Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club athlete Canyon Cherney received a coveted invitation to participate in the 13th edition of the Freeride Junior Championship, according to a Monday news release.
AVSC/Courtesy photo
One Roaring Fork Valley telemark skier is proving that all good things come in threes.
Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club athlete Canyon Cherney received a coveted invitation to participate in the 13th edition of the Freeride Junior Championship, according to a Monday news release.
The event, slated for Jan. 13-16, takes place in the challenging Freeride terrain of the Tyrolean Alps at Kappl, Austria. Cherney, following the footsteps of Bodhi Yang and his brother Orion Cherney, will be the third Aspen Ski and Snowboard athlete to compete in the prestigious championship spectacle.
Orion Cherney and Yang competed in the Junior World Championships in 2023.
“I’m looking forward to competing at Freeride Junior Worlds this winter in Austria, and I couldn’t be more proud to represent AVSC,” Canyon Cherney said in the release. “My time at AVSC has been extremely rewarding and I look forward to spending another season with the Telemark Team. Following the competition, I will be moving up to the adult category and riding in the Freeride World Qualifier Series with my brother again.”
Canyon Cherney heads into the Freeride Junior Championship ranked first in the Americas. After nabbing the overall International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association (IFSA) title last season, he’s also the highest-seeded athlete in the Americas to enter the Junior Worlds.
Canyon Cherney is only the second telemark skier in the world to qualify for the event, a repeat for Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club and a feat no other ski club has accomplished.
Before 2022, no Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club athlete had ever competed in the Freeride Junior World Championship, making this accomplishment a new frontier for the club, according to the release. The Freeride Junior Championship, organized by the Freeride World Tour Management SA (FWT), brings together the top junior Freeriders from across the globe to compete for the title of world champion in Austria’s rugged alpine terrain.
This year’s event will gather the best young talents in skiing and snowboarding, all vying to etch their names into Freeride history.
“When AVSC embraced us forming this telemark team, we didn’t even know if it would stick, there aren’t a lot of models out there to follow,” Nick Cherney, Telemark coach and Canyon’s father, said in the release. “After 10 seasons, to see our second athlete now at the pinnacle event in Freeride is a testament to the incredible community our athletes build as they pursue the slightly absurd goal of beating Alpine skiers in Freeride competition. The support our athletes provide each other, and the unique culture they have built, is really what has made this possible, and I am incredibly excited to see what they accomplish in the next 10 seasons.”