While most people took advantage of the holiday weekend and slept off Thanksgiving dinners, on November 26 and 27, 16,000 spectators and many enthusiastic skiers congregated at Killington Mountain in Vermont for one of the stops on the Alpine World Cup Tour. Hosted by the International Ski Federation (FIS), this event has been one of the most prestigious ski competitions since its launch in 1967.

Usually, this event entails a series of races in different disciplines across the globe, usually in Europe and occasionally on the West Coast. This year’s Vermont venue was particularly special as it marked the first time that a mountain on the United States’ East Coast was selected to host the competition since 1991.

The Slalom and Giant Slalom races at Killington showcased many of the country’s top skiers, including a first place win in the Slalom for American favorite, Mikaela Shiffrin. This added to her 21 other World Cup titles. French skier Tessa Worley scored a victory in the Giant Slalom.

Despite the ultimate success of the event’s Killington location, it was initially considered a gamble due to the erratic weather of the East Coast. While this international competition clearly put the mountain on a world stage, the race director said that one of their main motivations for hosting was to bring competitive ski racing back to the East Coast and inspire those who live on this side of the country to join the sport.

Carolyn Gaven, a gym teacher at Hackley, attended the race. She thought it was a great success and a source of hope for the future of Eastern skiing, as “sometimes people are under the assumption that to become a ski racer you have to live out West.” She believes that the East serves as an ideal place to host, given the mountains’ close proximities to major cities, and hopes to see more races in the future. “I think it was an awesome opportunity for people on the East Coast to show how big skiing is here,” she said.

Sophomore and former ski racer Connor Thomson added that while the East Coast is often underrated as a venue for ski racing, it has been the training ground for several successful skiers including Shiffrin.

While the lack of proximity to large ski mountains can pose a challenge to hopeful ski racers, the Hackley community has found ways around this from gym offerings to ski clubs. Unbeknownst to many, Hackley offered ski racing as a weekly option in lieu of the typical gym activities several years ago.

“There was a ski program at Hackley for a few years. It was very student-driven; a group of students from the class of 2011 approached [art teacher Greg] Cice and asked if he would help them start a ski team,” said Ms. Gaven. She added, “Ms. White was willing to try it as a winter P.E. option. She got us a great opportunity to ski at Tuxedo Ridge and their race team coach taught the students how to race and Mr. Cice and I helped. It was a lot of fun.”

While participation faltered after the initial group of students graduated and ski racing is no longer a gym option, Ms. Gaven says that this could potentially change if there was a group who was interested. “One thing that is great about Hackley is that if you are passionate about something and share that passion with your classmates, you can really make anything happen.  I would love to see some sort of ski program happen again at Hackley, but there has to be interest to make it work,” she said.

Although there is currently no competitive ski team, students, like sophomore Cory Gorczycki, have found other ways to share their passion for skiing with their peers. Last year, Cory, an avid skier, founded a ski club that is comprised of students from all different grades with a range of levels and experience.

Cory’s aspirations for the club are to “have several fun days of skiing [each year] in which some of the skiers may meet fellow Hackley students that they may not have already known – to forge new friendships.” This year he hopes to have at least three outings with the group.

Outside of school, Cory has also found ways to share his love for skiing through founding a non-profit organization, Ski4All, this year. This group strives to give economically disadvantaged kids the opportunity to experience the mental and physical health benefits of skiing with a free day on Campgaw Mountain or Mount Peter.

While Cory enjoys skiing recreationally, he believes that a competitive ski team could be a great addition to the Hackley athletics program. “While it might be challenging to create a Hackley ski team given that the school is not in close enough proximity to any mountains for daily practice on the mountain itself, I could envision a program that is focused on the conditioning that is required to get ready for the rigors of ski season since you use very specific muscles…when skiing. Perhaps on some weekends, the team could go skiing somewhere,” he said.

Similarly, fellow sophomore Wes Gilbert also feels that despite the school’s considerable distance from most ski mountains, skiing would be a welcome addition at Hackley. “It is such a great time and what makes skiing more fun is, like anything, doing it with your friends,” he said.

Wes is a seasoned skier and has found ways to be involved with the ski community, from participating on a competitive team at Windham Mountain to coaching the younger racers every weekend. “My favorite thing about ski racing is the pure adrenaline rush you get when you are skiing a down course. It feels like the world stops around you,” he said.

Wes was excited that one of the World Cup races was hosted at Killington Mountain, as it pays tribute to the often overlooked skiing on the East Coast. “I[t] was really cool to have all of these amazing skiers ski so close to home, when on TV, you usually only see them skiing at places in Europe or out West,” he added.

Lei Anne Rabeje