{"id":43188,"date":"2021-12-17T22:28:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T05:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ski-racing-legend-bode-miller-plans-first-ski-academy-at-granby-ranch\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:12:10","slug":"ski-racing-legend-bode-miller-plans-first-ski-academy-at-granby-ranch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ski-racing-legend-bode-miller-plans-first-ski-academy-at-granby-ranch\/","title":{"rendered":"Ski racing legend Bode Miller plans first ski academy at Granby Ranch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bode
Bode Miller, shown here in March 2014 racing to a bronze medal in men's alpine skiing Super-G at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, plans to open a ski academy at Granby Ranch ski area. (AP Photo\/Shinichiro Tanaka, file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Ski racing icon Bode Miller and the operators of Granby Ranch are teaming up to build a ski academy at the Grand County ski area.<\/p>\n

The first-ever Bode Miller Ski Academy, announced Friday, will occupy a planned campus at the base village of the resort, which was acquired earlier this year by St. Louis investors David and Bob Glarner.<\/p>\n

Miller on Friday joined the resort\u2019s operators, veteran resort executive Andy Wirth and his son Jace, in announcing plans for his academy.<\/p>\n

Look at ski racing\u2019s luminaries, Miller said in an interview with The Sun. Like Lindsey Vonn, Kristina Koznick, Mikaela Shiffrin, Terry and Tyler Palmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd me. We come from these tiny little out of the way ski hills that nobody ever heard of and we went on to beat the world,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can develop incredible ski skills and a love for the outdoors on a little bump in Minnesota or anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller said he started dreaming of starting his own ski academy while he was a teenager attending Carrabassett Valley Academy at the base of Maine\u2019s Sugarloaf ski area.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not critical of New England\u2019s storied ski academies, it\u2019s just that \u201cthey have not adapted to new technology in education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Bode
Bode Miller, seen here during a press conference at the Sochi Winter Games in February 2014, is partnering with Granby Ranch and the Institute for Civic Leadership Academy to open a ski academy at the Grand County ski area. (AP Photo\/Christophe Ena, File)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Miller\u2019s plan is to partner with the 20-year-old Institute for Civil Leadership, or ICL, which was created by the Spahn family who founded the renowned private Dwight School in New York City. The ICL Academy has developed an online curriculum with dozens of remote teachers that cater to students pursuing passions in athletics, music and art. Last year Miller partnered with ICL to launch an online academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just applying the evolution of education,\u201d said Miller, who retired from racing in 2017 after two World Cup overall wins and six Olympic medals, more than any other American male skier. \u201cThe purpose is to have kids master content and understand the requisite things and understand how to learn and acquire new skills. I want to put something in place that will change our entire education system for sports. Not just for skiing but for musicians, artists, actors. \u2026 I want to create empowered self-managed little humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ICL learning system deploys teachers in remote hubs. That means fewer teachers on campus, so more revenue can be directed into athletic programs, coaching staff and scholarships, Miller said. Miller and Andy Wirth are big on scholarships. Miller had a swell of community support to help pay his tuition at Carrabassett. Jace Wirth, who manages Granby Ranch ski area, had a scholarship to attend Lowell Whiteman School outside Steamboat Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be more excited than anybody to welcome the first 10 kids from Middle Park, Colorado into the Bode Miller Ski Academy,\u201d Wirth said.<\/p>\n

Miller and Wirth hope to have 20% of the students at the 125-student academy attending with reduced or free tuition. It\u2019s all part of Miller\u2019s overarching plan to open skiing to more young athletes. He recently joined Alpine-X, a company vying to develop year-round snowsports resorts, starting with a $225 million indoor ski hill and resort in northern Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the U.S. is not as strong as it should be across the board in skiing is mostly because we don\u2019t give access and opportunity to our best athletes,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAlpine-X will expand across the country, allowing easy access, low-cost opportunities to experience the sport and then we can spool kids up into the academies. If you have the desire, you are in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, he said academies, as in more than one. Miller has long planned to anchor his flagship ski academy in Big Sky, Montana. That\u2019s still the plan, but Granby Ranch emerged as a first location when the new owners, the Glarners, offered slopeside land for the dormitory, training facilities and classrooms. The school will be a nonprofit, Miller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not making any money on this,\u201d said Miller, whose wife recently had a baby, making him the father of seven kids.<\/p>\n

\"Architect
Architect Don Ruggles designed the Bode Miller Ski Academy at Granby Ranch for alpine, moguls, Nordic and adaptive athletes. (Courtesy Ruggles Mabe Studio)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Denver architect Don Ruggles, with Ruggles Mabe Studio, is designing the 58,000 square-foot campus, which is divided into two buildings. He\u2019s been designing homes and commercial buildings in Colorado since the early 1970s. Ruggles wrote a book that connects research from neuroscientists with architecture, arguing that the human brains need balancing patterns to stay calm and healthy, while jagged, pointy, unusual designs deliver stress.<\/p>\n

His thesis in his 2018 book \u201cBeauty, Neuroscience and Architecture\u201d is evidenced in the classic, balanced design for the Bode Miller Ski Academy. Ruggles sketched the ski-in, ski-out timber-and-stone buildings after hearing Miller and Wirth\u2019s plans for an educational compound for alpine, moguls, Nordic and adaptive skiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they came by and visited with us, their vision and enthusiasm was so infectious, and that, frankly, is what we look for,\u201d Ruggles said. \u201cThey have high aspirations and it\u2019s going to benefit people. They checked all the boxes for us. It was hard not to say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruggles recently visited with Roy Tuscany, the founder of the High Fives Foundation and his fianc\u00e9 Paralympian Alana Nichols. The two are advising Wirth and Miller on the plan for what will be the nation\u2019s first school and training facility dedicated to adaptive athletes.<\/p>\n

Tuscany, whose High Fives Foundation supports the recovery of athletes who have endured traumatic injuries, said Ruggles welcomed the opportunity to incorporate \u201cuniversal transitions\u201d into the design of his buildings. For example, in between the two main buildings a snow runway will allow seamless entry and exit for athletes on sit skis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny person, regardless of their ability, will not face any challenges from getting their equipment and getting on snow and getting back off snow and into the classrooms,\u201d Tuscany said.<\/p>\n

There are many facilities that work with adaptive athletes, including the internationally renowned National Sports Center for the Disabled up the road in Winter Park. But at almost all those facilities, the embrace of adaptive athletes came after the facilities were built.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing, to my knowledge, has had this kind of consideration from the formation,\u201d Tuscany said. \u201cIt is rare \u2014 so rare \u2014 that disability is considered from the earliest stages of design and layout. It\u2019s part of the landscape in this plan. That is just so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andy
Andy Wirth worked with Steamboat ski area and Intrawest before leading California\u2019s Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows resort. He has assembled a team to help manage Granby Ranch ski and golf operations. (Provided by Andy Wirth)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Wirth\u2019s Ridgeline Executive Group, which took over management of the ski area in early 2020, has directed about $4.5 million into Granby Ranch in the past year. While the operators have upgraded the resort\u2019s snowmaking system, most of the work so far has been in \u201ctruckloads of deferred maintenance,\u201d Andy Wirth said.<\/p>\n

The new owners and operators have dubbed their recent campaign to revive the ski area \u201cGranby Ranch Rising.\u201d The previous owner, Brazilian heiress Marise Cipriani, spent 24 years struggling to realize her vision for a year-round resort at the 5,000-acre property on the Fraser River. Facing foreclosure, she walked away from the ski area in late 2019, leaving it to her lenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cGranby Ranch the ski resort has had a uniquely challenging history, from undercapitalization to poor management. It\u2019s remarkable in many ways but not many great ways,\u201d Wirth said. \u201cTo get better you have to be honest with where you\u2019ve been and the truth is that it\u2019s been a really challenged ski resort.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ski academy is not connected to the resort\u2019s new owners, who plan to ink a long-term lease to the nonprofit that will operate the academy. Wirth estimated the cost to launch the project around $25 million and he\u2019s lining up investors, grants and endowments to support the school. They are still raising the money to build and start the school, Wirth said.<\/p>\n

The Wirths have a long calendar of events at the ski area, including this weekend\u2019s World Pro Ski Tour, featuring top ski racers competing in a head-to-head dual racing format. The U.S. Ski Team\u2019s moguls squad will set up an Olympic training camp at the ski area in January. Wirth said the new academy will have access to dedicated race lanes, moguls and cross-country tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason whatsoever that Granby Ranch should not be a great mountain that generates some of the greatest Nordic skiers, bump skiers, alpine skiers and adaptive skiers,\u201d Wirth said. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason this little hill won\u2019t generate the greatest of all time, both scholars and athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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