Skiing is a family affair for Cle Elum's Patrick Deneen

Patrick Deneen's dream is to win an Olympic medal in freestyle moguls skiing, and he's bringing his dad along for the ride.

Pat Deneen has been Patrick's longtime coach. They're using the family approach to get Patrick to the podium at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.

Besides Patrick, Team Deneen consists of his parents, two older sisters and his grandmother. They live on a 90-acre hay-and-horse ranch in Cle Elum, less than a four-hour drive from Cypress Mountain, where the Olympic moguls competition takes place Feb. 14 outside Vancouver.

Pat is a land developer. Nancy raises and trains quarter horses at the ranch, surrounded by wooded hills and wilderness, and patrolled by four border collies. Patrick has a ground-level trampoline out back, and when it snows — the ranch can get five or six feet — there's a homemade jump on a hill at the end of the driveway.

"We've always kind of done things differently," Patrick said.

Pat and Patrick, a four-year U.S. ski team veteran, left Oct. 29 for a three-month trip they hope will culminate in an Olympic berth and, with some luck, an Olympic medal. Later this month they will catch up with the team in Finland, site of the first World Cup of the season Dec. 12.

Pat coached through most of his son's career, with U.S. national team coach Scott Rawles also playing a role. This summer, the Deneens hired a private coach, Cooper Schell — coach of 1998 Olympic champion Jonny Moseley — to help. But Pat will still play a role.

"It's really fun to be able to go out there and have your dad as your coach," Patrick said. "He's willing to take a step back and let someone else coach you. It's a win-win for everyone. He's been my coach for so long, I definitely wouldn't be where I'm at if not for him and my entire family."

For the next 15 weeks, Pat will tend to his business via Skype and e-mail as Patrick, 21, competes in qualifying events throughout Europe and the United States.

"I just couldn't see myself doing anything else this year," said Pat. "When your son's got the opportunity to do this ... it's pretty exciting."

Patrick vaulted into Olympic medal contention with last season's stunning victory at the world championships in Japan. Patrick was the 2008 World Cup rookie of the year, but had never won a World Cup event and had crashed in four events. On a steep course, Patrick won partly on a jump called the Back-X (back flip with skis crossed) that he perfected the week before on his home jump.

Both parents were there, just as they have been all along.

Pat was a part-owner and manager of the former Hyak ski area, now part of the Summit at Snoqualmie ski area. He started skiing at 18, about the same time he met ski legend Jean-Claude Killy doing promotional ski videos. He asked Killy why the Europeans were "kicking our [butts] all the time" in ski racing. Killy said because they learned to ski as soon as they could walk.

So Pat and his wife, Nancy, got all three kids on skis early. Patrick, the youngest, was walking at 9 months, skiing at 11 months.

"It's kind of cool because I don't remember not being good at skiing," Patrick said.

Pat, spurred by a "youngest to ski" competition at Snoqualmie Pass, says he carried 11-month-old Patrick under his arm to Sturtevant's ski shop in Bellevue.

"I need the smallest skis you got," he said.

Somebody found a pair of 80-centimeter (31-inch) skis and red boots so small they needed only one buckle. Still, Pat had to stuff the toes with newspaper.

"They all thought I was nuts," Pat said. "The boot-fitter was just shaking his head."

At the ski area, they took Patrick to a flat section between the ticket booth and the lodge. Nancy stood at the bottom and friends lined the slope. Patrick headed for mom.

"They'd call my name and I'd look at 'em, and it'd create enough momentum to make me turn," said Patrick.

Patrick and his sisters know horses too. He was a youth champion in reining, where horses are judged on their ability to perform spins, circle and sliding stops. He helped his mom, also a reining competitor, break wild horses at the ranch. At 15, Patrick gave up competitive riding for skiing.

"They're definitely the homespun family," said Schell. He spent weeks with Pat and Patrick on snow in Australia this summer. "Off the hill, the conversation was never about skiing. They'd be talking about the sisters and their horse competitions."

Patrick started alpine racing at age 6. Then, "I saw a guy skiing moguls and it looked a little more fun," he said, standing in the family's living room, his ski trophies sharing shelf space with his mom's horse-riding hardware.

Patrick estimates he spends more than 200 days a year skiing. He was home-schooled, which provided a flexible schedule to spend winters at Silver Mountain, Idaho, where the snow was more consistent. In summers, Pat, Patrick and sister Amy would sleep in the back of the family Suburban in the Mount Hood parking lot, cooking hot dogs on the hood and skiing the Palmer snowfield.

In the fall, Pat and Patrick would drive to Colorado's Copper Mountain or Utah, living out of their pickup camper from early November to mid-December. Patrick remembers times when the temperature would hit 17 below.

"Patrick probably spends more days on snow than anyone on our team," said Rawles. "He has really strong technical skills. He likes to ski fast. That's what he's known for."

This year, a friend is loaning them a condo at Copper's base. Being a world champion and Olympic medal contender has its privileges.

"It's always nice staying somewhere that has heat," Patrick said.