WHITE PASS — Exceptionally wet and heavy powder combined with low visibility to create difficult conditions for the White Pass Ski Area freeride ski team at its Sunday practice earlier this …
Unlock unlimited access for just $1 for your first month
Please log in to continue |
WHITE PASS — Exceptionally wet and heavy powder combined with low visibility to create difficult conditions for the White Pass Ski Area freeride ski team at its Sunday practice earlier this month.
Coaches Gunnar and Duncan Stoltenow took advantage of the teaching opportunity for more than 15 skiers ranging in age from 10-18, stressing the importance of not leaning forward too much in the six inches of fresh powder. The group responded well to the challenge, aggressively skiing some of the front side's steeper slopes and bigger moguls while showing little fear, despite an occasional wipeout.
Training sessions offered for essentially the full day every Saturday and Sunday build confidence for young skiers as they hone their skills and learn how to safely attack difficult terrain. Gunnar Stultenow, the group's main coach, encourages creativity while pushing kids to test their limits and maintain strong fundamentals.
"(The main focus is) the athletic stance and having those good, strong techniques," Stoltenow said. "Then we bring that into big mountain freeride skiing and so skiing all the steeps and all the trees and bumps and cliffs and all that and teaching kids to do that safely but at a very advanced and high level."
Gunnar said most of the young skiers came through the development program at White Pass and must meet a fairly high proficiency level to join the freeride team, which costs $2,550 and includes a season pass. They ski the mountain's most demanding terrain and some skiers will go on to compete at big mountain events sanctioned by the International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association.
A similar snowboard team coached by Doug Taylor features five young athletes, including 14-year-old Avery Lyons from Tacoma. She won multiple Pacific Northwest events and finished seventh at the IFSA championships in Breckenridge, Colo., last year.
"All mountain, that's what we're set up as and then we make choices," said Taylor, who lives in Morton. "Some of them like the big mountain riding and some of them like the slopestyle competition."
Going big
Freeride skiers enjoy the friendly competition provided by teammates always seeking ways to go bigger when choosing their lines and throwing tricks off of jumps.
Hanford High sophomore Zachary Rahn recalled following Bellarmine Prep sophomore Emmet Jones off an approximately 20-foot cliff they hadn't attempted before at a training session earlier this season, just one example of how the group's two most advanced skiers feed off of each other. They're both hoping to follow in the footsteps of Alexis Beck, who last season became the group's first skier to qualify for IFSA nationals at Breckenridge.
Rahn and Jones know that won't be easy since they've moving up from the U15 age group to U19 this season, as is Ellensburg freshman Calder Finn. The standout cross country runner who finished 38th at the 2A state meet last fall learned to ski through Summit at Snoqualmie's Powder Pigs program before joining the White Pass's freeride team five years ago.
Finn and his younger sister, Ailie, a seventh-grader at Morgan Middle School, plan to compete later this winter at Stevens Pass, Schweitzer and White Pass. Competitors scope out the courses — typically a double black diamond, among the mountain's toughest terrain — on an inspection run before choosing the best line to ski to showcase their abilities, all in collaboration with coaches.
"They definitely have good tips for you," Calder said. "They will try to get you to maybe a bigger line and if there's something wrong with it they'll guide you to a bigger thing that might be a better option, but it's still kind of our choice."
Gunnar said coaches become less involved as skiers gain more experience, but he always encourages even the best skiers to consider the risk and reward of choosing a line that might result in losing control or crashing. Although time limits exist, speed's not generally a factor and some runs may be as short as 40 seconds long, while others will be closer to two minutes.
Judges score skiers based on five categories — line choice, control, fluidity, technique and style/energy — designed to reward those who choose difficult lines while making smart decisions to stay in control. Rahn and Jones said they've learned a lot from all the White Pass coaches, including Will Pratt and Maddy Bailey, and Ailie Calder said they've given her confidence to try bigger jumps in her second season.
"The coaches are really nice and supportive of everyone," Ailie said. "They really push you, but not too far. They push you to where they know that you can go, but you never thought you could go."
Skiers for life
Gunnar grew up learning to ski through the developmental programs at White Pass, so he jumped at the chance to give back, first through seven years of ski patrol and eventually as a coach.
He's in his fifth year of rebuilding the program initially started by his father, Stacy Stoltenow, back in the late '80s. The team's grown from about five or six skiers to consistently close to 20 under Gunnar's leadership, and he also works with younger level programs to develop more serious competitors.
Jones said White Pass skiers may be at a slight disadvantage compared to those who train at bigger mountains with more extreme terrain and longer steep pitches. But he still loves skiing areas like West Ridge and the run known as Colorado just below the top of the Great White Express, and Gunnar said world-class skiers such as Olympic medalists Phil and Steve Mahre, as well as Olympian Jacqueline Wiles, prove the area can still be a great place to learn.
"White Pass, it is whatever you want it to be, in a way," Gunnar said. "You can go out and you can putt-putt around and you can jump off of stuff and ski slope to slope and ski all the different little things, or if you want to you can go out and rip top to bottom and rip these crazy huge big runs if you know where they're at."
The mountain also offers a freestyle terrain park on Ribeye next to the Basin Quad, as well as a smaller Progression Park near the base for kids to practice their jumps and tricks. Gunnar said coaches often need to remind young skiers not to go too big too soon on jumps, emphasizing slow progression through repetition starting with a strong "pop" and moving on to grabs, 180s and 360s before moving on to more advanced aerial maneuvers.
Training sessions also provide opportunities to teach mountain etiquette, such as when the team spent five to ten minutes stomping out powder to set up a clear path for a jump out of the trees while also preserving plenty of fresh snow for others who might come through the trees later. Coaches want kids to enjoy their time on the snow, whether they become elite competitors or not.
"We encourage a high ability level, but we really want kids to have a lifelong career in skiing," Gunnar said. "So we encourage kids to kind of go whatever avenue they want to go that encourages them to keep skiing throughout their life."