All,
The second holiday camp is well underway, and the 9 week program begins this weekend. Here's the latest news!
9 Week Program
Our first session begins at 930 am on Saturday. We will be training GS. Meet at the National chairlift. If you're late, check the board there for a sign about our training location. With the first GDHL race scheduled for Sunday morning, our Sunday session (also GS) will begin at 1pm. I am attaching the current version of our training schedule for the 9 week program. It has been updated to reflect the changes in the GDHL schedule announced this morning, but remains subject to change. Note that there will be only one adult apres-ski reception this year, on 4 February, but it will be in a new format and will be held in the Base Lodge.
Christmas Camp
Despite the challenges of weather and limited terrain, we had an excellent five-day camp. Congratulations to James McLeod as the unofficial winner of our first timed event of the season. James was clearly the fastest person down our improvised starting ramp in our practice start sessions. He was several tenths of a second faster than many participants in a "race" lasting about 2.5 seconds. This demonstrates how much time can be gained with a good start, followed by carrying speed through the flat sections at the beginning of many of our race courses.
Friday Training
Friday race training for adults will be offered this year with the rotation of top-level coaches. I will let you know as soon as I have information about the first session.
Timing
As previously announced, Jeff Dawson has acquired a supply of Chronosplit watches. Our goal is to have timing in place for every training session. The watches can be rented on a daily basis or purchased from Laurel Armstrong in the snow school administration office. To use the watches, in short, you need to press the "mode" button in the center of the watch, then press the split/lap button at the top left until the screen displays "auto split". If you use the same process to reach the "auto split rec" screen, you can use the top right button to scroll through all of your times.
Greg Lee / Track 3 Event
You will likely have received announcements concerning this event. Now that we are in the new year, it is suddenly only two weeks away (Friday, 20 January).
World Cup
I haven't seen all of the World Cup races, and in particular have not seen much of Martine Schild, who has been cleaning up in women's slalom. The best run I have seen all year is Lindsey Vonn winning the first downhill at Lake Louise by nearly 2 seconds. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/skiing/video/#id=2173065001 I don't remember ever seeing a skier who was so obviously going much faster than the competition. It reminded me of Secretariat winning the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths in 1973. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u16T05o7JA
Also, check out this interesting footage of Ted Ligety skiing slalom, taken from a camera mounted on a pack above and behind his head. There are some other interesting clips in the sidebar at this site. http://vimeo.com/32024550
Fashion News
Our new coach, Carrie Grinter, comes with first-class racing and coaching credentials. However, her Christmas Camp fashions were an unexpected bonus. Highlights included the white jacket with fur trimmed hood combined with turquoise pants and the next day's white pants topped with a jacket in a color designated as "pout," which I would describe as somewhere between raspberry and fuchsia. Allan and I are sticking with uniform red and black, but Carrie says if needed she can find a different outfit for every class this year! In any event, welcome Carrie!
See you on the weekend,
JWM