Skiing Update: Ski Ball, Dryland Training And A Season Preview

BOULDER – We're nearing the end of the dryland training season, and you know what that means for the University of Colorado Ski Team. Two things actually. First, Ski Ball is right around the corner, and second, the Buffs are close to getting on the snow again.

The 48^th Annual Ski Ball, An Evening Of All-Americans, will take place Friday, Oct. 26 at the Omni Interlocken hotel. Festivities include a silent auction, dinner, fundraising opportunities and the ability to meet the 2018 team. The night will honor former coach Bob Beattie, who passed away on April 1, as well as the Buffs nearly 500 All America honors gathered up by almost 200 current and former Buffs.

"A lot of the All-Americans are planning to come," coach Richard Rokos said. "At least 30 and maybe we'll find out about some more in the coming days."

In September, the team used the first month of the school year to accomplish four bigger events as a team each weekend.

Buffalo Bicycle Classic

Sept. 9 - The Buffs took part in the Buff Epic course, a grueling 110-mile ride that include almost two miles of elevation gain (9,273 feet to be exact). The ride starts in Boulder, goes up Boulder Canyon to Nederland before taking Colorado Highway 70 through Rocky Mountain National Park to Estes Park. From there, the riders head back through Lyons and head back south just west of Longmont into Boulder to complete the course.

Winter Park Ride

Sept. 15-16 - Starting in Nederland, the Buffs make an annual bike ride to Winter Park. This year, the ride went up to Eldora and over Rollins Pass before coming down to Winter Park. The next day, the team returns to Nederland.

Four 14ers In One Big Hike

Sept. 23 – Colorado is home to 54 different 14,000-foot peaks and the Buffs hiked what's known as the Decalibron Loop, tackling four different 14ers in one amazing hike. That hike includes summiting Mt. Democrat, Mt. Cameron, Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Bross. About a 7.5 mile hike, the elevation gain is approximately 3,000 feet.

Orienteering

Sept. 30 – What has become a tradition in Lyons by Coach Rokos' house is the annual day of orienteering. The team breaks up into groups of three and in the national forest land nearby, each group has to find several locations on the mountainside and return back with a sticker from each spot.

Now that the dryland training is coming to a close, the Buffs are looking forward to getting back on the snow. The first schedule day is Friday, Oct. 19, at Copper Mountain, snow and weather dependent.

"It's a little bit of waiting time," Rokos said of the time between the four big events and getting on the snow for the first time. "It's not perfect weather for us to do things outside, we'll keep going with our indoor program and hopefully be on the snow in the next two weeks. On the alpine side, we'll modify our training program, going for high effort over a short period of time."

As a team, the Buffs return 14 skiers from last year's RMISA Championship squad that finished second at the NCAA Championships in Steamboat Springs. Coach Rokos details the alpine and Nordic teams as we're just under three months until the start of the collegiate season.

"Our men's alpine team has good depth, a few new guys blending with a lot of experience. It's a good, strong team and expectations are high. It will be a dogfight for the qualification spots. On the women's side, the team at a bare minimum of healthy athletes. We have four who are healthy and ready to go and three who are battling injuries. On the whole, everybody else is healthy and physically prepared and ready to go."

"On the Nordic side, Ithink we have the best depth we've ever had right now between both men and women. They are training daily, full go, enjoying it and being healthy. It's a great situation headed into the season."

One different aspect of this team is the newcomers are younger than they have been in recent memory, as young as 17, while the experienced group is as old as 24. That seven year difference is more than Rokos is accustomed to.

"The older athletes stepped into the role of mentor to help the younger ones, and the younger skiers look to the older skiers as role models and somebody to learn from, that's the ideal situation," Rokos said. "There is no animosity, everybody's on the same page and the understanding of the concept of the team and supporting each other is fantastic."
The season will get underway January 9 at the Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational at Eldora and Steamboat Springs. Eldora serves as the home of the Buffs but this will be the first intercollegiate competition at the resort since the 2015 season. In 2016 and 2018, the Buffs hosted the NCAA Championships at Steamboat Springs and in 2017, the Buffs were off the hosting rotation.

"Eldora is helping out a great deal to accommodate the whole race," Rokos said. "We're looking forward to brining it back there. On the year of Bob (Beattie's) departure, we back to where he was racing. We will do a lot in his memory and honor his lifetime of accomplishments."

As part of the competition, the Buffs will host at dual slalom race. Dual slalom is something the NCAA is looking to expand into along with sprints on the Nordic side, potentially in the next few years.

"The dual slalom will be at night and we'll call it the Bob Beattie Cup," Rokos said. "I've created the rules for it and we figured out a way to score it for the team like the GS and slalom. With sprints on the Nordic side, those two will even each other out and hopefully the NCAA will adopt it as a new format."

Skiing Update: Ski Ball, Dryland Training And A Season Preview

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