2012 Race Season Info

Singles League held its annual race directors meeting October 25^th at El Torito Restaurant in San Leandro. Attendees included Dan Walker, Karen Albrecht, Bob Ellis, Janet Spencer, John Walsh, Craig Faitel, Jeff McCabe, and Mitch McPeek.

 

Summary 

•      Race fee for the season is $85 this year. This is a $5 increase over last year’s fee. Please note that race fees do not cover the full cost of racing. Sponsors and contributions cover the remaining costs. Rusty Bindings made a $300 donation at the meeting.
•      Drop-in fee is $20 plus $10 insurance fee for the season.
•      Heavenly is available for a make-up race this year if necessary. However, it is unlikely races will be rescheduled if cancelled because of weather or other factors.
•      Norcal Championship races will be at Alpine Meadows, March 24, 25 2012
•      Farwest Championship races will be at Mammoth, April 6, 7, 8 2012 (2013 will be Alpine Meadows).

 

We need more racers  

•      Inskiers Ski Kick-off/Holiday party on December 10th. More info to come.
•      Signup online at Singles League website/registration (net yet available; will be soon!)
•      To promote racing, we agreed to the following: A rookie racer (never raced before) and is a member of a club can race one of either SL or GS for free the first weekend. The club must pay the $10 insurance fee (which it can charge to its member or subsidize).

Season tasks by club

Inskiers is off the hook this year for Poster Boards and Timing. Instead, we’ll manage registration and pace setters:

 

•  Bibs—San Francisco (John Walsh)
•  Race Registration/Drop in Racers/Pace Setters—Inskiers (Dan Walker)
•  Poster Boards/Write—in-Times—Snow Drifters
•  Chief-of-Course—Bota Baggers (Bob Eliis)
•   Gate Keepers—Rusty Bindings (Janet Spencer)

Racey Affair March 10, 2012

Nancy Ellis to plan and organize the event.

 

Aspen/Ski.com

•        2.5 days in January–$406 (3 day lodging/lift ticket)—Tuesday/Wednesday after Squaw Valley race—includes races!
•        More information will be posted soon or contact Bob Ellis

Alpine Meadows Race Camp: December 12-16, 2011

A message from coaches Paul and Will: “Last year we had many requests from you to have a early season boot comp.  I am pleased to announce that we have scheduled the first ever Alpine Meadows “Start Gate Race Camp”.  Both Will and I have listened to your comments and requests on how to make this camp the best camp for you that we can.  We have scheduled a 5 day, 5 hour per day camp, ice breaker BBQ, plenty of skiing, coaching, gates, video, timing, a fun race (combined times for SL & GS runs), warm-up Yoga stretching, a commemorative long sleeve fleece shirt, and happy hour every day!”

 

http://www.skialpine.com/lessons/masters-program

2012 Race Schedule

Ski season is just around the corner. This season, we plan eight Sierra/Singles League races and four championship races. The venues include two races at Squaw Valley, three races at Alpine Meadows, and three races at Northstar. Of the eight races, four will be giant slalom (GS), three slalom (SL), and one super G. If you plan to race this season and you bought either an Alpine or Squaw season pass then you lucked out: Your pass will work at either resort and, including Norcals, we have seven races at Squaw and Alpine this season.

Race	Date	Event	Location
1	January 7	GS	Squaw Valley Race #1
2	January 8	SL	Squaw Valley Race #2
3	January 21	SL	Northstar Race #3
4	January 22	GS	Northstar Race #4
	January 28-Feb 4		FWSA Ski Week-Jackson Hole WY
	Feb 25 Super G Clinics		Northstar (clinic is mandatory for first time SG racers). Two clinics are proposed: S0-S4 likely in a.m. and S5-S10 likely in p.m. and will depend on signup numbers in each class.
5	February 26	Super G	Northstar Race #5
6	March 3	SL	Alpine Meadows Race #6
7	March 4	GS	Alpine Meadows Race #7
8	March 10	GS	Alpine Meadows Race #8
	March 10		Singles League Racy Affair – Location TBD
	March 24	SL	Alpine Meadows – Norcal Races
	March 25	GS	Alpine Meadows – Norcal Races
	April 6 Pacesetting / Clinic		FWRA Championships-Mammoth
	April 7	TBD	Mammoth
	April 8	TBD	Mammoth

Race times the entire season after the first weekend: Expert at 10am, Advanced at 11:30am and Intermediate at 1pm. Times are subject to change based on snow conditions. For the Expert course (S0-S4) and the Advanced course (S5-S7), racers must complete two runs for a combined time. For the Intermediate course (S8-S10), racers will have the option to do two runs and the best run will count.

Race times for the first weekend: Intermediate race times will be at 10am and Expert race times will be at 1pm to allow for appropriate grouping of new racers.

Far West Results and Singles Season Wrap Up

The season wrapped up this weekend at Alpine Meadows with the Far West Race Association Championship. Sierra League barely edged out Singles League for the Roma McCoy trophy. This trophy is awarded to the League with the most points per racer.

Singles League entered about 35 racers (76 racer starts over 2 days). Sierra League had about 20 entrants, Open League 55, and ULLR 10. Pacrat (Oregon), San Diego, Rokka, and Schusski also contributed racers to the competition but had too few to qualify for the Roma McCoy trophy (which requires a minimum of 10 racers).

Inskier racers and alumni, Craig Faitel (S0), Duane Faitel (S3), and Dan Walker (S1) contributed strongly to the results. Craig scored a two day average of 18.5 points, 3rd in Slalom with 17 points and 2nd in GS with 20 points. Duane scored a two day average of a 12.5 points with a DNF in Slalom (it was brutal course) but a 1st place finish for 25 points and a strike in GS. Dan Walker scored a two day average of 22.5 points with a  1st place  in Slalom for 25 points and a 2nd place in GS for 20 points. Many other Singles League racers had impressive results in at least one race. Ian (Snow Drifters) competed in the  S1 Vet class while I competed in S1 Open so we did not compete against each other and hence managed to score lots of points for Singles League.

Next year’s Far West will be at Mammoth in mid April. Hopefully, this later calendar date will give us some breathing room, enabling us to have fewer back-to-back weekend competitions.

Slalom Course

Alpine set the expert and advanced courses on Yellow Trail. Alpine set the lower level courses on Kangaroo. Unfortunately, the temperatures overnight were unseasonably warm. The snow on the race hill did not freeze overnight. Although Alpine salted the course, huge ruts and holes developed. On the expert course, by the second run, it was like running a mogul course with gates. It was a fight to stay upright let alone trying to be fast. Still, it was strangely fun. One definitely felt a major sense of accomplishment to cross the finish line. The advanced course held up much better, perhaps because the expert racers stayed around and slipped, and perhaps because advanced racers descend through the course with less edge pressure than the experts. Still, the last few racers faced a tough course as well.

Giant Slalom Course

The weather cooperated fully on Sunday. Saturday night temperature dipped well below freezing and the courses held up. Alpine set the GS course from the very top of the Round House chairlift. It ran straight down and alongside Summit chair (you can see Summit chair in the upper right of this photo–double-click to make it larger).

Skiers and riders on the Summit chair lift had a good view of racers.

Unfortunately we were only allowed one run. On the one-hand, this was bummer because I finished just 38 hundreds of a second behind first place.  I could have made that up with just an average second run (my first run was not impressive, low and slow on the middle third of the course). On the other hand, it was nice to finish up early, have plenty of time to free ski, and still get on the road early, so no complaints.

S4 racer Tomoko Takeda from Open League showing good form and a big smile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Singles League Season Final Results

Singles League held 7 of the 8 scheduled races this season. Unfortunately, it was the super fun, super G race that was cancelled because of weather. Norcals also cancelled because of storms and was not and will not be rescheduled.

Marie Noto was the top point winner for Inskiers. Wendy Sumner, Rusty Bindings, won the most points of any one in Singles League. She had just 8 more points than Marie.

Racer	Points
Marie Noto	154
Karen Albrecht	132
Dan Walker	111
Cathy Baird	105
Brian Burgess	96
Debra Summers	92
David Baird	90
Jessica Disney	53
Kathy Silver	16

David Baird and Brian Burgess bumped up a class this season (and split points). It is tough to win a class when you split points between two classes, especially when there are many racers in each. Generally, it is much more impressive to bump than to win your class so, make no mistake, these two did well. Karen won her class by a wide margin. Marie pulled off the impossible. She bumped up a class and managed to score the most points, not just in one class, but both classes. I have never seen that happened before.

Here are the results for Inskiers by class for the 20011 season.

Bib	Name	Club	Total Points	Place
S0VM+OM
3	Craig Faitel (alumni)	RstBn	132	1
2	Bob Ellis	BtBgr	94
S1VM+OM
175	Ian Puleston	SnwDr	133
134	Dan Walker	Inskr	111	2
126	Ron Beck	SnwDr	86
S3OM
16	JD Harper	SnwDr	122
26	David Baird	Inskr	70	2
S4OM
121	Dirk Jagdmann	SnwDr	150
28	Jim Stewart	RstBn	99
758	Alan Tiscareno	RstBn	45
26	David Baird	Inskr	20	4
123	Brian Healy	SanFr	15
S5VM
39	Chris Valle-Riestra	SanFr	118
43	Steve Shepherd	RstBn	115
42	Mark Greenberg	RstBn	94
73	Gregg Keeling	SanFr	75
71	Brian Burgess	Inskr	71	5
S5OW
47	Karen Albrecht	Inskr	132	1
52	Nikki Faitel	RstBn	82
49	Lisa Chin	BtBgr	0

Bib	Name	Club	Total Points	Place
S6VM
80	Rocky Speakman	SnwDr	127
72	Chris Castledine	SnwDr	90
73	Gregg Keeling	SanFr	83
119	David Cassaro	SnwDr	58
71	Brian Burgess	Inskr	25	5
100	Bill Manfredi	RstBn	20
167	Dave Mengelkamp	BtBgr	15
74	Michael Natali	RstBn	1
S6W
63	Kristin Thornquist	SnwDr	142
106	Debra Summers	Inskr	92	2
95	Maria Mancianti	RstBn	45
62	Kathy Silver	Inskr	16
66	Lisa Burgess	Inskr	0
S7VW
91	Janet Spencer	RstBn	104
141	Laurie Mont	SanFr	94
95	Maria Mancianti	RstBn	92
124	Kat Severin	RstBn	79
92	Jessica Disney	Inskr	53	5
90	Cathy Boyer	SnwDr	25
S9OW
Bib	Name	Club	Total Points
162	Marie Noto	Inskr	45	1
S10OW
162	Marie Noto	Inskr	109	1
161	Cathy Baird	Inskr	105	2
S10SVM
179	Roger Cordi	RstBn	100
164	John Baker	Inskr	18	2

Super G Race Cancelled—Next Race GS at Diamond Peak

Northstar in collaboration with Sierra and Singles League course officials decided to cancel the race on Sunday because the conditions were unsafe.

The race hill—Challenger—received about 4 to 8 inches of new snow overnight and during the early morning hours while race course prep was underway. Northstar went so far as to actually set the expert course before deciding to cancel the event. The expert racers attempted to slip and side step the course into shape. Ultimately, however, this proved too difficult and too time consuming: We needed to create a corridor wide enough to be safe in case someone skied off course. And the chances of skiing of course were elevated: With these conditions, holes can develop in the course.  At Super G speeds, it is too dangerous to fly off into powder. Racers crank up their DIN settings to minimize the possibility of pre-leasing on a race course. Obviously, high DIN settings + speed + powder is a dangerous combination. Hence, the call was made to cancel.

Saturday’s Super G Training

Saturday training went well except for the large turnout, 65 participants, meant waiting a long time for each training run. As a result, most racers managed to get in only two runs and, a lucky few, three runs. Next year, Sierra League plans to manage the turnout more appropriately. One proposal is to divide the turnout into expert and intermediate groups and have the experts train in the morning and the intermediates in the afternoon.

Despite the few runs, most participants seemed to have enjoyed the day. Each training run was timed. The weather was nice and it was interesting comparing times.

Diamond Peak GS – Schedule

Saturday, March 12
Registration: Registration 7:30-8:30, upstairs in base lodge (bar level)
Race times:

Expert-10 a.m. (S0-S4)
Advanced-11:30 a.m. (S5-S7)
Intermediate-1 p.m. (S8-S10) (lower start)

The race is no longer on the Flume. It is on Upper Drop Off to Lower Drop Off. Ride the Lakeview Quad chair lift to reach the top of the race course. Top of the race course is the yellow arrow in the picture. Double-click to make the map larger.

The lodge has three levels: Cafeteria level, upstairs/bar/meeting room and lower/special tickets/ski shop/rentals. Discount lift tickets will be sold at window on lower level. They are available to all members of Singles League and Sierra League, both racers and non-racers. Prices are:

Adults (18-24) – $39
Young Adults (15-17) – $32
Seniors (65+) – $17
Children (7-14) – $17

NOTE: If you show a season pass from another resort, you can purchase the Adult/Young Adult tickets for $25.

Sierra awards at approximately 3:30 upstairs in room off the bar area. Singles awards at Racey Affair in the evening.

Super G Weekend at Northstar

On the schedule for this weekend is the “super fun” super giant slalom at Northstar. We’ll be racing on Challenger, which is the left-most run on the backside.

The fastest way to get to the Challenger from the Village (or parking lot) is to take the gondola to mid-mountain, then jump on the “Tahoe Zephyr Express” chair lift to the top, ski down Drifter (the right-most run on the backside and a good warm up run), take “Backside Express” chair lift to the top, then ski down Sierra Grande to the top of Challenger. It takes a while to get there so give yourself plenty of time.

The tentative plan for registration for both Saturday and Sunday is to meet at room 8101 in the Village. This is down stairs from Starbucks. The arrow in the map below points to room 8101.

Saturday Clinic

Saturday-March 5-Clinic, $30. If you have not ever raced the Super G format, the clinic is STRONGLY recommended. It’s fun and a chance to run the same gates as you will race on Sunday.

Registration: 7:30-8:30 a.m. Race registration room, Copper Lane, lower village level at bottom of stairs to Starbucks and ice rink. $30 payable at registration.

Notify your race director by Thursday if you will be attending the clinic to ensure an adequate number of coaches.

Clinic time: 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Challenger (Backside)

Sunday Race

Race times:

Expert-10 a.m. (S0-S4)

Advanced-11:30 a.m. (S5-S7)

Intermediate-1 p.m. (S8-S10) (lower start)

Discount lift tickets will be sold at registration. They are available to all members of Singles League and Sierra League, both racers and non-racers, but must be purchased at Registration (7:30-8:30 a.m). Lift ticket pricing is still being verified and we will send it as soon as we know.

Awards at approximately 3:30 upstairs in the Big Springs Lodge (midmountain/top of gondola).

Challenger Super G photos from 2008 courtesy of Sierra League

The race winner, Pavel Bosin, showing excellent form. Notice how his shoulders are level and hips “into the hill” creating lots of edge angle. He has a slight counter, hands together, arms slightly bent, so that he will clear the gate with his left arm / back of the left shoulder.  This slight counter also helps keep pressure over the outside ski as the skis come around.

Karen ripping it

Snow boarders can do it too!

The finish

Racey Affair

Singles League Racing celebrates the end of the regular season with an awards party. This year, the Racey Affair follows our final Singles League race at Diamond Peak on Saturday March 12 (both are on the same day). It is not, however, the end of the race season. The Norcals will be held the following weekend at Sugar Bowl. The Far West Race Association (FWRA) Championship races will be held the weekend of April 1. Contact your race directors, Marie and Dan, to sign up. The deadline for reservations is March 4th.

Squaw Race Results—Next Race Northstar Super G

Inskiers competed at Squaw Valley on Saturday and Sunday, February 12 and 13. The weather was similar to the prior weekend at Sugar Bowl without the wind, warm and sunny. The snow was hard pack. These were challenging conditions. The race hill, near the base area off Exhibition chair lift, has a long steep section that required sharp skis and strong edge pressure to hold a line and ski it clean. The alternative—sliding, losing ground, possibly ending up below a gate—is a bit scary not to mention slow. We had some drama on on the steep section—more on this below.

The Squaw race crew did an excellent job as usual preparing and managing the race course. It held up well.

The slalom competition attracted 94 racers. We had a good turn out among expert racers, 44 of the 94 racers competed on the expert course. Many of the expert racers also race Masters and train at Squaw. There were no Masters races this weekend so it was convenient for them to show up. The advanced course had 35 racers and the intermediate course had 15. We had lots of spectators as this was an exciting race to watch given the challenging course and the high turn out among expert racers.

The giant slalom competition attracted 102 racers. We had 46 experts, 40 advanced, and 16 intermediate racers. The expert and advanced courses began at the top of the Exhibition chair lift, which meant racers had to negotiate the infamous “road” that intersects the race course about 1/4 of the way down the course. The road causes racers to compress just before launching off onto the steepest section of the hill. The first gate below the road cannot be seen from above the road. The advanced course was set to slow racers down above the road, but this also had the effect of increasing the amount of compression. In fact, skiing across the road was slightly up hill on the advanced course.

Karen skiing off the road onto the steep

Karen flying down the steep

Karen carrying speed from the steep across the flat

Unfortunately Barb McCabe was injured pace setting on the advanced course after launching off the road. Another racer on the intermediate course suffered a concussion (this course began at the road so the road was not a factor). Barb broke some ribs but is in good spirits. She wrote in an email, “Why on earth I was trying to go so fast on a Pacesetter run is beyond me.  Trying to beat JD I guess. I want to thank everyone for their kind words, cards, visits, and for just being there for me.  It means a lot. I am home now and struggling around like an old lady, but I’LL BE BACK!.” In a separate email, “A guy on the Int. course was also taken off the hill on the sled. He was next to me in the ER at the hospital and has a concussion. My broken ribs will heal and I’ll be out there again next year.”

I also had a wild ride on the second pace setting run on the advanced course. I hit the road with a lot of speed, compressed, skis got a little squirrelly, and right ski hooked the gate set at the lip of the road . This spun me around backwards. I skied absolutely backwards down the steepest part of the course until I managed to carve my skis somewhat sideways, enough so I could intentionally fall onto my left hip/butt to get my skis off the snow. Once off my skis, I slid past a couple of gates, managed to spin around, get my skis back under me, stand up, and ski to the left side of the hill. It could have been disaster given that I have the DIN setting cranked to 15 under the theory that I will never ski backwards on them. Fortunately, I just ended up with one sore butt for a couple of days—but it was a tense few moments.

Debra flying down the steep

Debra showing good technique: Wide stance, parallel shins, good edge angle, hands out in front and the right distance apart—good to see!

Debra near the finish—however leaning in with the shoulders a bit too much in this pic—level them out and the hips will respond by moving inside. Moving the hips inside instead of the shoulders is the way to increase edge angle and make a cleaner turn. I have photo evidence of several other Inskiers leaning in. If we can correct this, we’ll all go faster and most importantly, feel safer doing so!

Despite the mishaps, it was far-and-away the best race experience I have ever had. The nice weather, the well run race course (thanks Squaw), the challenging hill, and all the good skiing added up to a really fun time. It was fun beating my nemesis, Ian, by over 7 seconds in slalom on Saturday. And for the first time, I skied faster than former Inskier Craig Faitel on several runs in both slalom and giant slalom, although he still posted faster 2 run times. I’m curious how other Inskiers felt about Squaw. Judging by the photo above, Debra seems to be having fun. We coach our racers to smile for the camera but I’m not sure Debra knew the camera was there!

Inskiers Results Ranked by Points

	Racer	Class	Slalom	GS	Points Earned	% of Total	Times Avg.
1	Marie Noto	S10OW	First & Strike	First	50	24%	1.90
2	Cathy Baird	S10OW	Second	First	45	21%	1.71
3	Karen Albrecht	S5OW	First	First	40	19%	1.52
4	Brian Burgess	S5VM	Third	Fifth	28	13%	1.07
5	Dan Walker	S1VM+OM	First	DQ	25	12%	0.95
6	Debra Summers	S6W	DNF	Second	20	10%	0.76
7	David Baird	S3OM	DNF	Third	1	0%	0.04
8	Kathy Silver	S6W	DQ	Fourth	1	0%	0.04
9	Jessica Disney	S7VW	DNF	DNS	-	0%	-
				Total	210	100%
				Avg. per Racer	26

Just like the prior weekend, Marie ended up as the top point getter for Inskiers with 50 points and earning almost 2 times the number of points as the average Inskier! She also bumped up from S10 to S9, then earned a strike as an S9 in GS—way to go Marie! Cathy and Karen also did well, earning 45 and 40 points respectively. On the downside, Dan missed the final gate on run 1 of GS earning zero ponts—way to go Dan! Oh well, at least I was fast. I think it is more fun to go fast and blow it than be slow and beat yourself up for not “going for it.” Apparently other Inskiers share my philosphy: Overall, we ended up a little light on points for the weeeknd because of disqualifications (DQs) and a few “did not finishes” (DNFs).

Inskiers recording scores at the finish area with racers looking on

Slalom Detailed Results for Inskiers

Giant Slalom Detailed Results for Inskiers

Next Race Super G at Northstar

The next race is a super G at Northstar on Sunday March 6. There is a race clinic on Saturday, March 5. The race clinic is fun with many more opportunities to run the course than on Sunday.