Despite Its Ramshackle HQ on Golden Peak, Ski & Snowboard Club Vail
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CLUBHOUSE RULES Despite its ramshackle HQ on Golden Peak, Ski & Snowboard Club Vail sent a dozen athletes or alumni to the Olympics in Sochi—and hopes to mint even more world champions at Beaver Creek in 2015. Meet the club that’s the heart of America’s home team. BY DEVON O’NEIL >> Vail Ski & Snowboard PHOTOS BY ZACH MAHONE Academy, one of Ski & Snowboard Club Vail’s three academic partners, is the nation’s largest snow sports– focused public school. 64 VAIL-BEAVER CREEK MAGAZINE HOLIDAY 2014/2015 VAIL-BEAVER CREEK MAGAZINE HOLIDAY 2014/2015 65 uring a rare moment of fluster, Aldo Radamus, the longtime executive di- rector at Ski & Snowboard Club Vail (SSCV), rifles through his desk for a lift ticket. He’s struggling to recall Students at Vail Ski & Snow- a date from five years ago—the first board Academy in Minturn lug books—and skis and day of early-season race training at Golden D Aldo Radamus boots—to school. Peak, enabled by a new, cutting-edge snow- making system—and he knows the elusive artifact will have the answer. As he searches, he chastises himself for Association (USSA) named SSCV its Club of much as six weeks earlier than is the norm. their quadriceps. When the 2015 FIS Alpine the memory lapse. “I should know that the Year for the second time in half a decade, Less than a year later, not only did the World Ski Championships commence in off the top of my head,” he mumbles. He and a dozen current or former SSCV athletes club have its private preseason training early February, if all goes as planned, SSCV is sitting in the club’s original and woe- competed in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games grounds (paid for by a multimillion-dollar alumnae Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shif- fully outdated headquarters at the base in Sochi, two of whom won gold medals—you donation), but when it wasn’t using the frin will headline the American hopes, sup- of Golden Peak, in an office that he once could argue the most critical was the snow- course, it rented it (a commodity the club ported by a host of lesser-known SSCV ath- used all the time but now sits empty most making expansion, which essentially added refers to as “lane space time”) to everyone letes and veterans. And behind the scenes, days. (Radamus, like the rest of the club’s a month and a half to Vail’s training season. from European World Cup teams to East as they have done at local World Cup races employees, elects to work at newer, nicer That, as SSCV athletic director Brandon Dyk- Coast ski academies. These groups gladly for years, a collection of SSCV athletes, digs in Minturn.) sterhouse says, “is really an unfair advantage flew thousands of miles to train on Vail’s parents, and supporters will handle the The mid-1980s-vintage office furniture in a sport where everything is driven by time snow, then flooded social media with re- grunt volunteer work that enables every serves as a reminder that the clubhouse is on snow.” ports on how good the conditions were. big event. Local kids, many of them wearing slated for a multimillion-dollar redevelop- How this pivotal moment transpired “It was one of those serendipitous clouds the club’s signature lime green anoraks, will ment, complete with residential units that involved a bit of kismet and cajoling. In De- with a silver lining,” says Radamus, who watch their heroes become world champi- will help offset the cost of the project. For cember 2008, Radamus was visiting the VIP notes that over the summer the resort, ons on the hills they ski every day. now, relics blanket Radamus’s walls, like the tent at the Birds of Prey World Cup races in which donated an 11,000-square-foot parcel The gears will turn, as they have for more 1996 Hahnenkamm poster and the hand- Beaver Creek when a U.S. Forest Service of- of land to SSCV for its clubhouse redevel- than half a century in Vail, where a tiny ski written note taped at eye level that lists the opment, also submitted a new proposal to Ski Club’s new $2.5 million elite athlete ficial hinted that the club’s long-anticipated club grew up to be the biggest and baddest training center—a partnership with the five core values he ascribes to and expects expansion on Golden Peak wasn’t likely to the Forest Service that, if approved, finally in America, for better or worse. town of Minturn—at Maloit Park. his athletes to emulate: be approved due to hydrological concerns would allow for the additional terrain and with the club’s proposed new terrain. upgraded infrastructure the club has done PASSIONATE (SSCV wanted to add 760 vertical feet to its without—and done well without—for so efore Ski & Snowboard Club Vail AGGRESSIVE course so the club could host FIS women’s long. “By changing our focus after that approached the 600-kid barrier its first junior members five years later, of-state FIS alpine racer)—not including FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND downhill or men’s super-G races, and pro- disappointment, we actually created some- (including nearly 300 alpine rac- when it operated on an annual budget of travel, equipment, ski tuning, and a variety ATHLETIC vide additional terrain for more acrobatic thing that exceeded all of our expectations ers), before it felt ordinary for Vail $16,000 and charged a $65 annual program of other camps and services that can be HOMEGROWN events like ski cross, snowboard cross, and in terms of what it meant to the kids and athletes to claim 10 of the top 15 fee ($1.2 million and $483, respectively, in added à la carte, and usually are. (Radamus moguls competition.) Demonstrating his the club, and how it attracted teams from spots in a race, and before joining the today’s dollars). Now the club operates on notes that program fees cover less than 80 “Oh, here it is,” Radamus says, trium- first two core values, over lunch Radamus around the world to come to Vail and train Bclub became an alternative to joining the a $4.5 million annual budget, and annual percent of SSCV’s annual budget, and that phantly plucking the lift ticket from a drawer. proposed an alternate plan: an early-season in November, when the only ones here are national team, SSCV was just like dozens of program fees range between $1,800 (for last season, the club awarded scholarships “November 3, 2009, was the first day.” Among snowmaking system—automated and cen- the mice and the locals.” other clubs around the U.S. a local 6-to-9-year-old future star athlete totaling $170,000, doled out to one out of the many events that have almost cosmically trally controlled, to take advantage of key Of course, this winter the world’s best ski Founded in 1962 to enable Vail Mountain who trains only on Saturdays and competes every five athletes.) converged to propel the club’s recent ascen- weather windows in October—that would racers will descend on the Vail Valley chas- to host FIS races, the club (one of the val- in the free Steadman Clinic Vail Cup on At a time when many ski clubs are losing dance—last spring the U.S. Ski and Snowboard allow on-mountain training to begin as ing bigger stakes than enhanced stamina in ley’s first, and oldest, nonprofits) accepted Sundays) and $13,000 (for a full-time out- >> 66 VAIL-BEAVER CREEK MAGAZINE HOLIDAY 2014/2015 VAIL-BEAVER CREEK MAGAZINE HOLIDAY 2014/2015 67 TIMELINE Club enrollment The evolution of Ski Club Vail Club alums and members reaches 425 athletes. SCV named USSA Alpine shine at the Winter Olympics The season starts Club of the Year for the The first early in Sochi: Mikaela Shiffrin without Mikaela Ski Club Vail is founded First junior racers first time. training season 585 wins a gold medal in slalom, SCV coach Crawford Shiffrin, after her so the new resort, which sign up with the As membership expands begins on November Club enrollment Kaitlyn Farrington wins a Pierce is named USSA 16-year-old Lindsey father accepts a job Vail Ski & Snowboard opened for business on De- club. Annual budget: to 118 athletes, a second 2, thanks to an reaches 585 gold medal in halfpipe, and . Program floor is added to the Coach of the Year. Kildow makes her in New Hampshire. Academy becomes cember 15, can fulfill plans $16,000 SSCV-financed SSCV alumna athletes. Ayumu Hirano wins a silver World Cup debut in the to host international races. fees: $65 per child. clubhouse. first publicly $3 million snow- medal in halfpipe. 60 Club enrollment Park City. Mikaela Shiffrin Local legends Pete Seibert Vail Valley Academy is funded snowsports SCV’s original reaches 257 Aldo Radamus is making upgrade on makes her World and Dick Hauserman are on founded by Terresa Herbst academy in the clubhouse, serving 60 athletes. hired as executive Golden Peak. Cup debut at age 15. the board of trustees. with six students and five nation, launching athletes, is dedicated. director. teachers. with 31 students. 1962 1967 1977 1986 1993 1996 1997 1999 2003 2007 2009 2011 2013 1973 1981 1990 1995 1998 2000 2002 2004 2010 2014 SCV adds a freestyle Rudd Pyles become A $122,000 halfpipe Aldo Radamus, the moguls program, the first SCV athlete to The club adds SSCV adds a cutter (financed by club’s future executive with 31 skiers.