For its February issue, the national ski magazine, “Powder,” published a feature called “The Draft,” identifying the world’s best 20 skiers age 18 and under. While the list was populated mainly by 17- and 18-year-olds, it also included a boy from Whitefish who is barely a teenager: Mitch Gilman.
“A 13-year-old who can throw 1260s in the pipe,” the article says, “Mitch Gilman could be the Tiger Woods prodigy of skiing.”
Gilman is by far the youngest skier to make the list, and despite his young age he is already racking up a formidable résumé of accomplishments, including first-place finishes in freestyle competitions last year at the U.S. Open Junior Jam and first place in the New Zealand Junior Nationals.
Typing Mitch Gilman’s name into Youtube.com brings up several videos of him soaring above half-pipes and jumps all over the country, throwing air and landing tricks with a confidence and finesse far beyond his years.
Reached in Colorado where he attends school and trains six days a week at the Vail Ski & Snowboard Academy, Gilman was – unsurprisingly – excited about the recognition in “Powder” magazine, putting him squarely among the rising generation of the world’s best skiers.
“When I was younger, Dad always told me you know you’re a true skier when you’re in ‘Powder’ magazine,” Gilman said. “So I guess I’m pretty happy about that.”
“There’s a lot of really good kids my age that weren’t in there that I think maybe should have been, but it’s definitely flattering,” he added.
Gilman has his sights set this year on placing in the finals of the Aspen Open in both half-pipe and slope-style competion, and the World Skiing Invitational in Whistler, British Columbia. In the long term, he hopes half-pipe skiing will be included in the Olympic Winter Games of 2014, the way half-pipe snowboarding is.
“If they have half-pipe in the Olympics, I’d like to make it to that,” Gilman said.
In his first year at the ski academy, Gilman misses his family, but also appreciates being in an environment where he is free to pursue skiing at a high level, and being surrounded by other kids with similar goals.
“Everybody knows what I’m talking about when I say, ‘Oh, I landed this trick,’” he said. “It’s nice to have all your friends doing the same thing as you.”
Mitch’s father, Jeff Gilman, is a member of the Flathead Nordic Ski Patrol and said he tried to instill a love of skiing and being outdoors in both his son and daughter at a young age. It helped, however, that both kids were natural skiers: Both could descend Haskill Slide, a double-black diamond run on Big Mountain, at age 5, Jeff said.
Jeff also saw where Mitch truly excelled.
“It became apparent pretty quickly that he liked to jump and he liked to be in the air and he had a knack for it,” Jeff said. “He knows where he is in the air; he’s got an incredible air-sense about him.”
As they traveled to different competitions, different ski academies attempted to recruit Mitch, but the Vail Academy appealed to them because it receives public funding, and Mitch can live with his uncle’s family in nearby Eagle.
Jeff praised his son for “having a pretty good head on his shoulders,” and maintaining good grades, even as Mitch finds his picture turning up in magazines, travels the world and gains sponsors. But Jeff acknowledges that as Mitch’s skiing career develops, so too does the pressure on him increase to pull off bigger and potentially more dangerous tricks. It’s something Jeff discusses regularly with his son.
“We have the ongoing conversation about risk verse reward,” Jeff said. “He broke his leg at 9, so he realizes he’s not invincible.”
Nor is Mitch obsessed solely with tricks. It’s been a dry winter in Vail, he said, and his ideal day right now would be to just ski some powder.
“I’ve only been skiing park,” Mitch said, “and I’m sick of it.”
(Tax free donations to help support the cost of travel and competition for athletes like Mitch can be made to the Ski & Snowboard Club of Vail, 598 Vail Valley Drive, Vail, CO 81657.)