California born Bryce Astle scored when his parents relocated to Sandy, Utah when he was 3 years old. Why? This meant he was raised skiing in Little Cottonwood Canyon —home to some of the best and deepest snow in the world. Ripping around Alta from a young age, Astle quickly became a lover of powder skiing and the mountain culture. When he was just eight years old, Astle was skiing upwards of 150 days a year and had ambitions to become a professional freeskier. Around that time, he decided to check out alpine ski racing, and joined the Snowbird Ski Education Foundation (home mountain to fellow team members Brennan Rubie and Jared Goldberg). With his natural skiing ability, "good vibes only" motto and hard work and dedication, Astle excelled quickly. 

This past January, the U.S. Ski Team and ski community in general, mourned the loss of two promising development-level ski racers killed in an avalanche in Soelden. The two were among a group of six athletes freeskiiing at the Austrian resort. The other four skied out of the slide. Killed in the avalanche were Bryce Astle (Sandy, UT; Snowbird Sports Education Foundation) and Ronnie Berlack, 20 (Franconia, NH; Burke Mountain Academy).

"Ronnie and Bryce were both outstanding ski racers who were passionate about their sport - both on the race course and skiing the mountain," said U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Tiger Shaw. "Our hearts go out to the Berlack and Astle families, as well as to their extended sport family. Both of them loved what they did and conveyed that to those around them.

*When the 2015 U.S. Alpine Ski Team is formally named Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015 at Copper Mountain Resort in Colorado, two members will be missed but not forgotten. The U.S. Ski Team has announced that it will name ski racers Bryce Astle and Ronnie Berlack to the team posthumously. The two were poised at the start of their U.S. Ski Team career when they were killed last January in an avalanche in Austria.