ASC TRAINING CENTER
About Us
With a rich history and variety of programs, ASC Training Center offers ski and snowboard enthusiasts in the Sierra Nevadas opportunities like no other. Learn more about ASC facilities, history, legacy, programs, and more!
About ASC
ASC was born from the visionary founders of the Auburn Ski Club in 1928. For years the organization worked as a club to support snow sports in Northern California. Today, we operate much differently with a broader regional reach and more snow sport disciplines.
Located at the top of Donner Summit neighboring Boreal Mountain Resort, ASC is one of the few high-altitude training centers in the country to offer Alpine, Nordic, Biathlon and Snowboard programs and a Nordic Center open to the public and all in one facility.
Our mission is to provide affordable year-round mountain sport experiences through programs, events, and facilities for all snow sport enthusiasts.
As a top racing and training venue in the western United States, ASC was named US Ski & Snowboard’s Nordic Club of the Year in 2001 and 2005, and Snowboard Club of the Year in 2010. We host events in all four disciplines at both local and national levels, including high school CNISSF races, USASA events, National Championships, Super Tours, Rev Tours, and Grand Prix’s. We are a U.S. Ski & Snowboard Podium Certified club.
Our vision is to be the West’s premier high-altitude training center and to inspire a life-long love of snow sports.
Facilities
- 6,000 sq. ft. lodge with locker rooms, gathering and seating areas, kitchen, offices, meeting room, large sun deck, restrooms and showers
- 2,000 sq. ft. multipurpose space for training, fitness
- 25km cross country center
- Nordic ski competition venue
- Alpine ski/snowboard competition and training arena at adjacent Boreal Mtn. Resort
- 14 point biathlon range
- Homologated XC trails
- Ample, easy access parking with overflow space
- Ski waxing room
ASC Legacy
Our History
Auburn Ski Club was established in 1928 by a group of unique and determined individuals with a genuine passion for skiing. The Club’s original “ski grounds” at Cisco Grove boasted the first engineered ski jump in the West and provided many Californians with their very first ski experience. By 1932, the founders had successfully lobbied the California State Legislature to begin providing winter snow removal services for the first time ever, keeping Highway 40 open year-round. This significant action opened up the mountains during wintertime and ushered in California’s modern skiing era.
As true original ambassadors of winter sports, Auburn Ski Club members arranged snow transportation all the way to the Bay Area, staging ski jumping exhibitions in 1934 and 1935 on the UC Berkeley campus and on Treasure Island during the 1939 World Exposition. Auburn Ski Club has collected and preserved a significant amount of ski memorabilia over the years which is currently housed in the Club’s Western Ski Sport Museum located at Boreal Mountain Resort.
In 1989, to carry on the founders’ vision and legacy, the non-profit Auburn Ski Club Training Center on Donner Summit was created as a home for new generations of young athletes and families from across Northern California.
THE WESTERN SKI SPORT MUSEUM
The Western SkiSport Museum was founded in 1969 by the Auburn Ski Club. Working with ski writer and historian William B. Berry, the Museum was developed as an exhibition of Western North American ski history. Beginning with the California gold miners racing straight down the mountains at speeds of 80 mph on 14 foot “longboards”, western ski history is a fascinating part of western culture. The stories of Snowshoe Thompson carrying the mail on skis over the mighty Sierra Nevada mountains while rescuing stranded miners in raging blizzards is the making of legends.
By the late 1920’s ski clubs began to appear up and down the West Coast. Skiing was a new sport and thousands traveled to the snowline on roads not open in winter. Ski Jumping was the daredevil sport of the period and ski clubs hosted huge spectator events. In some cases the ski clubs took the snow and jumping to the cities–hosting events in Berkeley, Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay, and the LA Coliseum. The ski industry began to develop from small club-operated hills to ski areas with the opening of Sugar Bowl in 1939.
Today the Museum continues on a mission to collect, preserve and exhibit the history of winter ski sports in the western United States.
FREE ADMISSION
Museum Currently Closed
By appointment during our closure, contact Bill Clark at (530) 426-3313 Ext. 101 or bclark@asctrainingcenter.org
Featured Exhibits:
- Auburn Ski Club
- Snowshoe Thompson
- California Gold Camps and the Longboard Skiers
- 10th Mountain Division “Ski Troops of World War II”
- Yosemite Winter Club
- Sun Valley and Alta Ski Areas
- U.S. Ski Team and Olympic History
- 1960 Winter Olympic Games
- Sugar Bowl
- Ski Jumpers of the 1930s and 40s
- Dodie Post
- Dick “Maddog” Buek
- Western Ski Hall of Fame
- Jeff Hamilton – Auburn Ski Club skier, 150 MPH world record speed skier, 1992 Olympic Bronze Medalist
- U. S. Forest Service
- Roy Mikkelsen – Auburn Ski Club jumper and Olympic ski jumper in 1936
- Archives and library by appointment
- Ski Movies dating from 1919
- Publications: “The Lost Sierra – Gold, Ghosts and Skis”
