STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

The world’s best downhill skiers will be treated to something they’ve never encountered on a World Cup race circuit before when they come to Sun Valley in March for the 2025 Audi FIS Ski World Cup Finals.

They will be greeted by a downhill course that none of them have ever competed on before, said Riley Berman, chief of race course for the Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals that will be held March 22-27, 2025.

“One of the really cool things about this course is that no athlete has skied this downhill before,” Berman told a turn-away crowd at The Community Library Tuesday night during an event organized by the library's Wood River Museum of History and Culture.

One of several lattice towers lines International.

The course was developed over a handful of months as soon as Sun Valley Resort got confirmation it had been chosen to host the prestigious event.

“Normally, getting ready for the World Cup is a two- to five-year process,” said Berman, who moved from managing Rotarun Ski Area to serving as Sun Valley Resort’s competition services manager this year. “We started July 1.”

The course will start at the top of International where the I-80 cat track bends. Course builders have assigned names to parts of the course that they hope will give racers and visitors a glimpse into Sun Valley’s history and heritage.

Near the top, as International falls into Upper Warm Springs, is “The Durrance Dive” where, legend has it, three-time Harriman Cup winner Dick Durrance in a blaze of unchecked speed skied over a small pine tree in the first Harriman Cup held on Bald Mountain.

Sun Valley Resort is currently blowing a lot of snow on International, Warm Springs and Greyhawk in case Mother Nature proves stingy this winter.

Just below is the Super-G start and below that is “The Legends,” which pays tributes to Sun Valley’s Olympic medalists, including Picabo Street, Kaitlyn Farrington, Christin Cooper, Gretchen Fraser, Susie Corrock and Muffy Davis.

“Carol’s Wagon Wheel” honors the late Sun Valley Resort Owner Carol Holding, who with her husband Earl turned Sun Valley into a world-class resort featuring some of the world’s best snowmaking, grooming and on-mountain restaurant lodges.

The “Steilhang Traverse” at the top of Upper Greyhawk was reworked this summer to make it even more challenging than it was before. It’s followed by “The Frontier,” a wild and woolly stretch.

“As you transition from the Steilhang Traverse, you’re definitely going into the frontier,” said Berman.

Trails into Greyhawk are currently closed for course preparation, but Riley Berman said Sun Valley will try to minimize such closures leading up to the World Cup Finals in late March.

Below the Giant Slalom start is “The Sluice,” reflecting Ketchum’s mining history.  “Rudi’s Roll” honors Sun Valley restaurateur and former U.S. Ski Team Coach Michel Rudigoz, who led one of the U.S. Ski Team’s most successful women’s teams from 1980-84 with the likes of Olympic gold and silver medalists Debbie Armstrong and Cristin Cooper. The team won the Nation’s Cup during his tenure. Rudigoz also coached a U.S. Men’s Ski Team boasting Andy Mill, Phil Mahre and Pete Patterson during the 1978 World Championships.

“Cowboy’s Corner” at the bend in Lower Hemingway is named after Tom Johnston, who has shaped many an Olympic and World Cup downhill and super-G course and is known to ski racers as The Cowboy. The Redd below that is named after the salmon and steelhead who swim to the ocean from Redfish Lake area and migrate back again, is.

“It’s the only area that’s mellow on this course, and that’s generous,” said Berman, adding that a couple areas remain to be named.

Berman noted that the World Cup course requires much more than the U.S. National Alpine Championships held four of the past eight years at Sun Valley Resort.

This graphic shows some of the names that have been affixed to race courses.

The National’s required two A-nets, which Berman described as a “vertical trampoline of red netting” that stops athletes from crashing into trees or over a hillside. Sun Valley’s installed 12 for World Cup races.

They’re held up by 32 towers, versus the nine that held up the Nationals netting. They’re accompanied by 14-meter poles and lattice towers that keep wires from descending on a run.

Sun Valley added 34 snow guns--16 to International and the rest near the Super G Start and Sluice on Greyhawk.

“We turned them on for the first time two days ago,” Berman said. “And we have manual snowmaking, as well.

Crews removed dirt along the hillside on skier’s left of Lower Greyhawk, which will give viewers at the bottom a better view of the Super G race. And Sun Valley installed 100 pair of timing and fiber wire—double what it did last year.

“Ninety-seven of the hundred pair worked the first time, which is impressive,” said Berman.

The finish area has been enlarged, as well.

Berman, who is a certified casting instructor during summer, said he’s been bemused listening to chairlift chatter regarding when Sun Valley would shut down parts of the mountain for the World Cup. One said the resort would shut down the mountain Jan. 1, he said.

“We’re not shutting anything down. Currently, International and Greyhawk are closed to make snow for the race. As we close one thing, we will open something else on the mountain.”

On March 5, the resort will begin watering the race courses to get ready for the races. As they raise the nets, some construction zones will be off-limits to skiers. “But we will keep terrain open as long as possible,” Berman said.

Parts of Warm Spring will be cordoned off as racers train, but skiers will be able to belly up to the ropes to watch them. During the Super G the midway station on the Challenger ski lift will be closed off.

Athletes will also be given priority for chairlifts, as ski instructors and their classes currently are given.

“We don’t want the top 25 fastest skiers in the world to miss their start,” Berman quipped.

Berman is so busy right now he was texting with staff directing snowmaking operations even as he awaited his turn at the podium.

He noted that of Tuesday night there were just 71 days to go: “This has been a huge monumental task and we have a large task ahead of us.”

Stacey Timmons-Ehleringer, local organizing committee chair and director of Guest Engagement for Sun Valley Resort, said that the Upper Greyhawk parking lot will be closed to the public beginning March 1 as crews begin to set up athlete hospitality, a TV compound, media facility and official timing.

The Lower Greyhawk parking lot will be closed to the public March 18-28. There will be a robust shuttle and bus system to the race finish area, and skiers and boarders will be able to access the area on skis from the River Run base area.

A double television screen will allow fans to see downhill and superG races from top to bottom. Those at the bottom should be able to see the giant slalom and slalom races in its entirety from the bottom.

“We’re the only place where you can see the entire slalom from top to bottom,” she said.

A vendor village will be set up at the official entrance to World Cup Finals from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 21-27.

Timmons-Ehleringer said she hopes the public will come out for the Public Bib Draws at the Sun Valley Outdoor Ice Rink. The downhill bib draw will be held on Friday, March 21, and the Slalom bib draw on Wednesday, March 26.

It’s a great way to see the athletes, she said. And both will be accompanied by ice skating and other entertainment. Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation kids will take part and organizers are talking to the Idaho Potato Commission about “ways we can leverage our true selves.” Fireworks and live music will  accompany both nights.

Monday, March 24, will feature ski joring and a celebration in Festival Meadows. There will be no ski racing that day to allow race course worker to transition from the superG to the shorter races.

The City of Sun Valley will throw a party presenting Sun Valley’s western heritage. The new Picabo Street sculpture will be unveiled, the venue will be renamed “Champions Meadow.” And there’ll be music and food vendors throughout the day.

“We’re excited about the ski joring,” said Timmons-Ehleringer, offering that Europeans will find cowboys on horseback pulling skiers through an obstacle course “mind blowing.”

World Cup Globes will be awarded the final day, followed by a closing party at the base of Warm Springs.

“Some of the globes will probably be decided here,” Timmons-Ehrlinger said. “We won’t even know who qualifies to come until a week out.”

The event is expected to draw 650 athletes and team personnel, plus an additional 150-plus event-related personnel, said Timmons-Ehleringer.

Helicopters will have to be in place in case an athlete needs transport to the trauma center in Boise. At the same time, care needs to be taken that medical needs of valley residents are not compromised.

Timmons-Ehrlinger said Aspen was the last to host World Cup Finals on U.S. soil in 2017. When World Cup officials came to visit Sun Valley last winter, Baldy was fogged in and snowy and they couldn’t see anything but they were still blown away, she said.

FIS officials were impressed by how well Sun Valley hosted four U.S. Nationals beginning in 2016, the area’s reputation for hospitality and engaged community, Baldy’s challenging courses, its skiing legends, including Gretchen Fraser, the first American skier to win an Olympic medal in skiing, and its current athletes.

“We have a good relationship with U.S. Ski and Snowboard and we’re building a relationship with FIS,” said Timmons-Ehrlinger, noting that Sun Valley only began its relationships with FIS in February 2024.

There will be unique challenges, she added. Among them how to get the hundred pair of skis that each athlete travels with to Sun Valley: “Obviously a lot of planning is going into how get luggage here.”

Those in attendance were wowed by the myriad of details that has gone into making the World Cup in Sun Valley a reality.

“And I’m so proud of our kids,” said Paula perry. “Riley grew up here and Stacey—she used to work at Perry’s Restaurant. Now they’re heading up a big event like this.”