Downhill Racer

Cross-country skiers spend most of their time going uphill. I once heard someone say that 80% of a racer's time on course is spent on the uphills. Who knows if he had any basis for saying that, but we were in Norway at the time so I probably just assumed he knew what he was talking about. And besides, I've got better things to do with my time than to spend it fact-checking stuff like that. Anyway, that still leaves 20%. And that time has to be spent getting back downhill to where you started. The faster you can get downhill, the more you can slack off on the uphills and still keep up with your friends. So on Wednesday, we practiced our downhilling and corning skills, and we had our annual downhill time trial. To get to the downhill, we had to go uphill, so we did a lot of climbing on Wednesday. And just to spice it up, we threw in some team sprints during the climb.

 

Pati coming past the group on an uphill sprint.

Marine leading the group.

Coach Andrew leading through the slalom course.

Etienne arcing one out. This is what alpine coach Sparky calls "SENDING IT!"

Etienne Richard? Is that you? Put this picture next to the one above it and see if you can find any difference.  I can't.

"Shin to win, Galen!" You think the coaches' job is to pick up your shinned-off pin flags?! Back when I was in high school, we called this "getting transfer".  Ask me what it means and I'll explain.

Sarah.
Chuck the Ski Club Groomer offered to groom the trail in front of  us for each lap we did.  We were much obliged.

Brandon leaves the starting gate on the signal from Tor.

Do you think Viktor wanted to win the downhill time trial?