Big Sky Ski Education Foundation athletes compete at national level, and beyond

By Mario Carr EBS CONTRIBUTOR

Big Sky Ski Education Foundation teams have wrapped up their 2023-24 season, and have once again produced junior-level athletes that are competing at the highest level. Athletes qualified for national and international level competitions on the Nordic, Alpine and Freeride teams. Explore Big Sky visited with coaches of the local nonprofit to talk about standout athletes and wrapping up another successful season.

Nordic

The Nordic team wrapped up their season the earliest, with a national championship on March 17 in Lake Placid, New York. Hana Mittelstaedt (U16) qualified for this elite level competition for the second year in a row, and performed best in the 5k skate race, placing ninth overall. She placed in the top 20 in all four of her races. Coach Anna Fake was very proud of her performance.

“She is extremely driven and she loves the sport and knows how to have fun and be competitive,” Fake said.

Mittelstaedt has two more years of eligibility at the junior level, and her coach hopes that this year’s performance will help her with some additional invitational competitions, and increased recognition moving forward.

Hana Mittelstaedt continues to shine in the BSSEF Nordic program. COURTESY OF BSSEF

The team also sent four U14 kids to the U14 cup, the highest level of competition for that age group. Maeve McRae, Lola Morris, Ty Mittelstaedt and Thaddeus Davis performed exceptionally well in the Inter-Mountain Division.

“We have a lot of U12 and U14 kiddos that are just loving the sport, and that’s really fun,” Fake said.

The best overall team performance occurred in Sun Valley, Idaho at the Inter-Mountain Youth Championship where—with just 12 athletes—BSSEF placed third, just behind Bridger Ski Foundation with 40 competitors, and Sun Valley with 100.

“That was really cool. That’s something the Nordic team has never done before, scoring as a team like that,” Fake said.

Fake and her team are thankful for the opportunity to practice at local courses like Lone Mountain Ranch and the Big Sky Resort Golf Course and Nordic Center, and Fake believes that their training is what sets them apart from other teams.

“You train on the golf course and it’s pretty flat, and then you go up to Lone Mountain Ranch and get pushed by the hills and they figure out how to ski them really well. So [Big Sky] is a pretty awesome place to train,” Fake said.

The BSSEF Nordic team has seen strong participation in recent years. COURTESY OF BSSEF

With about 50 kids involved in the program, and only about 14 still traveling for competition, Fake is very hopeful for the future after having a successful year with their development programs that range from first through seventh grade. The program also produced three community Viking Races, and Fake hopes to do even more next year.

“We want the community to be involved as much as they can be,” Fake said.

Alpine

BSSEF sent three U16 alpine ski athletes to the National Championship in Vail, Colorado the first week of April: Anna Taylor, Oliver Svensrud and Anthony “Geno” DiTullio, who ended up finishing fourth overall in the giant slalom.

Geno DiTullio earns fourth place at U16 nationals in Vail. COURTESY OF BSSEF

“It’s been one of the better years that we’ve had for the alpine team, especially U16 and older,” coach Aaron Haffey said.

Younger brother to Geno, Dominic DiTullio (U14) qualified for the Whistler Cup, an international competition where typically, fewer than 10 U.S. athletes qualify. BSSEF has sent an athlete to this race for the last three years.

“For such a small club, it’s pretty amazing that we’ve qualified at least one athlete to the Whistler Cup in the last three years,” Haffey said.

At the U18 level, BSSEF qualified two athletes to nationals at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a competition that Haffey said the organization has only sent one athlete to for the last six years. Sophia Davis and Carter Morton will both have another year of eligibility at the junior level, and coach Haffey hopes to see lots of returning athletes and increased depth on the team.

Left: Carter Morton and Sophia Davis qualified for U18 nationals in alpine racing.
Right: Caleb Unger tops the podium at Mammoth Mountain after a downhill race. COURTESY OF BSSEF

Haffey is excited about the younger athletes on the team that are showing great promise: Sophia and Aurora Kaczmareck-Hill (both U12s) who push each other on and off the hill; Aurora has even had podium performances competing with U14 competitors.

“I have watched those girls ski and seen some of their results and they’re gonna be pretty darn good ski racers,” Haffey said.

Some other notable performances from the season include a podium performance from Drew DiTullio in January, placing third overall, and Caleb Unger winning the downhill in Mammoth, California this April.

Freeride

The “national” freeride competition changed this year, with the North and South American regions now combined. BSSEF was able to qualify five athletes to the IFSA Junior Freeride Championships in Breckenridge, Colorado on April 13, with one athlete making it through to the finals. Mac Bertelson finished 13th overall in the U15 mens ski category. Coach Wallace Casper was proud to see all of the athletes leaving it all out on a venue, in a competition with a strict finals cut. Casper said that competitors Kennedy Cochenour, Henry Flach, Ava Staudt and Duke Woodman “went big” in their qualifying runs, and Casper was glad to see smiles on their faces even when things didn’t go according to plan.

“Every year until this year, it’s just been the North American Championship. This year it included all of North and South America, so getting to the event was extremely difficult,” Casper said. “So for us to get five kids in with a team of 30 was already a huge success for us.”

Casper said that it was a great way to end the year with an excellent venue. The 12,500-foot North-facing slope at Breckenridge provided cold, chalky snow for the entire competition.

With a low snow year here in Big Sky, Casper said that it was hard to keep motivations high to train at home throughout the season.

“I think we did super, super well, especially considering we had one of the lowest snow years here in Big Sky… You know how it is once you’ve skied Mr. K a hundred times,” Casper said.

When the kids were able to travel to venues with better, or even just average snowpacks, they were increasingly grateful for the improved conditions.

“I think the kids were actually more confident just because of how gnarly everything was for us all season in Big Sky,” Casper said.

Freeride athletes compete at Grand Targhee. COURTESY OF BSSEF

After this year’s competition with the South American competitors, Casper said that a big focus for the team will be traveling to the Southern Hemisphere in the summer in order to keep improving.

“Spending so much time with the Chileans and Argentinians for the last week or two has really motivated our team to try and get down there over the summer to do some training,” Casper said.

With hopes for better snow next season, and an excitement for the future of the team, Casper is particularly excited for the U12 athletes that are “stoked” to be a part of the team.

“They don’t really care if the skiing’s good or bad, they’re just hyped to be skiing… So the coaches had to kind of fight over who got the U12 group because they were just so fired up,” Casper said.

As the ski season comes to close here in Big Sky, BSSEF coaches are proud of their athletes and thankful for the opportunity to provide an environment and atmosphere where kids can grow, compete and have fun together on and off the slopes.