cm) are wide in the tip and extremely narrow underfoot, giving the skier the ability to arc a short-radius turn. Slalom is a technical event, making it a two-run race, in which each racer’s combined times are added up to determine a winner. 

In the next fastest event, giant slalom (GS for short), the skis get longer (193 cm), the speeds nearly double, and the skiing changes from quick, sudden turns to longer, fluid, powerful turns. GS is also a technical event, following the same two-run format as slalom. GS is the fundamental basis of ski racing, as the skills from it are prevalent in all events.  

The true speed events, including the super giant slalom (super G) and downhill, are often popular with viewers due to the highway speeds and massive, soaring jumps that racers conquer as they throw their bodies down the hill. The primary differences between the speed events and GS are the higher speeds, bigger turns, and dramatic terrain. To be stable in these conditions, super G and downhill skis are incredibly long and straight, 212 and 218 cm, respectively. 

The athletes aren’t the only ones who experience the thrill of ski racing. So do the spectators who witness each racer charge down the hill with differing styles and ways of approaching the sport. Crashes, beautiful skiing, and epic recoveries are commonplace in racing, as well as the thrill of raw speed. Races are fun, competitive environments that showcase some of the best skiing in the area. // 

William “Woody” Dexter is a full-time ski racer who also works at the Spokane Alpine Haus. When not skiing, he can be found hanging with friends or playing his ukulele. 

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Viktor Torvik, age 8, is a weekend regular at Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park. Skiing since age 3 with his parents, Tom and Natalya, Viktor joined the Mini Mites ski school program when he was old enough. Now in second grade, he’s in a Kid’s Club advanced group. “I like going fast and jumping. I also like getting trained, so I can be good at skiing,” says Viktor. “My favorite run is Secret X, because I like to go through the fluffy powder between the trees.”

For children who are new to alpine skiing, Viktor’s advice is to “first learn making a pizza shape with their skis. Once they get better, they can turn back and forth. When they get even better, they can do a hockey stop [turning left or right with skis together]. Once they get better at that, like me, they can go really fast and do fast turns. They should also get a cool teacher like Andy [Viktor’s Kid’s Club coach].”

Because his father is a volunteer patroller with Mt. Spokane Ski Patrol, the Torviks arrive at the mountain by 8 a.m. “Viktor started to help the Chair 5 crew set up for the day. This would entail wiping down chairs, setting up crowd control nets, and grooming the loading ramp,” his parents explain. “As time went on, he started to help by scanning passes, closing up lifts, and helping to direct people into the correct line for loading. Several of the mountain employees appreciated his enthusiasm, and they rewarded him by teaching him how the lifts work. This year the mountain management offered to silk screen his coat with ‘Jr. Staff’ on the back along with the Mt. Spokane logo. Along with being proud to wear this coat, he truly loves his mountain family.”

In addition to benefitting from appropriate risk-tasking and physical challenges, Viktor’s mom says, “He wasn’t immune from disappointment when he started, but improving in his skiing ability helps him to understand that persistence, practice, and following directions pays off. Participating in the Mt. Spokane kids’ programs and volunteering has [given him opportunities] to understand teamwork, comradery, making friends, and practicing courtesy and compassion.”

At Lookout Pass, another impressive young skier is eight-year-old Erin McElgunn, who tears it up every weekend and during school breaks. Now in third grade, she, too, has been skiing since age 3. “Erin likes that it is challenging and that she feels good when she goes on runs that were once hard or scary for her. She likes skiing with friends and family, and it’s like having a cool playdate with friends when she’s on the mountain,” says Erin’s mom, Stacy McElgunn. “She has a fair amount of freedom at Lookout.”

Erin’s favorite run is Montana Face. “It looks steep from the top and it’s really fun,” she says. To improve her skills and meet more ski-kids, Erin and her older sister joined the Lookout Pass ski team. She’s now in her second racing season, participating in “a few [Giant Slalom] races per year,” her mom says. “I’ve seen Erin take more risks. New things sometimes make her nervous, and she has become braver about trying things that intimidate her.” Erin offers up some advice for other children: Although skiing “can be scary at first, you’ll love it and be happy. Start on blues [intermediate runs] and greens [beginner runs] and then try harder things because you’ll probably be able to do it.”

With more than a month left in this winter’s ski season, and lots of children having completed ski lessons the past few months, expect to see even more kiddos confidently cruising down the mountain on skis and snowboards. Give an encouraging shout-out – “Looking good!” or “You’re doing great!” – and tell those parents snowplowing with their toddlers and holding on to harnesses, “Keep it up!” They, too, will be skiing the pow in a few years. //

Amy Silbernagel McCaffree writes our Out There Kids monthly column.

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OTM: What events do your sons participate in?

TT & PA: Last year they turned 10, which is the first year they were old enough to compete in higher speed racing. So now they compete in Slalom, Giant Slalom (GS), and Super Giant Slalom (Super G).

OTM: During the ski racing season, how many days is your family on the mountain?

TT & PA: It feels like we pretty much live on the mountain in the winter. The boys train Wednesday evening, Thursday evening, and all day Saturday and Sunday. With the SSRA development program, they have the option to train all day Friday too. We haven’t pursued this opportunity since school is a high priority.

OTM: What have been some of the most memorable highlights as a ski racing family?

TT & PA: The highlights for us are when we get to ski together as a family – which is quite rare – and see how the boys are progressing and see how much fun they have skiing. They both have a strong passion for skiing, which is a joy to see. Also, it has been wonderful watching them take responsibility for their training and gear. They get themselves up early – sometimes 5 a.m. for races and 6 a.m. for 7 a.m. practices – and then carry their gear to and from the car and to the chair lift. We still do the waxing of the skis, but they are eager to learn. Another benefit is getting to know other ski families. We have had some wonderful times laughing together, volunteering together, and cheering our SSRA kiddos together. There are some great people working hard to make SSRA a success – coaches, parents, and grandparents.

OTM: What challenges, such as injuries, have your sons personally overcome during their ski racing years?

TT & PA: They have only had one major injury each, which both happened last season. Owen crashed at high speed (not on the race course) and hit his head resulting in a concussion that took several weeks to come back from. Fortunately, modern ski racing helmets are very good, and he was otherwise fine. Hayden also fell last year (not during a race, but off the chairlift during practice) and broke his arm. This put him out for the remainder of the season, which was very frustrating for him, but we supplied him with extra root beer at races and he became Owen’s biggest fan and cheerleader.

OTM: What should other people know about ski helmet safety, based on your experiences as parents and ski patrollers? (Note: Both Tucker and Ainsworth are volunteer members of the Mt. Spokane Ski Patrol.)

TT & PA: Helmets are critical. Without a good helmet your risk of a life-changing injury goes up exponentially. Modern ski racing and recreational helmets are excellent and there are affordable options, so please don’t ski without one.

OTM: What are your sons’ long-term ski racing goals and ambitions?

TT & PA: We are leaving this up to them. We will support them if they want to keep racing, but we would be just as happy if they are ready to move on and go back to skiing as a family each weekend. We are just happy that they are both strong skiers and have this sport to love for years to come.

OTM: What advice would you give other parents whose children are interested in ski racing?

TT & PA: SSRA has a fantastic program for all levels of ability and commitment. We suggest that any family interested in ski racing should start by signing their child up for the five-day holiday camp, which is a great way to see if your child enjoys the ski racing program, and they will meet their peers and coaches and will train the same way all the other racers do. On the last day they have the chance to race in an SSRA club race. It’s a great opportunity to see what it is actually like to race through gates, get an official time, and maybe even a trophy. If you decide to join, the money you spent on the camp goes toward your membership. //

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These aspiring Bode Millers and Picabo Streets usually can join a ski team by age five, if they already have had a season or two of experience on the snow. Though ski teams tend not to require specific skills tests, they generally will only accept kids who already know how to ski.

“Our business is not to take someone who’s never skied,” says Jimmy Holcomb, Head Coach and Program Director of FAST. “We don’t have any specific restrictions, but you need to be able to ski around the mountain before you can start to race.” Beyond that, he says, “all you really need is a helmet, ski equipment, and the desire to go fast.”

Shep Snow, Head Coach and Program Director of Independence Racing Team, adds, “the goal of our organization is to create kids who are passionate about skiing.”

The teams find there is not much need for active recruiting. Like the other teams, SSRA gains new members mostly by word of mouth, says Head Coach and Program Director, Chuck Holcomb, though they also do some minimal advertising at local schools. “Families that are happy about what ski racing has done for their kid and for their family will tell their friends,” he says. “They value the life skills that are kind of inherent in a demanding sport like ski racing.”

SARS Head Coach and Program Director, Roger Taggart, adds that kids tend to enter the program when they’re little and then stay in the program. “We have a group of girls that started with us when they were six, and now they’re sixteen, going 75 miles an hour on their feet.”

One local opportunity for kids to get a taste of the sport is the Home Town Race Series, hosted at Schweitzer Mountain by Shep Snow’s Independence Racing Team. For $38 anyone can come up and get four Friday nights of racing, with volunteer coaching from some of Schweitzer’s Masters class racers. The aspiring racers are divided into teams, and at the end of the series, prizes are awarded at an ice cream party, based on “Most Improved” as calculated with percentages in “an algorithm that sometimes takes a six-pack to get through,” says Shep. “Many of our new athletes come from that series.”

STRUCTURE
Since ski racing is a global sport, governed by the Federation International de Ski, or FIS, (and the United States Ski Association, or USSA, locally), our local teams tend to be structured in similar ways.

They all compete in the same four basic events, Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super G, and Downhill, as defined by FIS and USSA. In our region the youth ski racing events are Slalom, GS and Super G—“you have to be older to do the fastest event in ski racing, the Downhill,” says Jimmy Holcomb of FAST. Once they get a taste for speed, though, it may be addictive—SSRA athletes Dillon Bauernfeind, age 15, and Makaela Kerl, age 14, say their favorite event is “speed—Downhill or Super G,” while Sierra Schrankel, 15, a third member of SSRA’s Junior team, prefers the old staple, Slalom.

SARS and 49 Degrees North also have freeride teams, which compete in Slopestyle, Big Air, Boarder-cross, Slalom, and GS for the snowboarders, and Slopestyle, Skier-cross and Big Air. Unfortunately, there aren’t any halfpipes in the Inland Northwest, so “the freeriders here have done the best in the slopestyle, but we try really hard to build solid four-event skiers,” coach Taggart says.

Our local ski teams accommodate racers five and up, and a few have robust programs for Juniors (aged 13-14) and FIS athletes—everyone aged 15+ competes together in the same events.

At Schweitzer, says Taggart, “The youngest kids are age five, going all the way up to Masters-level. Our oldest guy is about 75.” The athletes are then grouped by age. At SSRA, for example, the groups are: Introduction to Ski Racing Program (25 kids, mostly younger than 13), Youth Ski League Program (30 kids, younger than 13, racing at an intermediate to advanced level), the Junior Development Program (20 kids aged 13-14), and the Junior/FIS Program (about ten kids) for those who are 15 or older.

At age 13, racers transition from age-based competition to ability-based competition. “When you get to 13 or 14, you need to make a decision on what you’re going to do with your ski racing career,” Jimmy Holcomb says. “To be a junior is much more expensive—there’s more training, more conditioning and more commitment, so a lot of kids at that age are just interested in other things.”

The season runs from mid-December through March, and to get their athletes ready, most of the teams offer a considerable amount of off-season and pre-season training, but “the level of commitment and time varies wildly,” says Jimmy Holcomb of FAST. Younger and entry-level athletes usually ski one day each week with the team. As they advance, they typically add a second weekend day and eventually one or more nights of night skiing. “To be really competitive, the kids need to be practicing at least four days per week,” says SARS coach Taggart.

Prior to the season of racing, the teams do dry land training. Says Coach Jimmy Holcomb, “we get together for a couple hours on the weekend, we warm up, do some sprinting and strength conditioning, and then we play soccer for an hour or so for aerobic fitness.” Then, he says, “we usually start the season Dec. 1 or as soon as there’s enough snow to ski on.”

Some teams take off-season training to the next level with training camps. SSRA, for example, organizes both dry land training and travel to training camps in the fall. “We take as many kids as can afford the time and money,” says Coach Chuck Holcomb. “It’s certainly not something everyone can do, but it’s a great opportunity for those who can.” This year, the SSRA team had 26 athletes eligible to attend their training camp in Banff in November; 12 went on the trip.

For SARS, there’s an additional challenge to getting the team together for pre-season practices: “We’re geographically diverse,” coach Taggart says, including kids from as far away as Lewiston, so some of the athletes work out in localized groups with physical therapists, who might lead a workout incorporating plyometric exercises, elliptical machines, vibration plates, kettle balls and Swiss balls.

SARS makes the most of their time together on the mountain, though. The resort, like other mountains in the area, lets them on the slopes early in the morning before general opening for speed training—“we get on the lifts early and let the kids go super fast. We also run a speed camp at Mt. Hood in the summer,” says Taggart.

Their regular season practices, like most of the other teams, include such exercises as Super G training during speed time, drills with props or brushes, practice courses, and, of course, freeskiing. “It’s a big advantage for us here (at Schweitzer) that we have such challenging freeskiing. The kids who are good freeskiers tend to be good racers, which is not always true the other way around,” Taggart says.

Schweitzer also allows them to practice and race on different runs, but “of course, whatever run we have shut down is suddenly the public’s favorite run, and the resort takes a lot of flak for us.”

The SSRA athletes take advantage of the freeskiing, too—they love to ski Mt. Spokane’s new gladed runs on the backside of the mountain—when coach Holcomb lets them off the hook.

Once they’re ready, entry-level athletes may or may not race three to four days each season, and some will opt out of races if they don’t feel ready to compete. Most kids race about seven starts per year, though some of the FIS Juniors race as many as 35 days per year, and the coaches travel to as many more as the ability and ambition of their athletes drive them.

Taggart says his SARS team this year will race in British Columbia, as far south as Mammoth, and as far East as Aspen. If racers do well at events in the Western Region (CA, UT, CO, MT, ID, WA, OR, AK), they have the opportunity to ski at other events in more distant locations.

“We have a larger elite squad, and we have some kids who have some pretty lofty goals, so we’ll go outside the region to get them more starts and more points,” Taggart says.

The points are an integral part of the FIS system for gauging a skier’s ability. After a racer reaches the age of 12 years old, they begin to build a “point profile”: for each event you get a score, like a report card, and then race order in future races is determined by points. The top 15 athletes as determined by their points score get to race first (in random order), and then the rest of the athletes race the course in the order of their ability as determined by points. “It’s a pretty good indicator of the ability of the skier, especially by the age of 15 or 16,” Taggart says.

Scott Snow, a FIS Junior on Independence Racing Team, was the West Region’s Junior Olympic champion last year in GS, which qualified him to start this season in December at a national development program speed camp for the US Ski Team.

With all that practice and travel time, “our FIS juniors are going to miss some school—there’s no way around it,” Chuck Holcomb says. “It’s tough to be on the hill all day, come back to the hotel we’re staying at and still have to do homework,” he says. “It takes a lot of discipline and a lot of commitment, but we find that the athletes who are really achievers on the hill tend to be achievers off the hill as well.”

Our local racers have come up with a multitude of ways to pursue their educations while they race. Some attend more flexible private schools, and some participate in running start programs that allow them to take community college courses for high school credit during spring and fall quarter, but take winter quarter off to live on the mountain and ski.

SSRA’s Makaela Kerl is in a program called CORE at LC, which helps “kids who need a little boost,” she explains. Her teammate, Sierra Schrankel, says “I collect all my homework before I go on a trip, and do my best to stay on top of it, but it’s hard.”

Dillon Bauernfeind takes two classes online, and Scott Snow attends the Idaho Virtual Academy.

COACHING STRUCTURE
The athletes don’t miss out on mentors by spending less time in school; the teams race through the season with a significant support staff of assistant coaches and dedicated volunteers. Though most of the coaches do get paid, at least a nominal amount, very few can actually make a living at it. “You’re not doing it to make money, you’re doing it because you love it,” Jimmy Holcomb says.

Where does a team find good coaches? Most of the program directors listed the same three sources: some coaches are former parents who had kids who used to race; some are ex-racers who want to give back to the sport; and some come over from ski schools, so that, Holcomb says, instead of seeing a group of kids for a few weeks, you can be involved with their development for a few years on a much more intensive basis.

Independence Team Racing coach Shep Snow retired from an Army career to coach, “for any athlete who wants to—I coach seven days per week, and I love it because it keeps my brain from getting too rotten and my body from getting too flabby.”

PARENTS
And don’t forget the dedicated volunteer parents, whom the teams rely on to host events, not to mention catch rides up those treacherous mountain roads at six a.m. The day to day stuff doesn’t require much of the parents, except carrying practice gates up the hill on occasion, but there’s so much going on at races, including registration, timing, results, etc., that Chuck Holcomb of SSRA says, “it takes about 75 volunteers to put on a race,” and for the season-capping Buddy Warner this March they’ll need twice that.

Like other regional teams, SSRA hosts three to five races each year, and will host this year’s Buddy Warner Cup, which is held every third year by a resort in the Eastern Washington/North Idaho region of the Pacific NW Ski Association. They’ll also be hosting a Junior Olympic qualifier in January and the Emerald Empire Youth Ski League Championship, where they’ll be defending their team title against the FAST, SARS, Independence, Lookout and Bluewood teams for the third year.

This year, SSRA is asking families to do five days of volunteer work, though new families are only requested to do three, to ease them into the busy pace of running a ski program. “The parents are intricately involved, and if they weren’t, the program wouldn’t be as inclusive as it is as a result of their work running races and fundraising,” Holcomb says.

SARS will host the Western Region Junior Championships this year, a six day event in three disciplines (no Downhill), and the overall winners will advance to US Nationals, where they can compete with the 60-70 best competitors from all over the US. “If you do well there, you can be named to the US Ski Team and be exposed to sponsorship opportunities,” says Taggart.

The likelihood of making it to the US Ski Team, for any aspiring racer, is slight, but that never discouraged local champions like Will Brandenburg of SARS. Brandenburg worked his way up through the national development system, earning a #1 ranking this year in the world for his age. At a recent elite North America competition in Colorado he placed third and sixth, and Taggart says Brandenburg will be in the 2010 winter Olympics in Whistler.

It takes more than skill to make it in ski racing though—ski racing is a tough sport. “You spend all that time training and if you make one mistake in a run, you’re just done. It’s not like basketball where, if you miss a basket, you’ll probably get another chance to shoot,” Holcomb says.

While many would say that ski racing seems like an individual sport, SSRA’s Chuck Holcomb thinks of it another way. “The relationships developed between the athletes and with their coaches are really the glue that holds the program together—it’s a real source of motivation for them,” he says. “Some parents and coaches have their own way of doing things, so maybe that athlete will train outside of a team—I’ve seen that kind of thing in Colorado and back East, with mixed results. I think those kids who are on their own kind of suffer from missing out on those team bonds,” he says.

That said, though, SARS coach Roger Taggart adds that ski racing isn’t just a social club. “I think when kids have left the team, it’s because it’s not a social group. It’s just not the same as being on a basketball team or another school-based sport where your social network is much bigger,” Taggart says.

“Skiing is super competitive—there’s one kid that wins and that’s it, so it can be pretty brutal.” Soccer players win as a team or lose as a team, but in skiing it’s really just up to you, he adds. But, those kids that stick with it gain valuable skills. “You’re pushing yourself to succeed in varying conditions. The hill you race on even from one day to the next is different, and it’s different if you go first, fifth, or fiftieth, which forces kids to deal with the here and now,” Taggart says. Athletes also learn travel skills, time management, and budgeting, “so when they go to college, they have that experience already, and it might not be such a shock.”

“The best thing about ski racing is watching the kids grow emotionally and mentally, you know, it’s freezing out there and you’re standing at the top of the hill in your skin-tight speed suit, and the guy in front of you just crashed, and you’ve got to be able to race your race,” adds Shep Snow of Independence. “Even if they quit tomorrow, they’ll be better people for the experience.”

Snow’s team has the distinction of being essentially a free program, limited to athletes in the Sandpoint area who maybe wouldn’t be able to afford the sport otherwise. “I think it’s pretty impressive, that it’s free, the coaches don’t get paid, and we’re still able to produce athletes who can perform at the top levels of the sport,” Snow says.

Taggart agrees: “The opportunities we provide to these kids are equal or better than those provided by the academies [ski racing boarding schools],” he says. “I believe our coaches are as good as any other program, and the relationship we have with the resort allows our kids to be more rounded,” he says, citing the rigid schedules of those institutions.

“Our kids grow up in their own family situations, rather than a boarding school. What we have puts more responsibility on the kids and I think that’s a huge benefit for our kids,” Taggart says.

“I think what these kids do is amazing, and they don’t get the respect and attention that more mainstream sports do,” Taggart says.

Says SSRA racer Makaela Kerl, “I love everything about racing—the competition and the travel and the intensity of it all. I want to keep doing it forever.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
http://www.ski49n.com/racing.asp
http://www.gossra.org
http://www.sars.net
shep@thesnowschool.com
http://www.skilookout.com/new/racing

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