With the rise of Hitler, the family returned to the United States and he attended Dartmouth College in 1934 and won at Sestriere, Italy, the first American to dominate at a major European ski race. Durrance also won the U.S. men's downhill, slalom, and combined events in 1937 and was named to the U.S. Olympic Team for the 1936 Winter Olympics, the first to include alpine skiing. The only medal event was the combined and Durrance finished tenth; eleventh in the downhill portion and eighth in the slalom. He was a three-time winner of the Harriman Cup in Sun Valley, Idaho, then held in the Boulder Mountains north of the resort, and helped cut the original trails on its Bald Mountain in the summer of 1939. Durrance was named to the 1940 Olympic team, but those games were cancelled due to World War II. In 1940, he worked as publicity photographer for Sun Valley and married ski racer Margaret "Miggs" Jennings.