South Lake Tahoe teens represent area on the snow nationally and internationally

Remember these names: Piper Arnold, Veda Hallen, and Graydon Ross.

The three teens from South Lake Tahoe are making their presence known at the national level, and for the girls, they will be competing at the international level this week. Piper and Veda are headed to Leysin, Switzerland as members of the 2022 US Ski snd Snowboard Jr. World Championship team. Graydon continues his season at the USASA Nationals in Colorado.

When watching the winter Olympics in 2026 and/or 2030 you just might see these teens representing South Lake Tahoe and the U.S.

All have been born and raised in South Lake Tahoe whose families are long-time residents.

Piper Arnold

Piper is 14-years-old and has been skiing since she was 18-months-old. From those first days, she hasn't been able to be stopped on the slopes as she was riding chairlifts by the time she was 2 1/2, competing in Kindercup at age 4, and competing through USAUS at 7. Piper is a three-time USASA National Champion and has had 14 podium finishes at the USASA Nationals.

Last year at age 13, she made the leap to Women’s Open/Pro Class competing at Futures Tour as a freeskier in both slopestyle and halfpipe. Due to her podium results, Piper qualified for the Revolution Tour this year at the North American level.

Just last week, Piper was named to the 2022 US Ski snd Snowboard Jr. World Championships Team and will be traveling to Leysin, Switzerland March 3-10 to compete in the halfpipe.

Piper has her sights on making the US Ski Team. She’d like to ski at XGames someday and make it to the Olympics.

During a normal winter, Piper calls Sierra-at-Tahoe home and participates on their competition team, but the Caldor Fire changed that.

"It's been a tough year with Sierra-at-Tahoe burning," said mom Terri Arnold. "She has no team or place to train."

Piper's head coach Jeremy Witters packed up his things at Tahoe and has been traveling with the Arnold family this season to assist in training and competition.

This season has been successful for Piper, said Terri. So far she has had eight competitions, made it to the finals in seven of them, and made it to the podium five times. Three more competitions to go!

Piper attends South tahoe High School and is currently a freshman. She works with counselors to attend school, then does online school while traveling.

Veda Hallen

"Don’t give up, keep looking ahead and things will happen," says 16-year-old Veda Hallen.

She has been on a snowboard for 13 years, never taking the more traditional route of starting on skis, and her talent on the board shows.

Veda has had a very good year and she made it to television during the Dew Tour where she came in 4th in the streetstyle event. She was just named to the US Jr. World Championships Snowboard Team for Slopestyle and also headed to Switzerland.

Her favorite trick is a Front Board.

Veda’s goal this season has been to stay consistent, learn new things and always stay positive. She said her ultimate goal is to get a snowboarding part in a video or movie.

Veda is just one of four snowboarding girls in the country to qualify for Switzerland based on her points from competitions. She just had two podium finishes in the Aspen Revolution tour, and this is all with her home resort Sierra-at-Tahoe being burned and unable to open to accommodate time on the snow.

Veda is excited to see, meet and compete with girls from around the world who share her love for snowboarding, said mom Liz.

Due to the hectic schedule of snowboarding competitions, Veda attends Inspire Charter School.

Graydon Ross

Graydon Ross is the only 14-year-old representing South Lake Tahoe at the Futures Tour level who is competing in the snowboard men's open class division, against boarders years older.

He has now qualified for the USASA Nationals in Colorado this week where he will compete in rail jam and slopestyle, coming off a double gold win in rail jam last week.

"This is quite amazing considering our home mountain burnt," said mom Kelly.

Graydon is a fourth-generation local and his family runs the Camp Richardson Corral.

He has been snowboarding since he was four years old.

He started competing at the regional level at the age of 6 at the family's home mountain, Sierra-at-Tahoe. Graydon competed at his first USASA snowboard nationals at the age of 7.

Graydon has progressed in the sport bringing him to the podium at Nationals for the overall award in 2018, on the podium in nationals again in 2019 where he was awarded the bronze in halfpipe and 2nd overall award in the nation.

Since then, Graydon has successfully competed at the national level.

A few highlights from other events: Graydon qualified and competed at the Burton Qualifier finals in Pennsylvania. In 2020 Graydon won the Vans Methodology event, earning the best Method award. He is currently competing in The Futures Tour open class Slopestyle events, earning points towards the REV Tour.

Graydon recently met a personal goal of throwing and landing a Dub 1080 in competition at the Mammoth Futures Tour Slopestyle event.

At his level, the mens division has become extremely technical.

Kelly said Graydon is constantly training to learn more tricks on the rails and jumps to continue his progression in this sport with a dream of one day competing at X Games and potentially being an Olympic hopeful in 2026.

Graydon is a freshman in high school attending the Cottonwood Charter school which allows him the freedom to train and travel for snowboarding while keeping up on his studies.

How the community can help

Skiing and snowboarding at the national and international competition levels are expensive. Since all three of the local athletes mentioned here are minors, they must travel with a parent, pay for airfare, housing, food, equipment, and other financial obligations.

This year without their home slopes, it's been challenging for the athletes, and expensive. Sierra-at-Tahoe, the Sierra-at-Tahoe Foundation, and the Jamie Anderson Foundation have helped to support the athletes, but there are still ways to help the families:

Veda Hallen: @Liz-Hallen on Venmo

Piper Arnold: https://givesendgo.com/G2TJ9

Graydon Ross: Not fundraising at this time.