Deerfield Academy’s Alpine Skiing Team has a strong record of success, having won the league title 17 times alongside the NEPSAC championship. However, skiers at Deerfield sometimes find themselves without one of the aspects most crucial to their sport: snow.
Deerfield skiers often benefit from their location, being one of the Northernmost schools in the NEPSAC. However, this year, the team has faced an unexpected challenge. Berkshire East, the mountain where the ski team practices, has not received a substantial amount of snow until recently.The ski team, however, is already over a month into their season.
This challenge is unlike one that any other Deerfield team faces, as the rest of the winter sports program competes indoors or on consistently maintained fields. The absence of snow, a factor pertinent to ski practice, has left coaches and athletes wondering how to adapt.
Unable practice at Berkshire East, the ski team has resorted to dryland training. Under head coaches Marc Dancer and Prudence Munkittrick, the team has spent practice time tuning their skis, going on hikes, or having team workouts in the gym.
While January and February are usually cold enough for Berkshire East to make its own snow (if the mountain doesn’t receive any naturally), the early weeks of the season typically have little snow.
Juan Del Valle ’25, three year member of the team, said, “Turkey Term is usually an absolute guarantee that we aren’t going to get out there. We usually do dryland training all of Turkey Term, and when we get back [from break], there’s sometimes only enough snow for the next week.”
Del Valle understands that even if the team is fortunate enough to get snow, the conditions can all be undone by one day of rain, creating icy and dangerous conditions. On the other end of the spectrum, Del Valle remarked that sometimes too much snow can also be a challenge. For example, Berkshire East shuts down when schools around them have snow days to allow employees to be with their children.
While this year’s conditions have been especially difficult, the weather has still been very unpredictable in the past years. When talking about his experience over the past few years, Del Valle said, “[After winter break] we’ll eventually start getting back into a routine, but there’s always some odd days out when the mountain might be closed – Mondays when the mountain closes early, or just days when there might not be enough snow because of other difficulties.”
Fortunately, the ski teams’ challenges have been alleviated by the recent snowfall in Western Massachusetts. With five scheduled meets remaining, the team seeks to make a mark on the 2024 season despite their slow, dry start.