Fresh off claiming multiple Junior National podiums, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail Nordic is ready to kick off the 2025-26 season

Sometimes, tasting a little success at the end of one season is the ultimate motivator going into the next.

Fresh off claiming an individual title, two runner-up finishes, three bronze medals and a whole bunch of top-10s at the 2025 Junior National Championships at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, the Ski and Snowboard Club Vail Nordic ski team is hungry for more in 2026.

“Overall as a team we were really strong,” coach Lenka Sterling said reflecting on last winter’s capstone performances. “It made them feel happy about the team they’re on. Positive closure to the last campaign cultivated athlete buy-in over the summer, Sterling added.

“I feel like they were pretty motivated and I wanted to use that. They are really owning the training and believing the process,” she continued. “They know not every day will be fun, but we’re going to go through it together.”

Low early-season snow accumulation forced the club to get creative during the crucial final stages of this prep period. Dwindling sunlight meant long late-October rollerski sessions ended with a few miles of running in the dark. Even the dependably cold gravel roads near Camp Hale didn’t hold adequate snow, so SSCV troops trekked all the way to Turquoise Lake to skate on top of tire-track groomed roads this November and December. Over Thanksgiving, the crew congregated at Grand Mesa, where skiing in set classic tracks served as a welcome relief after the extended dryland period.

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“It’s been tough,” Sterling said. Despite the recent weather-related challenges and workout audibles, both Sterling and program director Eric Pepper have seen noticeable off-season improvements across the team, especially out of second-year U16 athletes. Peter Kan posted personal bests in most of his time trials and Ethan Current put together “an incredible dryland period” Pepper said. On the girls side, Claire Chimelski, an 11th-place finisher at Junior Nationals last year, is building back from a prep-period illness and Pepper said Katie Lombardi pieced together “some of the best workouts I’ve seen her do in two years” in mid-November.

In explaining the collective improvements, Pepper doesn’t discount the camaraderie cultivated amongst the entire squad during daily workouts and training camps, like the team’s fall-break trip to Moab.

“Connection within the team is pretty good right now,” he said. “It doesn’t just happen. It’s definitely an intentional thing.”

All told, 95 kids are enrolled in the Nordic program, about the same as last year. Pepper has observed strong Future Stars enrollment the last couple seasons.

“We made a big effort last year to increase that number and we did,” he added. About 25 skiers are in the year-round program, including eight seniors.

“That’s a big number,” Pepper said. “Many of them have been with us for a long time.”

The team said goodbye to two-time national champion Will Bentley, now a freshman the University of Colorado, as well as Ella Bullock and Andrew Lombardi — both of whom are competing in the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association at Williams and St. Michael’s, respectively. The boys bring back Landon Laverdiere and Alex Current, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 7.5-kilometer classic individual start won by Bentley at Soldier Hollow. They also return Kan, a U16 silver and bronze medalist. On the girls side, Chimelski and Gracen Kennedy will be two returners to keep an eye on.

“Those high performers from last year are expected to do well again this year and have trained well,” Pepper said.

The team also has a few new faces in Elsie Robinson from Summit and Vail Mountain School’s Teddy Brunner. Brunner, the younger brother of three-time state champion Will Brunner, is an elite rower who has also dabbled in everything from tennis to lacrosse during his time as a Ranger. In his first year on skinny skis, he placed fourth and sixth in the skate and classic races, respectively, at the Colorado High School Ski League state championships. Fellow Ranger Isla Elton, a two-time high school state champion who also ran cross-country for Battle Mountain, is coming off a 16th-place finish in the junior national individual start classic.

“I think she’s probably looking for a little bit more come the end of the year,” Pepper said.

In addition to training the current crop, Pepper said he likes to keep an eye on athletes he’s shepherded in the past. Emma Reeder joined the Bridger Ski Foundation pro team this summer after a four-year career at Dartmouth. She placed 12th in the most recent U.S. Super Tours event, a 10K classic in Anchorage, Alaska. Meanwhile, Adele Horning will be a junior for the Big Green this winter. Her sister, Rose — who won a junior national title with SSCV in 2023 — is a sophomore at the University of Vermont alongside fifth-year All-American Haley Brewster, a U.S. Ski Team member.

Brewster enjoyed a breakout year in 2023 — capturing a U.S. senior national title and U23 World Junior medal — but was sick for much of last winter. If healthy, she’d be the most likely SSCV alumni to make the Olympic team.

The Rocky Mountain Nordic season kicks off Dec. 20 at Snow Mountain Ranch. In late January, the team heads back to Utah to race the “Super-Q” at Soldier Hollow, an event which includes teams from three different regions. Maloit Park hosts the third Junior National Qualifier in conjunction with the DU Invite on Feb. 7-8 and the final chance to earn a spot at nationals comes Feb. 21-22 in Aspen. The top-25 male and female skiers (spread across U16, U18 and U20 age groups) from each of the country’s 10 regions will gather in Cable, Wisconsin, on March 9-14.

Whether the year ends on as high of a note as it did at Soldier Hollow last year or not, Sterling said medals aren’t necessarily the ultimate goal.

“I want them to leave the team, especially the seniors, like, ‘wow that was amazing. I loved to be on that team,'” she said. “The friendships and that stuff, you kind of take with you the rest of your life. Hopefully they leave with that.”