Team USA

Team USA
Sloan's Lake

08 January 2008

Riesen Slalom aka Giant Slalom (in English)





Have I ever mentioned that ski racing can be very unforgiving and grueling? Today was a perfect example of both. It was a tough day, but not in the same way as yesterday. The weather was a lot better; we had a clear blue sky and the sun actually came out. BUT clear skies in mountains mean cold snow. So all that wet rain we’ve seen the past couple of days actually froze. Therefore, instead of soft, mushy, sugary snow we had hard frozen slush. I mean really frozen, like clear patches in the course. Both the condition of the hill and difficult course sets made for an exigent day of racing. I didn’t ski poorly but let’s just say that the combination of hard snow and challenging courses brought out the weaknesses in my skiing. My first run I skied pretty well okay but my second run I struggled to make through, in the end I hung on and placed 9th. My time was far from good, which is disappointing but I’m not dwelling on it, because I can’t change it. My consolation is that a lot of other racers found today very trying as well. I’m hoping that the SC goes better tomorrow. The Super G should be better as there will be less turning and SL is good on firm snow (at least in theory) I guess we’ll see!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I had a chance to visit The Ski Channel and they are having all sorts of contests for prizes such as: 3 nights in Crested Butte and much more. Be sure to check it out at http://www.theskichannel.com