Men's Speed Team Trains in Corralco
With reports of thinning snow conditions in Portillo, the U.S. men’s speed team called an audible in September and moved its early fall camp to Corralco Ski Area in the southern part of Chile.
The training block, which concluded on Sept. 27, was attended by the men’s World Cup speed team, the men’s multi-team, as well as the men’s Europa Cup speed team.
“It was pretty dry up in northern Chile this winter (in the Southern Hemisphere),” said Sasha Rearick, the men’s head alpine coach. “We were getting reports that it was going to be thin, so we hopped on a plane, flew down there and checked it out.”
Earlier in the summer, head coach Rearick scouted the venue while the French were training. On that visit, longtime “friend of the team” Jimmy Ackerson, now the general manager for Corralco, told Rearick anything and everything is possible.
“It’s a big mountain where you can basically make your own downhill wherever you want,” said Rearick. “The French team had a tough camp because of weather. The Swiss team got snowed out, too. And fortunately, we got lucky. So it is risky down there with weather.”
The Americans were coming off a successful camp in New Zealand a few weeks earlier, which was mostly tech-based. In Chile, they were able to run a slightly more aggressive block.
Read more at skiracing.com.