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PCSS Newsletter January 21, 2022

By Park City Ski & Snowboard, 01/21/22, 9:30AM MST

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  • Competition Season Starts
  • Dar Hendrickson
  • Upcoming Events
  • Division Highlights

Message from the Executive Director

Competition season is in full swing across PCSS and the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, China are only two weeks away! Over the last few weeks, PCSS athletes have dazzled on the world stage at World Cups (AER, MOG, PNP), NorAms (ALP, AER, MOG, SBX) and Nationals (XCC) with more international events coming up. In addition, several notable alumni including Winter Vinecki (AER), Stephen Schumann and Jared Shumate (Nordic Combined), Maggie Voisin (Slopestyle), and Alex Hall and Colby Stevenson (Slopestyle) and Rosie Brennan (XCC) have earned Olympic spots! We hope our whole community will join us in cheering on our superstar alumni and all USA athletes who have worked so hard to get the much-coveted opportunity to represent our country at the upcoming Games.

We are also celebrating our newest PCSS participants this January as they ski, ride and thrive! Special shout outs to PCSS Cross Country Director, Emma Garrard, for getting our mini-gliders (4-6 year olds) out skiing with their families and our Devo Freeride Director, Ryan Devine, for getting our PCSShredders (7-10 year olds) participating across PCSS disciplines for the next 10 weeks. We appreciate the special dedication it takes to getting our newcomers into sport and to make them feel welcome. 

Speaking of the Games, we hope everyone will join PCSS as we celebrate past, present, and future athletes of the Winter Games, while watching the finals of the men's Snowboard Halfpipe and women's Super-G. The event is FREE, but VIP options are available to purchase. Space is limited, so RSVP today! 

We hope you will also join PCSS for the upcoming Park City Town Race Series. The first of this 4-part race series takes place next Friday, January 28th. We are excited to host the series at our race venue at the Utah Olympic Park. The series will include traditional alpine downhill racing (GS), as well as an uphill route for those who love to skin. The event is open to all community members, has a beer garden for the over 21 crowd and we strongly encourage all parents, friends and family to join us for Friday night fun!!! Proceeds from the series will benefit PCSS athletes! Registration can be found here


Club News & Upcoming Events

1/28Park City Town Race Series - Family friendly racing at the Utah Olympic Park. Register here or Volunteer here.

2/10 - Watch Party - Celebrate with us!! Register here or Volunteer here.

2/11Park City Town Race Series - Family friendly racing at the Utah Olympic Park. Register here or Volunteer here.


Coach Spotlight - Dar Hendrickson

For over 30 years, Dar Hendrickson has been a staple the sport of Alpine Skiing in Park City. Dar is one of those living legends of PCSS and we are honored to have him as a coach, mentor and icon in the sport. Dar has worked with local alpine ski racers, including Olympic, national and collegiate champions. As a former collegiate racer himself at Northern Michigan University, his love of the sport transcends just racing. Dar currently coaches the Devo alpine teams and the PC Shredders alpine weeks. Racers young and old have thoroughly enjoyed his coaching and the environment he creates fosters a love for the sport. 

Off the mountain, Dar is famous for his Dar-licious dinners, a highly prized live auction item at the YSA Jans Winter Welcome. A true renaissance man, Dar also is well respected for his summer occupation of painting houses.  

Dar really brings the energy to the mountain and makes every effort to inspire youth. Some of his more notable catch phrases include; 

"Best day ever!"

"Devo-licious!" 

Be sure to say hello to Dar when you see him on the mountain.


Division Updates

Aerials

Our Aerials team has been extremely busy this month. We are excited to be training at the Utah Olympic Park after a late start due to weather conditions. The culmination of the month was at the FIS Freestyle World Cup at Deer Valley Resort where several of our team members and alumni participated in the competition. Congratulations to PC locals on the US Team Kaila Kuhn, Winter Vinecki, Karenna Elliott, Dani Loeb and PCSS athletes Derek Kruger, Connor Curran and Ian Schoenwald.

Congrats to PCSS alumna Winter Vinecki as she prepares for Beijing!

Devo Freestyle

Saturdays and Sundays have been busy for the Devo Freestyle teams. If you are skiing at Park City on the weekend, you can expect to see these little shredders all over the mountain enjoying the terrain. They are very noticeable with the amazing green and orange jackets. A small group of Devo athletes will be competing this weekend at Woodward and Snowbird in Big Mtn. Stay tuned for results on social media. 

In only its' second year, the PC Shredders program is an exciting offering for 7-10 year old who want a tasting of many of the programs PCSS offers. The PC Shredders are wrapping up the first three weeks of alpine skiing and will be starting ski jumping in the upcoming week. The athletes have been making big strides and are really getting an understanding of what the alpine discipline involves as well as learning some new ski games to share with friends. 

Ski Jumping

PCSS Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined spent little time lounging over the holidays. Here at the UOP, our athletes were training over the school break, as well as finishing hill preparation on the larger hills. On Christmas Day, our club members watched with pride as Rachael Haerter (17) and Josie Johnson (15) represented PCSS at the 2022 US Olympic Trials in Lake Placid, NY.  Haerter and Johnson finished with strong 7th and 9th place finishes, respectively.

Back at the Olympic Park, we kicked off the New Year with the second annual Heckert Memorial and the 1st IMD/RMD Junior Championship qualifier of 2022.  With the addition of Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, 58 athletes competed in the event on our 10, 20, 40 and 68M hills.  We concluded the competition with exciting Nordic Combined races at the base of the large hills, where athletes raced up to 5 challenging laps on our 1km loop. Full results are available at: https://usanordic.org/results/

After the Heckert Memorial, our top athletes hit the road for the 5-Hills Tournee in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.  These athletes will compete in five events in four locations by the end of the 10-day tournee. They will gain valuable experience jumping on various hills and enjoy unique Midwest tournaments with excited spectators, late night events, and even the occasional firework show.  

As we prepare for the Olympics, we are excited to cheer on PCSS alumni Stephen Schumann and Jared Shumate.

Alpine

Our Alpine team has been extremely busy this month. Our coaches are excited about the training lanes at the UOP, Park City Resort and countless travel opportunities. Race season is in full swing for Alpine. 

Our U10s and U12s did exceptionally well at the South Series race at the Utah Olympic Park last weekend, with numerous PCSS athletes on the podium (too many to list here). The U16s just returned from Super G races in Jackson with strong performances by Jonas Touchette (1st) and Kira Thomas (1st). The U14s raced Slalom at Snowbird in the South Series two weeks ago. Nate Brown's 3rd place finish and Sydney Daly's 2nd place finish showcased our PCSS athletes and their talents at Snowbird. 

Our oldest FIS Age Groups just returned from Sun Valley and the Western Region Elite GS/SL Series. The women saw some nice jumps through the field led by Mia Hunt’s 2-2nd Places in the Slalom portion of the series. The men's results were led by a 6th place from Benny Brown in the last GS and a 9th place by Jake Rogers in the last Slalom of the series. Some of our FIS athletes just headed to Big Sky, MT for the next DEVO FIS Series while many are gearing up for the FIS-UNI races locally at Park City Resort next week. The U16’s will be next up to put poles over the wand with their next qualifier at Snowbird at the end of the month. We hope to see you all out there. 

Freeski

Big Mountain and Park & Pipe have thoroughly enjoyed the holiday snow. Following the Holidays, the teams have been practicing and skiing all of the features available to them. The resorts have opened a lot of terrain and the smiles are as big as the tricks the athletes are pulling. 

The Big Mountain Team is returning from Kicking Horse. Not only were the snow and sunsets fantastic, but the athletes walked away with lots of accomplishments highlighted by Toryn Lewis's 5th place finish. 

On the national level, Maggie Voisin and Alex Hall both clinched their spots for the Beijing Olympics. We are also excited to cheer on PCSS alum Colby Stevenson in Beijing. 

Skimo

After the holiday storms, PCSS SkiMo has been enjoying the improved snow conditions as they continue to train and race. On January 4th, our athletes took part in the first Park City edition of the Utah SkiMo Citizen Series at PCMR.  We were joined by a record-sized race field of over 180 participants. Although no official results are posted from these events, we had a great showing and a good portion of the top-10 racers in the field.  

In addition to racing and training at PCMR and the UOP, many of our athletes participated in an Avalanche 101 course with the Utah Avalanche Center this month. This knowledge is extremely important in developing the skills to venture into the backcountry. Our team has their sights set on the Crowbar Backcountry Race in Logan Canyon on  January 22nd. This exciting race pushes the limits and represents skimo racing at its best. After the Crowbar, we’ll be at the first ever UOP Town Challenge race on January 28th!

Cross Country

On January 15th and 16th, 30 PCSS athletes traveled to Sun Valley, ID to compete in the IMD XC races. PCSS had 5 podium finishes Tegan Hoffman skipped some swim practices to get two podiums in her first races as a U14 athlete, Ian Carmack was 2nd in the U14 Classic race, Bailey Carmack had one of her best races ever and was 3rd in the U18 race and Elena Grissom also had podium in the U18 race after missing senior nationals due to illness earlier in the month. A breakthrough performance came from Turner Underhill who was the 6th place IMD finisher in the classic U18 race. 

PCSS also had 11 athletes competing at Senior Nationals, the best representation we have ever had.  While it was the 1st time Senior Nationals for all our athletes and for many their first time competing in a national championship, they excelled. Wes Campbell raced well and qualified for the US Ski and Snowboard U18 Trip. This was right after Wes, alongside his teammate Sidney Bennion, qualified for Biathlon Youth and Junior World Championships at Soldier Hollow. 

We also started Mini Gliders in January for 4-6 year olds. In its second year, this program aims on getting more kids on skis at a younger age, particularly from underrepresented communities. Parents are also involved and work with their own child. Starting on cross country skis can often be less intimidating when you are unfamiliar with ski culture and the often hectic pace of it all. For many of these families, it’s the first time anyone has invited them to join a ski program.

As we prepare for the Olympics, we are excited to cheer on PCSS alumna Rosie Brennan.

Moguls

During the first week of January, Moguls held an Intro to Moguls day with 25 athletes, many of whom have since joined our moguls teams. Following Intro Day, we had three athletes forerunning the Deer Valley World Cup (Alli Macuga, Zoe Dwinell, and Jackson Crockett) and two athletes compete (Kylie Kariotis and Jackson Crockett)! It was a debut onto the World Cup circuit for both Kylie and Jackson, which was very exciting. Currently, the NorAm tour kicks off at Deer Valley where we hope to have 12 athletes competing. The tour then heads north to Apex, British Columbia at the end of January, and finishes up out East with stops in Val St. Côme and Killington in early February. PCSS Moguls hosts our regional competition at the Utah Olympic Park over President’s Weekend (Feb 19-21) and then head into Championship season in March.

Snowboard

The majority of the snowboard team rallied in Jackson Hole for a Snowboard competition this month. The competition was stout, but PCSS showcased the talent, dedication and long hours of training through the summer and fall season. The team swept many podiums including Rail jam boys/girls 7-10 & boys 11-14. PCSS has a bright future in the sport thanks to many of these young athletes.