Distressingly, the clock is already winding down on our racing schedule. This weekend sees our second last GDHL race, but it's a busy long weekend.

Schedule

Friday offers two options. Regular Friday training will be GS on Millennium at 9:30 and 1:00. Alternately, the Track 3 Ski Day offers GS training in the morning and a two run race in the afternoon, along with many opportunities for sluicing, browsing and socializing. Tickets available here (last week's link was out of date).
Adult gate training will be GS at 9:30 on each of Saturday and Sunday on Birches
Fast & Female and Adult Tech will be on Buttonhole Saturday and Sunday at 9:30
GDHL is GS on Big John at 1:00 on Sunday, with inspection at 12:15.
Special makeup day for Adult gate training is SL on Millennium, Monday at 9:30 and 1:00

It's looking like a warm weekend, so please co-operate with slipping the course, both during and after training.

Results

Sunday's sticky surface made the long slalom live up to its name, as only nine racers broke 60 seconds, compared to 41 last year. (Not quite up to the Partridge slalom though, which would see 15 times over 90 seconds.) It was shortest, by a long way, for Alec Libert, who won the first run by over three seconds, then was one of the few who improved on his first run, while his closest rivals didn't start. Phil Ruffolo, Keith Farnand, Andrew Athey and Scott McLorie had the rest of the top five spots. Like Keith, Max Rosenfeld is a tween-aged returnee to racing. His 11th place on Sunday from his 23rd ranking was his best result of his inaugural GDHL season and he was followed by J-F Courville, who continued his strong slalom results. Other big gainers towards the top of the table were Ross Kappele, Rob Burnes, Alistair Athey and Jamie Coulter, who took full advantage of bib 10 to finish a career best 22nd from 60th ranking. Rya Prozes recorded her first GDHL victory in the women's standings, finishing 26th overall, followed by Sarah Latimer (beating Ian on best of but not combined) and Ali Banfield. Other strong improvements on rankings were posted by Mark Shillum, Steve Jarvis, Ron Statler, Alec Innes, Mark Reidl, Paul McCool, Mary Riopelle, Steve Gailits and Brian Holland. Full results at gdhl.org.

Diversions

Some video from the FIS site with highlights of the men's World Championship downhill, in which Erik Guay won his second medal of the week.

In the same stream of videos is an interview in a gym between Mike Janyk and Mitch Gagnon, in which the latter displays the leg muscles one needs to succeed at the world level.

Other Things For Your Consideration

The link for Lou Montana's Super G album didn't load properly in last week's newsletter. Here's the proper one. If you haven't noticed, all newsletters are available on gdhl.org, and the link was fixed there in fairly short order last week.
If you have friends contemplating joining GDHL next year, encourage them to race in this year's Club Championships, on 4 March. It will give them a taste of what we do every week, and give the rankings committee some reliable data. GDHL racers and those in adult race training programs are automatically registered for the Club Champs. Others should look for a sign up sheet in the vicinity of the race office.
A couple of lost and found reports have reached me. If you're in a medium size of the original black Karbon GDHL jacket (with Canada on the back) as of the end of the Super G and should be in a large with a hood, see Al LaChance. If you have a pair of 125 cm Leki poles with aero shafts and slalom guards and should have a pair of 130 cm poles with round shafts after Sunday's race, see Ian Latimer. With a view to reducing the incidence of these events, your committee is arranging a year end distribution of stickers for your equipment. We expect to have them for the closing social event on 4 March. Sample below.

*Ten for every GDHL racer (with your own name)*

Sponsors

I'm happy to profile two more of our sponsors.

Budget Propane offers residential, cottage and commercial propane service throughout central Ontario, with numerous delivery and payment options to suit your needs. Budget Propane is a leading supplier of propane fuel across Central Ontario, including Huntsville, Parry Sound, Orillia, Bala, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, Muskoka, Midland, Barrie, Alliston, Collingwood, Orangeville, Uxbridge and all the communities in between. Budget Propane is owned and operated by the Callow family, who are huge supporters and participants in Craigleith racing programs at many levels.

Pratte International is owned by Michel Pratte. Michel is a former member and coach of the Canadian national ski team and for over 20 years has been offering off-season and pre-season camps for adult and junior racers, as well as ski improvement, now held in Whistler, Zermatt, Colorado, Sun Peaks and Mt. Tremblant. At the camps, Michel works frequently with Matt Kerr, also a former national team coach and a video guru, and has worked with Jacques Reid of the Craigleith coaching staff. The camps are notable for great locations and course-setting, insightful coaching and video analysis and a great off-snow atmosphere. GDHL competitors have been attending Michel's camps for several years and sought out Michel's sponsorship so that others may be more aware of the opportunities that they offer.

Michel has offered the GDHL discounts on places at his Zermatt, Sun Peaks and Tremblant camps that are auctioned at the annual Calcutta and the net proceeds go to the GDHL.

And don't forget to contact Sonya Lee Reimer to redeem the coupon for a free half hour massage that attentive attendees of the Calcutta will have obtained. You can reach her via sonya@livinginbalance.ca to book an appointment.

Enough for now. See you on snow!

James Mathers