Ski Cross weekend is complete - one more to go…

Canada's Mikael Kingsbury celebrates his gold medal in the men's freestyle skiing dual moguls at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

In This Newsletter:

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Race #8 - Dual Slalom - presented by Erinwood Ford
Ski Cross Recap
End Of Season Awards Party
Adult Racing Update

Dual Slalom - presented by Erinwood Ford

Little John
Start Time: 1:30pm
Inspection: 12:15pm - 1:00pm
Please use the National Chair if possible, as there may be a high volume of children on Little John due to scheduling conflicts

The format for this year’s dual will mirror the 2025 version. Some notes:

Wear your GDHL bib.
You will start against the racer with the closest bib to you at the top of the course. (#1 vs #2, #3 vs #4, etc.) If we are missing numbers, you will be assigned by a GDHL Committee Member or Coyote to the next closest racer.
We will be using our dual slalom start gates, purchased with the assistance of the GDHL in 2022 (Same gates you used last weekend for the Ski Cross).
Each racer will have a run in the Blue and the Red course, against the same opponent.
Combined time determines your finish placing for the standings
If you do not finish one of the runs, your total time will be your other run’s time with a penalty applied (five seconds).
If you do not finish both runs, you will be scored a DNF
Due to time constraints, we will not have time for more than two runs. This is not a bracket-elimination format, it is a combined time race.
No need for full slalom gear, though some may prefer the added protection

ROOKIES: Check out this video.

Canada' Megan Oldham celebrates her gold medal win in the women's freeski big air final at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Livigno, Italy on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Ski Cross Recap

-Brought to you by Paul P.

Race #7 is in the books and the pressure is mounting as we enter the home stretch of the 2026 GDHL season.

I don’t know about you guys but I always get a weird feeling in my stomach right before I’m about to leave the start gate in a race. I can never tell if it’s just butterflies from the nerves, or maybe it’s a bad mix of Alphorn fondue and too many free Lost Craft Pints from the night before. Either way, there is always a feeling of “why the hell am I doing this?” right before the race starts. I can only imagine the butterflies were at an all time high staring down that Ski Cross course on Saturday afternoon. Many racers chose to “take a hard pass” as it was our most poorly attended race of the season, rewarding the brave souls who finished the course with big points for their respective teams.

Knowing I would be stuck writing this newsletter I was really hoping the ski cross course would surprise us all and put some new faces on the podium.. Maybe one of the Bruce brothers not named Gorgeous Gordie or a Gust or Athey would sneak onto the 3rd step or can you imagine if Eddie the Eagle Barnicke shocked the world and give this writer something to write about?!

In the end it was the same 3 GDHL legends who took home the glory. Magic Mike Welton in 1st place, Benny Big Balls Williams in 2nd and Gorgeous Gordie Bruce finished once again in 3rd place.

The ladies category was much more exciting and the TV ratings really spiked during the ladies portion of the race.

On the top step of the podium was the one and only Lindsay Brazill. It is worth noting for those keeping track that Lindsay is extremely unavailable and has been in a very happy, loving relationship for quite awhile now! My apologies again for the fake news I was spreading on this topic last year! Congrats on the main squeeze and congrats on 1st place for Lindsay.

In 2nd place was GDHL committee member Ciara “red rocket” Gaffney who is looking like the racer to watch going into next season.

Taking home the bronze medal was Laura “the pistol” Peever who snuck in one spot ahead of Mac “money maker” Irwin.

NOT SO HONOURABLE MENTION:

Cheryl Mconachie finished well outside of her usual placing and mentioned to reporters after the race she is too busy being in love with her snowboarder boyfriend and can’t seem to focus on race day.

Jenn Price unfortunately mixed up her husband Jon’s ball wax with her race wax and the tuning mistake cost her dearly as she was slower than molasses in January (I never understood that saying).

Rowan “dynamite” Darlison finished just slightly ahead of Brayden Irwin which is the sure sign of a bad run, she also hurt herself during the run and may not be available to give out “courage shots” of fireball at the top of the next race.

LOVEBIRDS:

Brent “**** ****” Addison and Reid "the marvellous” Mcgregor both finished inside the top 12. There are many racers in the GDHL whose main squeezes are pretty weak skiers but these two are really setting the bar for the difference in ski ability from one spouse to the other.

VALENTINES DAY:

You’d be surprised how often the GDHL committee gets emails asking about the relationship status of certain GDHL racers. Britt Stainer has been requesting that we have special arm bands for all single and disease free racers so everyone is aware of the status of all members. We’ll see if the GDHL committee implements this unusual change for next season.

NON GDHL shoutouts:

Mary Beth Schwalm won the ladies club championship in ski cross which was very exciting. MB looked lightning fast and the pressure for her to join GDHL next year will be immense.

It was nice to see GDHL alumni Taylor Simms Brown back in action and looking nice and fast, just like his fresh haircut.

Bebe Zoricic looked outstanding as usual. The Craigleith legend mentioned he was wearing long johns he last wore while racing in the former Yugoslavia in 1977.

DREAMY MIKE UPDATE:
I hadn’t planned on mentioning Mike in this update but Dreamy had an outstanding run, at least for his standards. He was able to sneak out of the basement and beat one GDHL racer plus one other participant for the first time ever. It should be noted the combined age for the 2 racers Mike beat was 153 but congrats to Mike nonetheless. I should also mention that if the “single and disease free” armbands were actually a thing, Mike would not be wearing one, sorry ladies, he is happily married.

Ski Cross Photos:

FREE DIGITAL DOWNLOADS

Goto: www.CLLiK.com "Events" for Sat Feb 14th & Sun Feb 15th, 2026

OR...

Here's your direct Links to the galleries:

Craigleith - Sat Feb 14th, 2026 (Junior(U10-U19) Snowboard Cross, Adult(U19+) Snowboard & Ski Cross)

Craigleith - Sun Feb 15th, 2026 (Junior(U10 - U19) Ski Cross)

All photos are sorted by Age & Category at the top of each gallery.

End Of Year Awards

The GDHL end-of-season party is Sat Mar 7th at 6:30pm.

Tickets will go on sale this Friday on the Craigleith events calendar.

Last year was such a success that we've decided to forgo the formal sit down dinner once again. Think mingling with booze, food, awards and live music.

And if you're skeptical keep in mind that Ian Latimer said last year was "the best party at Craigleith... EVER."

Adult Racing Update

-a note from Rick G.

Hello GDHL'ers

Hopefully everyone is looking forward to some great training and dual SL racing this weekend. Our panel SL training game plan for all 3 days is scheduled to be on Buttonhole skiers right. Please be sure to meet your coaches at the top of the training course promptly at session start for a side slip inspection.

We continue to appreciate the terrific support for side slipping during and following our sessions to keep the terrain safe for our training as well as those following us. We also appreciate that when the start gate has been X'd out signifying course maintenance is underway that no one is taking training runs

Friday February 20th : Panel SL
Hill: Buttonhole skiers right
Time: 9:30-11:30 $ 12:30-2:30
Coaches: Eugene & Jeremy