Now that the holiday season is over and the Colorado High Country has received several more inches of snow, the high school Alpine skiing season is set to begin. 

After winning the overall Alpine skiing title last year, the Summit High School Alpine ski team will return to the slopes poised to defend its dominance in the state this winter season.

On the girls’ side, the program will once again rely on its depth. Last season, the Tigers’ wide swath of talent resulted in the team securing two individual state titles and the slalom and giant slalom team titles.

Although the girls team lost its pair of 2024 individual state champions in Ella Snyder and Elodie Olsen, the Tigers are returning a strong group of athletes who will look to defend the team’s state titles this winter.

“I think we have 45 kids on the roster, so that is good,” head coach Karl Barth said. “Definitely have a lot of girls back and some good freshman girls, so I think the girls should be really strong this year.”

Most notably, the Tigers will lean on junior Mackenzie Cross, senior Kristiana Stoyanova, junior Claire Jackson, sophomore Alex Stoyanova, sophomore Zoe Nelson and sophomore Katelyn Lemon. 

All six athletes competed at last year’s state competition and are expected to play pivotal roles for the team throughout the winter season.

Cross specifically had two top-10 finishes at last year’s state championship event at Loveland Ski Area. Cross took third in the giant slalom before placing 10th in the slalom. Jackson and Kristiana Stoyanova closely trailed Cross at last year’s state competition, placing within the top 20 in both races.

Beyond leading Summit from a performance standpoint, the group of athletes will also help shepherd the team’s underclassman as they attempt to navigate ski racing at the high-school level.

“I think with the girls we got a strong group of seniors,” Barth said. “Like I said, Krissy (Stoyanova) is definitely in there and Sadie (Slahetka) as well as Adelaide Brady and Katie Alexander. That group is always strong and then Mackenzie coming back. I have seen a lot more leadership and growth in her.”

While the girls team will be aided by its depth, the Summit boys team will get a huge boost from last year’s slalom and giant slalom state champion — Seth Montgomery. During his sophomore season, Montgomery won the boys giant slalom and the slalom state races in order to help lead the Tigers to a first-place finish in the slalom and a second-place finish in the giant slalom.

Outside of Montgomery, Barth will look to skilled skiers like sophomore Aaron Green and junior Tommy Bellavance. Green placed within the top 10 in both races at state last year while Bellavance finished within the top 35 of the slalom.

Although the boys Alpine ski team lacks the amount of depth the girls’ team does, Barth still expects big things from the athletes as they gear up for the state championship event in Aspen at the end of February.

“The boys are not as deep,” Barth said. “There are a lot of boys skiing, but in terms of scoring at state kids and qualifying for state, they may not be quite as deep as the girls. There are definitely some quality skiers up there.”

One little wrinkle to this year’s state championship event is that Alpine and Nordic will not be combined as in previous years. Instead, the Alpine and Nordic state championship events will serve as two, separate events with a boys and girls team being crowned at both.

According to Barth, the move was made in large part because of other schools throughout the state not having both an Alpine and a Nordic ski program. Although the change will prevent the Summit boys skiing programs from winning a fourth-straight state title, Barth expects the Alpine state championship event to be as competitive as ever.

“It won’t hurt the Nordic boys, and it hopefully won’t hurt the Alpine girls. But it definitely puts the Nordic girls and the Alpine boys a little more at risk probably,” Barth said. “It does open it up to some teams that have been strong on one side or the other in terms of Nordic or Alpine.”

Summit will begin the 2025 ski racing season on Thursday, Jan. 9. The first competition will be a slalom race and will take place at Copper Mountain Resort. 

“I mean for the first one there’s obviously some kids who should have qualified last year or should this year,” Barth said. “It’s really just trying to get a bunch of them in and take care of business there. For some other kids, it’s an experience to get some training in a race venue.

The first run for the girls competing at Copper is slated to begin at 10:15 a.m. Following the Copper race, Summit will compete in a slalom race at Loveland Ski Area on Jan. 16 before taking on the giant slalom at Keystone on Jan. 24.