World-Class Skiing Comes to the Mountain
Oct 23, 2024 05:52PM ● By MARIE EDINGER
The Stifel Killington Cup, slated to begin this year on November 29, is the first stop on the Audi FIS Ski World Cup Tour. It attracts the fastest female ski racers in the world, and it’s the most-attended women’s event on the World Cup circuit.
Brooke Geery, marketing specialist at Killington, says the work they put into making the event memorable is why so many people enjoy it. But there’s a lot of pressure to live up to expectations. “The whole village is built in the weeks leading up to the event. So, there are all of those logistics,” Brooke says. “We’re coordinating with the entire town.”
The grandstands, VIP tent, and course are all set up specifically for the event each year. The race course is one of the more challenging components. There are four different alpine skiing competitions: downhill, super G, slalom, and giant slalom. The latter two involve skiing between poles spaced at intervals.
The snow the competitive skiers use isn’t the typical snow guests are used to. The professionals prefer a hard surface for maximum speed. The people building the course achieve that hard snow through a process called “injecting.”
“It’s essentially hosing down the snow,” Brooke explains. “When you make snow, normally, it needs to settle. The water concentration is high, and it essentially drains out underneath. So, they let that happen, but then they add more water to refreeze it.”
Brooke says the lead-up to the event is unpredictable, yet they’ve managed to keep it going for eight years. In the past, she says, they’ve made do even when the temperature was 60 degrees during the weeks just before the race. Ideally, they need the temperature to be around 27 degrees to make snow, which they often do. “Our snowmaking team goes crazy,” Brooke says.
Why Killington? Part of the reason is that the resort is a world-class venue. It has the capacity and resources to handle the large-scale event and has the appropriate trails. A smaller resort simply wouldn’t be able to pull off an event of this magnitude.
However, the competitions aren’t the only things to keep visitors entertained. “It’s just a huge party,” Brooke says. “We have about 100 athletes from all over the world, 30,000 spectators, and Killington is this tiny little town, so this is huge for everyone."
The resort hosts a parade and a fireworks display, and Fitz and the Tantrums and Eve 6 will perform live. They also have local vendors on hand, where visitors can shop and win prizes in giveaways.
Of course, there are plenty of food and beverages available, and Killington is known for its après-ski dining options, from upscale to laid-back. The World Cup sets up pop-up bars near the bottom of the course, and an enormous new building, the K-1 Lodge, has a food court described as a “culinary haven” with something for everyone: a pub with live music, a finger-food-heavy menu, a brew bar with coffees and cocktails, and a barbecue grill with a patio offering gorgeous views. The town also has plenty of bars and restaurants on the access route leading up to the resort.
The World Cup Foundation hosts a party as well. A big highlight of that party is Mikaela Shiffrin, the winningest alpine skier—male or female—in the world. Mikaela has won Killington seven years out of eight.
Brooke says the energy in the room when she’s coming down the course is her favorite part of the entire event. “You can feel the excitement and the anticipation and then there's that moment where she puts out the best time ever and the room just erupts—that excitement is unmatched. It’s hard to describe,” Brooke says, her enthusiasm peaking as she talks about it. “That excitement that exists just because our hometown hero is coming is so cool.”
Mikaela Shiffrin’s appearance is one tradition of the World Cup, but there are plenty of others that cause the town to fill up every single year. “It’s just 20,000 of your closest friends,” Brooke says with a laugh.
The World Cup is supported by the Killington World Cup Foundation, a nonprofit that assists winter sports infrastructure, programming, and athletes throughout the Northeast. In 2023, for instance, the foundation gave out $330,000 in grants spread across eight different states.
Plus, thanks to a partnership between the resort and Killington Mountain School, the course now stays up for an extra week after the World Cup so ski clubs and young athletes can practice on it. “For the younger athletes to have the opportunity to practice on an actual World Cup course is really unique,” Brooke says. “So, we’re excited to do that again this year.”
PHOTOS COURTESY OF KILLINGTON SKI RESORT
KILLINGTON RESORT & PICO MOUNTAIN
4763 Killington Road,
Killington, VT
www.killington.com/things-to-do/world-cup-fis-ski-racing/killington-cup
