SUN VALLEY - From the outside, the brown barn on the campus of Sun Valley's Community School looks like your average indoor horse arena. But inside, Olympians are made.
It's called the Air Barn.
Dreamed up by the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, the state-of-the-art facility is an anti-gravity training venue.
"It’s the place you wanted when you were a kid," explained Tyler Conway, director of SVSEF's park and pipe program. "This is where we dryland train for freeskiing and snowboarding, get used to being in the air, use skateboards and rollerblades and anything we can to get upside down."
With trampolines, airbags, a halfpipe, and even a tow-in ramp, the Air Barn is a mecca for anyone looking to get inverted.
More than 50 athletes on the SVSEF slopestyle, halfpipe and freestyle teams use the facility on a regular basis. It's where practice becomes perfect - safely - before they hit the snow.
"The air barn is a definite need in the sport now," Conway said. "If you don’t have a trampoline facility or something like this then you’re kind of just left behind."
One athlete who has no plans to be left behind is Timberline High School student Julian Gluck, who drives to Sun Valley from Boise every weekend to take advantage of the Air Barn.
"We get out [of school] at around 3:07 p.m. and right after that I fill up my car with gas and I drive to Sun Valley," Gluck said.
A slopestyle snowboarder, Gluck says he draws inspiration from the athletes who have trained in the facility before him - like 2014 Olympic gold medalist Kaitlyn Farrington and Chase Josey, who is competing in the halfpipe in PyeongChang.
"It’s amazing where they came from here and how I’m training here now and maybe someday I can be in that position," Gluck said. "It’s really cool."
Mountain towns across the country have built their own air barns. But, Conway says, Sun Valley's facility sets the gold standard.
"Sun Valley, Dollar Mountain is the place to be," he said.
