Bridging the Gap: Montana’s Ridge Mountain Academy teaches students to train and live like athletes

When the five 17- to 19-year-old skiers and snowboarders from Whitefish, Montana’s Ridge Mountain Academy (RMA) landed in a helicopter at Valkyr Lodge in April for a week of touring in B.C.’s Selkirk Mountains, none of them had ever spent a night in a backcountry hut. In fact, none had even used touring equipment until three months prior. But thanks to a semester at RMA, a campus-based mountain-sports-training program for men and women ages 17 to 20, the student athletes managed their own gear, rotated 5 a.m. cooking shifts, contributed to morning guide meetings and took turns route finding and setting the skintrack.

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