Who Survived the Long Slalom?

Family Day has come and gone, and we are through most of our race season. Individual and team results are adding up, giving a clearer picture as to who may be winning money at the end of year banquet on March 7th. Last weekend we saw some incredibly brave performances as racers took on the challenge of finishing a monster slalom! Originating in the Millennium start gate, following the hill slope to the top of Venture, down the entire length of Venture, and finally finishing beside the V Hill quad chair. It was a quad-burner that made a few athletes re-consider their off-season fitness regimes.

Keep reading for a complete review of this past weekend’s race, and a primer for the balance of season (only 3 more weekends). There is also reminder of our GDHL end of year banquet, (on March 7th), a reader’s submission from Bob Callow (Mr. Yellow Bib), and a call for racers at the 2020 SUPER G at Georgian Peaks.

SATURDAY’S RACE

The super-long slalom has always presented a unique challenge for those who spend most of their skiing time on the escarpment: leg-burning, lung taxing, foot cramping, endurance. A normal GDHL slalom course on Comet is about 45 gates, this past Saturday, the course was more than 65 gates. Twenty extra turns may not look like a lot during inspection, but at the bottom of the course, with rolling bumps between gates, there were many of us with legs on fire!

There were of course, those who were not fazed by the length of the course, Mike Welton was one of them. Mike claimed the first victory of his GDHL Career with the fastest run of the day at 45.32 seconds. Ben Williams (45.98) and Joel Charron (46.33) finished their day in 2nd and 3rd, both making their fourth appearances on the podium this season.

Cheryl McConachie didn’t blink during her wicked fast first run, taking top spot among the ladies with a 47.95 time. This was Cheryl’s second appearance on the podium this season, and her first win. Brianna Machej (52.93) and Mack Irwin (53.29) took home second and third for the ladies, while also bolstering their season ranks. For those counting, this was Brianna’s fourth podium appearance and Mack’s fifth.

All results are available on the website under the results – database link. Click through to take a peek at your rank and how your team is performing!

 In the coming weeks, there will be detailed analysis of individual ranks and team standings to build suspense before our season finale with the Club Championships on March 7th.

This Weekend:

There are no GDHL races this weekend.

The Interclub Finals being held at Craigleith! If you find yourself looking for some fun on Saturday afternoon, head over to Big John to cheer on your fellow Craigleith racers!

SKIING - THE PERFECT FAMILY DAY ACTIVITY

Few activities can span generations the way skiing can. It is always a special moment when a grandparent has a chance to ski with their grandchild, and even more impressive when they all race on the same course together!

At the start of the second race of the season, Bob Callow (Mr. Yellow Bib) brought his two Grandsons, Dylan Gust and Zack Enticknap to the start gate and gave them a chance to forerun the race. The official times of both the younger forerunners is not available, but surely it was a tight race between Bob and his two grandsons! Following Bob down the track was his daughter, Sam Callow, completing a three-generations race.

Thank you to Bob for sharing his joy of racing with his family and with us!

Bob Callow in his Yellow Bib, with Grandsons Dylan Gust and Zack Enticknap

END OF YEAR BANQUET

As always, our end of year banquet will be a blast! Get your tickets for the event ASAP! Details are:

Date:  March 7th @ 7:00 p.m.

Cost: $35+hst /per person - $25+hst/ per intermediate member

Coaches & Coyotes are welcome....

Ticket purchase deadline: February 29th

Included in the ticket price is ample wine, (though you may choose to bring your own and pay $10 corkage), delicious food, free drinks from our Craft Alcohol sponsors, and a beautiful Craigleith Masters Racing technical T Shirt.

Fantasy Standings:

Fantasy Results are here. It will be a close and intense finish to the season, as Trevor Jackson’s team has taken top spot. Expect a full recap on fantasy standings in the next two newsletters.

An Advertisement for Super G at Georgian Peaks on March 13th:

Adult & Masters Racers

Georgian Peaks has hosted the only Super G race in Ontario for fun loving adult racers for the past 15 years. Unfortunately attendance has been in decline and the race is not economically viable without a full field of at least 100 racers. The ROC has determined that unless there are a minimum of 100 entries by registration deadline of February 29, the race will be cancelled.

Those who have experienced this race understand that it is an exhilarating ride down Minute Mile on a track that is set to accommodate a wide variety of adult racing abilities. Safety, combined with fun, is the objective. We need more participation.

The race this year is Friday, March 13. Teams are encouraged but single entries are allowed and teams will be created where possible. To ensure the continuation of this great racing event please take a moment to go to the Peaks website www.gerogianpeaks.com to register or email alpine@georgianpeaks.com with your individual or team info.

Thank you and see you at the 2020 Super GP Classic!

See you on the slops!

-Doug Jarvis

Extra Long Slalom and an Extra Long weekend coming up! And Extra Long Newsletter!

What a special occasion we all enjoyed last weekend! Having the majority of the women’s Canadian Alpine Ski Team racing down Big John in the afternoon, and Little John in the evening was something we can all burn into our memory banks and chat about at Après skis for years to come. For those who braved the cold, watching the dual slalom, there wasn’t much time for recovery before our OWN GDHL dual slalom down the exact same hill, started late Sunday afternoon, and ended even later.

The action won’t stop for us though, as we enter the Family Day Long Weekend with another marquee race on the docket, the “Extra Long Slalom”. This will be our last race before club championships on March 7th. Which, is also when we have our GDHL Banquet… have you bought your tickets?

There is lots in this newsletter. Everything above is covered in detail, as well as a GDHL Fantasy recap and a Standings update.

Race winner, Erin Mielzynski cresting the pitch on Saturday afternoon

Weekend Schedule:

This weekend’s Slalom Race is on Saturday, February 15th. Not on Sunday, which was previously reported. We appreciate your patience with our schedule, as we know it has been fluid this season

NORAMs

Hosting the NORAMs is always special! The last time we hosted the women’s NORAM circuit at Craigleith was 2008, and before that 2005, so it has been a while. The Club was bursting with activity, and excitement throughout the day and evening despite the -16 temperature. Many of the women’s CAST have since taken to social media to share their thanks to Georgian Peaks, Osler Bluff, and Craigleith for hosting the 5-day race carnival. The Craigleith event was structured as a FIS Slalom, one-run qualifier down Big John. Then a separate NORAM sanctioned Dual Slalom on Little John under the lights in the evening. Erin Mielzynski won the qualifier race, and Canadians Stef Fleckenstein (4th), Amelia Smart (7th), and Roni Remme (10th) finished top ten.

A view of the Dual Slalom course on Little John, with the crowd gathered waiting for the race to begin

All the CAST women made the top 32 cut to move onto into the Dual Slalom evening event. As the temperature plummeted, the dual slalom took off, with an incredible jump mid way down the pitch and the ladies laying down blistering times. By the time the racing finished just before 8 pm, Roni Remme of Alpine Ski Club had won it all! Stef Fleckenstein finished third in a dominant performance of determination. We all hope to bring the NORAM circuit and similar events like this back to our Club more often.

Thanks for the wicked week of racing C-Wood! Everything was perfect, from the hill prep to the cheering squads. One of the best NorAm series I've been to 👌🏼 Now it's time to get back to work in Europe 😈 * 📷: @andrewmielzynski

667 Likes, 4 Comments - Roni Remme (@roniremme) on Instagram: "Thanks for the wicked week of racing C-Wood! Everything was perfect, from the hill prep to the..."

DUAL SLALOM

The fun of the weekend did not end after the lights of Little John turned off! Sunday afternoon we ran our first (fact checkers please confirm) ever sanctioned and scored, GDHL dual slalom! With a different format from last year’s exhibition Dual Slalom, this event enabled all racers to take part. The results were determined by combining the first and second run times of each racer. If a racer failed to finish either run, they were credited with a half-second penalty, and the qualified run was just doubled. This made for interesting results!

As we started the race, the Coyotes quickly realized we had to reset our race format, and within 15 minutes had a whole new system set up in the timing hut. Following the race, the Timers told us that our race was more difficult to run than the NORAMs, which is a pretty impressive accolade!

The Sunday crowds looked smaller, but they were just as supportive as those on Saturday!

After a few other course delays, and many gate panels going missing, we ran each racer twice. Ben Williams won the overall race with a time of 34.32. Trevor Whitten (34.48) and Mike Welton (35.05) finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. On the ladies side, Katie Farrow took home her third victory, with an overall time of 37.00. Congratulations to Bridgette Mingay (38.56) and Meghan Barber (38.97) who both made their inaugural appearance on the podium coming 2nd and 3rd!

Following the race, there was an effort to build an eight-racer bracket for a Fun Race, however with afternoon dwindling away, the bracket was called off and two fun runs through the course were scored for fantasy points. Ben Williams won the Fun Race and took home an additional 20 points on the day, with Mike Welton and Joel Charron taking home 10 and 5 points each for placing 2nd and 3rd in the Fun Race. Congratulations to Jeff Sutherland, who after breaking the start gate, finished both his runs, and placed 4th.

GDHL DINNER:

As always, our end of year banquet will be a blast! Get your tickets for the event ASAP! Details are:

Date:  March 7th @ 7:00 p.m.

Cost: $35+hst /per person - $25+hst/ per intermediate member

Coaches & Coyotes are welcome....

Ticket purchase deadline: February 29th

Included in the ticket price is ample wine, (though you may choose to bring your own and pay $10 corkage), delicious food, free drinks from our Craft Alcohol sponsors, and a beautiful Craigleith Masters Racing technical T Shirt.

This is always the party of the year for us. We are so excited to have you there!

Standings and Fantasy:

The GDHL League results are slowly coming together and showing which teams are in the running for money this year! Manitou, Big John and Landslide and on the top, but Cornice and National aren’t out of the picture yet.

We have had some interruptions with our database this year, which we are working to fix, however in the meantime our GDHL team will be double checking results and doing long hand multiplication to ensure all results are correct and final.

Fantasy Results are available here:

Check out your team and make sure you take a moment to thank those racers you’ve selected who are getting you points! Each race counts in Fantasy, so it’s important to stay tuned until all the race results are submitted and calculations final!

The top three entrants are:

• Paul Peterson #2 – 817 Points

• Anthony Ruffalo – 780 Points

• Brayden Irwin – 778 Points

Top three athletes are:

• Paul Peterson – 236 Points

• Derek Brodie – 200 Points

• Vern Gomes – 171 Points

See you on the hill!

-Doug Jarvis

Dual Slaloms!

The NORAM women’s circuit is tearing up the Niagara Escarpment today and balance of the week, racing GS at Georgian Peaks, Slalom at Osler Bluff, and finishing off at Craigleith for an exciting Dual Slalom. All this of excitement follows a weekend with no GDHL races and it is time we got in on the fun! We’ve got a great weekend ahead, with events both days, and lots of skiing planned. The weather looks like it will finally be on our side (hope that didn’t jinx it), which makes it even better!

There are lots of details about the upcoming race schedule, including this weekend, in this newsletter so be sure to read through. Sadly, as there was no race last weekend there is nothing to update in the fantasy league. Lastly there is a reminder to buy your tickets for the Annual GDHL end of season Banquet (open to GDHL skiers, their families, and friends).

Before getting into the details of this weekend, two corrections to last week’s newsletter are needed.

1. It was stated that during the race on January 25th, Trevor Whitten finished with his first podium of the season; in fact, this was Trevor’s second podium, he also came 3rd in the Big John GS at the start of the season

2. It was stated that the last women to win a GDHL race was Kate Ryley, in 2016; Kate did win in 2016, however Cheryl McConachie won the race on January 14th, 2018 – also a Slalom race down Comet

Apologies for the misinformation. We’ve already addressed the errors with our research team and taken the necessary actions to prevent this happening in the future, though no guarantees!

Laurence St-Germain (left) and Erin Mielzynski spending time at Georgina Peaks earlier this week. Credit: Dave Armstrong

This Weekend:

It is going to be one for the books! The NORAM Dual Slalom is taking place on Saturday afternoon and evening. The bracket of 32 athletes will be determined by a single qualifying Slalom run on Big John earlier in the day (1 pm start). There will be no shortage of Star Power at the events on Saturday. Nearly the entire Canadian Alpine Ski Team women will be in attendance, while also attracting the top talent from NCAA programs.

As announced last week, the GDHL will be hosting the Apres Ski, from 3 pm to 5 30 pm in the Base Lodge, and it is open to everyone. We will have 1 drink ticket for each GDHL member available at the front desk. At 5:30, the Dual Slalom starts under the lights on Little John and the sold out NORAM APRES PARTY gets under way.

Make sure to dedicate some time to watch the races and keep a keen eye out for these current CAST skiers:

• Erin Mielzynski (Georgian Peaks)

• Candace Crawford (Georgian Peaks)

• Stef Fleckenstein (Whistler)

• Roni Remme (Alpine Ski Club)

• Ali Nullmeyer (Georgian Peaks)

• Mikaela Tommy (Edelweiss)

• Laurence St-Germain (Mont Sainte-Anne)

• Amelia Smart (Windermere)

GDHL Dual Slalom on Sunday: 1 PM Start Time

Sunday’s Dual Slalom will be a scheduled and scored GDHL race, so please allow yourself time to complete two runs. We will be running the Dual Slalom on Little John, with each racer completing one run on the blue course and one run on the red course. The start list will be set the same as a normal race, and each competitor will race against the skier sequential to them. Both racers will race for their time, not first across the line, and the combined times of the two runs will be the finishing time for each racer. For racers who fall, or do not complete a second run, their single run time will be doubled with a half second penalty added.

ALL RACERS ARE INCLUDED! We had so much fun last year running our short start list through the Dual Slalom, that when we got an opportunity to race everybody, we had to take it!

Following every racer’s two runs, we will run a table for the top 16 times. This will be a fun ski competition to finish the weekend off, and we invite you to stick around and watch!

SCHEDULE ONWARDS

Next weekend we will have our Super Long Slalom starting at the top of Millennium, skiing down the flats to Venture, and then down Venture. The schedule on the website is up to date.

END OF YEAR BANQUET

Our end of Year Banquet will happen the evening following our last race, on March 7th. Below is from last week’s newsletter:

GDHL Celebration Party and Dinner is fast approaching. 

Date:  March 7th @ 7:00 p.m.

Cost: $35+hst /per person  -  $25+hst/ per intermediate member

Coaches & Coyotes are welcome....

Ticket purchase deadline: February 29th

As you know, the GDHL Party sells out quickly at the last minute so a little pre-planning will get you tickets for the best event of the year. (To purchase tickets, go to Craigleith calendar date March 7th and click ‘register’)

Dinner will include 2 bottles of wine on the table (Family Style fare) in the Georgian room.  Band (BAM) sets up at 6:00 p.m. for the hors d'oeuvres and mixing and mingling. Everyone is on the GDHL this year will get a special GDHL Masters TShirt upon arrival.

We have sponsors serving FREE Vodka Soda (Cottage Springs) and Beer (Lost Craft) throughout the evening.

Coyotes are invited this year to the event to thank them for all they do in setting up and making our racing happen. Just send an email to events@craigleith.com and Whitney will add you to the list.

For those who has been to the GDHL Dinner before, you will recall we have some ‘fun’ games and Awards throughout dinner. Also, let me mention we have raffle tickets for some goodies from our sponsors that will be included in the evening.

Awards don’t always go to the ‘winners’, there are awards and prizes For: Most consistent racer; Family that races together.... Fastest over 60... craziest outfit....etc..... who knows what awards will be given out but you will need to be there to find out!!

Ticket cost will be $35+hst/per person ($25+hst for intermediate members) includes wine at table, hors d’eourves and a complimentary drink ticket and for those who return their bib will also get a drink ticket!

Remember, if you are musically inclined to join the band after dinner, we had quite a JAM session last year!

See you on the hills!

-Doug Jarvis

Who Is KateLynn Farrow?

We have a new race winner! It is always exciting when new athletes join the GDHL, it is even more fun when they challenge the perennial winners, and top ten finishers, for first place! KateLynn Farrow did just that last Sunday, with a spectacular race down Comet. Most of us were working pretty hard just to get across the finish line, as the course deteriorated, despite the Coyotes’ best efforts. Results from the race are posted which means you can find out how your run compared to the top finishers. As well, the race marks our fourth of the season, and rankings are available, so take a moment to review your season performance and how your team is doing.

Sunday’s Race

Our race on Sunday was successfully completed through drizzling rain and warming conditions. The hill had ruts, and the snow was soft, before we took to the course to try our best. It was challenging conditions and the best conditioned challengers rose to the occasion!

The last time a woman triumphed was Kate Ryley winning slalom on Comet in 2016. It seems almost eerie that another Kate(Lynn) would repeat the feat four seasons later!

KateLynn Farrow won the overall race with a time of 36.84, with Mackenzie Irwin (41.07) and Brianna Machej (42.09) rounding out the top three women. All three women stay in the overall points race for the season with their strong finishes!

On the men’s side, Gordie Bruce scored his first podium for the season. His time of 37.61 beat out Trevor Whitten (38.02) and Joel Charron (38.02) who tied to finish on the podium. This was Trevor’s first podium of his season as well, while Joel has yet to finish a race (3 finishes, 3 podiums) outside the hardware.

Who Is KateLynn Farrow?

Since we have a new race winner, it would be nice to know who she is! From extensive research, it seems she’d us rather refer to her as “Katie”, so we will start now. Katie skied at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), but before that grew up at Craigleith, skiing with the Ontario Ski Team, travelling across North America racing FIS. Her results at UNH are nothing short of exceptional, finishing top 20 and top 10 multiple times in each season she competed. In 2014, Katie was the lone freshman to earn a starting spot in the NCAA championships.

We are so glad to have Katie racing with us! Congratulations on her first career, GDHL win. We are sure there are many more to come!

Below: Katie racing for UNH in 2017

@ktfarrow off to @sundayriver for NCAA regionals. Good luck!

83 Likes, 1 Comments - UNH Ski Team (@unhskiteam) on Instagram: "@ktfarrow off to @sundayriver for NCAA regionals. Good luck!"

Standings:

All standings, individual and team, are available here. Click through to find out where you are. It looks like team Manitou has the lead, but team results change quickly as results are based on racers four best races through out the season

Carrie’s social update...

We heard you....you were torn but have decided you want to watch the future Olympians speed down Little John in a head to head dual slalom, so we have decided to join in the party!   We will be shifting our Mid-season Après to the Base Lodge and the GDHL will be sponsoring the NORAM APRES.  This will make the event even bigger and better to showcase the best of Craigleith and bring more awareness to the GDHL.  Win-Win!

The band 'Not Ottawa' will play from 3-5pm and there will be après nibbles passed around.

But Carrie, what's in it for GDHL racers? Why should we come?

FREE drink ticket!  Live music. All your friends. Awesome ski racing.  Nuff said.

Drink tickets for GDHL participants can be picked up from the front desk.  One per GDHL participant. (free drinks at Après... who knew that was possible?)

We are also extending a $5 discount to all GDHL participants who would like to purchase a ticket to the Noram Dinner event which runs from 5-8pm. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased by contacting Whitney @ events@craigleith.com or by clicking through here

Included with your ticket is dinner, a hat, drink tickets and tunes form a DJ.

Tickets are almost sold out so grab them right now.

Fantasy Update:

Our new Fantasy GDHL has been a hit! We are so happy to have you involved. Right now, Anthony Ruffalo is leading all entrants, and you can find out just where your team compares by clicking through here. Thankfully for Trevor Whitten and Stephen Jarvis, their skiing is better than their fantasy team choices!

So far this season, the top point producers are:

• Paul (Big Points) Peterson: 177

• Brayden Irwin: 168

• Derek Brodie: 149

There is still lots of race season left for your team to make up ground. Every race counts in Fantasy GDHL!

End of Season Banquet

GDHL Celebration Party and Dinner is fast approaching. 

Date:  March 7th @ 7:00 p.m.

Cost: $35+hst /per person  -  $25+hst/ per intermediate member

Coaches & Coyotes are welcome....

Ticket purchase deadline: February 29th

As you know, the GDHL Party sells out quickly at the last minute so a little pre-planning will get you tickets for the best event of the year. (To purchase tickets go to Craigleith calendar date March 7th and click ‘register’)

Dinner will include 2 bottles of wine on the table (Family Style fare) in the Georgian room.  Band (BAM) sets up at 6:00 p.m. for the hors d'oeuvres and mixing and mingling.   Everyone is on the GDHL this year will get a special GDHL Masters TShirt upon arrival.

We have sponsors serving FREE Vodka Soda (Cottage Springs) and Beer (Lost Craft) throughout the evening.

Coyotes are invited this year to the event as a way to thank them for all they do in setting up and making our racing happen.  Just send an email to events@craigleith.com and Whitney will add you to the list.

For those who has been to the GDHL Dinner before, you will recall we have some ‘fun’ games and Awards throughout dinner. Also, let me mention we have raffle tickets for some goodies from our sponsors that will be included in the evening.

Awards don’t always go to the ‘winners’, there are awards and prizes For: Most consistent racer;  Family that races together.... Fastest over 60... craziest outfit....etc..... who knows what awards will be given out but you will need to be there to find out!!

Ticket cost will be $35+hst/per person ($25+hst for intermediate members) includes wine at table, hors d’eourves and a complimentary drink ticket and for those who return their bib will also get a drink ticket!

Remember, if you are musically inclined to join the band after dinner, we had quite a JAM session last year!

See you on the slopes!

-Doug

We Got Snow, and We Raced!

This past weekend was packed with fun, and snow! We enjoyed two races put on by the Coyotes and our coaching team; a GS on Big John on Saturday, and a “Modified GS” on Landslide on Sunday. Individual Results are live on the database here, and there is a round up of the highlights from each race further down this newsletter. We are also formally announcing our Mid Season event! All details for the event being held February 8th are included here. Lastly there is a short Fantasy update.

This Weekend:

We’ve got a Slalom race on Comet on Sunday Afternoon. Inspection will begin at 12 15, with a race start of 1 pm. One item of note, if you would like to wear a downhill suit+slalom shorts on your bottom half, you will be allowed. We understand you may not want to mark up your nice ski pants with slalom gates in the race. You will need to abide by outfit regulations for your top half.  

Race Results:

Big John GS on Saturday

It was a small field on Saturday afternoon, with only 75 racers taking to the slopes persevering through a substantial blizzard. The course was set to run fast, however the snow was not. It was Duff Isberg’s day to take top spot on the podium, finishing with a time of 35.33. He beat out Joel Charron (35.34), and Alec Libert (35.48) in an incredibly tight race. On the women’s side, Katie Farrow finished in 36.07 to win, while Mack Irwin (37.30) and Brianna Machej (39.78) finished 2nd and 3rd. There were some major points won, by Paul Peterson (gaining 40 pts), Brayden Irwin (gaining 37 pts), David Henderson (24 pts) Chris Knight (28 pts), Mark Shillum (27 pts), Ray Murakami (40 pts), Graeme Blair (32 pts). There is still one remaining Big John GS, for those of you who missed the race, or simply missed the opportunity to gain big points in the race!

Landslide Modified GS on Sunday

Our 2020 speed race was executed without hiccups by the Coyotes. There was a lot of snow (A LOT) to get off the course for them to run a safe race, and still they were able to complete two runs for all racers who chose to run twice. After getting knocked of the top of the podium on Saturday, Alec Libert returned to his winning ways, putting down the fastest run by nearly 8 tenths of a second, finishing with a time of 50.72. Following Alec were Ben Williams (51.49), and Joel Charron (51.86). Interesting fact, it was Alec Libert’s first win in our annual Speed event, since 2015. Whatever he waxed the night before, it worked!

The women’s race featured the same three on the podium as the day previous, with Mack Irwin taking top spot with a time of 54.26. Katie Farrow finishing 2nd (54.69) and Brianna Machej finishing 3rd (56.74). All three women are in tight competition for the overall lead. Both Mack and Katie share the lead with 300 Pts a piece, while Brianna, is not far behind at 253.

All results and details are available on the website!

Call for Volunteers:

Craigleith is hosting the Ladies NorAm Dual SL On Feb 8th. We will have the best of the best ladies racers duking it out in head to head dual slalom on Little John under the lights. We need volunteers to help with the event in various functions. You get a front row seat watching the excitement while helping to create a world class event. If you are able to help either in the afternoon for the qualifier SL race or the evening dual event please contact Jean Allen at jean.allen@sympatico.ca. 

Thank you,

GDHL MID SEASON EVENT:

This year’s mid season event is the GDHL Apres Ski Party! Join us on Saturday, February 8th, for great music, and great company at the NORTH LODGE, 3:30 – 6 pm.

No need to be a GDHL member, all are welcome! And it is BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze). “Not Ottawa” (the band) will be playing, there will be plenty of food to enjoy, and best of all, no big bar bill!

Following our event we will head over to Little John, to watch the best Female Alpine Skiers in North America run the NORAM Dual Slalom under the lights!

Fantasy Update:

There is a large volume of data to be processed for Fantasy, and the crew of statisticians is hard at work. At this point, the updates have not been made to the spreadsheets found here. To check your team, you can click through, and make sure you know who you are cheering to score big points. All data will be ready for next week’s newsletter.

See you on the slopes,

-Douglas Jarvis

FINALLY, A RACE NOTICE YOU CAN SMILE ABOUT

RACES ARE BACK!

Thank you to everyone for your patience this past weekend. The weather did not cooperate with us and the GDHL committee had to make live-time decisions with the health and safety of everyone in mind. Now we’ve got lots of great news to share! We have been rescheduled for a double header this weekend! To find out more about our rescheduling, read below, and click through to the updated schedule page on the GDHL website.

Even though most of us were not skiing last weekend, there we still some who found some snow. There were some strong Canadian results on the World Cup Circuit last weekend, as well a solid Interclub race held at Alpine on Saturday. At Craigleith, a group of die-hard ladies followed their fearless leader and coach, Shelley, through the rain. All this while a large contingent of Craigleith gentlemen enjoyed catskiing through BC outback. All this and more can be found in the newsletter below.

Finally, a Race Notice to Smile About 😊

After two cancellation notices last weekend, we are ecstatic to bring to you a race notice, announcing our rescheduled races! This weekend was supposed to be open on the schedule, but with the help of the race office, we’ve been provided two races this weekend. DOUBLE HEADER WEEKEND IS BACK!

• Race 1: Saturday January 18 – GDHL GS on BIG JOHN – PM

• Race 2: Sunday January 19 – GDHL GS on LANDSLIDE – PM

Saturday’s race is a traditional GS down Big John; inspection at 12:15, race start at 1 pm. Sunday’s race is a “MODIFIED GS” down Landslide. This is our annual speed event and is very exciting! With every year’s speed event, come specific rules to run the race, including but not limited to: mandatory inspection check in, hard eared helmets and functional pole baskets on each pole. You will receive a special email regarding all the rules before the weekend starts, to ensure you can abide by all of them. For those of you who would like to do you due diligence now, they are also available here.

Thank you to Keith Farnand, Dave Campbell, Kylie Deacon in the race office, Jen Gillard and the rest of the Coyotes for their work to get us re-scheduled, and for keeping us safe last weekend!

World Cup Update:

It has been a tough year for the Canadian Alpine Skiers. They’ve continued to put competitive runs through courses but haven’t been able to match two solid runs in a day to find the podium. Last weekend was no different, with some great results, but no one was in the hardware. In the lady’s race weekend in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria (if you think it’s hard to pronounce, try spelling it!), Roni Remme skied to a 12th place finish in the Super Combined (1 Super G Run, 1 Slalom Run), while Fredrica Brignone took home her 3rd win of the season. The men were skiing in Aldeboden, Switzerland, and Erik Read (son of Ken), put down a blistering second run time to finish 0.66 seconds off the lead and in 11th place.

So much fun charging under the lights at @3trecampiglio to a fantastic 11th place finish! It was another tight and exciting race to continue the World Cup slalom stint in January. Lots more races coming up to keep pushing hard! #WeAreSkiing #WiegelePowder #MissionWealthAdvisors #3Tre #MadonnadiCampiglio #SkiRacing #WorldCup #Slalom #FeelAlive

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Who else was skiing last weekend?

As mentioned above, even though most of us didn’t even think to put their ski boots on (your newsletter editor is guilty of this), some did get some runs in! Shelley Johnston took her team of fearless ladies for some laps in the torrential rain and posted on Facebook to prove it.

While we were getting rained on, a group of GDHLers were enjoying backcountry champagne powder out west. I am sure Greg, Jeff, Scott, and multiple other GDHL alum will be happy to share with you their stories of the beautiful back country they enjoyed!

Now a note from Dave Campbell:

NZ Thursday Night ‘Get in the Gates’ Training will begin on Thursday January 16th.  New this year people must sign up and register on the NZF website - direct link you can use this so it takes people right to the registration: http://nzfoundation.crowdchange.co/craigleiththursdays

We are also looking to utilize these nights to help prepare and train coaches on the CSC PL pathway with exposure to the SOD athletes and a number of the AOA/CSC PL facilitators will be on site these nights.

The Crowdchange site is now live and also we have noted on the NZF homepage - www.nzfoundation.ca

See you on the slopes this weekend! It is going to be great!

-Doug Jarvis

Wanna Race? Try Interclub!

Former columnists never give up, as long as the password for the news site isn’t changed :)

Turns out the only Craigleith masters who got to race Saturday, at least in North America, were those brave souls who represented the Club at the Interclub event at Alpine Saturday morning. (For newcomers, Craigleith’s Interclub team is now the eight-time defending champion, after decades of near misses and other disappointments. Info concerning Interclub is available on the GDHL website here. It will help in interpreting what follows.)

It was certainly a damp day, but the race crew did a great job of preparing the course and spirits remained high. No drownings were reported. As numbers were generally down a bit, for the first time in memory, we didn't run out of sandwiches or beer tickets at the post-race festivities. Team members were able to linger a bit with the cancellation of the afternoon GDHL event.

The scores for the first three team places were 403, 395 and 390, so very close. Craigleith ended up second. As several women suggested, this may be good for other teams' morale, especially as we didn't dwell on Craigleith only having 17 racers, while first and third counted the maximum 18. Interestingly, there were more starters in the men's 80+ group than in the women's 40 to 49 combined. Kate Veer did nothing for the morale of the 45 to 49 group, winning by over 7 seconds.

Mary Riopelle and Leslie Sims both won their age groups handily. Mack Irwin reported temporary inattention as the cause of a late hip slide, but she finished nonetheless, in a better time than two Club directors.

Jeff Sutherland was high scorer on the day with 29 points and held first place overall until almost the end of the first run. Special congrats to Alan Shaw for a PB 25 point performance. Trent Winstone, Rob Burnes, Ian Latimer, Jerry Patten and Bryce Conacher were also 24+.

Full results are available here. When you’ve finished perusing them, flip to the home page on the Interclub site (interclubski.org) and “Sign Up Now” if you haven’t been part of Interclub previously, or “Sign In” and register for 2020 if you’re just late rejoining. (Spelunkers are being sent to look for one notable late rejoiner!)

Next week’s race is SL at Caledon on Saturday afternoon. This is a great opportunity to make your Interclub debut, as the distance tends to suppress attendance. Shoot an email to captain Taylor Simms-Brown to confirm your interest.

Let's not let others’ morale get too high! In the end, beating them is better.

And in the meantime, hopefully we get some racing at Craigleith on Sunday.

Cheers,

James Mathers

GDHL WEATHER ALERT

BOTH RACES THIS WEEKEND WILL BE RUN AS SCHEDULED

As of Friday at 4 pm, the message from Craigleith and Race Crew is that both races will be run as scheduled, however this can change. As we understand and manage the weather forecasts, we will be keeping you appraised of the status of both of our races.

We will update you through email if any changes happen, on both days. Please keep your eyes open for our emails, and keep communication with fellow GDHLers open.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!

-Doug Jarvis

WE ARE BACK

After a long wait, and beautiful summer, we are back on snow and racing!

We had a busy weekend! We started on Saturday night with the Calcutta, in our new location and at our new time, and then kicked off the race season with our GS course down Big John. Your GDHL Committee had a great time hosting you! There is lots to cover in this newsletter including a wrap up from Saturday night, results from our race, and preparation for our double header this weekend.

Calcutta

Thank you for coming! We loved our later start time and new location, and we hope you did too! Each of the teams were auctioned off to our famous consortiums and individual owners, and we drew names for the coveted #10 and #20 bibs for each of the races. Thank you to our gracious beverage partners, Lost Craft Brewery, Cottage Springs Vodka Soda, and Sap Sucker Organic Tree Water.

For those of you who missed the Calcutta, here is a link to your bib, rank#, and team (if applicable) for the season. Bibs will be available at the Race Office on Saturday morning if you still need yours. If you are on a team, and would like to buy in, please reply to this email so we can get you connected with our treasurer, Trent Winstone.

BIB DRAW WINNERS

Below are the winners of our bib draws. Each race the winner of bibs 10 and 20 get to race in those start positions. You may transfer bibs within the teams and within the league, however no racer can have the preferential bib twice in a season.

• Saturday, January 11th - BIB 10: SEAN WEBSTER - BIB 20: RICHARD USHER JONES

• Sunday, January 12th - BIB 10: Kelly Smith - BIB 20: Ian Latimer

• Sunday, January 26th - BIB 10: Dave MacDonald - BIB 20: Dave Arthur

• Saturday, February 15th - BIB 10: KateLynn Farrow - BIB 20: Jeff Sutherland

• Sunday, February 23 - BIB 10: Jeff Kuzyk - BIB 20: Doug Workma

Former FIS World Cup Skier, Phil Brown will be joining our race on Saturday

This weekend’s races:

We’ve got two races this weekend:

• Saturday, January 11th, Big John GS, 12:15 inspection, 1 PM start

• Sunday, January 12th, Slalom Comet, 12:15 Inspection, 1 PM start

It has been reported that Phil Brown, fresh off his podium finish on the World Pro Ski Tour, will be forerunning on Saturday, so stay tuned at the start of the race!

Joey Hill Showing off his Vintage Porsche Cup suit which wins style points, and inspires speed!

Race Recap

Our first race of the season had a different look than those of the past. NO DOWNHILL SUITS! There were some great outfits and costumes on display as alternatives to speed suits that are now outlawed. Alec Libert kept his crown as top racer, taking the top spot overall with a time of 31.92, he was followed by Ben Williams (32.12), and Trevor Whitten (32.58). The women’s leaderboard was topped by KateLynn Farrow with a time of 34.25, while Mack Irwin (34.35) and Cheryl McConachie (34.74) were right behind her. Congratulations to both Trevor Whitten and KateLynn Farrow on exceptional results in their first GDHL races!

Full results will soon be up on our results page of our website, however until then, you can click through to this link

Many gentlemen opted for jeans as a homage to NIk Zoricic and a speedy alternative to the traditional suit

Fantasy Results – Week One      

In this year’s competition we’ve added Fantasy as a new element! Find your team from the link below and review your selections. Each team is ranked based on this weeks results and there is a tab to see overall fantasy points scored by athlete.

Top three fantasy entrants in week 1:

• Brad Sproule 155 pts

• Paul Peterson (#2) 145 pts

• Mollo Miller 141 pts

The top three fantasy athletes from last week’s were:

• Paul Peterson 31 Pts

• KateLynn Farrow 30 Pts

• Tony Baldanza 30 Pts

LINK HERE!

Get your rest in before the big double header weekend ahead!

-Doug Jarvis

BIG NEWS!!!

Happy Holidays! Hope most of you have gotten out on the hills a few times to turn left and right.  Although we have had challenging weather, the snow has still been top notch thanks to our advance snowmaking system. 

Big news here from the GDHL committee.  Like, BIG. HUGE.

But first, don't forget to register! And if you are on the fence, the below BIG NEWS will probably sway you.

This year, due to overwhelming demand and to align with our fellow adult house leagues on the escarpment we have decided to institute a 'no downhill suit rule'. There will be 2 exceptions to this rule - downhill suits will be allowed at the Modified GS/Super G on Sunday, January 26th and for the Club Championships on Saturday, March 7th.

What do you wear now?

Same thing that people wore before the invention of downhill suits - ski pants, jackets, sweaters and stealths. Nothing skin tight - as per ski cross clothing rules - which we will loosely follow.

https://wiki.fis-ski.com/index.php/4511.4

What happens if you wear a downhill suit?

You will be DQ'd.

If you have any questions, please direct them to gdhl@gdhl.org or reply to this email.

Housekeeping (from last year)

We are still missing quite a few bibs from last year.  If they have not been returned to the race office by Thursday, January 2nd, your account will be charges $75.

• 15 Peter Ashworth

• 35 Ben Gabriel

• 82 Thomas Squires

• 89 Alister Athey

• 99 Cameron Bellamy

• 106 

• 112 

• 124 David Raymond

• 125 Kat Zoricic 

Race Schedule Finalized 

As always, there can be changes, but if everything goes as planned the below will be our schedule this year.

Sunday, January 5 – GS – BIG JOHN - PM

Saturday, January 11 – GS – BIG JOHN – PM

Sunday, January 12 – SLALOM – COMET – PM

Sunday, January 26 – MODIFIED GS – LANDSLIDE – PM

Saturday, February 15 – TBD

Sunday, February 23 – SLALOM - BIG JOHN - PM

Saturday, March 7 – CLUB CHAMPS – GS RACE WILL COUNT

CALCUTTA

Come one, come all.  No need to be a part of the GDHL to attend this event.  Note new time and location.

When: Saturday, January 4th - 7-10pm

Where: Base Lodge

Who: Everyone

The wonderful band Boomerang will be playing this evening with the breaks below for your regularly scheduled auctions.

Schedule

7pm - Arrival

• Registration for GDHL Participants

• Food and Beverage stations are open  

• Band starts

8pm - Team Auctions and Prize Giveaways #1

9:15pm - Team Auctions and Prize Giveaways #2

Consortiums

Get your consortiums together and start researching all the participants from last year so you know who to bid on. Register your group with Trent when you arrive. 

Fantasy Ski League 

To be a part of the inaugural GDHL Fantasy Ski League you will have to be present at the Calcutta

• Buy in is $10 per team and there is no limit to how many teams you can have.

• Payout will be a pot split accordingly 70% to the winner, 20% to 2nd place and 10% to 3rd place.

• Winners will be announced at the year end banquet on Saturday, March 7th.

More info to follow!

Calcutta Sponsors

The following beverage sponsors will be present at the Calcutta with complementary drinks. 

• Lost Craft Brewery

• Cottage Springs Vodka Soda

• Sap Sucker Organic Tree Water

As always, please don't drink and drive. Complimentary Cabs are available.

That was a lot - we know.  Keep getting some turns in and we will see you at the Calcutta on Saturday, January 4th.

REGISTER TODAY!

Craigleith is Open!

We are now approaching the winter solstice, holidays are around the corner and there is snow on the ground which means each of you has one task you must complete: REGISTER FOR GDHL!

The GDHL is excited about the upcoming season! Our race schedule and event schedule are nearly finalized so you can begin to input all the dates into your calendars. The race schedule as of today, can be found below. This rest of this newsletter will be dedicated to information about the upcoming season, with less commentary than usual, to ensure you have everything you need for the season!You will find in here details about the New Calcutta time and location and the 2020 Fantasy GDHL Launch.

BUT FIRST: GO REGISTER FOR THE GDHL! LINK THROUGH TO YOUR MEMBER SITE HERE:

The 2020 GDHL Calcutta will be held for the first time at the Base Lodge!

The 2020 Calcutta: January 4th, 7-10 PM at BASE LODGE

This year’s event will be a bit different. We will be hosting the Calcutta at the BASE LODGE beginning at 7 pm. For everyone enjoying the first Apres Ski of the season, we have made your life easy! Just saunter over to the section we have reserved for the Calcutta at 7 pm and continue socializing!

We’ve got some incredible food and drink at the Calcutta this year including booths by:

• Lost Craft Brewery

• Cottage Springs Vodka Soda

• Sapsucker Organic Tree Water

As always, we will have cabs organized, so do not drink and drive.

Fantasy Sports Comes to the GDHL

We are excited to announce the inaugural Fantasy GDHL season for 2020! This new, fun, interactive game will be played using wits and strategy over the entire season. If you have ever played fantasy sports, you will enjoy this! Here is a summary of the rules and goals.

The Fantasy League is open to EVERYONE, both GDHL racers and prospectors. At the Calcutta, each participant will choose eight team members from the GDHL race league to build their own unique team. There is no draft per se, as each participant may choose any racer to join their team. Over the entire season, points are aggregated by the following factors:

• Point differential

• Race Starts

• Race Finishes

• Podium Finishes in age/gender category (Men’s Overall, Women’s Overall, Men over 55, Women over 55)

Once you have chosen your team (we will have forms to complete), hand in your hand-picked team to our booth. Entrance fee is a $10 per team, and there is no limit to how many teams you may submit. Payout will be a pot split accordingly 70% to winner, 20% to second place, 10% to third place, and announced at the end of year banquet

For questions and quick responses, email me djarvis08@gmail.com 

As I am sure you can tell, there will be lots going on at the Calcutta this year, so make sure you register to race ASAP, and prepare yourself for a night of fun and friends on January 4th.

GDHL 2020 Race Schedule:

Sunday, January 5 – GS – BIG JOHN - AM

Saturday, January 11 – SLALOM – COMET – PM

Sunday, January 12 – GS – BIG JOHN – AM

Sunday, January 26 – Super G – LANDSLIDE – PM

Saturday, February 15 – SLALOM – MILLENNIUM – PM

Sunday, February 23 – SLALOM - HILL & TIME TBD

Saturday, March 7 – CLUB CHAMPS – GS RACE WILL COUNT

Have a safe and happy holiday break! Make sure you register!

-Doug Jarvis

Events and Races on the Horizon!

It’s nearly here! We are all eagerly awaiting the next snowfall for more pictures of the snowy slopes at Craigleith. Blue Mountain and Mount Saint Louis both opened on November 15th for what looked like a great weekend of skiing. From the looks of the calendar on the Craigleith website, it looks like opening date will be December 14th.

We won’t wait until December to drum up excitement about this year’s GDHL season! In this newsletter you’ll find details of our 2020 Race Schedule and a preview of our 2020 Social Calendar. There is also a small piece attempting to summarize some changes made in the management at Alpine Canada, and the TV times for this weekend’s races at Lake Louise, and Mount Killington.

Erin Mielzynski will be in the start gate this weekend

GDHL 2020 RACE SEASON SCHEDULE

The 2020 Race Schedule is below, however it is subject to change as we move closer to the season. Communication will be through this email list and on the GDHL website here

Sunday, January 5 – GS – BIG JOHN - AM

Saturday, January 11 – SLALOM – COMET – PM

Sunday, January 12 – GS – BIG JOHN – AM

Sunday, January 26 – Super G – LANDSLIDE – PM

Saturday, February 15 – SLALOM – MILLENNIUM – PM

Sunday, February 23 – SLALOM - HILL & TIME TBD

Saturday, March 7 – CLUB CHAMPS – GS RACE WILL COUNT

Greg Cavers, a dedicated GDHL committee member, and Craigleith Socialite enjoys fun both on and off the hill!

GDHL 2020 SOCIAL EVENTS SCHEDULE

The Social Calendar matches the fun events on the hill, as we are all champions of playing hard both on and off the snow! Your GDHL committee has a dedicated Social Team who has provided us with the schedule below, and similarly some of the details are subject to change, but you will get updates here, and on the GDHL website here

• Calcutta - January 4th 7pm-10pm     BASE LODGE

  • Notice the time and location change! We will be hosting the entire GDHL community (which includes family & friends) to kick off the season.

• Mid-Season Event – February 8th – 3:30-6pm (alternative date and time possible)

  • We had a great time hosting the mid season event last year, and we’ll be doing it again! Both the weekend and start time are subject to details that will soon be finalized

• End of year Banquet – March 7th   7-10pm

  • Our tried and true end of year event will happen as usual, but count on our Social Team to bring more ridiculous games and fun times this year!

Alpine Canada’s new logo - Celebrating 100 years!

Changes at Alpine Canada

The GDHL wasn’t the only governing race body that was busy during the offseason! Alpine Canada overhauled their Board of Directors, electing a Who’s Who list of Canadian business magnates and Erik Guay to lead the strategic vision of on snow success. The goal of the new board is to put more Canadians on the podium! It sounds like the recent success of Tennis Canada inspired this change, and surely we would all love to see a Canadian skier with a similar success story to the likes of Bianca Andreescu.

The full release from Alpine Canada is here

Your Weekend Entertainment!

This weekend we’ve got two great races on the docket! From Vermont, Mount Killington is hosting Women’s GS on Saturday, and slalom on Sunday. From Alberta, Lake Louise is hosting the first Speed events of the season, with the Men racing downhill on Saturday, and Super G on Sunday!

Carve some time out in your busy holiday calendar this weekend to enjoy the races, and get excited for more snow!

Next newsletter, we’ll break some exciting news about our upcoming season!

-Doug Jarvis

GREAT NEWS!!!

Winter is nearing and so is ski season!

Welcome back! Spring, Summer are behind us, and fall is quickly winding down, bringing way to the best season of the year, SKI SEASON!

Now if you are anything like me, you’ve spent the last seven months, enjoying the sunshine and contemplating how you were going to improve your GDHL results in 2020. And, if you are like me, instead of taking action, you enjoyed many cold beverages lakeside.

Thankfully for those of you who did not focus 100% of their offseason skiing in glacial destinations, bettering their ankle/knee/hip angles, and consciously improving their mental toughness through meditation, there is more GREAT NEWS! Skiing is sport aided by gravity, so those extra lbs you’ve recently acquired will only help your over all speed!

The 2020 GDHL Season

The GDHL Committee will meet soon to plan details of our upcoming race season, and you can find those details and dates here:

Sign up is open for all! Find a list of all training programs and race registration in the usual place on the Craigleith site. If any changes are made to the training programs, new times slots made available, or programs added we will update you in the upcoming newsletters

Similarly, our season schedule will be released soon., and you can find it here. It will also be e-blasted out.

UPCOMING EVENT ALERT:

This Sunday, at Caledon Ski Club, join former Alpine Canada Team Members Larissa Yurkiw, Erin Latimer, and Phil Brown for a fireside chat! Click through here to get your tickets!

This should be an amazing event for you and your young super-star skier to attend. All three athletes are well regarded for their exceptional talents, fun and chatty personalities, and how approachable they are.The event is put on in partnership with Skiis & Biikes, and Caledon Ski Club and all proceeds go to The NZ Foundation

FIS NEWS!

The FIS Alpine Ski Season is under way! Last weekend Soelden, Austria hosted the first events of the season for both Men and Women. Both genders had some remarkable results! It was 17 year old, New Zealander, Alice Robinson winning the Women’s race, with Mikaela Shiffrin in a close second, and Tessy Worley third. This was Alice Robinson’s first win on the World Cup Circuit, AND the first win for her nation, New Zealand, EVER.

The men finished Alexis Pinturault, Mathieu Faivre, Zan Kranjec as one, two, three respectively. With Erik Read finishing in 7th as the top Canadian. Trevor Philp finished 26th, and unfortunately, none of the Canadian women qualified for the second run.

Up next is Levi, Finland for both Men’s and Women’s Slalom on November 23rd and  24th.

Retiring…

It was widely stated that 2019 was the year of retirement. A generic statement maybe, but some impressive all-time great skiers hung up their boots including: Lindsey Vonn, Aksel Lund Svindal, Frida Hansdotter, Patrick Kueng, Sandro Viletta, Thomas Fanara, Chiara Costazza, Mathias Hargin and Felix Neureuther.

In September, Marcel Hirscher, arguably the best technical skier of his generation (maybe all time?) announced his retirement. Hirscher’s dominance is easily captured by his credentials here:

• 138 World Cup Podiums

• 67 World Cup Wins

• 7 World Championship Wins

• 2 Olympic Gold Medals

• 8 Overall titles (top male skier)

• 12 Discipline Titles (6 Slalom, 6 GS)

Truly Remarkable!

Farewell Phil!

Now onto one of our homegrown Super Stars, Phil Brown! As you may have noticed above, where you were invited to join “former” national team members, Phil was listed. To read his own words on his retirement, click through here

Phil Brown finished his career with a significant trophy case of his own. He holds two NorAm Cup Overall Titles, and two NorAm Cup Giant Slalom Titles. Phil represents his country as an Olympian at PyeongChang, and Sochi, and at three World Championships. My favorite moment watching Phil race was at the 2015 World Championships in Vail, when he and the Canadian team nearly ran the table in the Dual Slalom team event, finishing in 2nd to the Austrians. An incredible feat!

We are all excited to see Phil around the Club and maybe we’ll tag him for a forerun one day!

Congratulations to an amazing career, Phil!

I couldn’t see Phil off without a couple media pieces. Below are a clips montage from his training in 2012, and a great aerial video shot through drone, by Phil’s team mate Dustin Cook.

And if you need your Marcel fix, here you go!

In other news, AOA has done some restructuring. Next news update will cover this in detail.

Pray for snow!

-Doug Jarvis

Your 2019 GDHL Wrap Up!

Congratulations on a great finish to the 2019 GDHL Race season!

The GDHL Committee had so much fun organizing the 2019 season, and we are so happy you raced with us!

Nearly two weeks ago now, we celebrated the finale of our GDHL Race season. On Saturday, March 2nd, we hosted an exciting double-header of races, followed by our annual end-of-year Banquet. During the banquet the recipients of various awards were announced, and the winners celebrated. Read on below for a full recap of the events that marked the end of our season, and a small summary of the winning teams and individuals on the season. Congratulations on a great finish to the 2019 GDHL Race season!

Now if you look right, you will find the banners for our amazing sponsors. Thank you to all of them:

• Sutherland Insurance

• Pratte International Ski camps

• Squire John’s

• Dynastar/Lange

• Royal LePage Locations North

• Budget Propane

A huge thank you to our coaches, the Craigleith Coyotes, the timing hut, and all of the friends and family that cheered you and us on this season!

The Double Header

On Saturday, the 2019 Craigleith Adult Club Championship races were held, in conjunction with two GDHL races. This was the first time in recent memory that both the morning GS race, and afternoon Slalom races counted towards the GDHL season, and it added to the excitement of the season.

GIANT SLALOM

The morning’s Giant Slalom was a fun and fast course, that had some challenging gates. Glenn Blaylock had an absolute smoking hot run, and came down as the early leader with a time of 36.36. His lead was soon dispatched as the lady’s group of racers took over, with Bridgettete Mingay making another podium appearance in third with a time of 36.71. In second place, Cheryl McConachie finished with a time of 36.16, and Mackenzie Irwin took top spot, finishing at 35.40 seconds.

On the men’s side, Joel Charron rode the fastest time of the day, to finish first in 32.96 seconds. Following Joel, was Alec Libert with his fourth podium finish of the season, finishing in 33.43 seconds. Ben Williams made his third appearance on the podium, with a time of 33.46.

Both the lady’s and men’s races were previews of the full season overall rankings. Bridgette, Mackenzie, Cheryl, Ben, Joel, and Alec, were all in the mix to win their overall gender titles entering the final race of the season.

SLALOM

In the afternoon, we raced Slalom on Comet which was a welcome change from the massive, long slaloms set all season long on Venture and Big John! The short course offered lots of entertainment as there were multiple jumps, and Sandy’s sense of humor definitely got the best of lots of racers.

Going into the final race on the season, both the overall men’s and women’s titles were still up for grabs.

On the men’s side, Alec won the slalom with a time of 36.48, with Joel Charron and Ben Williams finishing in second and third (36.77 and 36.86). This result wasn’t enough to assure the final overall standings, and all three racers had to wait until the banquet to learn of their victory (or defeat) for the season.

The ladies were fast on the hectic, terrain park like, slalom course. Cheryl McConachie came down with the win in a time of 38.67, and Mackenzie was right behind her at 40.07. Bridgette Mingay capped off her sensational rookie season, placing 3rd in 41.84 seconds!

As the race wound down, all athletes were reflecting the season. They knew they had a few hours to wait for all the season’s results to tally up, and for the final overall results to be announced at the banquet event.

Season’s Results, Individuals and Teams

MEN

It was a comeback season for Alec Libert. After claiming the top rank in three of his first four season’s, he was on a mission following last season’s second place finish to Joel Charron. These two gentlemen had a heck of a battle trading top spot back and forth all season long. Going into the weekend’s final races, both Joel and Alec had to overcome Ben Williams’ and Gordie Bruce. Gordie and Ben had been in the top three of the standings all season long and weren’t about to give up a podium spot without a fight.

It was with great drama that Alec took the overall title this year. One that he may remember above others as the competition was exceptional. The top three Men’s spots ended as follows:

1. Alec Libert – 462 Points

2. Joel Charron – 461 Points

3. Ben Williams and Gordie Bruce – 459 Points

In the past six years, there hasn’t been such a tight race at the top. For us watching the Men’s overall standing, it was plenty of fun!

WOMEN

The women’s overall title was equally as exciting as Mackenzie Irwin and Cheryl McConachie had traded victories throughout the season. Entering the final weekend, neither were the bonafide leader and it all came down to the events of the last weekend. In the end, Cheryl’s slalom dominance was her ace, and it provided her the extra points to catapult and hold her at the top of the rankings. Brianna Machej finished off her best campaign of her GDHL campaign to round out the podium. The final overall Women’s standings finished:

1. Cheryl McConachie – 444 Points

2. Mackenzie Irwin – 432 Points

3. Brianna Machej – 393 Points

TEAM

The team rankings were as near as decided entering the last weekend. It is extraordinary for a team to make up a gap of 20 points or more in the dwindling moments of the season, and it was the case that none of the top three changed any rank after the two races.

1. Team Comet

2. Team Cornice

3. Team Vortex

For all results, both team and individual, click here

We had a great time celebrating all the champions of the season. Carrie Lenauskas provided a short write up on the events of the evening:

Well.... that’s a wrap folks. 

To cap off our amazing season with new events (dual slalom and mid-season party), we had a wonderful season wrap up with a hoppin’ awards dinner. If you missed it or skipped it this year, you better come next year.  It was, as the kids say, Off. The. Hook.  We had BAM, Craigleith’s resident ray of sunshine and positivity playing with fellow Juno nominated Blaze, with cameos from Craigleith’s own Nolan Dubeau, Brian Bellamy and a surprise jam session by Murray Sarafinchin (talented ski racer and man, can he ever play the guitar!).  Lost Craft Brewery joined us to share some beer with everyone and a tasty Italian, family style dinner was enjoyed by all.

We had rather messy game to start the night off with (read: feathers everywhere) and got to see some ‘dancing skills’ from some GDHL racers, coaches and consortium members.  The winner of the ‘Shake your Tailfeather game’ - Brayden Irwin. He had a big Saturday - a few golds from club champs and winning this important and slightly embarrassing game. His mom, Carol, has never been prouder.

Consortium winners also got to collect their winnings - monopoly cash. (Fear not, they also got their actual winnings). David Bellamy and Tony Chicocoppo were fanning it everywhere.

We then moved tables and started dancing.

So let’s do our awards recap....

• Mr. Congeniality:

  • Roger Chui  (after being called up 8 times he finally came to accept his award)

• Miss Congeniality:

  • Anne Mathers

• Spirit Award:

  • Cynthia Waite

• Fastest Family Award:

  • Brook and Peter Dyson

• Skied Your Rank Award:

  • Robert Vitols (honourable mention - Jeff Sutherland)

• Fastest Old Guy Award (aka older than 40):

  • Scott Mclorie

• Most DNF's Award:

  • Gordie Bruce with 3 (honourable mentions: Joey Hill, Gino Gentile, Phill Ruffolo and Mackenzie Irwin all with 2)

• The "I was pressured at the bar to sign up and had never raced a day in my life' Award:

  • Brent McKnight

Now for the actual awards:

Greg Lee Men’s Award

1. Joey Hill

2. Glenn Blaylock

3. Jeff Craig

Greg Lee Women’s Award

1. Brianna Maciej

2. Natalie Hayworth

3. Ali Banfield

Men Over 50

1. Jeff Sutherland 430

2. Dave Raymond 414

3. Allan LaChance 410

Women Over 50

1. Mary Riopelle 253

2. Cynthia Waite 190

3. Janeva Healy 174

Consortium winners were Brian Bellamy/Tony Chicocoppo and company.

If you didn’t get your award (because you weren’t there) please let us know and we will get it to you.

Don’t slack over the summer - GDHL training for the 2019/2020 season starts today.  We will be back next year with our dual slalom and mid season party and all the other great races.

Have a wonderful remainder of the ski season, spring, summer and fall and we will see you at the Calcutta soon enough!

That is all for the GDHL and the 2019 season! Onto the off season and dry land training!

Thank you!

-Doug Jarvis, on behalf of your GDHL Committee: Marlene Jackson, Trent Winstone, Julie Hughes Workman, Randy Dalton, Carrie Lenauskas, David Henderson, Greg Cavers, Jamie Coulter, and James Mathers.

A Short Hiatus

After a fun and exciting finish to the season, the newsletter editor is taking a one week hiatus. Stay tuned for next week’s season recap, that will highlight all the big winners from our amazing season!

Tomorrow is the Nik Zoricic Foundation’s #Ski4Nik Event. If you are spending Friday at the club, make sure to check out all the events!

From last weeks newsletter:

The Nik Zoricic Foundation is one that we all love to support. Among their mandates, is to provide safety (B) netting for ski race courses, and other safety equipment in Alpine Skiing events. For those of us who’ve experienced B-netting before, we are thankful for it.  

Since 2013, Craigleith Ski Club has hosted the Nik Zoricic Foundation for a fundraising event in March. The event has taken a few different forms, and each year has been unforgettably fun. This year’s event is a bit different and includes an epic Ski Pro Tour Dual Slalom!

That’s right, the 2019 NZ Ski4Nik Challenge includes a Dual Slalom, and all of you have already shown your love, and capability for a Dual Slalom. Sign up for an adult is $35!

Click through here to learn more. The event is always a blast and it is a wonderful way that we can remember Nik Zoricic.

Event Agenda:

11:00am - 12:00pm: Check-In and Registration @ Old South Lodge

11:30am - 12:30pm: BBQ Lunch @ Old South lodge

12:45pm -  3:30pm: Skills & Drills - Race & Freestyle @ Leave from Old South

1:30pm   -  2:30pm: Adult Dual Slalom Registration @ Main Base Lodge Fireplace

2:30pm   -  3:30pm: Adult Dual Slalom Time Trials @ Little John

3:30pm   -  4:30pm: Quadzilla and Rail Jam Exhibition @ Little John

4:00pm   -  8:00pm: Apres Ski Party – Finger Food @ Main Base Lodge Fireplace

4:45pm   -  6:00pm: Participant Domino’s Pizza Party and Movie @ Old South Lodge

5:00pm   -  6:30pm: Adult Dual Slalom @ Little John

6:30pm   -  7:00pm: Live Auction @ Main Base Lodge Fireplace

7:30pm:                  Torch Light Parade @ Little John

Don’t forget your Blue Jeans!

-Doug Jarvis

A Weekend Packed with Excitement!

This weekend is our Grand Finale and because of that, this newsletter is packed with great and important info regarding the events over the next four days.

Last weekend our race was cancelled due to sub-standard weather conditions, and to make up for the missed race, we will have two races this Saturday to coincide with the Craigleith Club Championships. Following the Club Championships, we have our end of year banquet dinner which is always a blast! Next weekend, Craigleith will be hosting the Nik Zoricic Foundation’s: Ski4Nik Challenge and Family Ski Day. Read on for more information on all these events.  

Your 2019 Interclub Champions - Craigleith!

This weekend’s races:

As a result of last weekend’s weather, we have two GDHL races on Saturday. They are in sync with the two Craigleith Club Championship races, however they will work uniquely. Here are the details:

-          GDHL racers will have the opportunity to take two runs on each course

-          For GDHL racers, the FIRST run will count towards Club Championships Finish Results

-          For GDHL racers, the best of their two runs will count towards GDHL Finish Results

-          All racers will race in their Club Championship race order (not GDHL order)

When you arrive on Saturday morning, head straight to the South Lodge where you can pick up your bibs in the Loft. These bibs are specific to the Craigleith Club Championship race order. When you pick up your Club Championships bib, please drop off your GDHL Bib!

The first race will be GS on Big John, in the morning. Expect a 10 am start.

The second race will be Slalom on Comet, expect a 1 pm start.

End of Year Banquet!

It’s finally here! This is the night we find out the winning teams, individuals, and celebrate a glorious, fun and safe racing season.

The Banquet will take place in the Georgian Bay Lounge of the Base lodge on Saturday, March 2. It is an evening event, so plan to attend between 6 and 7.

Everyone is welcome! Tickets are $35 or $25 for intermediates 35 and under – Available at the front desk. You can call the Club's front desk or order through the members' section of the Club website before Friday afternoon!

Lastly, it is a $10 corkage fee for those of you with fine tastes, and lots of free beer for everyone else. As always, there will probably be a prize or two.

NZ Weekend – Friday March 8th, and Saturday, March 9th

The Nik Zoricic Foundation is one that we all love to support. Among their mandates, is to provide safety (B) netting for ski race courses, and other safety equipment in Alpine Skiing events. For those of us who’ve experienced B-netting before, we are thankful for it.  

Since 2013, Craigleith Ski Club has hosted the Nik Zoricic Foundation for a fundraising event in March. The event has taken a few different forms, and each year has been unforgettably fun. This year’s event is a bit different and includes an epic Ski Pro Tour Dual Slalom!

That’s right, the 2019 NZ Ski4Nik Challenge includes a Dual Slalom, and all of you have already shown your love, and capability for a Dual Slalom. Sign up for an adult is $35!

Click through here to learn more. The event is always a blast and it is a wonderful way that we can remember Nik Zoricic.

Jack Ride – A message from a fellow GDHL’r

On May 25th, three Craigleith members (and part time GDHLers) Keith Farnand, Tristan Jeanneault and Stu McFarlane will be participating in the Jack Ride. The Jack Ride is an annual cycling event held each spring in support of Jack.org’s work to revolutionize youth mental health in Canada.  Every rider-raised dollar goes directly to supporting Jack.org’s 2800 young leaders in their work to dismantle barriers to positive mental health in their communities. All three riders are doing the 100km route and are actively looking for donations in support of this important cause.   

For more information on the Jack Ride, click here.

To donate to one of the GDHL team members, click here, and search by their name

Thank you for your support,

-Stu McFarlane

Lots to digest above, and lots to look forward to! We’re excited to see you on the hill on Saturday and at banquet on Saturday night. If you have any questions about anything above, just hit reply!

-Doug Jarvis

Long Slaloms AND Long Newsletters!

We are now at the penultimate weekend for the GDHL. The season has been unfolding in wonderful fashion with many feel-good stories, and successes. This week’s newsletter is loaded with information on the events taking place during the remainder of our season, including the End of Year Banquet, and the Interclub Championship Race. You will also find a short summary of the race last Sunday, and the updated team and individual rankings which are starting to paint a clearer picture of where everyone will end the season.

Big John Slalom

It was another Big John Slalom for the GDHL! This one was just as fun as the first, with similar excitement. The course was set down the middle of Big John, with a nice rhythm, and lots of rhythm changes. The early leader was Bridgitte Mingay, who finished 2nd overall on the ladies’ side, with a time of 47.72. Very soon after, Cheryl McConachie continued her Slalom dominance, laying down the 4th fastest time of the day, 43.31 to lead the ladies’. Mackenzie Irwin finished in third with a 47.78. This was Bridgette’s first appearance on the podium, while both Cheryl and Mack are vying for the overall ladies’ lead.

The men’s side became interesting when many of the top racers skied out in their first run. This gave an opportunity for different looking top 10 racers, however there weren’t any surprises on the podium. Ben Williams won the race with a time of 42.69. Alex Libert followed closely with a time of 42.97. Gordie Bruce continued his impressive campaign, finishing in third, with a time of 43.22.

The top ten had only Greg Cavers representing the “not in their 20s” crowd. In possibly the race of his life, Robert Vitols finished 10th. You may have to go through lots of old Alpine Ontario results to find the last time he finished top 10!

Next Up: Big John GS, Sunday, February 24, 1 30 PM Start time.

Rankings

Rankings can be found here. Start to review them, find your rival, plot your success, and check in on the team ranks too! The top three teams are very competitive with only 72 points separating Team Comet in first place, and team Vortex in third. Sandwiched between those two is Cornice. You can also sort by gender (Cheryl and Mack!) to see how close you are to the overall title!

Now onto the guest writers. Find below info on the End of Year Banquet and the Interclub Finale!

End of Year Banquet, Saturday, March 2nd

From Carrie Lenauskas:

Sadly, it's the end of the year almost.  Only 2 races are remaining, but this means that we have our end of the year banquet coming up!

Not only will we find out who the big winners are on both the team and individual side, we will also see who won the family competition as well as all the other awards we have!

The event start at 7pm with some awesome music from BAM, Craigleith's resident pump up man. We will have appetizers, a family style dinner and of course, dessert.  Lost Craft Brewery will be there will be there with some samples as well.

Corkage is $10/bottle (paid at the bar).

Everyone is welcome!  Ticket are $35 or $25 for intermediates 35 and under – Available at the front desk starting today.

Last Year’s GDHL Harware on display at the end of year banquet

InterClub Finals are this Saturday!

From James Mathers:

Since the last update, Craigleith's Interclub masters team has completed an undefeated regular season with victories at Jozo Weider and the Peaks.  One key to success was a Few Fast Females.  Thanks are due to Anne Mathers, Mary Riopelle, Tiana Boyman, Kate Veer and Samantha Higgins, who collectively ensured that we had the minimum number of women required for a full team at each race, without which we wouldn't have been undefeated, and scored lots of points to boot.  I tried to find an "m" word to replace "fast" and achieve a more alliterative version of Many Fast Men, but the thesaurus offered none.  It did suggest "debauched," "dissolute," "profligate" and "loose" in addition to "speedy," "expeditious" and "winged."  You can decide which best suits LaChance, Sutherland, Blaylock, Fregren, Winstone, Burnes, Raymond, Patten, Cavers, Shipton, Simms-Brown and Ruffolo, among others, all of whom contributed notably to the team's success.

The local heroes will now seek a record-setting eighth consecutive victory at the Finals, to be held on home slopes.  Captain Taylor Simms-Brown has some tough choices to make in choosing a final roster from all the "prompt" talent.  Come out and help celebrate or, if necessary, console on Big John this Saturday afternoon (and drop off your completed proxy at the South Lodge while you're at it).

See you on the slopes!

-Doug Jarvis

Scheduling Change - Slalom this Sunday moved to Big John - 10 AM Start

GDHL Racers: Our Race on Sunday, February 17th, has been moved to Big John. The start time remains the same, 10 AM.

See you there!

-Doug Jarvis

Snowmageddon Part 2

Family Day weekend is upon us (and today is Valentine’s Day), and we’ve now been blessed with two impressive winter storms. We hope everyone has been commuting safely through the intense snow, and thanked the gods of precipitation for the continued support our ski hills.

After multiple temperature swings and some wacky storms, we are back to having lots of snow and ice on the ground. Just like the roads in southern Ontario, the hills at Craigleith were pretty slick last weekend leading to an exciting, and speedy race!

Craigleith wasn’t the only host of fast races though, as the World Championships were in full swing last weekend, and the performances were remarkable. A small highlight of the best performances is included below.

Last Week’s Recap

There is a lot of credit due to our exceptional course setting team. Last Sunday’s GS race on Big John could have easily been a repeat of the first race of the season, and no one would have complained. However, that is what we received. Our coaching team set a great GS course down the middle of Big John, on bullet proof ice, to create an exciting and adrenalin pumping race. Right from the start gate, racers could feel their edges cut into the ice on the flats before the pitch, and once over the pitch it was up to the racers to decide how fast they wanted to go.

The fastest of the day was Gordon Bruce (29.12)! An exceptional finish through the first run held, even though lots of seconds runs were faster. Following Gordon was Duff Isberg (29.46) and Phil Ruffalo (29.49). It was a very tight cluster of finishes from the top echelon of our racers. Of note, Phil beat out long-time rival Alec Libert, which is a rare occurrence and one that Phil celebrated exuberantly.

Mackenzie Irwin’s second run won her top spot among women (31.23). This is Mack’s 2nd win in the category, to tie her with Cheryl, who also has two category wins to her name. Cheryl came in second among women (31.37), and Lindsay Brazill (32.75) came in third. This is Lindsay’s first podium in her GDHL career!

In the “Top 20 racers, not in their 20s” category, Scott McLorie (30.41) and Greg Cavers (30.47) came 7th and 8th. David Raymond, Al Lachance, and Richard Usher-Jones put great performances finishing 18th, 19th, 20th, respectively.

Next up:

This week we have Slalom Sunday morning at 10 am, on Comet.

World Championships in Are, Sweden - Results

Both Aksel Lund Svindal and Lindsey Vonn announced that their final races would be at the 2019 World Championships in Are, Sweden, starting last week through to this weekend. It was previously mis-reported (FAKE NEWS) that Lindsey was retiring at the start of the season, however it was always her intention to race this season as her last. Following some pretty intense injuries from crashes this season, Lindsey’s race schedule was limited. She felt that this World Championships was the last race she could push herself through the pain of a chronically injured body.

Aksel, no different from Lindsey, has had a storied career dominating the speed events and putting his stamp on all disciplines. In 2014 he tore his achilles tendon and missed the majority of the 2014/2015 season. He then came back to start the 2015 season and won the Lake Louise downhill in his third world cup race back from injury. Aksel recognized his body was aging and he wanted to make sure he could leave racing on his own terms. He too announced that his final race would be at these world Championships.

Below are each of their runs.

Aksel finished his career with exceptional results.

• World Cup: 36 wins, 80 Podiums.

• 2 Overall World Cup Titles, 9 Discipline Titles

• World Championships: 5 wins, 9 Podiums

• Olympic Games: 2 Gold medals, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze.

Lindsey Vonn was the most dominant Female ski racer ever.

• World Cup: 82 Wins, 137 podiums

• 4 Overall World Cup Titles, and 16 discipline titles

• World Championships: 2 wins, 8 podiums

• Olympic Games: 1 Gold medal, 2 Bronze

Enjoy the posts from each of them, saluting their final runs.

With all of the injuries, the setbacks and the pain it wasn't perfect but I couldn't have finished my career any better... it's as close to a fairytale ending as I can get and it's all still sinking in.... ❤️🙏🏻 #thankful #againsttheodds #nevergiveup

182.7k Likes, 1,821 Comments - L I N D S E Y * V O N N (@lindseyvonn) on Instagram: "With all of the injuries, the setbacks and the pain it wasn't perfect but I couldn't have finished..."

That moment when you realize you've crossed the finish line for the last time as a professional athlete🏁. Thanks for all the kind words and support these last days. This couldn't have ended in a better way✌️😊

76.4k Likes, 1,161 Comments - Aksel Lund Svindal (@asvindal) on Instagram: "That moment when you realize you've crossed the finish line for the last time as a professional..."

See you on the slopes. Safe driving out there!

-Doug Jarvis

Over the Hump of Winter

We have passed the mid-point of our GDHL Season and are now coming into the home. Last weekend was our inaugural Dual Slalom and Après Ski event, and we’ve got another Big John GS this coming weekend. For those of you looking to enjoy some ski racing during the week, the World Championships are currently taking place in Are, Swede, and Friday is the ladies Alpine Combined event. You’ll find a full write up on all these items and more

Retro Attire was on Full Display on Saturday Afternoon

Sunday’s GS Race will be on Big John

This Sunday we have our GS Race at 1 pm. The location has changed, and it will take place on Big John. This is a great opportunity for those of you who love the 40 second hill to score more points on our flagship piste. As usual, please be ready to inspect at 12 15.

Greg Cavers - one of the GDHL Committee members to contribute many late hours to last weekend, enjoying a well deserved drink at the Apres event!

Dual Slalom and Apres Ski Event

Our inaugural Dual Slalom event was an absolute blast to host. Thank you to the racers, the cheering squad, the helpers, the videographers, the announcers, the COYOTES, and the GDHL Committee!

The event began at 1 30 pm (ish), with an impressive dual slalom set on Comet. Both Red and Blue Courses were running well, and the first 32 racers took two runs to determine the who would go forward onto the next round. The next round of 16 was an exciting display of lots of our top talent in the GDHL. The round of eight became increasingly competitive as the four races were each determined by hundredths and small tenths of seconds. Going into the semi-finals, Andrew Athey raced Alec Libert, and Gordon Bruce raced Duff Isberg. The Big final was Duff Isberg up against Alec Libert, with the former taking the win! The two races were tight and the winner was separated by less than 6 milliseconds. The small final was won by Gordon Bruce, in a similarly exciting fashion.

The Apres Ski event was wonderfully fun with the live band and awards. The entire committee is so excited by the success of the entire event.

Even with all the excitement going on, we weren’t oblivious to some areas of improvement. This being our initial year, we missed a couple things here and there, and we definitely want to expand the racer selection. All ideas and suggestions are welcome from the GDHL Community and we will work to building a bigger and better event for next year!

Final Four Racers Celebrating a Great Day with a ShotSki!

LR: Andrew Athey, Duff Isberg, Alec Libert, Gordon Bruce

World Championships

The World Championships in Are Sweden began on Monday. The races will finish up at the end of Family Day weekend, so take some time to watch the best in the world. Just as we tried to recreate last weekend, the Dual Slalom will take place next Tuesday, February 12th! Aksel Lund Svindal and Lindsey Vonn will both be handing up their racing boots following their respective downhill races, on Saturday and Sunday. Make sure you check out the schedule here for timing!

Looking forward to another great race weekend ahead!

-Doug Jarvis