Kieran Hildreth of Montauk, a 15-year-old Burke (Vt.) Mountain Academy sophomore, finished the season last month as 2025’s top U-16 male alpine skier in the country.
He earned the title by winning both the super-G and slalom races, and placing sixth in the giant slalom in the U-16 nationals at Maine’s Sugarloaf Mountain. “The event is the culminating one of the season for the top U.S. alpine ski racers under the age of 16,” Kieran’s father, Jeff, said last Thursday. He added that “the U-16 Nationals, hosted annually by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, brings together the top 80 boys and 80 girls from across the country, each earning their spot through rigorous qualifying events at the state and regional levels. . . . It was an incredible performance by Kieran on a national stage, the pinnacle of his season.”
The Hildreth family’s success doesn’t stop with Kieran: His 12-year-old twin siblings, Baron and Audrey, are also making their mark in U.S. and Canadian competitions. The elder Hildreth said that “after strong results at Vermont and Eastern regional qualifiers, both earned invitations to the U-14 CanAms at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, in April. The CanAms, given the absence of U-14 Nationals, serve as the U-14 skiers’ proving ground.”
Baron won the CanAms’ giant slalom and placed third over all, while Audrey, who had placed third in the Easterns’ giant slalom, finished in that event’s top-10 at the CanAms.
“They’re putting up results that rival, or even surpass, what Kieran was doing at that age, especially Baron as a first-year U-14,” Jeff Hildreth said.
Back in Montauk for the spring and summer, Jeff and Jaime Hildreth’s twins have been re-enrolled at the Montauk School where they’ll finish seventh grade. Their brother remains at the Burke Mountain Academy through the end of the academic year. The Hildreth children will return in the fall to the academy, where mornings are devoted to academic studies and afternoons to ski training.
The Hildreths began spending winter weekends at Pico Peak, part of Killington, some time ago, but moved farther north in 2020 so that Kieran, then 12, and the twins, then 9, could avail themselves of the ski race training provided by Burke Mountain Academy, said to be the top alpine ski school in the country.
Kieran, Baron, and Audrey also surf, skateboard, and snowboard for fun, but alpine ski racing is their main competitive sport.
