New Hampshire native Ronnie Berlack, 20, earned a spot on the U.S. Ski Team’s Development Team following a spring 2013 tryout camp at Mammoth Mountain. He had been a student at Vermont’s Burke Mountain Academy. He had finished 11^th in downhill and 17^th in super G at the 2013 U.S. Alpine Championships in Squaw Valley. He was off to a strong season in 2014 before suffering a knee injury. He had come back, competing in South American Cup races in Chile last summer and in NorAm and FIS races in November and December in Canada.

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 Ronnie Berlack, 20 (Franconia, NH; Burke Mountain Academy) and Bryce Astle (Sandy, UT; Snowbird Sports Education Foundation).

"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 Ronnie Berlack and Bryce Astle 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.