Saturday at Sunday River-the Mahoosuc Cup Slalom
on March 8, 2003,
My friend, Jim Ragan, from Missoula, Montana, compared it to Sun Valley. That's the way it seemed on Saturday morning on the Monday Mourning trail. The packed and powdery surface and the warm, full sun was perhaps even more delicious than on Baldy Mountain at the Nationals at Sun Valley in 2001. This was a day that we laughed and smiled and enjoyed free skiing. There was a view of Mt. Washington, and possibly Tuckerman's, from the top. They should call it Sundae River. Trails like Lazy River (try to hum a few bars), Risky (not risque, please) Business, and American Express (there's a credit card named after it) were so much fun that I was too late for the weekly drawing of my name in the raffle.
When we were on break from free skiing, we held the slalom. The first course took us through a hairpin at the road, a delay, a flush, a hairpin, another hairpin and a slight bump (merely a trifle for us). The second course increased the number of gates from 48 to 55, and we had two hairpins before the road, and, after it, a flush, a delay, another flush and a hairpin.
Bill Zimmerman was the fastest skier of the day, no doubt the result of coaching and training with an imperturbable group of Masters in the Bromley Outing Club. Bill was in fifth place in the first run and moved ahead of the first four with his second run. Sean Florian had the best first run and was the second fastest skier of the day. Sean is from Connecticut and was comfortably ahead of the next fastest competitor from that State. George Caner had a wonderful second run, as did Dee Larsen. Al Sevigny was behind Paul Rich in the first run, but overcame the difference on the second course.
Jane Cooke won Class 10; in Class 7, Stefi Hastings was ahead of Dee Larsen by a quarter of a second; Meg Nutter was first in Class 6, and Gay Foland second; Stacey Weston was the winner of Class 5; Class 4 was Lisa Densmore, Brooks Axelson and Kim Wolff in that order; Carolyn Beckedorff won Class 3, and Richlene Tanner and Beth Florian were next-good to have you participating, Beth. The top three women overall were Carolyn Beckedorff, Lisa Densmore and Brooks Axelson.
For the men, Dick Wood won Class 12; in Class 11, Duffy Dodge was the winner, and George Caner was number two; Class 10, in order, went Al Sevigny, Paul Rich and John Kielty; Class 9, a somewhat intriguing group of latter day ski bums, was won by David Britton, with Doug Wisse second, and Bill Hayes, racing with us for the first time this year, third; Class 8, our younger old boys, went Bob McKee, Klaus Haas and Bill Crabtree; for Class 7, a group of very presentable skiers, we had Dwight Conant, Jim Larsen and Tom Maynes; in Class 6, an especially congenial group of individuals who nevertheless go head to head with each other, the fastest times were posted by Steve Laverty, Jim Ragan and Joe Berry; Class 5, in essence a gentlemanly group, was won by Bill Zimmerman, with Mark George and Paul Berton in second and third; in Class 4, in which talent is notable, the first three were David Roberts, Tip Kimball and Vaughn Harring; in Class 3, which evidences a highly competitive bent, the winner was Sean Florian, who was ahead of David Wolff by 0.04 seconds for both runs combined, with Eric Tanner third; Matt Aeschliman won Class 2, a fairly hard core assemblage, by skiing 0.81 seconds faster than Chris Leuci, who, in turn, was ahead of Anthony Digangi; Alexander Zavorksi was the winner of Class 1. The best five men overall were Bill Zimmerman, Sean Florian, David Wolff, Matt Aeschliman and David Roberts.
To put everything in perspective, the free Shipyard beer tasted very good.
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