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PrintWalt Berling
The Pied Piper of Nordic Skiing
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Walt Berling has spent twenty-six years teaching teens how to ski fast. Not on Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s steep terrain, but on Nordic courses throughout the valley. As coach of the Jackson Hole High School Broncs Nordic program since 1985, the veteran has led teams to fifteen state championships, and many of his students have gone on to race at the collegiate and national levels. Berling, fifty-seven, grew up outside of Seattle. In 1976, he moved to Jackson to be a ski bum. He spent his first few winters living in a cabin at the Whitegrass Ranch near Death Canyon. Each day, he cross-country skied to his job at the Alpenhof in Teton Village. In 1981, he accepted a position as a special-education teacher with the school district; after a few years of coaching cross-country runners, he made the move to the Nordic team. Berling was inducted into the Wyoming Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2007. In his spare time, he is an avid cyclist and volunteers to help build and maintain the valley’s network of trails.
Walt Berling has some recommendations for visitors wanting to take in a little Nordic skiing. “If it’s your very first time,” he says, “just go to the Nordic Center [at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort] and take a lesson. I really like Cache Creek. It’s the perfect uphill, and it’s fun to come back down. I’m into classic more than skating. It’s kind of like mountain biking. You can get better for years. ... You can be skiing at fifty and be faster than when you were younger."
The entire article can be read in the Winter 2012 issue of Jackson Hole Magazine.
