Young Taeler McCrerey is starting the Nordic ski season the best way possible: surrounded by Norwegian skiers.

For a week in mid-August, the 19-year-old sophomore with the University of Denver national champion ski team traveled to Norway for a pre-season training camp with the world's best of the best. McCrerey, a Breckenridge native who started breaking records and turning heads as a member of the Summit Nordic Ski Club, joined just two fellow U.S. skiers and a handful of top-notch athletes from across the world for the International Junior Camp, hosted by the International Ski Federation, or FIS — the governing body of the ski World Cup. Skiers were selected based on results from the previous season, and only the absolute best born after 1997 (aka juniors) earned an invite.

McCrerey returns to the snow as a national champion. Last season — her first with the DU squad — she helped lead the team to its second consecutive NCAA title (and 23rd since 1954) with blazing-fast times on the Nordic course. A schedule is still pending for the 2016-17 NCAA season.