DEER VALLEY, Utah -- Deer Valley has been preparing for weeks to host the aerial and mogul events for the Ski World Cup, and the volunteers building the course are hard at work behind the scenes.
Jim Bragg is the Deer Valley race and freestyle operations manager, and he said he’s been told the course here is “the Yankee Stadium for the freestyle event.” The course is the longest, toughest mogul run in the world.
“We are the number one spot on the circuit,” he said.
John Kern is one of the volunteers with the International Ski Federation, and he said they will be spending the next four or five days making sure athletes have a soft place to land after their jumps.
Bragg said a tremendous amount of time is spent chopping the hill, shaping the jumps and grooming the runs.
“It’s just countless hours of work that goes into this,” he said. “There’s probably well over a hundred volunteers that come out and work on this event.”
Tim Dow works with the U.S. Ski Team, and he said he and his fellow employees will be there for every day of the events, so they like to come set up a week early. He said this course is among the top tier of World Cup courses.
“This is one of the best on the World Cup circuit,” he said. “It’s steep and sustained."
An estimated 10,000 spectators will attend to watch the events. The World Cup events will be this Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. The event is free and open to the public.
