Sunday at Sunday River--the Mahoosuc Cup Giant
Slalom on March 9, 2003
When I left the motel, it was out and out raining. In the Barker base lodge, we had to look at rain parkas being worn and hear that some skis were still in cars. Then, it turned to snow. Then, things cleared up, and everything was right with our world again.
Getting to the courses, which started high up on the Monday Mourning trail, included going through the woods over whoop-de-doos like those on the high traverses at Alta. There was a little hold before the first run until the Patrol closed access to the trail because recreational skiers were coming by in a more or less constant stream. The first course had a delay to the right shortly after the start, then, shortly past the junction, a blind red delay gate after a blue on skier's right. During inspection, I made a mental notation that things could get out of hand in a hurry if I didn't remember what to do there. After the road at the bottom of the steep, there were double delays in succession which added a nice symmetry to our under gate experience. In the second course, there was the same delay on the right early on, but this time the delay after the junction was on skier's left and the under gate was visible in the approach. There was another delay just before the road, then the turn to the left across the road with the next gate a little further down the pitch than in the first course. Further on, there was a blue delay gate that formed a corridor across the hill to the right. When we were inspecting, the outside poles for this gate were positioned so as to make skiing through it seem to us to be impossible. However, Lisa Densmore took the matter in hand, and, after a moment's consideration, plucked the offending outside poles from the snow, from whence everything came to be in order when we skied. The third from the last blue gate on skier's left and the following red to the right provided interesting viewing from outside the finish area. There was a tendency to come through the blue and be somewhat low and then have to crank to get through the red. We would see a skier just barely make it, then a skier do it essentially right, another make it with a stretch, and so on.
The Super Seed after men's Class 6 is exciting to watch, and must be quite exciting to be in. Starting with the 10th fastest time in the first run and working up to the fastest, it sometimes happens that a racer posts the best yet combined time of the day to much cheering, then the next racer posts an even better combined time to more cheering. Charles Randall started 1st in the Super Seed and was 14th overall. Bill Zimmerman started 2nd in the Super Seed and took 11th in the combined times. Eric Tanner and Sean Florian started 3rd and 4th and, overall, were 7th and 8th . David Wolff and Scott Berube started 5th and 6th, respectively, and each posted a better combined time than all those up to that point. Tip Kimball and Jason Myler started 7th and 8th, and exchanged places overall. Matt Aeschliman started 9th and posted the best time so far. Dan Harragan skied 10th and had the best second run too, making him the best of the day. I think that honorable mention should go to Bill Brown, Tom Mann, Dwight Conant and Mark George for coming within a fraction of a second of making the Super Seed.
Among the women, the top ten were Carolyn Beckedorff, Lisa Densmore, Stacey Weston, Lisa Zimmerman, Michol Waddle, Caroline Elander, Patti Lane, Meg Nutter, Gay Foland and Kim Wolff.
Let's take a take a quick visit to our classes: For the women-Class 1- Michol Waddle was first, then Elizabeth Shorts; Class 3 - Carolyn, then Caroline, Beckedorff then Elander, that is, followed up by Richlene Tanner; 4 - the Lisas, Densmore then Zimmerman, with Patti Lane third; 5 - Stacey Weston, with Betty Hanaway second; 6 - Meg Nutter by 0.11 ahead of Gay Foland; 7- Stefi Hastings, first, and Dee Larsen, second. For the men in order of finish-Class 1- Dan Harragan, Jason Myler and Alexander Zavorski; Class 2 - Matt Aeschliman, Chris Leuci and Toby Fedder; Class 3 - Scott Berube, David Wolff and Eric Tanner; 4 - Tip Kimball, David Strang and Mark Saydah; 5 - Tom Mann, Bill Zimmerman and Mark George; 6 - Bill Brown, Walter Elander and Jim Ragan; 7 - Dwight Conant, Jim Doig and Tom Maynes; 8 - Bob Wigglesworth, Klaus Haas and Ted Bidwell; 9 - David Britton, Doug Wisse and yours truly; 10 - Al Sevigny, Paul Rich and John Kielty; 11 - George Caner; 12 - Dick Wood.
The awards were nice Shipyard beer mugs for our use day in day out, but the thing more occupying racer's minds and the across-the-boot-bag conversation was anticipation of the raffle of the new Atomic skis. There were three additional prizes, so four names were drawn-Dee Larsen, Greg Gill, Paul Rich and Russ Probert. There was a drawing from the four. Greg Gill's name was drawn first, but before he could be eligible to make his selection, he was required to successfully answer a quiz question about a 19th century Manhattan landmark. He gave the correct answer. He selected the Atomic skis. The other names were drawn one after another-Dee opted for the Denby pottery; Paul took the enormous back-pack; Russ went away with the Florian pole pruner. On this happy note, we departed in good spirits ready to return to the slopes, the gates and the New England weather on another day.
For both the slalom and the giant slalom, we appreciate: Sunday River for hosting us; Shipyard Brewing Company for providing their beer; the bib and ticket dispensers; the course setters, starters, gate keepers, announcer and time recorder; the TD, Chiefs and Referees; our sponsors, Atomic Skis, Denby Pottery, Artech, Buchika's Ski & Bike Shop, Florian Tools, and Swix wax; our Executive Director, Gary Colwell; and Mahoosuc for the cup.
All the best!
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