December 17, 2022

Greetings SBSEF,

Powder-filled December days have made for the best early-season skiing in recent memory.  The consensus seems to be the best since 2005…

In addition to the great skiing we have had a very productive beginning to the season in terms of training.  The season began in late October in Colorado for the FIS Team, most of that group is already competing in Jackson, WY at the first Regional FIS race of the year, with the U16s heading up tomorrow.

The Freeride Team has gotten off to a great start, enjoying mid-winter conditions in early December.

Members of our Snowboard Team are currently at Big White, in British Columbia, Canada competing in the year’s first SBX NorAm.

As for Alumni, Bella has posted a fantastic beginning of the season on the Women’s World Cup circuit and has come out of the gates one of the fastest speed skiers in the US!  Jared continues to rack up World Cup points in what is now his 10th year on the World Cup circuit, 9th place today in Val Gardena!

I want to make a special note of two Alpine athletes who have already begun their competition seasons, Townsend Mikell and Sofie Hagaard, who have begun their journey on the NorAm Circuit.  This is the highest level of Continental competition.  These two SBSEF athletes raced in Colorado against the best in the continent and scored top-30 results!

We now enter our biggest training block of the year.  Happy Holidays to all, see you on the mountain!

Work Hard. Dream Big.

Bridger Call
SBSEF Executive Director


AltaSnowbird Freeride Update:

In terms of snow, a very generous start to the season has allowed the AltaSnowbird Freeride Team to get right into the

 

swing of things this December. Athletes have been able to get into good terrain to apply and improve their skills on the mountain.  Wednes

day Woodward sessions began two weeks ago and have been well attended, the athletes’ work in the park and on the ramps and tramps will definitely pay off on skis around the mountain.

The first competitions are on the horizon, with local IFSA regional events taking place at Snowbird January 21 and 22 and Owen Carlson will be heading to Kappl, Austria, at the same time to compete at the Freeride Junior World Championships later that week! We’ll have a full slate of events through February and March so stay tuned; the team is skiing really well overall and is ready to have a lot of fun and good progression this season!

Will Dujardin


Snowboard Update:

Greetings from Canada! Some of the Snowboard Team is up at Big White preparing for our first NorAm’s and World Cups of the season. Meanwhile, back home training is off to an amazing start! With the majority of the mountain open and with great coverage we have been able to jump right in and train all aspects of riding. For those that don’t know, we train most disciplines in snowboarding with heavy e

mphasis on Boardercross, Big Mountain Freeride and Banked Slalom so having access to all the terrain Snowbird has is amazing. We will retur

n back home right before Christmas and after a couple days off will be back on hill at Snowbird for Holiday Camp. Following that one group will head to Europe and another will be going to Canada a couple weeks later for a NorAm and camp.

Our Young Riders group continues to train and progress and we have some interest in some Big Mountain Freeride training/competition.

Not everyone is aware but our team is made up of able-body athletes but also adaptive athletes – all of whom train together when we are home. These different groups do create some additional challenges – especially for competitions as each group follows a totally different competition calendar. But we see big benefits to training these athletes together and everyone gets stronger through that relationship.

Lane Clegg


Alpine Updates:

FIS

The Snowbird FIS group has been hard at work prepping for the start of the season. We wrapped up our final pre-season camp with 4 days of Slalom skiing at Vail. Considering the bottomless conditions at Snowbird, and the constant snow in Colorado as well, we’ve been able to adapt and get access to great quality training surfaces each day which has helped translate into some solid progress for the group. Crossing our fingers that mother nature will give us a slight break over Christmas camp so that we can take advantage of all the snow and get another solid training blockbefore the season really kicks into gear.

 I’d like to give a shout-out to the newest member of the coaching staff, Heather Jochl, for coordinating and providing access for the FIS team to work as course crew slippers at the Birds Of Prey Downhill in Beaver Creek. While initially there was some hesitation about waking up at 5:10 AM and

 spending a half day on skis slipping a world cup course. The coaches were unsurprised to see eyes start to widen, and attitudes change as the kids slipped over “the Brink” – the steepest part of the Downhill track – for the first time and they realized that this is the terrain and environment that World Cup Downhillers compete in. So thanks to Heather for the effort on that!

 

This month’s Athlete Spotlight is going to be on Gus Dain. I want to commend him for showing exceptional accountability over his program so far this year. This summer/fall he has had to balance commitments between being a member of the Skyline Football Team, and SBSEF. While this can be a distraction for some, so far the work ethic and time put into dryland with the football team has translated well into his fitness for skiing.

On snow, it is apparent that Gus is also exemplary for his consistent work ethic and focus. Regardless of the conditions or training group, Gus is pushing out of the gate with determination and intensity. This mindset has translated well on race day at our first race in Jackson, where we have seen him lay down some of his best skiing of the year and make some large moves up the results sheet! Congrats to Gus and excited to see where he can go with the rest of this season!

~ Brennan


U16

The U16 group has had some great power skiing and some equally great gate training in these past number of weeks with some huge improvements being made by the entire group. We are headed to our first competition of the season in Jackson with two GS and two SL races at SnowKing.

Something that has stood out to me so far is how well the group has combined to work as a team! Approximately half our team is joining us new from an hour north or south which has allowed for new friendships and new levels of pace for many of our athletes. The importance of a positive team dynamic is paramount to the success not only to the team as a whole but to each athlete individually as well.

A huge thanks to the parents and especially to the athletes for helping create what so far has been a great team! Keep up the hard work and remember maximum efforts get maximum results!

Fritz


Jfast

The U10 and U12 team is off to a fantastic start. In addition to a great fall ski camp in Aspen, JFAST athletes have been able to take advantage of some awesome early season conditions and get a lot of technical freeski work done. The focus on stance and balance, edging, and pressure / extension builds a great foundation that sets us up for success the rest of the year. JFAST athletes have been working hard during this early season block and are looking forward to getting into some gates this week.

In addition, we have had some outstanding powder skiing. With almost 200 inches to date, Jfast has had the opportunity to ski the entirety of Snowbird before Christmas. Something that we have not been able to do the last couple of seasons.

December JFAST Skier Highlight

North Loeffler is new to JFAST this season coming from the Devo Transition team. North has stepped up in a big way. Being extremely focused and working hard this early season has helped North improve a lot already. He has also been extremely helpful in getting training set up and taken down. Thanks North for being an awesome member of the JFAST crew!


U14

The U14 athlete highlight for the month of December is Hannah Hijjawi. Hannah worked really hard in dryland this fall and had the best attendance record for our off-snow conditioning program. Hannah arrived at our fall camp in Aspen, Colorado strong, ready to sk

i. Her efforts in dryland paid off as she was able to make great breakthroughs in GS and SL- Hannah is off to a great start!

                          ~Ben


Trips and TeamSnap

All out-of-town trips will have a coach travel fee due from each team member attending that event. These will be built into TeamSnap, and you will pay via TeamSnap. Please watch for a link to register from your head coach before your trip/event. Lodging and transportation will be available to U16 and older athletes on a first-registered basis (due to limited seats/beds, etc). Athletes 13 and under travel with their parents. The trip sheet will explain these costs, and you will register/pay for these via TeamSnap. We have tested this throughout the fall and December with a few alpine trips, and it is working great. Be sure to pay your travel fees online early, so the coaches don’t have to remind you before it closes.

For daily training, please be sure to update your athlete availability so coaches can plan! Thanks!


Volunteers needed for upcoming alpine races! Earn athlete account credits or snowchecks!

 https://sbsef.com/volunteer-opportunties


Alpine Devo Team Starts January 7 & 8, 2023!
If your athlete is interested in having hot lunch this season, sign up before January 1! Here is the link: CLICK HERE FOR DEVO HOT LUNCH
Those bringing lunches from home, be sure they are put into the team backpacks when you check in your athlete at 8:55 AM each day.
More updates from Jason will be emailed soon.


Upcoming Events:

  • Holiday Camp Dec 22 – Dec 31 *check your teamsnap schedule for details
  • Dec 27 – Alpine camp breakfast (aka baconfest) *weather dependent
  • Dec 28 – KBYG Avalanche Awareness *select groups
  • Dec 29 – Freeride Sports Psych
  • Dec 30 – Team Photo *weather dependent
  • Freeride pizza social TBA (during camp)
  • Jan 7-9 – IMC U16 Q @ Snowbird
  • Jan 17-18 – South Series GS @ Snowbird
  • Jan 21-22 – IFSA Junior Regional @ Snowbird
  • Jan 26-27 – Westminster FISU SL @ Snowbird