What's Inside

Please read on for updates and information about:

• Message from Christie Hind
• Family "Learn to Ski" Day
• Updates for each PCSS Division
• Scholarship Opportunities
• Join Smith's Inspiring Donations Program

Message from Executive Director, Christie Hind

It seems the saying is true – if you don’t like the weather, give it a few minutes and it will change! Equally true - if you want it to snow, host a ski or snowboard race!! Weather conditions over the past few months have been challenging to say the least, and we have worked creatively to make sure our athletes are able to take full advantage of the ever-changing conditions. That said, we have seen amazing success across all our sport divisions as you can read about in the Division Updates section below. 

Speaking of changes, we are thrilled to announce that we are switching to a new sports registration platform. PlayMetrics will be replacing SportsEngine beginning this summer for all club-related activities including registration and payment processing, rostering and calendars, communications, and other functionality – all of which can be easily accessed and managed via a robust app. We know that PlayMetrics will provide a much-improved experience for athletes, parents, coaches, and other stakeholders. Please watch for additional announcements regarding PlayMetrics, including parent training to be held in in the April/May timeframe.

We have also had to stay flexible in order to host many recent events, and are incredibly grateful to all of you who have volunteered your time and efforts to help us out. One event that stands out was our ability to host the very first FIS Alpine races at the Spencer F. Eccles Olympic Mountain Center at the UOP. Please enjoy reading the insightful article that U.S. Ski Team spokesperson, Tom Kelly, wrote for The Park Record summarizing the excitement of racing at this new venue.

Aerials

February has been an exciting month of competing and results for Aerial athletes. At the Deer Valley World Cup earlier in the month, PCSS finalists were Ian Schoenwald, Kyra Dossa, and Amelia Glogowski.

More recently, we competed at the Le Relais Quebec World Cup, and Kyra Dossa was again a finalist at that event. We also had athletes compete at the Le Relais NorAm on that stop.

Athletes will be competing at the Lake Placid NorAm over the next two days, and we hope to see excellent results at that event.

Closer to home, we will be hosting Aerials Junior Nationals on Saturday, March 16th. We still need help at that event, so please click here to view available opportunities and sign up if you're able to help out.

Next up, we will depart for the FIS Development Camp and Junior Worlds on March 22nd.

Alpine

The Devo group finished the qualifier season in Snowbasin earlier this month, and head coach, Dar Hendrickson, reflected on the season saying, “I believe each [athlete] has given their best effort and raced to the standards Devos set for themselves. It is a long road to success in this crazy sport and … it is my pleasure to be their coach."

The South Series groups also achieved solid results and many personal bests, and wrapped up an awesome weekend of racing at Snowbasin for the Butch Hoffman Memorial GS and Kombi. The girls led the charge with Sydney Ervin in 3rd place and another six girls in the top 30. In the Kombi, girls placed in the top 30 and Sydney Ervin reach the podium again in 2nd place. The boys also had strong results with Julian Strangis and Jonah McKenzie each landing in 5th place respectively in GS and Kombi. In GS, we had eight more boys in the top 30, followed by twelve in the Kombi top 30.

The Jr IMC crew competed at the Grand Targhee series. Head second-year coach, Chris Brigham, shared podium shots while head first-year coach, Brando Koress, reported that, "Terrific results were achieved by many of the first-year U14s in Targhee, with standout results achieved by Chloe Whitney with a top 20 finish, and Olivia Vallieres with a tremendous 9th place result.” On the men’s side, Brody Eaton managed two top-10 performances and Zach Vallieres was top-20.

The U16 men and women just wrapped up their IMD qualifier season with SG races at home on West Peak! For the women, Brooke Goldberg continued to impress across all disciplines, finishing 3rd, 4th, and 3rd in the three races. Amelie Swift had one of her best finishes of the season, in 5th. Maddi Bullard showed her consistency, finishing in the top 10 in all three races, and Riley Eaton overcame a first-race DNF to finish 9th and 6th in the final two races.

The U16 men competed in Sun Valley against a stacked field of U18s. Head Men's Coach, Grant Jamieson, said, “Well done to everyone for the effort you all put in leading up to and during the races. Kye Sivo and Sammy Bush had top-15 results in all three qualifying races, [and] Kye led the team and had a 4th-place result in race 1."

Our FIS groups have also been traveling with one group competing at a number of venues including Snowbird, West Peak, Snowking, Palisades, Lake Placid, and some even traveled to compete in Europe. Congratulations to Owen Platt for qualifying for U18 Nationals, and to Stefan Brennwald, Aksel Kitt, Ford Hodgkins, Ian Hanrahan, and Daniel Macuga who all qualified for US Nationals.

In addition to our athlete successes, we have now hosted 23 races this season (including both genders and one town series) at the Utah Olympic Park - 19 of which were held on the new Olympic Hopeful trail. Many athletes initially spoke of how scary and intimidating this trail was, yet now most have realized it is a true game changer in adding versatility to our repertoire of training venues. 

Big Mountain

It has been a busy and productive month of IFSA competitions! PCSS athletes earned podium spots at Powder Mountain, Snowbasin and Grand Targhee! We also participated in team competitions on Jupiter Peak! 

We have lots of epic skiing conditions and fresh snow at Park City Mountain. In addition, the Backcountry team has been harvesting some nice powder turns off the Peak 5 access gate.

Cross Country

We have had a lot going on in the cross country division. The Comp team went to the final Junior National Qualifying event which was held in McCall, Idaho on February 10-11. We are pleased to announce that we had 10 athletes and 1 alternate named to the Intermountain Division team for the 2024 Junior Nationals in Lake Placid, New York.

The qualifying U18 athletes are Lucas Fassio, Tory Hoffman, Liam Snihurowych, and Keely Fisher. The qualifying U16 athletes are Phoebe Zaniello, Jaydon Crouch, Tegan Hoffman, Rhys Weidenhamer, Ian Carmack, Augie Roepke, with Hannah Strachan being named as the first alternate.

Back in Park City, we have been competing locally at the Wasatch Citizens Series races. 

Thank you to everyone who came out to the World Cup Watch Party. It was great to get the local Nordic community together to watch a World Cup on US snow. Thank you Park City Brewing for hosting! 

We were also thrilled to have alum, Rosie Brennan, join us at a PCSS practice - fresh off competing in the World Cup in Minneapolis. Rosie had made it a goal to collect World Cup bibs numbered 1-50, and she achieved that goal in Minneapolis and she then generously donated the bibs to PCSS! Our Devo and Kickers & Gliders athletes got to wear the bibs during practice while skiing with Rosie, and then had the opportunity to ask her questions and get her autograph!

We also had 70 Kickers & Gliders participate in the Cocoa Loppet on February 8th. This is a fun and free opportunity to try cross country ski racing that includes post-race hot cocoa. 

We are excited to announce we are hosting the Western Nordic Club Championships on March 16-17 at Soldier Hollow. This weekend of racing is open to all abilities and we expect many teams from the Western US competing in the event. We will also have an open race for adults to take part. Find out more information and register here.

Devo Freestyle

With all terrain open at Park City Mountain, the top of every in-bounds, hike-access area has seen at least one Devo group this season, including Scott’s Bowl, Pioneer Ridge, Jupiter Peak, Upper and Lower Pinecone Ridge, and Murdock Peak.

Competition season is underway for our Devo Comp Team, and athletes earned the following podium spots in February:

Round 2 will take place on Mar 28-29 at the UOP with Slopestyle first and then Moguls. This series of races is specifically designed for athletes who are interested in testing the waters of the competitive environment in a friendly venue.

Moguls

The Mogul team is in the thick of competition season across all levels. Just this past weekend, many of our athletes participated in the Devo Mogul Competition hosted on Intermediate Hills at the Utah Olympic Park. For some athletes, this was their first foray into competitions, while others topped the podium.

We also hosted our first Intermountain Freestyle Division regional event on our brand new Axios Mogul Course on the West Peak expansion at the UOP. This is a challenging course but many of our athletes persevered. A big congratulations to Mason Schwarzenbach for winning the M13 division!

We are looking forward to hosting Junior Nationals on this same venue March 13-17. We will need a TON of volunteers to pull off this event so please click here to view and sign up for the opportunities of interest to you. All volunteer hours will be credited against your work deposit, and we sincerely appreciate your support in helping us host these events for all of our amazing athletes! 

Our FIS mogul crew is on the road and also finding success on the NorAm Tour. A huge shout out to Zoe Dwinell who skied her way to a 2nd place finish in duals at the Apex NorAm this past week. After an ACL injury kept her out of competition for over a year, it is great to see her back and skiing to her full potential. 

We wish all of our athletes the best of luck as they enter into Championship season with NorAm Finals, Divisionals Championships, Junior Nationals Championships, and National Championships on the horizon for the next month!

Park & Pipe

February was a busy competition month for our Park & Pipe athletes. We had 3 different groups at 3 different venues to start the month, followed by an event every week for the rest of the February.

Our athletes had a great showing at the regional USASA events in Sun Valley, Grand Targhee, and Woodward, with multiple wins and podiums. At the Futures Tour in Vermont, Zach Gaudet and Kat Kazienko landed on top of the podium for the Men's and Women's divisions. 

We currently have a crew on the road at Northstar and Mammoth for some more Futures Tour action, and wish those athletes good luck!

Ski Jumping / Nordic Combined

Despite the snowy month, our athletes have enjoyed great training on all five of our ski jumps for the past few weeks. We’ve mixed in some fun intersquad competitions, introduced new jumpers to the sport, and some of our athletes have been busy traveling to competitions around the nation and world!

At the highest level, we were proud to watch two of our Nordic Combined athletes compete at the World Junior Championships in Planica, Slovenia.  Augie Roepke (16) and Ian Carmack (15) both made their debut on the international circuit at this event. Their former teammate and PCSS alum, Josie Johnson, also continued her incredible season with an 11th at the Championships, just two weeks after winning a historic silver in Ski Jumping at the Youth Olympic Games in South Korea. This was the US’s first Olympic-level medal in Ski Jumping since the 1924 Olympic Winter Games!

Domestically, Tyler Phillips, one of our comp team athletes, has been representing PCSS well on the US Cup circuit, with a 2nd and 1st at the Westby, Wisconsin US Cup and a 7th place finish at the Brattleboro, Vermont US Cup. 

Back home at the Olympic Park, we just wrapped up PCSS Shredders’ jumping block and our second session of Get Out & Play Ski Jumping. Between these three programs, over 60 athletes were introduced to ski jumping in just one month! 

We also had a great Friday Night Challenge for our small hills club athletes on Feb 16th, with 22 athletes participating in a team format event on the 10, 20 and 40M jumps. Each team featured an athlete on each hill and the athletes were able to experience a competition setting with an emphasis on team culture, sportsmanship and fun! 

Looking ahead, we’ll wrap our competitive season hosting the Western Regional Championships at the UOP on March 8th and 9th.

Skimo

PCSS Skimo had a busy mid-winter enjoying the return of winter. We kicked January off with back-to-back sprint racing in Nordic Valley, UT. The inaugural “Viking Sprints” were the second stop of the USA Skimo National Cup Series. We took home multiple podiums, including U16 Male 1st and 3rd from Sam Kirschner and Joshua Itoi, two U16 3rds from Addynson Lundberg and a 2nd in the senior male category from Griffin Briley.

After Nordic Valley, our next event was the 16th annual Crowbar backcountry ski race in Logan Canyon, UT. Griffin Briley defended his overall win, followed by Sam Kirschner winning the U16 Male, a sweep of the junior race podium by Sebastian Crossland, Zane Fisher and Collin Kryger, and a great showing by over 20 PCSS athletes, coaches and parents in attendance! 

Over the past few weeks, a few of our athletes have traveled as far as Taos, NM and Whitefish, MT, while the majority of our team has enjoyed great local training. We’ve had one PC Town Series so far, with three more scheduled to wrap the season at the Olympic Park on March 8, 22 and April 5.

The team has also been fortunate to ski the new Westpeak Uphill at the UOP. This new training venue offers much more challenge and excitement to our training week. With a few good sessions on Westpeak, we’re confident that the team is ready for the pinnacle of the season - the Wasatch Powderkeg. This year’s “P-keg” is doubling as US National and North American Championships, and will feature an all-new individual course at Solitude Resort. Athletes will be competing in a vertical, individual and sprint race Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 1-3, respectively. We’re excited to see the culmination of all the hard work on display this coming weekend!

Snowboard

In the midst of contest season, the SNB Global Team shipped off to the Sierras for Futures Tour contests at Northstar and Mammoth Mountain.  Congratulations to Graydon Ross who finished 5th in Slopestyle and Ellis Swain who finished 4th in Half Pipe at the Northstar events. 

Locally, Woodward Park City hosted Halfpipe and Slopestyle events for regional USASA contests. PCSS SNB was represented by more than 30 athletes at these contests. 

Gwynnie Park has been invited to Junior Worlds for Slopestyle and will be heading to Livigno, Italy to compete later this month. 

Youth Development

We may only have one more month of winter training for our Youth Development athletes, but summer camp/program registration is just around the corner! Registration for Mountain Bike, Air and Water Ramp camps, as well as Devo Freestyle Water Ramp training will go live on Friday, March 29th!

Week-long camps are available for 8-13 year old athletes, and Devo Freestyle Water Ramp sessions for 7-13 year old athletes. These opportunities are open to all PCSS members as well as to other local and nationally-based kids so anyone can participate!

For camp/program descriptions, dates, details, and pricing go to www.parkcityss.org and click on "Youth Development” under the Summer tab, or feel free to send your questions to Youth Development Director, Ryan DeVine, at rdevine@parkcityss.org.