Alumni Address Building Success in "Life After SVSEF" Forum
Many young people grow up in the Wood River Valley living and breathing skiing and snowboarding. The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation offers a platform for these kids to achieve their skiing and snowboarding goals, and to become phenomenal snowsport athletes.
At the end of their high school skiing career, however, many of these athletes are left wondering where they can go with the sport. While a very small percentage of skiers manage to break into elite levels of competition, there are any number of ways athletes can incorporate skiing into their lives and careers.
To that end, SVSEF Academic Director Matt Leidecker has arranged the 3rd annual Life After SVSEF. Leidecker takes advantage of the holiday season when many SVSEF alumni return home to organize an informal panel discussion between current and former athletes.
This year’s alumni panel will include a wide array of former SVSEF skiers and boarders, including alpine athletes Tanner Farrow and Harlan Collins. Farrow is currently competing on with the U.S. Men’s Alpine Ski team and Collins is finishing up a collegiate career on the USCSA college circuit with Rocky Mountain College.
Cross Country alum Mikey Sinnott, who competed for many years at the collegiate (captain of the Dartmouth College Division I Nordic Ski Team) and World Cup level, offers a great perspective on what it takes to continue competitive cross country racing after high school.
Current SVSEF athletes will have a great opportunity to learn from alums McKenna Peterson and Lexi Dupont. Both women competed on the Freeskiing World Tour and have continued to pursue a career in the industry. Dupont is a sponsored Eddie Bauer adventure athlete, and McKenna was recently part of an all-female team that produced a documentary called, “Shifting Ice, Changing Tides” about skiing in Greenland. Both women have made appearances in Warren Miller films.
Rounding out the panel are Wyatt Caldwell and Griffin Post. Wyatt grew up snowboarding for SVSEF and has competed at many different levels as the sport evolved. He and his brother Yancy are part of Stellar Media an “action adventure content solution” media company. After leaving Sun Valley, Post established his position in the ski world with an impressive series of podium results on the Freeride World Tour between 2006 and 2009. He currently is a sponsored athlete, growing his brand through filming and writing.
The Life after SVSEF event provides an excellent opportunity for these alums to share their wealth of knowledge and experience in the ski industry with current athletes, their parents and general public. The format of the event is an informal Q&A where SVSEF members can seek insight and guidance from their older counterparts about how to incorporate skiing and boarding into their lives beyond high school.
The event will take place on Sunday, December 27th from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. in the SVSEF Engl Training Center at Warm, Springs. The forum is free and open to the public.
Adventurer and skier McKenna Peterson
Photo courtesy of Shifting Ice
-Story by Matt Leidecker
A-Cross-Country Ties to the Greater Ski Community
Out of the woods... Former SVSEF coach and athlete duo - Chris Mallory and Max Durtschi reunite for a backcountry adventure in Lake Placid, New York this past week. Chris is now the Assistant Coach of the University of Vermont Ski Team, and Max is now racing for the U.S. Biathlon Team! Wherever we go #wearesvsef!
Circa 1966 - Pete Patterson
Was Pete Patterson the cutest little gap-toothed ripper you ever did see? Here he is accepting the Billy Klein Memorial trophy from actress Ann Southern in Sun Valley, circa 1966.
Rising Juniors, Seniors encouraged to apply for True North Scholarships
Thanks to the generosity of the Kalik Family, three SVSEF student/athletes will be given merit scholarships covering 50 percent of their tuition for the 2015-16 season. Recipients are chosen solely for merit, financial need is not a consideration. Last year’s honorees were Renee Shapiro, Grace Gorham and Wyatt Smith.
Here is the topic question for this year’s essay:
Has your experience as a member of the SVSEF empowered you and how will you carry this with you into the future?
The True North Award celebrates the spirit of John Randolph Kalik who found his best self in Idaho. Inspired by mountains and starry skies, he discovered inspiration, meaning and purpose. He delighted in joyful fun, transcendence, gratitude, and love. John was killed in a plane crash in 1980 at age 24. We are grateful for John’s legacy and the Kalik Family’s generosity that profoundly and positively impacts the lives of our SVSEF student/athletes.
Student-athletes are asked to submit essays to Jody Zarkos by Monday, June 15. Completed essays may be sent via e-mail to jody@svsef.org, USPS to P.O. Box 203, Sun Valley, Idaho 83353 or fax (208) 3548.
Olympic Day is a program-wide celebration that features field games and relays for SVSEF team members of all ages. Kids are asked to register for the event by clicking HERE.
62 for Lindsey Vonn
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (Jan. 18, 2015) - With a powerful run through sunshine and fog, Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) etched her name into the ski racing history book, winning her 62nd career Audi FIS Ski World Cup at the Cortina downhill by .32 over Austria's Elisabeth Goergl. The win by Vonn matched the seemingly unbeatable record of 62 World Cup wins set by Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proell that had stood for 35 years.
"It’s a pretty special moment for me," said Vonn, whose parents were in Cortina. "These records mean a lot to me and my family."
After two days of snowfall, a patchwork of clouds against the blue sky were mixed with bands of fog on the Olympia delle Tofane course in the 1956 Olympic city of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Vonn took the early lead coming off a steep face into a band of fog and kept it through the finish, building continually down the course on which she had won seven times previously. It was the same day on which 11 years ago a 19-year-old then Lindsey Kildow scored her first World Cup podium, finishing third in the Cortina downhill.
Read full article here http://alpine.usskiteam.com/news/62-lindsey-vonn
Out of the Vault — Felix Schaffgotch & Averell Harriman
Sun Valley visionaries Felix Schaffgotsch and Averell Harriman standing in front of Sun Valley Lodge in 1936. Photo courtesy the Ketchum Community Library, Regional History Department.
Out of the Vault — Curtis Bacca
Yes, he obviously has always had a passion for fashion, and all we can say is wow! Out of the Vault says Happy Birthday, Curtis Bacca. Looking good, mac daddy! You must have been like a Christmas tree for babe ornaments. (Why do we get the feeling you still have that outfit neatly packed away?)