SUN VALLEY, Idaho — A foot of recent snow makes skiers rejoice. However for Riley Berman, chief after all for the FIS Ski World Cup Finals at Solar Valley Resort, a powder day isn’t dreamy — it’s a nightmare.
That’s as a result of some 800 individuals — 145 of the world’s prime racers, plus their staff entourages, officers and media — have flown into Idaho’s Wooden River Valley (inhabitants: 25,000) for the most important alpine race outdoors the Winter Olympics.
Many of those individuals have traveled to Idaho from Europe, the place the World Cup (March 20-27) sometimes finishes alongside the constellation of racecourses that dot the Alps, Pyrenees and Nordic nations. However for the primary time in practically a decade, the elite ski racing circuit has returned to North America for the grand finale on a brand-new course that might reestablish Solar Valley as a world-class race venue — which implies the strain is on for the hosts.
“If it gets pulled off and we race all the events, this is going to be huge for not only getting more World Cup events in the U.S., but just ski racing in general over here,” stated U.S. Ski & Snowboard coach Austin Savaria through cellphone final week from Solar Valley, the place two of his racers had been taking follow runs.
With 19 inches of latest snowfall since March 13, resort visitors have loved the powder with each flip throughout Bald Mountain. However Berman and his crew of over 100 have been working frantically day and night time to clear the brand new snowfall from Challenger, the racecourse they’ve painstakingly modified and enhanced for the World Cup in a truncated time.
The course has been closed to the general public since March 6 — when Berman’s staff started putting in security netting and watering the slopes to remodel a sequence of runs utilized by 1000’s of native skiers day by day right into a rigorously manicured, uniform floor that meets the strict requirements set by ski racing’s governing physique, the Worldwide Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), to make sure truthful competitors.
So when practically a foot of snow fell in a single day final week, it grew to become an all-hands-on-deck operation. Berman’s core staff of 30 swelled threefold and unfold out to roll up security netting and shovel snow by hand off the course. Whereas his counterparts at marquee races in Austria and Switzerland fairly actually have nationwide armies at their disposal, Berman has relied on assist from resort workers and volunteers.
Expert groomers function a dozen snowcats to plow the snow open like a farmer’s discipline in order that crew members can direct industrial-strength hoses onto the 1.5-mile course. A mixture of snowcats driving slowly and course crew stepping down the mountain sideways on their skis generates friction, which brings the water to the floor. The water hardens within the chilly, making for compact snow nearly the consistency of ice — the typical skier’s bête noire, and the ski racer’s ultimate floor.
It’s all a part of the herculean behind-the-scenes effort that goes into constructing what Berman — hand-picked for the job as a result of his distinctive background and ability set — proudly calls “the Super Bowl of ski courses.”
‘The obvious guy’
The son of a ski store proprietor, Berman grew up within the Wooden River Valley and competed as a junior racer with the Solar Valley Ski Training Basis.
On race days, Berman dreamed of shaping a course as a lot as snowboarding it. “The fun part for me is constructing the playground,” he stated, whereas touring a reporter across the under-construction Challenger Course in January as 28 newly put in snow-making weapons roared overhead.
Berman, 33, has lengthy demonstrated a predilection for arduous work and grueling days. He lives on a plot of land with donkeys, horses, pigs, goats, chickens, cats and canine. Come dinnertime, he and his spouse pull hunks of elk they’ve harvested themselves out of the freezer. In his senior yr of highschool, Berman organized a 21-day expedition by snowmobile, touring skis, kayak and raft to journey 425 miles alongside the Salmon and Snake rivers throughout spring runoff, when the rivers threw Class V whitewater rapids at him. After faculty in Colorado, he returned house and have become a summertime fishing information and wintertime supervisor for Rotarun, a nonprofit group ski hill that couldn’t be extra completely different from glitzy Solar Valley up the highway.
As mountain supervisor for 5 years, Berman oversaw the set up of six state-of-the-art snow-making weapons and kick-started extra superior grooming that’s proving important to Rotarun’s viability as an inexpensive various to Solar Valley. In his spare time, Berman additionally pitched in as a course crew member throughout main races.
Final yr, Solar Valley tapped him for the World Cup job on the premise of his transformative work at Rotarun, which entailed most of the abilities he would wish to construct out Challenger.
“He was the obvious guy,” stated Savaria, a childhood buddy and fellow racer. “There’s not really anyone else here living in the valley that would have the knowledge and the drive and want to do it.”
Berman had already been at work for 3 months when Solar Valley formally introduced in late September that it was internet hosting the finals. The offseason supplies a treasured window to maneuver dust and take down timber earlier than the primary snowfall complicates issues. “One of the things that was really challenging was we weren’t able to start until July 1,” Berman stated at a Ketchum public library discuss in January. That meant 9 months whole, whereas World Cup hosts sometimes have two to 3 years to arrange.
Though Solar Valley didn’t construct a brand new course from virgin mountainside, turning current runs right into a World Cup course remains to be a critical endeavor for any ski resort, in line with Stevens Cross basic supervisor Ellen Galbraith, who served as chief after all for the 2015 Ladies’s Alpine Ski Championship downhill in Beaver Creek, Colo., and who suggested Berman on crew choice over the past yr.
“It is so much work and time, plus a huge amount of resources,” Galbraith stated. “Putting on races of this level is a massive commitment.”
Anatomy of a racecourse
At its core, a racecourse will not be that completely different from a ski run — it’s a human-made route down a snow-covered mountain created by eradicating timber and shifting dust round. One of the best ski runs ideally comply with the autumn line, or gravity’s path downhill on a slope. Twists and turns alongside the slope’s pure contour add problem and pleasure. A financial institution permits a skier to take a flip sooner, whereas a dip may launch them into the air. All these options are magnified on a racecourse, the place skiers are flying quick. Which means widening a run to permit extra room for a racer’s massive arcing turns or packing down dust to a constant grade so there’s a adequate touchdown zone after a leap that rockets a racer into the air.
Elite ski racing programs are a dime-a-dozen in Europe, the place a lot of the World Cup circuit takes place, however solely a handful of North American resorts have placed on races of this caliber. Solar Valley final hosted a World Cup occasion in 1977 — and the Northwest hasn’t seen racing on this degree for the reason that 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., and Whistler. (Crystal Mountain hosted a World Cup race in 1972 and Pink Mountain in Rossland, B.C. hosted in 1968.)
However placing Challenger collectively on an accelerated schedule was no imply feat. With just a few months earlier than first snowfall, the hill was a flurry of exercise — from tree removing at the beginning of the downhill course to shifting 7,000 cubic yards of dust to flatten out the end line.
Earthwork was accompanied by intensive technical infrastructure to satisfy World Cup requirements. Ski racing measures rivals right down to the hundredth of a second utilizing copper timing wires stationed alongside the course. When Berman and his staff began, they solely had three working timing wires out of a crucial 100. Along with digging trenches for the timing wires, Berman’s staff additionally dug 11 bigger trenches for pipes to accommodate fiber optic cables for stay TV broadcasts.
Subsequent got here the racers security netting, a crucial precaution in a sport with an alarming damage price. Berman’s staff erected 72 towers to supply help for the “A-net,” which has a suspension system to protect towards crashes in high-risk areas. Additionally they deployed a further 480 rolls of secondary B-net alongside the course.
The netting, Bermain defined, “is a vertical trampoline — it’s the last defense so the athletes don’t go flying off and hit a tree.”
From prime to backside
FIS units minimal and most course lengths for the completely different ski racing disciplines, every of which is able to use a portion of the Challenger Course. The shortest run is the slalom, masking 689 vertical toes and 700 yards, the place racers make tight turns weaving round gates. Then comes big slalom, which practically doubles to 1,352 vertical toes. It’s sooner than common slalom with fewer gates. These two “technical events” favor turning ability over uncooked energy, and are Mikaela Shiffrin’s specialty.
Pace demons equivalent to Lindsey Vonn gravitate towards the Tremendous-G, which in Solar Valley covers 2,132 vertical toes in simply over a mile. Lastly, the downhill (wherein Vonn received Olympic gold at Whistler) tackles the total course operating 2,736 vertical toes over 1.5 miles. Masking essentially the most distance, downhill racers are the quickest of the bunch — a World Cup racer has damaged 100 mph.
Whereas Solar Valley hosted the U.S. Alpine Nationwide Championships in 2023 and 2024 on decrease sections of the Challenger Course, the total top-to-bottom run spruced as much as World Cup degree will see its maiden voyage this week. Racers have inspected the course throughout coaching runs, however not like famed programs such because the Streif in Kitzbuhel, Austria or Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek, Colo., Solar Valley didn’t have adequate preparation time to host a trial occasion.
“This is going to be the first World Cup Finals where no athlete has skied the downhill before,” Berman stated. “This is about as fair and neutral of a ski race as you can get.”
Racecourses are divided into sections and options, like particular jumps or sharp turns, and given names that resonate with native historical past and folklore. The course’s namesake are the Challenger railroad vehicles that had been recognized for pace and energy. (Solar Valley was based by the Union Pacific Railroad.) Racers will want loads of energy to take care of pace on this course, which doesn’t have any flat sections for coasting the place racers crouch right into a tuck — it’s a steep experience from prime to backside.
Fittingly, racers will experience up the Challenger Chairlift to achieve the beginning line. Now in its second season, Challenger is a six-person rocket ship that Solar Valley Resort claims is the world’s longest chairlift by distance, taking pictures 3,100 vertical toes in eight minutes. The chairlift stays open to the general public through the races, and fairly probably gives the very best vantage level onto the racecourse.
Berman’s course crew practically doubled the width of the prevailing Worldwide black diamond run on the prime of the mountain to accommodate the downhill’s beginning part. Quickly after selecting up pace, racers get airborne for the primary time. The Sawtooth Leap simply generates some 90 toes of air earlier than racers are compelled right into a blind touchdown because the slope falls away beneath their skis. That’s the Durrance Dive, homage to American ski racing pioneer Dick Durrance, who spent a part of World Struggle II in Seattle working for Boeing and received Solar Valley’s Harriman Cup 3 times.
Downhill racers will preserve their skis on the bottom as they head into the Legends, the place the Tremendous-G begins. This part honors Solar Valley’s feminine champions, beginning with Tacoma-born Gretchen Fraser, the primary U.S. skier to win Olympic gold. The course then hits a gully referred to as Carol’s Wagon Wheel, named for not too long ago deceased resort proprietor Carol Holding, and into a brief traverse earlier than hitting the course’s signature characteristic, the Frontier Leap.
“It’s one of the more radical terrain features on the World Cup circuit,” Berman stated. “It’s called the Frontier Jump because as you go into that transition, you’re definitely going into the frontier — all you see is blue sky.”
For many who make the touchdown, there’s room for 3 massive turns earlier than navigating the small ridges and ripples of a bit referred to as the Sluice in honor of the area’s mining historical past. The large slalom begins simply after the Frontier Leap. Subsequent comes an enormous rollover at Rudi’s Roll, which leads into a pointy proper flip referred to as Cowboy Nook. The slalom racers begin right here, which finishes in a bit referred to as the Redd, a reference to salmon and steelhead spawning grounds, the place there’s sufficient pitch for downhillers to achieve some 80 mph heading into the end line.
For Group USA followers, there can be a lot to cheer for. How will Lindsey Vonn cap off her inconceivable comeback, popping out of retirement at 40 to race girls half her age? Will the game’s all-time winningest athlete Mikaela Shiffrin attain the rostrum on house soil?
Whether or not you watch from the end line or tune in on NBC Sports activities, the Northwest’s unique vacation spot ski resort can be on show for the world to see as racers cannonball down the Challenger Course sooner than the pace restrict on I-5 whereas toeing the superb line between staying in management and crashing into the nets.
As TV cameras pan throughout 1000’s of cheering followers, look ahead to Berman and his staff hustling anonymously within the background to make sure the course is in tiptop form.
“I don’t know how much Riley has slept in the past year but I bet it’s less than 99% of people,” Savaria stated. “When he’s motivated and excited about something, he can put his head down, get lost in the work, and doesn’t struggle with it at all.”
