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PCSS Newsletter - February 2023

By Park City Ski & Snowboard, 02/01/23, 4:30PM MST

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  • Message from Christie Hind
  • PCSS Aerial and Mogul Athletes Qualify for Deer Valley World Cup Start!
  • Town Series Races
  • Division Updates
  • Scholarship Opportunities

Message from Executive Director, Christie Hind

What an amazing winter season we have had so far with record levels of snow and amazing conditions for our teams to both train and compete! We are thrilled that six of our Aerials and Mogul athletes (more details below) will be competing in the World Cup at Deer Valley this coming weekend, and hope you are able to come out to cheer them on!! 

Athletes in all disciplines have had excellent experiences and results at multiple events as described in further detail by the coaches in the Division Updates section. The first Town Series race held on January 27th at the UOP was very snowy but great fun! More information, including podium results, is provided below.

In addition to the Town Series race, we have already had the opportunity to host multiple world-class events this season, and there are a number more planned in the next few months. The success of all these events is dependent on our volunteers, so please click the links below to see more details and volunteer to help where you can. Of course, for those of you who have a work deposit, the hours you volunteer will be credited against that amount.

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities

The volunteer site for the three events listed above is the same. The quickest way to find open slots for these events is to filter by date and/or location.

We appreciate your support!


PCSS Athletes & Alumni Qualify for Deer Valley World Cup StartS!

We are incredibly proud that seven of our current PCSS Aerial and Mogul athletes and four alumni are getting starts at the Deer Valley World Cup which will be held this coming weekend, February 2-4.

On the Aerials side, starters are Connor Curran, Ashton Salwan, Ian Schoenwald, and Amelia Glogowski. Connor (18) is from Ohio and has been a member of PCSS for the past three years. Last season Connor was 4th at the FIS Junior World Championships. Ashton (18) is also from Ohio but  relocated to Park City to join PCSS four years ago. Ian (18) is from Huntsville, Utah, and moved to Park City four years ago to join PCSS. Amelia (18) is originally from Buffalo, New York, but has been living and training in Park City for the last three years. In addition, three PCSS alumni have starts for this event - Kaila Kuhn, Karenna Elliott, and Derek Krueger.

Our Moguls starters are LuLu Shaffer, Kylie Kariotis, and August Davis. LuLu (23) is originally from Stratton, Vermont and this is her 2nd season with PCSS. She also earned World Cup starts at Val St Come in January, so this will be her second World Cup competition. Kylie (18) is originally from Marin County, California, and is in her 3rd season with PCSS. She competed in the Deer Valley World Cup during the 2021-22 season, so this is the second year she will compete in this event. August (19) is also from California, and this is her World Cup debut! PCSS alum, Alli Macuga, also has a start for this event. 

We encourage everyone to join us at this FREE event to support these amazing athletes in our own hometown!

If you're unable to attend in person, coverage will be televised on Outside+, CNBC, and NBC.


Moguls and Aerials Athletes earning Deer Valley World Cup Starts - Kylie Kariotis, August Davis, LuLu Shaffer, Connor Curran, Ashton Salwan, and Ian Schoenwald

USASA Futures Tour

The USASA Futures Tour is taking place this week with events at Park City Mountain and Woodard Park City. Earlier this week Park City Mountain hosted halfpipe events for both snowboard and freeski. PCSS athletes Kieran Gabrielson and Nate Perahia finished 4th and 5th respectively in men's Freeski Halfpipe. In women's Freeski Halfpipe, Izzy Worthington finished 2nd in women's Freeski Halfpipe and  Zoe Smith placed 4th.

Men's Freeski Slopestyle takes place today, Feb 1st, at Woodward Park City. The week finishes off with women's Snowboard and Freeski Slopestyle on Feb 2nd, and Men's Snowboard Slopestyle on Friday, Feb 3rd.


Challenging weather to capture the U18 Boys' podium, but check those smiles!

Town Series Races

Race #1 of Town Series was a huge success and a blast! With over 130 participants ranging in all ages and abilities including Olympic Gold Medalist, PCSS Alum and Board Member Ted Ligety, racers battled a challenging snowy course. All in all, much fun was had by everyone!

The next Town Series race is scheduled for Friday, February 17th and pre-race training on Wednesday, February 15th. Click here to register! 

Don't miss out on a great opportunity to sharpen your skills at the pre-race training sessions. The first training night last Wednesday proved well served as participants got 13+ runs in the course with celebrity coach Forest Carey on hand to give everyone pointers and tips to work on in the course. Round 2 of training on February 15th will feature coaching celebrity and PCSS parent, Heidi Voelker. Many know Heidi already, but she is Heidi a 3-time Olympian who skied on the World Cup circuit for eight years, from 1987-1995. Hope to see a handful of racers out there!

IMPORTANT! Park City Town Council Initiative Regarding Nordic Skiing in Round Valley

There are some important issues scheduled for discussion at the Park City Town Council meeting tomorrow, Feb 2ndstarting at 5:30pm that could potentially impact Nordic skiing at the Round Valley trailhead at Quinn’s Junction. Specifically, there is a pickleball facility being proposed to be built directly below the National Ability Center. This is where PCSS currently meets for our Mini Gliders program and is the only flat open space at Round Valley to teach beginners. 

However, this flat open space would potentially be moved to a different location. With this proposed development is the opportunity for additional trailhead parking (no need to cross the road to access the trailhead), a multiuse room that could be used as a warming hut for Nordic skiing, and an open area to ski. All these items would need to be approved by Town Council and would likely end up being a bond measure to pay for it along with other recreation and childcare improvements. 

We want Town Council to know there are many Nordic skiers in Park City and surrounding areas who already use the trailhead, and we would like any proposed infrastructure to enhance and make the sport more accessible to the community. If you agree, please click this link to sign the petition and/or attend the Town Council meeting either in person or virtually. The meeting begins at 5:30pm at the Marsac Municipal Building, City Council Chambers, at 445 Marsac Avenue, Park CityIf you would prefer to attend virtually, click here for more information.

Division Updates

Aerials

It has been a busy month for the Aerials team. During the Jan 14th US Selections at Deer Valley, World Cup spots were awarded to Ashton Salwan and Connor Curran. Also during the Inaugural Aerials Assault Regional Event on Jan 14th, we had 19 athletes come out to this super fun event. We are looking to increase that number on Feb 17th when we run the final event in our region.

The team recently traveled to Quebec for Le Relais World Cup where Ian Schoenwald and Ashton Salwan finished 13th and 14th respectively. Other team members then competed in the FIS Open Events on Jan 28th where Kyra Dossa led our female crew with a 4th place and Connor Curran led our male crew in 8th place.

The Deer Valley World Cup is on Feb 3rd and it looks like all three of our men will get the opportunity to start.

We will host the NorAm Cup at the UOP on Feb 15th-20th and we need some key volunteers including a camera operator to supply our remote judging panel with a live feed to judge the event. Sign up here to help as a volunteer!

ALPINE

All our groups are reporting insane amounts of powder skiing, even at this early point in the year. With the snow continuing, our teams have been gearing up for numerous races across the country. At our highest level this month, Maddie Kaiserman and Maddie Welling set out to race in the Stifel Nor-Am Cup series round 2 held at Stratton, VT. With little to no snow and heavy rain, they traveled all that way only to get 2 Slaloms off, and both GSs canceled. Maddie set off to train and race with the Women’s Development Team in Europe just after.

Meanwhile, other FIS-age racers were competing at Snow King resort, battling it out for supremacy at the Western Region Wrangler Cup Devo Series.  There, Fiona Sawyer took her first FIS win and a pair of 2nds. Just recently, we had a number of FIS athletes up in Sun Valley for the first round of the Western Region Tech Series.  The college teams showed up to help lower penalties, and with some inconsistent snow surfaces, our athletes clawed their way into point-scoring potential.

Our younger groups just got back to racing a couple of weeks ago (Jan 7/8/9) with U16s in Snowbird, UT. U16 standout Dyllan Guay won all three contests at Snowbird, while other IMC athletes Lauren Penze and Savanah Petrisko also had top 15 results. On the guys' side, John Scanlan and Zeke Sherman showed speed in the GS with top 5 results, while Xander Sivey, Kye Sivo, and Ash Stein all finished in the top 20.  

The U14 groups traveled to Snow King for their first qualifiers of the season, Jan 13-15. Second year U14 athlete Brook Goldberg won the first run by just over a half second to give her a solid lead going into the 2nd run. Increasing that margin by several more tenths gave her a commanding finish, almost a full second ahead of 2nd place. Rounding out the top 20 was Sydney Daley in 4th overall, followed by Abi Ploof in 12th and Lilia Stein in 17th. The guys showed just as much speed as Jensen Ford laid down a decisive first run to pull away from 2nd place on the run by 1.33 seconds. His second run totaled only 7th best result, still maintaining his first-place position but eating away at his margin considerably. Others to finish in the top twenty were Bo Curtis finishing 3rd overall, as well as Nate Brown and Sebastian Turner, finishing 18th and 20th, respectively.   

The South Series group, along with the Devos, completed their first mock race of the season, which prepped them for racing at Snowbird just this past week.  Bringing the mock races back has been a useful tool and a big hit for all the younger groups.  Everyone seems to really enjoy getting to put their poles over the wand a bit more. In real racing, our U10/U12 groups just got to throw down two races at Snowbird. The ladies saw 18” of fresh snow but still got three runs off. For U12s, Lila Tyler nabbed 2nd place, with Chloe Whitney grabbing a pair of 4th place runs for 4th overall. Other notables included Alessa Lattanzi - 7th, Aurora Trayner - 11th, and Aven Cobble - 12th. On the U10 front, Harper Janssen and Keira Kinkead finished two and three for U10s in some impressive conditions. Due to soft snow conditions and avy control work in the morning, the girls were relegated to only a single run for the second race. The ladies came out in force, with ten U12s finishing in the top 20. Harper Janssen was the lone PC athlete on the U10 podium with a 5th-place result. The boys' first race saw seven PCSS U12 Athletes finish in the top 20, with Jax Flack leading the PC group in 9th. Their second race showed six PC U12s in the top 20, with Chase Wilkinson fastest amongst the PC group in 10th. U10s garnered two on the podium in their second race with Banks Antablin 3rd and Bronson Karr 5th.    

Lastly, our Masters group has also had its fair share of races, with their last races at Rotarun in Hailey, ID.  Head Master coach Thunder Jalili also raced and took a pair of 2nd place results out to the three SL contests. Rick Slabinski also nabbed a 2nd place finish in the very first race. Other notable Male finishes were Mike Adams in 8th overall, and Greg Graham in 11th. In the women’s division, Kathleen Thomas also showed great effort and came in 5th place in the first race. The Masters are in Sun Valley now for more races in Super-G and GS. Let’s go!!


BMT team at IFSA National competition in beautiful Kicking Horse, Canada

Big Mountain

We had super fun conditions to compete in the Snowbird Regionals. The National Team is headed up to Grand Targhee for National 3*, and the next comps are the Snowbasin Regional 2* and the Palisades Tahoe 3*.

With Level 100 and 200 avalanche classes under our belts, we have our first Backcountry outing planned for Feb 29th with all-time low angle riding conditions.

The snow keeps coming with over 300” and counting at PCMR! Check out our instagram @pcssbigmountainfreeski for some amazing posts!


Kickers and Gliders having a blast in a snowstorm!

Cross Country

PCSS Cross Country competed in one of the biggest races of the year, the Super Junior National Qualifier (the "SuperQ") at Soldier Hollow on January 20th and 21st. This is the first junior national qualifier for western divisions including our division, Intermountain. Forty-six PCSS athletes competed amongst 600 racers, the largest team out of more than 50 teams! 

The comp team prepared well for the SuperQ under the guidance of Head Coach, Liz Stephen. They have been on snow since putting in hundreds of hours of training in the summer and being on snow since early November. Many of our development skiers also competed in the U8 through U16 categories. 

Our team has also had many races to prepare for the IMD qualifiers including the IMD Opener in Sun Valley the 1st week in December where we had multiple athletes podium including Zach Selzman, Tory Hoffman, Liam Snihurowych and Lucas Fassio. Locally we have had a great turn out at the Wasatch Citizens Series races with around 50 athletes of all abilities and ages competing in the races on December 31st and January 14th. 

Bailey Carmack and Emily Campbell competed at Senior Nationals in Houghton, Michigan, at the start of 2023. Emily also competed in US Biathlon Trials in Anchorage, Alaska at the end of December with a podium finish. Emily qualified for the World Biathlon Youth Championships in Kazakhstan in March. Many of our Nordic Combined athletes competed at the 1st Junior National Qualifier at Utah Olympic Park and placed on the podium in their respective divisions. 

Other highlights so far this winter included a presentation for our development team from Sports Nutritionist, Jessica LaRoche, to help our athletes learn healthy eating habits at a young age. Coach Liz headed to Europe as a recipient of the Trail to Gold Fellowship and coached for the US Ski Team at the FIS Tour De Ski in January. 

January got busier with Mini Gliders, a program for 4-6 year olds, starting along with Youth Sports Alliance Learn to Ski programs, coached by PCSS staff and athletes. Kickers and Gliders has grown to 113 participants this season. The cross country team had 245 sign ups so far this winter.

Devo Freestyle

With our sessions at the Utah Olympic Park now underway, Devo Freestyle training is in full swing! Athletes have been working on new tricks in our park and getting some good mileage in the small mogul course. We will be hosting the first round of our Devo Series competitions next month at the UOP - Slopestyle on Feb 17th and Moguls on Feb 18th. These events are designed to be a laid-back introduction to the world of competition. All athletes 12 and under, regardless of club affiliation, are welcome to compete! Keep an eye on your inbox for more information on these!

Sanctioned events in our region (through USASA, USSS, and IFSA) kick off this month! Devo athletes are welcome to compete, though are encouraged to check out our Devo Series events first unless they have prior competition experience. For sanctioned events, we need to know which events you plan to attend so we can send the right number of coaches!! Families interested in sanctioned events should reach out to Head Coach, James Saarela, for more information. 

Moguls

Winter is in full swing and all the mogul programming has officially begun! Weeknight / Afterschool programming was the last programming to start but is officially underway at the Utah Olympic Park and will run through the end of January. 

The mogul team hosted our annual Intro To Mogul Day at the Utah Olympic Park at the end of December. We had 24 athletes come ski with our coaches, guest coaches, and athlete mentors for an afternoon of snowy fun! Our guest coaches included 2022 Olympians Olivia Giaccio and 2022 Silver Medalist, Jaelin Kauff. Thank you for donating your time to help inspire some future mogul skiers! Thank you to the Utah Olympic Park for hosting our event, and a HUGE thank you to all the athletes who participated!

Our FIS crew was in Winter Park for US Selections Jan 7-12 where we had multiple athletes vying for World Cup and Noram starts this season. 

Upon returning from US Selections, the mogul team hosted the first Intermountain Freestyle Regional competition of the 2023 season at the Utah Olympic Park on Jan 14-16, where the aerial team hosted the inaugural “Aerial Assault” competition in addition to both Single and Dual Mogul events hosted by the mogul team.

We will host another round of these events Feb 17-20. We need volunteers to make these events a success for our athletes, so please consider helping out. Click here to sign up as a volunteer!


RevTour NorAm Cup podium with Jay In the middle and Ellie on the right

Park & Pipe

Cameron Brodrick made finals at the Calgary World Cup Halfpipe and ended up in 9th! Jay Riccomini (1st) and Ellie Derosier (3rd) both took the podium at the Copper Rev Tour, which is a FIS NorAm competition. 

The NorAm crew was in Calgary the last weekend of Jan, and the World Cup crew is headed to Mammoth Grand Prix World Cup soon.

Back home the USASA crew is crushing the podiums at Woodward and Jackson, and looking forward to competing at our Futures Tour (FIS & USASA sanctioned) home turf event, Jan 31st - Feb 2nd! Volunteer here!


PCSS Athlete Ian Carmack, atop the U16 M Nordic Combined Podium after skiing the fastest 5km time by over a 1.5 minutes!

Ski Jumping / Nordic Combined

PCSS Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined kicked off the New Year by hosting the 3rd Annual Chuck Heckert Memorial Competition January 6 - 8. We held events on each of our five hills up to the HS100. As part of the event, Saturday’s HS68 served as an IMD/RMD Junior Championship Qualifier and we held two HS100 events - both being World Junior Championship Qualifiers and one a US Cup. This was the largest winter event we’ve hosted since 2019, with over 80 athletes from all five US divisions and a Canadian contingency.  We held Nordic Combined events for all the hills at the Olympic Park trails on Saturday and raced at Soldier Hollow on Sunday for the second HS100 event. 

We’re both proud and grateful of this event coming together smoothly. Our parent volunteer crew showed up strong; we even had some volunteers from other PCSS divisions learning the ropes. Our coaches and the UOP crew worked their tails off throughout the week to dig out the ski jumps from the many feet of snow we received early in the week.  Throughout the weekend, we were extremely fortunate to have a calm weather window between storms.

On the athletics side, our team had a great time and showed up strong! We had 25 PCSS athletes competing and took home 16 podium finishes between the ski jumping and nordic combined events!  See full results here.


PCSS Skimo athlete Maci Zaniello show-casing his new custom PCSS race suit at Brighton Resort

Skimo

The PCSS Skimo Team couldn’t be happier about the abundance of snowfall this winter!  We’ve had phenomenal conditions at our training venues of Park City Mountain and Utah Olympic Park, as well as the opportunity to try out other zones requiring deeper snowpacks to ski safely. The additional snow has helped our athletes practice their off-piste descending on their skinny skis - they’re flying up and down the mountain now!  We brought a large group over to the first Utah Skimo race of 2023 at Brighton Resort on January 10th. It was a slow commute driving back in a fierce blizzard, but everyone had a blast racing in the storm! 

Over the weekend of January 21st, we had 20 athletes, four coaches, and a contingency of parents racing the Crowbar Backcountry Race in Logan Canyon, UT. This event is one of the few fully backcountry ski mountaineering races in the country!

This week, we’re enjoying local racing opportunities. We helped Utah Skimo host the 3rd Tuesday Night Race of the season at Park City Mountain Resort on the 24th. We’ll have one more Utah Skimo event at PCMR on March 7th - visit utahskimo.org to learn about this fun community race series.  We’re equally excited about kicking off the Town Series at the UOP on Friday, Jan 27th with both skimo and alpine formats!  These short-course events are a great introduction to the sport of skimo and an opportunity to see our athletes showcase their talents! 


PCSS Snowboard Team dominates Jackson Hole competition!

Snowboard

The season is well underway for the Park City Snowboard Team. Training at Park City Mountain and Woodward has been unsurpassed. Many days on snow and quality parks and terrain have prepared the team for the competition season.

The Park City Snowboard Team dominated the Jackson Hole USASA Snowboard Competition. With 22 snowboarders traveling to Jackson, WY for three days of freestyle competition, PCSS - Snowboard brought home more hardware than your local Ace keeps in stock. Of the 22 competitors, 19 made their way to the podium in the slopestyle events spread across two days. Included in this medal count were slopestyle podium sweeps for Menehune Boys (ages 11-12), and Breaker Boys (13-14). Menehune Boys placed in the same order both Saturday and Sunday: Kasten Jostrand in 1st, Maverick Cox in 2nd, and Rhys Oswald in 3rd. Breaker Boys repeated their sweep in the same order as well: Wyatt Osmundson in 1st, Steele Stark in 2nd, and Asher Loscalzo in 3rd.

The team also had podium sweeps in Rail Jam in Girls 7-10 years old, and Men 15-22 years old. For Girls 7-10: Sadie Rifkin in 1st, Kennedy Galinski in 2nd, and Chloe Loscalzo in 3rd. For Men 15-22: Simon Blohm in 1st, Tyler Ordean in 2nd, and Ryder Magnuson in3rd.

All together the team brought home 48 medals from their first contests of the year. Up next is a local event hosted at Woodward Park City, a venue with which the team is all too familiar. Event registration has already filled with over 100 competitors split between skiers and snowboarders. Of that total, PCSS - Snowboard is bringing 36 athletes ready to repeat their success and perhaps introduce new names and faces to the podium. Things kick off January 24th with Rail Jam and will be followed up with two days of slopestyle on January 25th and 26th.

Youth Development

Youth Development programs are in full swing and it's been great to see all the young athletes out there discovering their passion for skiing and riding! Youth Development has 5 programs currently in progress, which include Alpine (Skills and Drills), Ski Jumping (Learn 2 Fly), Freestyle (Bumps and Jumps), Snowboard (Li'l Rippers) and the PCSShredders which is our popular multi-sport program where young athletes get to explore all the different ski disciplines all in one program. Athletes in this program get to experience and learn the fundamentals of all ski disciplines with 3 weeks of Alpine racing, 3 weeks of ski jumping, 3 weeks of cross country and 3 weeks of freestyle/ freeride. These little shredders just finished up the Alpine portion of the program and have moved into the ski jumping weeks.

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.

Scholarship/Link Description Eligibility Important Dates
The Gordon Lange Scholarship is intended to help alleviate financial burden for current PCSS Cross Country Comp Team Members who qualify for an upcoming 2023 season race and consistently demonstrate good character/sportsmanship. A brief statement of financial need will be considered in awarding any scholarship funds. While need is a portion of the consideration, merit is also a very important part of the process PCSS Nordic Comp team members who qualify for an upcoming 2023 season race Applications due Feb 15th!
The purpose of the YSA Stein Eriksen “Dare to Dream” Scholarships is to provide financial assistance to dedicated athletes who are unable to participate or compete without the help of outside funding Athletes from ages 7-21 who are training with PCSS teams Application Period A: Opens Feb 1st, deadline Feb 28th, awards announced week of March 15th; Application Period B: Opens March 15th, deadline March 31st, awards announced week of April 15th
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

Thank You Deer Valley for Continuing to Support PCSS Athletes!