ChileMass
Active member
Date - 1/2/06
Place - Pat's Peak, Henniker NH
Conditions - Man-made and some natural. Pretty good cover considering no new in several days. 30*F with no wind.
Note - sorry no video or pics this time - we screwed up. We'll do better next week.....
1st night out for the AlpineZone weeknight race team, and we did great!! The team was led by ringer - I mean coach - Tree_Skier, who finished 11th overall, and Bob R who was 18th overall. Also contributing points were ga2ski and his buddy Scott (who needs an AZ alias), and your humble reporter, ChileMass. And Roark will be pitching in soon, too. Great job by everyone!
An error with Tree_Skier's results and handicap placed your AZ racing team in a contested 4th out of 15 teams, which, as Bob R pointed out, will likely move us down when the results are corrected. But - that ain't bad for our first night out, and the first competitive run for many of our teammates.
The dual giant slalom courses on the lower half of the steep FIS trail were groomed into fine shape to start, and all team members took some time before the race to sideslip along the edges to check out the turns. It was pretty apparent that after only a few skiers some BIG ruts would open up in the middle of the course, and we all got some air, especially in the second run, which was much icier and more difficult. Despite the worsening conditions, almost all of us improved in the second run, and we all had fun. We paired up with Bob R skiing against me (and dusting me badly both runs), Roark and Tree_Skier, and ga2ski vs Scott. ga2ski got us lots of extra points for doing the course using telemark gear. His first run was tremendous, and he gave the crowd a thrill in the his second by just barely hanging on to make it across the finish without crashing.
However, the same cannot be said for team captain Bob R, who had by far the hardest wipeout of the night in his 3rd run (fun run) after the competition had ended. I had just completed my fun run and was watching from the finish line when Bob came screaming down, and looked to be having another terrific run when he caught an edge about 30 yards short of the finish, slowly rolled over onto his left ski, flipped onto his back and disappeared into the woods!! Wow! Two of the guys in the finish line booth ran up to see if he was OK, and after a couple of minutes, Bob emerged with a dinged-up side and shoulder, but fortunately nothing broken. Bob and I may have decided once and for all that it's finally time to buy that helmet we've both been putting off. A scary way to end the night, but after a beer in the lodge, Bob seemed OK.
Pat's is great. The lodge staff are really nice and Pat's racing support staff are outstanding. It took a bit to get everyone started at the top but once they got us going both runs were over in about 50 minutes!! So we had plenty of time for recreational runs, and I got in about 15 more during the night. There were 15 teams of 5-7 racers each, mostly men, but several women as well. The after-race bar scene was lots of fun with the Coors distributor giving away lots of prizes and raffling off ski/beer swag. And for anyone who was thinking about joining the team, but was concerned it might be too intense or competitive, have no fear, and come join us next year. Some of the racers waited until after the 2 runs to start drinking beers, but certainly a number did not, and they were hooting and hollering the whole night. It was pretty funny to see these guys trying to ski down a course half in the bag. I bet Bob R that one guy wouldn't make it 5 gates and he only made it 3 before he wiped out. Great fun!!
Come see us next Monday night and cheer on the team!!!!!!
Individual and Team results are here - http://www.patspeak.com/adult_cor_race_re.htm
Place - Pat's Peak, Henniker NH
Conditions - Man-made and some natural. Pretty good cover considering no new in several days. 30*F with no wind.
Note - sorry no video or pics this time - we screwed up. We'll do better next week.....
1st night out for the AlpineZone weeknight race team, and we did great!! The team was led by ringer - I mean coach - Tree_Skier, who finished 11th overall, and Bob R who was 18th overall. Also contributing points were ga2ski and his buddy Scott (who needs an AZ alias), and your humble reporter, ChileMass. And Roark will be pitching in soon, too. Great job by everyone!
An error with Tree_Skier's results and handicap placed your AZ racing team in a contested 4th out of 15 teams, which, as Bob R pointed out, will likely move us down when the results are corrected. But - that ain't bad for our first night out, and the first competitive run for many of our teammates.
The dual giant slalom courses on the lower half of the steep FIS trail were groomed into fine shape to start, and all team members took some time before the race to sideslip along the edges to check out the turns. It was pretty apparent that after only a few skiers some BIG ruts would open up in the middle of the course, and we all got some air, especially in the second run, which was much icier and more difficult. Despite the worsening conditions, almost all of us improved in the second run, and we all had fun. We paired up with Bob R skiing against me (and dusting me badly both runs), Roark and Tree_Skier, and ga2ski vs Scott. ga2ski got us lots of extra points for doing the course using telemark gear. His first run was tremendous, and he gave the crowd a thrill in the his second by just barely hanging on to make it across the finish without crashing.
However, the same cannot be said for team captain Bob R, who had by far the hardest wipeout of the night in his 3rd run (fun run) after the competition had ended. I had just completed my fun run and was watching from the finish line when Bob came screaming down, and looked to be having another terrific run when he caught an edge about 30 yards short of the finish, slowly rolled over onto his left ski, flipped onto his back and disappeared into the woods!! Wow! Two of the guys in the finish line booth ran up to see if he was OK, and after a couple of minutes, Bob emerged with a dinged-up side and shoulder, but fortunately nothing broken. Bob and I may have decided once and for all that it's finally time to buy that helmet we've both been putting off. A scary way to end the night, but after a beer in the lodge, Bob seemed OK.
Pat's is great. The lodge staff are really nice and Pat's racing support staff are outstanding. It took a bit to get everyone started at the top but once they got us going both runs were over in about 50 minutes!! So we had plenty of time for recreational runs, and I got in about 15 more during the night. There were 15 teams of 5-7 racers each, mostly men, but several women as well. The after-race bar scene was lots of fun with the Coors distributor giving away lots of prizes and raffling off ski/beer swag. And for anyone who was thinking about joining the team, but was concerned it might be too intense or competitive, have no fear, and come join us next year. Some of the racers waited until after the 2 runs to start drinking beers, but certainly a number did not, and they were hooting and hollering the whole night. It was pretty funny to see these guys trying to ski down a course half in the bag. I bet Bob R that one guy wouldn't make it 5 gates and he only made it 3 before he wiped out. Great fun!!
Come see us next Monday night and cheer on the team!!!!!!
Individual and Team results are here - http://www.patspeak.com/adult_cor_race_re.htm
