Mother Nature continues to throw rocks at Old Man Winter!
With very little snowfall and limited cold temperatures to make snow, the Beaver Creek mountain operations staff, Talon Crew, and everyone involved with staging the first downhill of the Audi FIS Ski World Cup of the season are pulling out every trick in the book to provide a world-class racing venue.
“The track will come together,” said Stifel U.S. Ski Team member Bryce Bennett following Tuesday’s downhill training run. “They will buff it out.”
But will Mother Nature cooperate?
Tuesday’s opening downhill training run of the Stifel Birds of Prey, presented by Cloudflare, was more of a test of patience than athleticism. Starting at 11,424 feet, the downhill start and the upper portion of the course were shrouded in a heavy cloud layer for most of the day, with only 30 athletes completing their training run within the first two hours. Add to the fact that winter is forecasted to arrive on Wednesday, with an encore performance on Friday, and the schedule may continue to fluctuate.
Wednesday’s downhill training is still on the schedule as of Tuesday evening, but teams are on high alert for a potential cancellation due to the uncertain forecast. In the meantime, the boys just want to point the big boards down the hill!
“I haven’t been on downhill skis since September…that’s not a problem, you just go out and do it,” Bennett said. “But it would be nice to get it dialed in a little bit before we’re racing, but then again, everyone is in the same boat.”
That boat is ready to sail, and following Tuesday’s training run, it will most likely be led by the overall World Cup leader and Swiss captain Marco Odermatt, who cruised to the day’s fastest training run time on the abbreviated course that finished just above the Red Tail jump. Canada’s Brodie Seger was second, followed by Austrian Daniel Hemetsberger in third. Kyle Negomir was the top American in 16th, followed by Bennett in 19th, Jared Goldberg, 28th, Ryan Cochran-Siegle in 33rd and Wiley Maple in 29th.
With one downhill training run in the books, the 2025 Birds of Prey continues. All races will stream live on OutsideTV.
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