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PCSS Newsletter - December 2022

By Park City Ski & Snowboard, 12/19/22, 11:45AM MST

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  • Message from Christie Hind
  • Free Intro to Moguls Day!
  • Division Updates
  • PCSS Store
  • Scholarship Opportunities


Message from Executive Director, Christie Hind

Greetings from our winter wonderland! We are feeling both fortunate and grateful for the snow we have already seen this season. Early and plentiful snowfall has given us the opportunity to get the athletes in all our sports out training on the snow where we know they are happiest!

In addition to training, many of our teams have already participated in competitions around the world. Read more about those competitions and early season results in the Division Updates below.

And, importantly, we have found the secret to identifying our athletes on the slopes…even from a distance! Check out the mint green kits selected by our Snowboard team. We’re not going to lose these guys!

From all of us at PCSS, we wish you and your families a beautiful holiday season and send warm wishes for a wonderful, healthy 2023!

Free Intro to Moguls Day!

The mogul team will host our free annual “Intro to Moguls Day” at the UOP on Dec 30 from 1:00-4:00pm. Please plan to join us if you or someone you know is interested in learning some mogul fundamentals and meeting some Olympians. The event is free, but only limited spots are available so click here to register early!


Division Updates

Aerials

Ian Schoenwald & Connor Curran competed in their first international World Cup on December 4th in Ruka, Finland. Congrats to Ian for landing in 13th place - missing finals by a hair! We are so proud of you!

Coach Jack traveled with Ashton Salwan, Ian Schoenwald and Connor Curran to compete in the Ruka Europa Cup on Dec 9th and 10th. Meanwhile, Coach Madie built a jump site at the UOP and began training on Dec 7th alongside the Canadian development team. We are looking forward to a Regional Aerial competition on Jan 14th. 

ALPINE

Well… it’s winter and we have snow! All our groups have been out playing around with all three venues now online for us to train and free ski. The UOP’s Hyeway Intermediate Hill has been a great resource for us to bang out lap after lap and our groups are working throughout the day to get the needed mileage to improve. From our Devos all the way up to our Masters racers, everyone has been getting in their turns at the UOP. Speaking of Devos, please welcome 33 new recruits for this season's Devo Class! Head Devos Coach, Dar Hendrickson, is excited for this class of new racers. 

Park City Mountain has been giving us unparalleled conditions for training on Payday and free-skiing with so many trails now to choose from. We are singing a much different tune than we were last year at this time. To top it all off, our glorious start house at Deer Valley is up and running with the opening of Sliver Hill Trail and training there has been awesome! Lots of laps and tons of turns! We hope to see everyone out there as the skiing has been phenomenal.

Finally, special shout out to Ford Hodgkins for landing his first ever FIS win in the slalom event this past weekend at Jackson Hole! Go Ford! 

CROSS country

The cross country team returned from our annual West Yellowstone Thanksgiving Camp where 45 athletes, ages 6 through 18, attended along with eight coaches. The team was very grateful to be in an abundance of snow and groomed trails to get the season started. For many it was their first time skiing in West Yellowstone and they loved skiing through the thick forest. Both the comp and devo teams had Thanksgiving potlucks where parents and athletes could mingle around good food. 

The team wrapped up the camp with a US Ski and Snowboard skate race. Top performers included Tory Hoffman winning the U16 boys 5k race, Keely Fisher placing 2nd in the U16 girls race and Bailey Carmack placing 3rd in the U18 girls 10k.

The Comp team next competed in US Ski & Snowboard Super Tour races in Sun Valley on Dec 9-11th. PCSS had 18 athletes competing in the stormy conditions with podium finishes for Zach Selzman, Tory Hoffman, Liam Snihurowych, and Lucas Fassio. 

Back in Park City, we got on snow earlier than expected due to a few early storms and access to groomed trails at Bonanza Flat. We appreciate Mountain Trails and Park City Municipal for providing grooming and transportation to access this terrain. We even got some days skiing at Round Valley and White Pine Nordic in November. 

A big thank you to all who participated in our fall fundraisers - Park City Fall Trail Series, Jans Winter Welcome, Live PC Give PC and the Park City Ski Swap. It really does make a big difference in the quality of programs we provide and the coaches we can hire. We look forward to the season ahead! 

Devo Freestyle

Our weekend programs kicked off on the first week of December, and with great snow conditions and so much open at PCMR, we’re off to a great start to the season! Athletes have been getting acquainted with their groups and working on getting their ski legs back under them, focusing on fundamentals before we get more into discipline-specific training. 

Devo Freestyle will not hold any training over the holidays after Dec 18. We will resume training in Jan with UOP weeknight training starting on Jan 3, and PCMR weekend sessions resuming on Saturday, Jan 7. Enjoy the break and go rip some turns!

MOGULS

Just before Thanksgiving, the FIS Elite and Full Time teams returned from an almost three-week camp in Sweden where they also competed in an FIS Open event. On day two of competition, PCSS had two women on the podium - Kylie Kariotis in second and Skylar Slettene in third. These teams are now gearing up for competition season with some on-snow training at the UOP. One of their biggest competitions of the season is US Selections in Winter Park Jan 7-12. 

The Fundamentals and Part Time programming started at Park City Mountain in early December. We are excited that mother nature has been working in our favor so far this season with plenty of natural snow to open a ton of skiable terrain!

Intermountain Freestyle is always looking for new judges and officials to help run competitions for our athletes. If you or someone you know is interested in judging or becoming a technical delegate (TD), please reach out to Mogul Program Director, Mikaela Wilson at mwilson@parkcityss.org. No experience or prior knowledge is required as everything will be covered during training sessions.

Park & Pipe / Big Mountain

Park & Pipe is off to a great start this season with one of the best park builds we’ve had in years. Park City just opened its big jump this week and the boys and girls will be getting after it! Our new Woodward Wednesday program has been a popular addition and added welcome variation to the training schedule. We’re happy to make use of the great facilities available to us right now! 

Pipe athletes returned from Austria in mid-November, where they had a successful training camp at Kitzsteinhorn to prepare for the Halfpipe World Cup in Copper. These pipe athletes just finished competing at the World Cup where they had good results. Cam Broderick skied to 6th in his heat but missed finals by one spot.

Big Mountain ran some basic avalanche education coursework and on-snow coach training and just successfully finished their first week of training! Athletes are loving all this snow and have checked off some cliff drops that haven’t been skiable in years...they are sending!

The UOP jumps are getting close and are looking good. The UOP training venue is on track to be ready for the first training day on Wednesday, Jan 4.

Make sure to register for winter programming if you haven’t already. Limited space is available with a waitlist option for BMT Saturdays.

Ski Jumping / Nordic Combined

The PCSS Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined team is off to a great start to the season. Our small hills are in fantastic shape and have been open since Dec 7th. Thanks to the early season snow, our coaches were able to snow-in the inruns of the jumps using only natural snow, and the hard-working UOP crew has helped with snow making and snowcat grooming on the landing hills. We expect to be jumping on our HS100 by the time this is published.

We’re excited about the season ahead and have opportunities for everyone from beginners to elite athletes. Our newest program is Learn 2 Fly which is aimed at providing newcomers to the sport an opportunity to try out ski jumping with other young skiers. Learn 2 Fly runs every Monday 4:00 - 6:00 PM from Jan 2 - Mar 20. Visit parkcityss.org to learn about this and all of our programs.

Our Comp and some of our Devo athletes kicked off the season with great training and a strong showing at the Winterstart Weekend in Steamboat Springs, CO.  We now have our eyes turned to hosting the Heckert Memorial on Jan 6, 7 & 8. This event will feature competitions on all hill sizes up to the HS100. Saturday and Sunday’s HS100 events will be the final World Junior Ski Championship Qualifiers for the 2023 US Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined teams. If you want to check out the event or join as a volunteer, contact Adam Loomis at aloomis@parkcityss.org for details.

Skimo

PCSS Skimo is up and running (quite literally, if you see the pace of some of our athletes)! With the blessing of early season snow, we spent most of November training on Guardsman’s Pass. After ahead-of-schedule openings, we’re now training primarily on Park City’s uphill route and at the UOP. 

Our fast-growing team is stronger than ever with just over 40 athletes in the program. The many newcomers to Skimo are now acquainted with their new gear and the many technical components of ski touring. Our returning athletes are quickly finding their ski legs and dialing in their movements and transitions. 

Racing is underway already! Last weekend, we sent a team to the opening US Cup races in A-Basin and Frisco, CO. It was an action-packed weekend, with a Vertical, Sprint and Individual race in three days. Our nine athletes dominated the U20, U18 and U16 categories, taking home a collective 14 podiums in the three races! 

This week, some of our families weathered the snow storm to make it to the first Utah Skimo citizen series. These Tuesday night events see showings of 150+ participants and are a great way to see the sport of skimo at a community level. To learn more about the series, visit utahskimo.org.

Snowboard

The Snowboard Team is feeling quite good following a successful fundraising season. A big thanks to all who stepped up and helped out! Jans Winter Welcome, Live PC Give PC and the Ski Swap were all tremendous successes.

The Snowboard Team's relationship with local shop MiloSport strengthened with a second team night at Milo. Parents and athletes were hosted to an awesome night with deals and good vibes! A big thank you to Max and Staff at Milo! If you haven't been to the shop before, stop in and say hello. It's one of the best snowboard shops in the States!

Snowboard movie premiere time is here! Check out the photo of the Porter family with Danny Davis and Mikey Ciccarelli at the premiere of 'ARK' at Woodward Park City.

Youth Development

Registration for the new Youth Development division is still open and spots are still available! We have various program options covering all disciplines for young skiers and riders that take place on weeknights at the UOP and Woodward. These programs are perfect for athletes 7-10 years old wanting to get into the sport but don't know which discipline they like and want a multi-sport experience to sample different disciplines. Programs are filling up fast so don't wait to register! You can check out all the program options on our website, www.parkcityss.org under “Youth Development” or contact Ryan DeVine at rdevine@parkcityss.org if you have questions. 

Youth Development is also looking for a few coaches to help fill in some staffing gaps! If you or anyone you know has any previous coaching experience, was a PSIA/ski school instructor or a former athlete/competitor and would like to get involved with the program and help coach, please reach out to Ryan DeVine (rdevine@parkcityss.org) for more information.

PCSS Store Open for Holiday Shopping!

The PCSS Store is open and taking orders for PCSS team-based apparel and gear! Hoodies, beanies, hats, bags, packs, and more are available. Nearly all items can be made with the logo for the team you want to represent, and many can also be personalized.

Check out the PCSS Store and shop for gifts or maybe something for yourself!  A portion of all proceeds goes directly back to PCSS to help offset programming costs.

Please note that the new store and all transactions run through Alpine Promotions in Salt Lake City, and the owner of Alpine Promotions is a PCSS alumni.


Scholarship Opportunities

Following is a summary of a variety of scholarship opportunities that are currently available. Click the name of the organization for additional details about each scholarship offered, and to complete the application process. Additional scholarships will become available within the next few months, and we'll be sure to let you know about those opportunities when we have more details!

Scholarship/Link Description Eligibility Important Dates
The PCSEF Board of Trustees is committed to providing financial assistance to PCSS Alpine athletes in order for them to pursue ski racing excellence. These scholarships provide critical funds for qualified, talented athletes who otherwise would be unable to pursue their ski racing ambitions. Award will be applied directly to participant’s PCSS Alpine tuition expense, camps, competitions or other projects PCSS Alpine athletes enrolled in a full-time U14, U16 or FIS level program Applications accepted on a rolling basis
The i9 Sports Association offers scholarship grants of up to $150 to offset youth sports program participation fees Athletes under age 18 Applications accepted on a rolling basis; grants awarded in Feb, May, Aug, and Nov