TELLURIDE, CO (Dec. 10) – Skiers and snowboarders are working together this week in a unique on-snow camp in Colorado's Telluride Resort. U.S. Snowboarding athletes and U.S. Freestyle Ski Team members are taking advantage of a rare pre-season opportunity as they train this week on two built out ski and snowboardcross courses.

"They have built us an amazing training course that has two different sections with great jumps and banks. It's totally world-class training," U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach Peter Foley said. "We're super stoked to be here. The partnership that we're having with Telluride is just amazing. We're getting better training than anyone in the world right now - by far."

Athletes training the setup in Telluride include Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott (Sugarloaf, ME), Olympic silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, VT), X-Games champion and four-time Olympian Casey Puckett (Aspen, CO), World Cup icon and X Games champion Daron Rahlves (Sugar Bowl, CA), four-time X Games gold medalist Nate Holland (Squaw Valley, CA), Jeep King of the Mountain champion and snowboarding legend Shaun Palmer (South Lake Tahoe, CA), and World Cup winners Nick Baumgartner (Iron River, MI) and Graham Watanabe (Sun Valley, ID).

In its first year as a team, not to mention being the newest Olympic sport, the ski cross squad is excited to be part of a camp that provides them the opportunity to train on course features as well as learn from their snowboardcross counterparts.

"They made two wonderful sections. The athletes are getting in a ton of laps and a ton of practice on the starts. The athletes are really all pumped on it," said Ski Cross Head Coach Tyler Shepherd. "People are talking to each other and asking how they do their starts and I think as we move further into the camp we'll see even more communication between each other in terms of what kind of lines are being taken and stuff like that.

"It's just a mutual respect for each other because you're both here trying to do the same thing and get a lot accomplished."

According to ski cross racer Rahlves, Telluride has gone above and beyond to make the athletes feel at home.

"They're definitely putting in the effort to accommodate us with hill space and allow us to get done what we need to get done. It's a great spot and a beautiful place to be," Rahlves said.

"They've rolled out the red carpet here. They just continue to ask 'what can we do for you' so it's been great so far," Shepherd said.

From the top to bottom, the cross course has two start sections for athletes to work on their starting technique, as well as a number of rollers, turns other features to get the athletes in ready to race.

"I really like having camps where you can ride on actual cross courses. We've always just done freeriding to get our bodies ready and all our equipment tuned up, but we've never had a course we've been able to ride top to bottom," said Jacobellis. "If I've done really well with just going to competitions, imagine the things that I can learn from just having a course to train on a week before going to a competition."

For Telluride, the training is much more than a one-time deal - it hopes to be able to host a World Cup stop for ski and snowboardcross in the future.

"I think that they're looking to be partners with world-class athletes and help them succeed. They're showing that Telluride is a world-class place to ski and snowboard," Foley said.

"I hope it happens. They seem very excited to have the opportunity to host the world cup and I think it's a great resort to do it at," Shepherd said.

The athletes will remain in Telluride for the week before the snowboardcross squad heads to Switzerland for a World Cup on Dec. 20. Ski cross begins its World Cup tour on Jan. 5 in Austria.

For a slideshow of the training in Telluride click here.