Max Bervy: CU Boulder’s Alpine Ski Captain

Max Bervy was born in Boulder, Colorado and spent most of his early childhood in Longmont. His parents were both avid skiers and it wasn’t long before they recognized their son’s potential for the winter sport. Seizing the opportunity, they moved the family to Vail, for Bervy’s high school years. While in the small mountain town, Bervy attended the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, a high school that specifically catered toward winter sport athletes with heavy training schedules. 

“The school was built around our schedules for skiing,” said Bervy. “We would ski from around seven to noon, about six days a week and then they would pick us up on a bus, go straight to school, have six hours of school, finish at like 6 or 7 o’clock at night, have dry land till 8:30 p.m., go home and do it all over again.” 

During his time at the academy he was also a member of the National Training Group for the US Ski Team and took quite a few titles, some of these including but not limited to U16 Giant Slalom Champion, U14 National Champion and 15th place at the Seven Nations race in Courchevel, France. 

Bervy hit the ground running as a college freshman, not only earning a letter in his first season but scoring for University of Colorado-Boulder four times out of his eight finished races. These successes landed him the role of captain for the men’s Alpine Team at CU, these athletes compete in multiple racing disciplines such as Downhill, Super G and Giant Slalom. His best career Slalom finish was 10th place and his best career giant slalom finish was 12th; both records were during the 2021 CU Invitational at Eldora Mountain. This NCAA event hosted both eastern and western divisions and had nearly 80 competitors total. 

“A big contributing part of this team is being consistent with results. One thing I’ve really taken pride in is just having consistent results and being the guy they can rely on for finishing,” said Bervy. 

Now in his senior year at CU Boulder, Bervy plans to graduate with a degree in psychology. The Division I athlete was initially unsure of this field of study and how it would apply to his desired career; after all, what did Sigmund Freud have to do with skiing?

It only took a few classes in his major to change his mind, as he began to learn more about the mindset of a successful athlete and how to apply these concepts in his own life. The line between athletics and academics was a balancing act Bervy admitted he initially struggled with, but eventually he began to implement a strategy which played these aspects of his life off of one another. 

“I started realizing how they can both play a role in each other. I used academics as an escape from my athletics and I used athletics as an escape from my academics,” said Bervy.

Fitness training for members of the CU ski team is no easy feat, athletes have to be prepared to meet the physical demands of whipping around gates at speeds up to 60 mph. Workout regimes include five-days-a-week in the gym from April to October which alternate lifting days with cardio intensive exercises. 

But this is just during the off season, the first session on the slopes for CU skiers is the last weekend of October and here the intensity is dialled to ten. Athletes will spend up to four hours on the hill at Eldora, for up to seven days a week, enduring strenuous repetitions of race-like conditions. 

Bervy reflected on the impact the pandemic had on his team’s ability to train last season, “Covid really hit our team hard in the fall. Everyone but two people tested positive on our team. Our first time on snow was late November … so we had a month less training than pretty much any other team in the country.” 

According to Bervy, this impediment had little effect on the team during the 2020-21 season as they were able to produce consistent and impressive results despite the short preparation time; in a close battle at the 2021 RMISA Championship, the Colorado Buffaloes pulled through and secured third place. 

Bervy has quite a few ideas on his ‘to-ski’ bucket list, the most exciting being a heli-skiing experience in either Northern Canada or Alaska. This desired expedition is not for the faint of heart as it entails extreme off-trail downhill skiing only accessible by helicopter. When asked for advice to give any new or aspiring skiers, Bervy had plenty of tips to share. He emphasized the importance of body awareness and such relative to your equipment, but Bervy ended his wisdom with this: “Push yourself. Don’t be afraid to try something new.” 

There are only high hopes from Max Bervy as he and the CU Ski Team look forward to the 30th Winter World University Games in Lucern, Switzerland this happening now until Dec. 21.