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AVSC toasts season with awards party at Belly Up

AVSC staff report
AVSC graduating seniors, from left, Katy Harris, Rhianna Borderick and Julia Budsey are among the athletes who were honored April 14 at Belly Up. Budsey was the winner of the Willoughby Award, given to an athlete who demonstrates outstanding achievement in athletics and academics.
Courtesy photo |

At the end of the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club’s 78th season, there is a lot to celebrate.

Enrollment in both recreational Base Camp and team programs is at an all-time high, with 2,350 athletes from Aspen to Grand Junction taking part during 2014-15.

Four elite athletes — Nordic skier Hailey Swirbul, freeskier Carson Campisi, snowboarder Chris Corning and alum Galena Wardle —were named to the world juniors teams in their respective disciplines.



After the better part of a decade planning and fundraising, the Stapleton Alpine Training Center at Aspen Highlands was up and running on Nov. 15. It’s considered a game-changer for competitive skiers and riders, but also benefitted the community at large because of the early, deep snowpack it provided on Golden Horn and Thunderbowl that lasted through closing day.

More than 45 days of alpine competition and USSA mogul events were hosted there during its first season and the venue was surprisingly popular with national and international teams, especially in the weeks leading to the 2015 FIS World Championships in Vail-Beaver Creek.




With a solid season of competition now behind, members of AVSC’s five team programs, alpine, adaptive, freestyle, snowboard and Nordic, celebrated the club’s continued pursuit and achievement of AVSC’s core values, commitment, teamwork and integrity, during a warm ceremony on April 14 at Belly-Up.

Outstanding athletes and coaches were saluted in awards traditional to AVSC. They include:

Bob Beattie Award (outstanding commitment to the Base Camp program):

Rae Christian

Community Partner:

Aspen Highlands Training Venue center team.

Media Partners:

Aspen Times and GrassRoots TV

AVSC Discipline Awards:

Tage Pedersen Commitment Award:

Nordic: Noah Wheeless, Graham Houtsma

Freestyle/Freeride:Gage Carr, Tristan Feinberg

Alpine: Elle Murphy, Hanna Mass

Snowboard: Sean Connelly, Hunter Hill

Robert Oden Teamwork Award:

Nordic: Colt Whitley, Nina Beidleman

Freestyle/Freeride: Isaac Musselman, Jackson Ferraro

Alpine: Noah Forman, Andrew Hancock

Snowboard: Bobby Sanderson, Jillian Moore

Integrity Award:

Nordic: George Beck, Ricky Wojcik

Freestyle/Freeride: Payton Billesen, Aaron Lee

Alpine: Garrett Dollahan, Carly Ransford

Snowboard: Jasper Grimm, Kelanni Scarpaci

Adaptive Awards:

Teamwork/Commitment: Aaron Howell

Most Improved: Kevin Mather

Gale Spence Excellence in Coaching Award:

Nordic: Jeff Alden

Freestyle/Freeride: Greg Ruppel

Alpine: Tyler Williams

Snowboard: Holly Buell

Ruth Whyte Outstanding Volunteerism Award:

Nordic: Chris Lacey

Freestyle/Freeride: Suzanne Scheer Brown

Alpine: Phylis Mattice

Snowboard: Lise Adams

Stirling Cooper Memorial Awards:

Nordic: Jack Sweeney

Freestyle/Freeride: Stephanie Anglin

Alpine: Estelle Sweeney

Snowboard: Robert “Bobbo” Pettit

Willoughby Award:

Julia Budsey

(Willoughby finalists: Brooks Gorsuch, Anna Patterson and Connor Cook)

Pursuit of Excellence Awards:

Nordic: Hailey Swirbul

Freestyle/Freeride: Carson Campisi

Alpine: Katy Harris

Snowboard: Chris Corning

Andy Mill Award

Carson Campisi

Graduating Seniors

Nordic: Julia Budsey, Shayla DeYoung

Freestyle/Freeride: Rhianna Borderick, Brooks Gorsuch, Sonya Padden, Max Palmberg

Alpine: Chapin Newhard, Katy Harris, Erin Spence, Ben Throm, Bentley Rager, William Reagan

Snowboard: Jake Orzech

Weekly with Walt

The final “Weekly with Walt” program of the season airs beginning this evening at 7 p.m. on GrassRoots TV. It will be played in rotation or is available anytime at grassrootstv.org.

Featured is Willoughby Award-winner Julia Budsey, an Aspen native and soon-to-be high school graduate. Coach Amy Mishkin will talk about summer programming, which begins after Aspen public schools let out for summer.

Summer on the glacier

For the third year in a row, AVSC will host summer fun through camps and activities on the Buttermilk Glacier.

Moguls, rails, boxes, on-snow jumps and practice on both the big and small air bag are offered in week-long camps that begin June 15 and run through July 10.

The cost is $250 for each five-day session or $75 per day.

Mountain biking clinics for riders aged 9 and up are on tap this summer on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, June 15-July 31.New this year is a June SBX Performance Camp. Scheduled for June 12-14, it runs $300.

Contact Miah Wheeler mwheeler@teamavsc.org or (970) 618-1917 for more information about AVSC bike camps.

Day camps for kids 7-12 ($60/day, less for multiple days) run June 15-Aug. 21).

For more information about any of the camps, contact Eric Knight at eknight@teamavsc.org or (970) 205-5130. Also check out teamavsc.org.