US Ski Team to honor 2 prospects killed in January avalanche
COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. (AP) The U.S. Ski Team will honor two prospects killed in an avalanche last January by naming them to the squad this season.
The team will recognize Bryce Astle, 19, and Ronnie Berlack, 20, during a ceremony Saturday. U.S. men's coach Sasha Rearick said that ''recognizing them in this way will help us all remember what they meant to us and help to bring a small bit of closure to us all.''
Astle and Berlack were part of a group of six skiers who were descending from a peak near Soelden, Austria, last January when they left the prepared slope and apparently set off the avalanche. The other four skied out of the slide and escaped unhurt.
There was a moment of silence for them at world championships in Beaver Creek last season.
