"It's so nice being competitive," she said. Also exciting for her is the fact that her father, Don Cook, now lives just down the street from her in Park City. He retired and has now opened his own photography business (www.doncookphoto.com).

"He actually travels with us sometimes and takes great photos," she said. "It's really nice for me to have him around."

The ski team's mogul skiers will also compete this weekend, although they'll only compete in duals, which is when the skiers race head-to-head. The team competed in two individual events at Lake Placid, so the individual mogul competition was eliminated from this weekend's events.

The mogul skiers will compete Saturday night at 7 p.m., also under lights, and the competition will be followed with fireworks at 9:05 p.m. The group De La Soul will perform after the competition at 8 p.m. The skiers qualify at 3:25 p.m. for women and 4:25 p.m. for men. The top 16 skiers compete head-to-head in a single elimination bracket.

Among those competing are East High graduate Jay Bowman-Kirigin, who was the U.S. Rookie of the Year last season, and Colorado native Michelle Roark, who won the mogul competition at Deer Valley in 2005 and 2006.

"I really love Deer Valley," Bowman-Kirigin said. "It's where I learned to ski moguls. So to have a World Cup there and be invited to compete, it's been quite an honor."

The 20-year-old said he wished they were skiing single moguls but loves the adrenaline rush of dual moguls as well. He said competing in World Cups last season were quite an adjustment for him.

"It's almost a humbling experience," he said. "You realize you're no longer the best in your age group anymore. It has made me more motivated to work hard."

The 20-year-old's best finished was a second-place last year in Japan. He finished seventh at Lake Placid this season, as well.

Michelle Roark is a Colorado native, but she feels at home on the slopes of Deer Valley because the course caters to those who love to ski bumps.

"It's a skier's course," she said. "It's the steepest most challenging course on the circuit and you really have to pay attention to your turns. I love to ski moguls."

The FIS changed the rules in mogul skiing, extending the middle section of the course between the top and bottom jumps. Officials also shortened the landing area, which Roark said has led to more "clean solid air packages." That's because if a skier gets too much air on the jump, he or she will travel farther down the course and could end up landing in the mogul section.

"And you don't want to do that," she said.