Not every youth skier is going to make the World Cup, and not everyone is going to podium. 

But what they will do is take home life-long lessons and a skillset that will prepare them for success in the outside world. That was the message Aspen Skiing Company CEO Geoff Buchheister delivered to Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club parents at Wednesday’s “Stewardship Series,” hosted by the club once per month.

“I’m here to actually share with a lot of you that many of our kids are not going to make those podiums,” Buchheister told parents seated in Willow Creek Bistro at the base of Aspen Highlands. “But what participation in this does, in my opinion, is it creates a couple of things that are useful for the rest of your life.”

The kids who don’t make the World Cup will still take home a victory. They will learn resilience, how to process feedback, and how to adapt to change — expertise that will prepare them for society outside of snow sports, he said.

“So what they do get when they miss the podiums and they get into the workforce, or they’re starting their own business, or they’re challenging themselves through med school … these kids are ready,” Buchheister, who also serves on the board of AVSC, said. “They’re ready for the feedback. They’re ready for anything that comes their way.”

Outdoor sports, too, are increasingly important for youth in the current technological climate. Living in a mountain town, he said parents have a huge advantage raising kids given their ample access to the outdoors. 

“A lot of kids in our country are averaging over seven hours a day on a screen … and that’s outside of the classroom,” he said, an assertion supported in a June 2025 report from the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry for children ages 8 to 18.

Beyond the skillset and health benefits, AVSC yields one thing that will follow one throughout their life: a love of skiing. Unlike sports like swimming or football, he said families can grow together around a shared passion.

“Nothing against those sports,” Buchheister said. “But for me, what we’re building here — anecdotally and adjacent to all of the stuff that we’re passionate about — is something that we can do together forever.”

Jetson O’Connor returned to coach U12 freestyle skiing for AVSC 27 years after he competed in the club’s freestyle program himself.

“It builds that love of skiing and the resilience,” O’Conner said after Buchheister’s speech.

As a former athlete turned coach, O’Conner said he applies the challenges he faced when competing to his teaching curriculum.

“My biggest thing was the fear at the top of the course, (those) initial nerves that you get,” he said, who skied moguls with AVSC. “And I had a little mental mantra I would do and some breathing techniques, which we actually do with our athletes now to help them kind of get centered and be able to be in the moment.”

AVSC Freestyle Director Eric Knight added that, as coaches and mentors, they try to teach kids to take responsibility for the things in their life they have control over. 

“You don’t have control of a lot of stuff in your life. You have control of your effort and your attitude,” Knight said. “And then where you can really gain an edge in life is if you can become your own best coach — controlling that inner voice.”

Apart from the benefits of snow sports themselves, Buchheister noted the personal bonds one forms while on the mountain and the impact that’s had on his own life.

“My favorite moments when I was a kid wasn’t actually the skiing,” he said, “it was riding the chairlift with my Dad.”