All seven races are now complete! All that’s left are the awards and some good old GDHL Apres. But don’t forget Ladies Day, Club Champs, Tariffs, Ski Cross World Cup, Slush Cup, Skinanigans, Lodge Demo, and much more!
In This Newsletter:
End Of Season Party
Dual Slalom Recap
Interclub Champs
Adult Racing Update
End Of Year Awards
—-From the desk of Carrie Lenauskas
The big day is here! Well, Saturday! The season is officially over. The results have been tabulated and the big winners…..
will be announced Saturday night at our Year End Awards party!! The committee has been getting daily texts asking for insider information. Our lips are sealed until Saturday night!
Word has it this Saturday will be the LAST big shin dig in the South Lodge (legit… this is it, the last hurrah!) The building officially comes down April 3rd. Get those memories in while you can and help us give the South a proper send off.
There are still a few tickets left.
The important info:
What: GDHL Awards Party
When: Saturday, March 1 - 6:30pm until you can no longer dance or we make you leave around midnight-ish
Awards start at 7pm sharp!
Who: GDHL racers, spouses, families, team owners, friends and fans (so pretty much anyone 19+)
Where: South Lodge
Cost $70 - all in. Leave your wallets at home.
Get ready to dance and sing with 'Friends from Work'
Challenge your rivals in the games area with flip cup, axe throwing, corn hole and more!
Feast on appetizers, a pig roast, late night pizza, Craig's cookies and a candy table!
Stay hydrated with beer, wine, sparkly, cider, ready to drinks, bar rail and non-alcoholic drinks!
Complimentary shuttles/rides home as well!
Register OnLine in the Social Calendar section of the club site/app.
Dual Slalom Recap
-brought to you by Paul Peterson
The 2025 GDHL racing season has come to an end and I think we can all agree it was the best year yet! Record registration, record participation in all races, record amounts of natural snow, record amounts of booze consumed, record amount of money spent at the Calcutta, record amount of jokes about Jeff Sutherland and most importantly; very few, if any, bad injuries! (at least from racing)
As you can imagine with Sunday’s dual slalom being the final race of the season, there was a lot on the line. Precious points were up for grabs and there were still 4 teams who had a realistic chance to win the team title going into the race. Several racers and team owners have reached out asking for the final results but we’ve hired Deloitte to do the final accounting and they will be keeping the final results a secret from us all until the banquet this Saturday evening.
The math is much simpler on the individual side. Mike Welton knew that as long as Griffin Copp didn’t come first place in the race, the season title would be his as he already had 2 wins and 2 second place efforts on the season. With the weight of the world and a 2 day hangover weighing him down, big balls Benny Williams delivered. His first place run will go down as one of the greatest clutch performances in GDHL history second only to Al Lachances performance in the 1968 GDHL super G.
The young Griffin Copp put up a valiant effort and with half the single ladies in Collingwood watching on, he was able to lay down the 2nd fastest time. The announcer in the booth had a few oaky Chardonnays with lunch and mistakingly announced Griffin Copp as the winner after the race. When he was questioned about the mistake he blamed the 1997 race software being used and was thankful most of the 3000 fans in attendance didn’t hear as they had already walked down the hill for the free drinks in the lodge.
Magic Mike Welton was 3rd place followed in 4th place by Gorgeous Gordie Bruce. Race officials are still trying to figure out if Gordie skied out of the red course on purpose, realizing the 1 second penalty would actually be beneficial over recording a slow time on the red course. Jeff Courtemanche was still analyzing the race footage as this newsletter was going to press and $10 fines may be applied to any racer who followed the same brilliant (but unsportsmanlike) strategy!
On the ladies side, Meg Ryley (who loves being called Meg Peterson) was first for the ladies, extending her win streak way back to the days when you could get a glass of wine for under $10 at the club… 2nd place was Lindsay Brazill who offered me $100 if I could guarantee that Griffin Copp was aware of her great finish. We’ll see if that 2nd place finish leads to 2nd base.. if you know what I mean….
Rounding out the ladies podium in 3rd place was Glorious Georgia Levitt, who is Megs first cousin and seems to have found her great form after a very rusty first race where she lost to pretty much the entire field, myself included..
Honourable mentions:
There are 4 guarantees in life; death, taxes, the automatic flush not working in the depot bathrooms and Jake the snake Sheehan skiing well.. The guy is automatic.
Alex “face” Addison did a 360 mctwist in the red course but was unscathed and rebounded nicely on the blue course to earn some solid points for his team.
Trevor Currie, Afterburner Vern Gomes, and Connor “Crazy Canuck” Clarke all had great times and earned some nice points for their teams.
Perhaps the most exciting moment of the race was when the two Dicks went head to head in a dual for the ages as Richard Lavery took down Richard Reeves. Sheila Williams was overheard in the crowd mentioning how she liked the tall, thin Dick over the shorter, wider Dick which was an unusual way to describe which skier she preferred but I’m sure the two Dicks will appreciate the feedback.
The Craigleith Interclub Team won the Interclub playoff championship for the 13th year in a row this past weekend. For those wondering, the GDHL is like the Hooters tour compared to the Interclub which is the PGA tour so it should be a goal of all GDHL racers to one day get the call to perform on the big stage under the bright lights of the Interclub circuit. In some cases, you may simply be the right age, the right sex or even having a large bulge that is showcased in a downhill suit can be enough to get the call so don’t ever ignore an incoming phone call from coach TSB.
Less than honourable mentions:
CTV Barrie has been breaking a story about GDHL sex suspensions which is quite scandalous. Steve Cryer for example skied poorly, finished outside of the top 75 in the Super G race and was swiftly handed a 4 week Sex Suspension by his wife. When questioned by a reporter, Jess Cryer was quoted “I married Steve because he grew skiing up in Whistler, finishing next to guys like Riley Keast in the sh*t group is unacceptable.” Wow, if the pressure in this league wasn’t high enough already, now we’ve got sex suspensions to worry about next season.
After an incredible performance in the Interclub race on Saturday no one can blame Carrie Lenauskas for having an off day in the GDHL dual slalom. Even Connor Mcdavid went -3 with no points in his first game back with the Oilers after the big win at the 4 nations cup.
Mario Skopek, normally known as one of the more consistent up and coming racers, had a few bad turns and came to a near stop in the middle of his first run on the red course. In fact, the coyotes immediately inspected the course in case a bag of sand had accidentally been dropped between the red gates causing such a drastic slow down from Mario. Nothing was found and the Coyotes declared it was simply “sh*t skiing” by Mario... Hopefully Magda doesn’t read these newsletters and finds out about these trendy new suspensions going around.
The course setter... It must have been Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder setting the course on Sunday as the red and blue courses were not quite as “similar” as race organizers were hoping for. That being said, the race crew has done an awesome job all year and you can’t be perfect every race!
Other random news and notes:
-The nickname “Iceman” for Duff Isberg has unfortunately not picked up any momentum at all. The committee has decided we will go back to calling him his original nickname “Disease Free Duff”
In race #6, Cheryl Marvelous Mcconachie skied incredibly well, easily taking home Top Female in the slalom but somehow was not mentioned at all in the subsequent GDHL newsletter. The editors would like to apologize to Cheryl and her family and friends for this accidental omission and Cheryl will be given a free ski locker in the old South lodge for next season to make up for the error.
Members of the Julie Statler fan club will be happy to know she has officially committed to joining the GDHL in 2026. Her agent Rockin Ronny Statler mentioned the contract negotiations with the GDHL were difficult but ultimately the GDHL’s offer of $5 off registration, a summer job with Peasemarsh catering plus one autographed photo of all 3 Bruce brothers shirtless together was enough to close the deal.
Final thoughts:
Every club has that one person who does a million things behind the scenes, constantly putting the enjoyment of others before their own needs and spending an outrageous amount of time and energy without expecting anything or any recognition in return. The kind of person who just makes everything better. That person here at Craigleith is Carrie Lenauskas and she does so much more than just help out with the GDHL. When you see Carrie, you don’t need to thank her because she wouldn’t like that and that’s not why she does it but we should all be extremely grateful to have her as quite frankly, we’d be completely screwed without her.
If the rumours swirling around the Alphorn bar are true, this will be our fearless leader Brook Dysons final year as president of the GDHL as he’s stepping down to pursue his speedo modeling career full time. Brook has been a big factor in growing the GDHL to where it is today and we’ve all benefited from the time and effort Brook has put in. Thanks to Brook and we’ll have a toast at the banquet in his honour.
Thanks to you all for a great season!
Interclub Finals Drama!
—-Courtesy of James Mathers
As most adult racers at Craigleith know, our team led by Taylor Simms-Brown (sometimes from the sidelines) had won the masters interclub finals 12 consecutive times, following a streak of over 20 years of frustration and disappointment. The 2024 victory was the closest yet, as our team prevailed over Alpine by 433 to 427 points. As Alpine separately won the right to host the 2025 finals at their club, rather than ours, and as they again won the regular season title in 2025, it was apparent that winning this year's finals would be a big challenge for the band from Big John. The situation wasn't improved by a wonky back suffered by one prospective racer earlier in the week and questionable hydration choices made by another at Men's Day.
The details of interclub scoring and strategy are too intricate for this message. You can read more at https://interclubski.org/ and at https://gdhl.org/interclub. Suffice it to say that having the fastest overall racer is usually less valuable to a team than having racers who win or place high in a large age group. For example, Carrie Lenauskas crossed the finish line on her first run in first place overall at the time, just ahead of Jeff Sutherland and Allan LaChance, but as Carrie had just one competitor in her age group, she scored only 22 points, while Jeff defeated a field of 20 to score 31 points and Al won his age group to score 25.
Other age group winners from Craigleith included Kate Veer, Greg Cavers (28 points), Meg Ryley (also fastest woman overall), Mike Welton and Griffin Copp. Meanwhile, Alpine was racking up points in other categories. Even PTSR would have been hard pressed to determine which club was ahead. Ultimately, the computer told us that Craigleith snatched a 13th consecutive victory by 434 to 432 over Alpine. The other four teams followed in the distance.
With a field of 129 racers from six teams entered in over 20 age groups, there were many opportunities for point swings, but the best story involves Milan Popadich, in his first interclub race for decades, being one of the few racers to improve their times in their second runs on a badly rutted course. (Alpine is Coyote-free.) Milan shaved 0.33 seconds off his first run time to overtake an Alpine racer in his age group by 0.09 seconds and create a two point swing.
Other members of the Craigleith finals team included Anne Mathers, Daina Dunlop, James Mathers, Chris Fregren, Jeff Craig, D. Rob Bruce, Ian Latimer, Rob Burnes, Ron Statler, Paul McCool, Richard Usher-Jones, Kevin Gust, Rowan Darlison, Tom Murdison, Mike Bascom and Gordon Bruce. Those aspiring to glory next year can contact Taylor Simms-Brown, Carrie Lenauskas or James Mathers. PTSR and his self-denigrating band of aspirants would be welcome on days when conflicts with GDHL races or a drive to Caledon make for a light turnout, and fast women seem often to be in short supply. As you can see, a more complex strategy is required to select the finals team. On to Club championships!
James Mathers
Message from Glenn Blaylock, Head Coach, Adult Race Programs
There’s no training this Friday. Ladies Day Rules!
Coach’s Tip: Mental Imagery
Mental imagery is a powerful technique used by athletes to enhance their performance, especially during the off-season. Learn how you can use mental imagery to refine and improve your skiing and racing ability.
Here’s the link: https://alpineracemethod.com/mental-imagery
Ski with Purpose
Glenn