West Mountain’s big move

By Mark Frost & Zander Frost, Chronicle Editor & Staff Writer

West Mountain is making a big move — launching a ski academy run by Thomas Vonn, a former Olympian who also coached and was married to three-time Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn.

“Thomas can coach at any level,” said West Mountain co-owner/operator Spencer Montgomery. Besides Lindsey Vonn, “he’s coached at the World Cup level and raced at the World Cup level and raced in the Olympics.”

Mr. Vonn, 46, is a Newburgh, N.Y. native who gravitated north. He went to St. Lawrence University and has been coaching ski racing in Lake Placid.

“I‘ve driven by West Mountain for years and years,” Mr. Vonn told The Chronicle Tuesday. “And I’ve always said…I’d love to coach there because it’s such a perfect hill for training.

“It’s a perfect slope for race training, you have a nice medium pitch, you’ve got a good steep section up top, and then you have a good section of flats on the bottom. When I was training World Cup level athletes and also training for myself, those are exactly the kind of hills we would seek out.”

Another big advantage? Night skiing. “Instead of having to have a whole school set up, [kids] can actually go to normal high school or normal middle school and elementary school and still ski six days, seven days a week if you wanted to,” Mr. Vonn said.

“That’s a built-in advantage over every single other Academy-type situation where they have to leave home and leave their parents. If you live in Glens Falls area, you don’t have to do any of that and it’s going to be a fraction of the cost.”

Mr. Montgomery said of Mr. Vonn, “There won’t be any higher echelon that I could have brought here for a coach. He’s considered one of the top coaches in the East Coast, if not the country.”

He said they offered Mr. Vonn “a legacy play here. He could move to the area, with his name and his background, build an academy…He could really put his mark on something.

“That differentiated us a little bit from a really established Academy where you’re already joining an established organization. This could become his organization.”

Mr. Vonn, who was driving from Lake Placid to Queensbury when we spoke with him, said he’s already house hunting here.

He said the deal with West developed “a few weeks ago. It happened pretty quick.”

He said he is bringing around 10 skiiers with him from Lake Placid. They’ve already begun training at West. “Athletes tend to follow their coaches when they have someone they like,” Mr. Vonn said.

Besides local participants, male skiers in the program from a distance will live in houses next to the West Mountain parking lot, including the “old Brandt home,” of the ski mountain’s founders, said Mr. Montgomery.

“We could board 15 to 20 athletes there, and some coaches. We have the old red barn that we’re going to turn into a weight room and an equipment fitting room.”

Mr. Montgomery said he is looking for a home for the women’s component of the program “in town or something nearby.”

He said he’s also aims to hire “a top tier woman’s FIS [International Ski Federation] coach.”

Athletes boarding at West will eat at its restaurant, and attend school locally.

“We could offer a winter term boarding option working with the Queensbury schools,” Mr. Montgomery said. “We’ve talked to [Superintendent] Kyle Gannon about that and they’ve been very receptive.”

Mr. Montgomery said affordability is a focus of the program.

“For me, and a lot of kids that raced [at West in] high school, it was economically unfeasible to race at the club level. And now ski racing has really progressed to where most of the private boarding academies are in the $65,000 range.”

He said West offers a Friday full day program for younger children for around $5,000. They offer a “club level” program for older kids for around $2,000.

Mr. Montgomery said that Mr. Vonn’s new academy will have a different structure, with pricing options starting between $17,000 and $19,000 to cover costs for coaching, but not travel.

Full boarding will start around $23,000 to $25,000. “A lot less than $65,000,” Mr. Montgomery said.

“Ski racing is an expensive sport when you get to the higher levels because you have all the travel and a lot of these guys have 25 pairs of skis,” he added.

“I can offer something in the middle to someone that wants to train with Thomas and they want to go on and race at” Hobart & William Smith or Colgate University, said Mr. Montgomery.

He said Steve Lathrop, Head Coach for the West Mountain Racing Academy and Club Team Programs, “has done an excellent job advancing U10-U14 alpine ski racers. Vonn will take on the role of coaching students ready to take on the next level of U16 and beyond.”

West Mountain has big plans. “Bringing Thomas here sped me up about three to five years,” Mr. Montgomery said. He hopes to add dormitory space for more young skiiers in the future.

What is the best case 10-year scenario? Mr. Vonn said, “I envision a fully functioning training environment with high level racing through all the age groups.”

“I’m sure there will be an academic component to it…It very well could be one of the one of the most powerful academy type places on the east coast or the country,” he said. Mr. Montgomery expresses the goal “to train future Olympians right at West Mountain.”

“Without question that will happen at some point,” said Mr. Vonn. “We will have a very strong team here very quickly.”

Mr. Montgomery said pandemic travel restrictions pushed people to rediscover West Mountain who hadn’t skiied it “in 10 or 15 years, who have now come back and rediscovered it.” He said business last year was “exceptional.” He said this year is not to that level but still strong.

West also envisions hotel and residential development. Mr. Montgomery said he’s in discussions on major resort construction with “a design build firm and a large developer out of the Albany/Troy area who’s done some substantial projects.” They also plan a new high speed chair lift.

Copyright © 2022 Lone Oak Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved