Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team building from ground up

Seeing success at every level

A couple of years ago the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) made a concerted effort to build their program from the ground up. The plan was to get the kids involved at an early age and watch them progress through the program.

This year the CBMST coaches are starting to witness the fruits of their labor as 105 kids are involved in the CBMST in a variety of disciplines, from alpine ski racing to big mountain freeskiing, snowboarding as well as skiercross and boardercross.
“Numbers are way up across the board and we feel like we’re developing a good foundation,” says CBMST head coach Conor Lynch. “We want all of our kids to have a baseline in racing.”
And while results aren’t the most important aspect, at least at the younger ages, the CBMST is producing at events throughout Colorado. The alpine racing team already has three race weekends under its belt with several kids posting top 10 results.
“We’re getting them introduced to competition,” says Lynch.
In addition, a slew of CBMST skiers and snowboarders had a stellar weekend of skiercross and boardercross action at Copper two weeks ago and several junior freeskiers, who got their fundamentals in racing for CBMST, just finished posting numerous podium results at the IFSA junior freeskiing competition this past weekend.
“We’re building all-around skiers by building fundamentals,” says Lynch.
The alpine program is next on tap for a local event as CBMST and Crested Butte Mountain Resort will be hosting two days of age class slalom racing Saturday and Sunday, February 8-9 on Buckley under the Westwall lift. Racing action starts at 9 a.m.
Meanwhile, a host of big mountain skiers will be over in Aspen competing. Junior freeskiers will return to Crested Butte February 13-16 for a Junior Freeride Tour event as part of the adult Freeride World Qualifier competition. And don’t forget the 34th Annual Dan Prater Memorial Cup, the premier race for alpine ski racers ages 12 and 13, which will be February 20-23. In fact, current Olympian David Chodounsky is a former Prater Cup champion.
“They’re absolutely loving it,” says Lynch. “Seeing the team come together is pretty cool.”