Idaho’s club ski team is a great example of how passionate some Idaho natives are about taking advantage of the natural recreational resources.
Courtesy | Boomer Vuori
Junior Boomer Vuori participating in USCSA Western Regionals at Red Lodge Ski Area, Montana February of 2016.
The ski club is the oldest competitive club sport on campus, tracing its roots all the way back to 1937.
“We have been around a long time, and at one point we were a varsity sport with national champions,” said faculty advisor Jerry McMurty. “They used to hike up Moscow Mountain and Elk Butte in the days before lifts and there used to be only two events.”
Nowadays, the team does not have to hike up the hill for every run, but their enthusiasm for the sport remains strong.
“We race slalom and giant slalom, two out of the six events in competitive skiing today,” club president Boomer Vuori said. “Slalom is racing between gates that are only 8 to 13 meters apart, and that’s where you see people wearing extra protection as they’re racing through gates at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. Giant slalom has gates placed further apart for wider turns and slower speeds and the placement of the gates depends on the slope of the hill.”
Since skiing is a seasonal sport, the team has to make the most of their time together to be truly prepared for when the competition starts in January.
“We definitely have a different sort of training regimen from that of other sports,” Vuori said. “In the fall, we get together once a week to train off the mountain with cardio and core and weightlifting. Once we get to the season we have training camp and then races every weekend.”
The team races every weekend from the beginning of January to the end of February, including trips to Brundage, 49 degrees north, Mt. Hood Ski Bowl, Grouse Mountain in Vancouver and Snow King in Jackson, Wyoming. Each race is attended by other colleges throughout the northwest that participate in the Northwest Collegiate Skiing Conference, such as the College of Idaho, University of British Columbia and Oregon State University amongst others.
“Most guys on each team grew up with guys from other teams or have raced against them in the past, so there’s a pretty strong connection between each team,” McMurty said.
Idaho’s racers compete among themselves for starting positions at the beginning during the preseason and then compete in slalom and giant slalom to score points for the team. The season culminates with the Western Regional Championships at the end of February and the best competitors get the chance to compete at Nationals at the beginning of May.
The team is made up of 10 athletes from a variety of academic backgrounds and experience levels.
“We have a broad spectrum of experience and background on the team,” Vuori said. “There are plenty of kids who come up here and love to ski and contact us, and we’re happy to take those newcomers. We run the same events for everyone but our events are all seeded which reflect experience and ability.”
When recruiting, McMurty and Vuori said they try and focus on just making sure incoming students are aware of the club’s existence. They have found enough students have spent their lives skiing and the most important step is to inform them there is another outlet for that interest at the collegiate level.
“We advertise a little, but most of our recruitment happens through word of mouth,” Vuori said. “We definitely take advantage of UIdaho Bound and similar events, but the majority of the 15 or so kids we are getting interest from for next year comes from them having a friend or prior connection to ski team, which is exactly how I got involved.”
Idaho’s ski club accomplishes the dual purposes of providing an outlet for connection while still focusing on skiing as recreation and competition that students and outdoors enthusiasts alike can both get behind.
“We’re a club that’s for everybody, the worst thing that happens is that you develop into a better skier,” McMurty said.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker