Skiing: AVSC Alpine athletes prepare for nationals; Ferreira and Lamm to drop in at worlds
Courtesy photo
The Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club will have four members of its U16 Alpine team compete in the 2025 U16 Alpine National Championships, held between March 31-April 4 at Sugarloaf, Maine.
Racers include Luka Buchheister, Caleah Lutz-Sladdin, Ava Somers, and Birdie Steiner. They qualified based on their results from the U16 Rocky/Central Junior Championships, hosted by Vail/Beaver Creek earlier in March. The AVSC skiers are part of a contingent of 33 athletes who qualified for the national races from U.S. Ski and Snowboard’s Rocky/Central Division, which encompasses 19 states from Ohio to New Mexico.
At the Rocky/Central Championships downhill race, Buchheister earned bronze in the men’s race, while Somers placed seventh, Steiner ninth, and Lutz-Sladdin 12th in the women’s race.
In the giant slalom, Buchheister placed sixth in the men’s race. For the women, Somers was sixth, Lutz-Sladdin seventh, and Steiner 11th. The slalom saw the women finish ninth (Somers), 14th (Steiner), and 22nd (Lutz-Sladdin), while Buchheister finished eighth in the men’s race.
The super-G and super combined races were canceled due to weather. U16 Alpine team members Ronan Curran, Siena Ettlinger, and Ema Muñoz also competed in Vail/Beaver Creek.
Several AVSC racers also recently competed in the Sync Alpine Championships in Winter Park, held March 21-23. The event capped off the season-long Sync Colorado Ski Cup, in which Buchheister finished eighth among 90 men.
On the women’s side, out of 83 competitors, Somers finished seventh, Lutz-Sladdin 10th, Ettlinger 11th, Steiner 15th, Muñoz 22nd, and Lucy Faulhaber 35th. Team member Sienna Fuller, who competed a partial season, finished 32nd.
At the U14 championships at Winter Park, Jake Down and Clover Rogers both placed fifth overall. They were each third in the GS. Rogers was fourth in slalom and super-G. Down was fourth in slalom and had three other top 10 results.
At the RMD U12 championships, held March 15-16 at Powderhorn Mountain Resort, Parker Jones, Luke Marshall, and Tommy Down all had standout performances.
At the U10 championships, hosted by Aspen Highlands, Piper Stokes won on the second day, while Felix Locker won both boys slaloms by more than five seconds.
“For our younger athletes, these results provide visible evidence that our process works — not just in producing competitive outcomes but in developing complete athletes who perform when it matters most,” AVSC Alpine Director Jeff Lackie said in a news release. “At AVSC, we collectively believe in broad skill development before specialization. The technical versatility displayed by our older athletes began years ago with playful exploration of our incredible mountains.”
Ferreira, Lamm at worlds
AVSC also has two alumni expected to compete this week at the 20th Freestyle World Ski Championships, held in St. Moritz and Engadin, Switzerland. Both Alex Ferreira and Hanna Lamm are set drop into the halfpipe — one a veteran and one a newcomer to the stage.
Ferreira, a two-time Olympic medalist and three-time X Games champion, is competing on his fourth worlds team. The 30-year-old’s best prior finish was when he took bronze at the 2023 competition in Bakuriani, Georgia. He was fourth at the 2021 contest in Aspen, and eighth in his 2019 worlds debut in Park City.
Joining Ferreira on the U.S. men’s worlds halfpipe ski team are Indiana’s Nick Goepper, Oregon’s Hunter Hess, and Nevada’s David Wise.
Lamm, only 19, will make her world championship debut. She only has two career World Cups starts, both from earlier this season, where she took 13th in Aspen and 14th in Calgary.
The reigning world champion on the women’s side is another AVSC product in Basalt’s Hanna Faulhaber. The now 20-year-old won the 2023 contest in Georgia after finishing fourth in her worlds debut at the 2021 Aspen contest. Still recovering from injury, she won’t be able to defend her title.
Joining Lamm on the U.S. women’s worlds halfpipe ski team are Winter Park’s Svea Irving as well as California’s Kate Gray and Piper Arnold.
Qualifying for both men’s and women’s halfpipe skiing at worlds takes place on Friday in Switzerland, while finals will be held on Sunday.
Big mountain hopefuls
Four AVSC post-graduate athletes qualified for the International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association (IFSA) Challenger series, which itself is a qualifier for the main Freeride World Tour competitions next season.
Kelly Hilleke, Luke Penton, and brothers Canyon and Orion Cherney all made the Challenger series. Hilleke is currently ranked No. 1 in men’s skiing in the IFSA qualifiers, while the Cherneys were the only telemark skiers to qualify.
The next Challenger stop is this weekend’s (March 29-31) contest in Kirkwood, California. Arapahoe Basin is scheduled to host a final contest from April 16-18.
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