U.S. Ski Team athletes will benefit from a new on-snow training partnership between Colorado's Keystone Resort and the team.

KEYSTONE, Colo. — U.S. Ski Team athletes will benefit from a new on-snow training partnership between Colorado's Keystone Resort and the team. The team and Keystone, along with York Snow, have partnered to install additional snowmaking on Keystone's North Peak to provide exclusive early season training for U.S. Ski Team athletes beginning in November.
    The partnership was announced jointly Thursday by U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President/CEO Bill Marolt and Keystone's Director of Mountain Operations Chuck Tolton. It is a one-year partnership that all parties hope to extend into the future.
    The partnership includes the allocation of Keystone's Starfire run on North Peak for exclusive training use by the U.S. Ski Team, with York Snow providing additional highly efficient snowguns. The team also is financially involved in helping support infrastructure and operational costs. The project is the first phase of a snowmaking upgrade on Keystone's North Peak to accommodate the U.S. Ski Team training program.
    "One of the keys to our future athletic success is creating a deeper and stronger partnership with our training venues," Marolt said. "We have enjoyed outstanding partnerships with U.S. resorts, especially in Colorado, for both early season training and competition. Keystone and York have really stepped up to help support our training programs."
    Colorado resorts have long factored heavily into U.S. early season training and competition due to the historical early season snow and the consistent ability to make snow for training in the U.S. The men's alpine World Cup comes to Beaver Creek with the Visa Birds of Prey races Nov. 30-Dec. 3, and the women's Sirius Satellite Aspen Winternational World Cup over Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 25-26. The Chevrolet U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix opens Dec. 14-17 at Breckenridge. In addition, the Chevrolet Super Series, part of the alpine NorAm series, will be in Colorado Nov. 27-30 for the men at Keystone and Nov. 28-Dec. 1 for the women at Winter Park.
    "We here at Keystone share a common vision with the U.S. Ski Team in striving to continually grow the sport and developing young athletes to represent our country," Tolton said. "This started a few years ago with Keystone's commitment to the Junior Olympics and local youth freeride and racing programs and has now evolved to hosting the NorAms and the early season exclusive training with the U.S. Ski Team. It doesn't matter whether it's a 10-year-old racer or Bode Miller or Ted Ligety and the entire U.S. alpine team, Keystone is committed to providing the best snow and grooming conditions."
    "This is the type of partnership we will be seeking worldwide in the future to provide our U.S. athletes with better training," Marolt said. "Our long-term goal is to really control our own training space and to expand the opportunity to all of our sport programs."
    Keystone began making snow on Starfire and other trails early Thursday morning, with the U.S. Ski Team's alpine team expected to begin training there beginning Nov. 5.
    "The North Peak facility will provide us with excellent technical training," said U.S. Alpine Director Jesse Hunt. "And what will really make the difference for us is the ability to have completely exclusive use of the facility and to work with Keystone and York to control the snow environment specific to our training needs.       
    "With the expansion of the World Cup calendar to include more early season events, it's even more important that we develop partnerships, like our Keystone relationship, to provide better and more exclusive race-like training conditions for our athletes."
    One of the keys for the team is greater control over snowmaking dedicated to competition training. USSA's investment, together with Keystone, will ensure snowmaking dedicated to training runs in what is always a very busy time for resorts as they prepare for the upcoming winter.
    "We've worked with York Snow to redesign and upgrade our system over the past four years," Tolton said. "It's this commitment to developing one of the most sophisticated systems that has allowed us to be more efficient and produce the best quality snow for the U.S. team, as well as for our early season guests."
    According to Tolton, Keystone's snowmaking is powered entirely by renewable wind energy.
    The FIS Alpine World Cup season for men and women opens Oct. 28-29 on the Rettenbach Glacier above Sölden, Austria, then moves to Levi, Finland, Nov. 11-12 before heading to North America.