The team includes 12 competitors at the last Winter Paralympics in 2010 in Vancouver, while the squad will now gear up for next year's World Championships in February.

The World Cup finals follow in March, and will be key preparatory tournaments on the road to Sochi for the next Winter Paralympics in 2014.

"I'm very excited for the 2012-13 season," said Kevin Jardine, the US Paralympic Alpine Skiing high performance director.

"The return of veteran skiers including Allison Jones, Stephani Victor, Scott Meyer and Jasmin Bambur (pictured top) will add some depth to our already strong Nation's Cup winning team.

"I expect this to be a breakthrough year for Stephen Lawler, Melanie Schwartz and Stephanie Jallen, and am excited to see how they will perform.

Skier Melanie Schwartz will be hoping to make a breakthrough this year

"We are looking forward to numerous podiums at the 2013 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Championships in La Molina, Spain, and IPC World Cup Finals in Sochi, Russia, this March."

Among those included is double Vancouver gold medal winner Alana Nichols, who also won a gold medal in wheelchair basketball in 2008 in Beijing.

Allison Jones is another key member of the squad, selected in the same month that she picked up a gold medal in the individual cycling time trial at the London Summer Paralympics.

At the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin she won a gold medal for slalom in the standing category.

Before that she had won silver medals in the super-G and the giant slalom in the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City.

Others selected include Laurie Stephens, a winner of two golds from Turin 2006 and a silver in Vancouver, Mark Bathum, a downhill silver medallist in Vancouver, and his guide Slater Storey.

Danelle Umstead, winner of two bronze medals at Vancouver 2010, is also picked for this season's roster.

In all the US won 11 medals in Vancouver 2010 in alpine skiing, and they will hope to improve on that in Sochi.

The US finished with 39 podium results last year, and they won the Nations Cup with it, as Nichols led the way with 10 medals.

Stephens and Umstead picked up a further nine each, while Tyler Walker grabbed four medals.

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