We Blame Huey

We were planning to ski slalom at Vail.  But it was kind of a madhouse over there the previous day and training space opened up at Loveland, so over the pass we went.  The snow came in behind us and buried our Loveland slalom hill in deep snow, but at least we had the place to ourselves. Contrary to what most skiers would do, we pushed as much powder snow OFF the hill as we could and got down to slalom training on the ice underneath.

Setting up for our annual race against Colorado Mountain College

Executing the Flying V to push snow off away from the slalom gates

Bella

Miranda

Annamal; grooming the course in a brief moment of sun

Sean.

Huey had been charging hard all day, taking the "big boy line" and making it stick, and wanted to get as many runs in the plastic as he could.  But toward the end of the session the snow came in real heavy again and we raced to get on the highway, through the tunnel and back down to Silverthorne before getting snowed in... but too late - we missed it by about 20 cars.  The tunnel closed just as we got there.

Sparky - exploring his options.

Moby and Huey

Moby

More of the same...

Things weren't looking promising...

Eventually, DOT sent us back down toward Denver, but we managed to snag a room at the Columbine in Idaho Springs.

This morning.  The roads were good, but the drivers not so good.  The traffic jammed due to an accident.

But we did make it back to the house this morning in time for a little breakfast and ski tuning, and we're off to Vail for our final day of slalom in about a half-hour.

Slalom

Today we went over to Vail for a little slalom action and found the alpine equivalent of the first five kilometers of a Worldloppet marathon ski race. The traffic on the hill was insane, with slalom courses crammed in between giant slalom courses, other slalom courses, free skiers, coaches, and more giant slalom courses.  Everyone had to ski with their head on a swivel, watching out for crossing traffic. It was mayhem out there! But we had good snow and good training.  It was our first day in the slalom gates.  Progress was made.

Everybody was there.

Kat.  Negotiating a sea of plastic.

Chuck.  And Sparky.

Alix

Sean

Huey

Tony

Hailey

Today, Hailey Swirbul signed a "national letter of intent" to come to Anchorage and ski for the UAA Ski Team next year.  Hailey is a high school senior from Carbondale, Colorado. Over the past few years she's been building quite a resume in the junior ranks, and she'll be looking to build on her success when she comes to Alaska next fall.  We're looking forward to having Hailey join our team!

Bluster

It was a bit wintry out on the hill today at Loveland for our last day of giant slalom training. Somebody told me highest wind gust recorded on the mountain was around 70mph. Yesterday the French women's World Cup team trained on the hill immediately after us and asked us not to slip in the berms when we were done set so they could use Sparky's GS set. Today we trained after the French and they returned the favor, letting us use the training course they'd set. Tomorrow we move to Vail for slalom training.

Winter wonderland

Slipping the berms out (not in) for the French

Moby

Hughston

Tony

Kat and Sparky.  Talking it out.

Curtis

Sparky and Huey

Chuck in the gate. Alix on deck. We skied into a bit of a headwind today.

When training is over, it's not really over. Taking panels off today's GS gates to turn them in to tomorrow's slalom gates.

A Thousand Words

Here's an article from UAA's student newspaper of record. 

I don't really know what to say about it. 

You're on your own. 

Click on the photo of Hughston for the link. 

Good luck.

Giant Slalom

Today was the alpine team's first day in the gates. Sparky and Anna kept me busy hauling plastic around and taking video, but they let me off the hook for the last GS run and I took these pictures.

Today we had our own hill to train on.

Tony

Moby

Curtis

Hughston

Charley

Kat

Alix

Isabella

It's been snowing all day.  It's supposed to get heavy tonight. The highway is closed due to the storm.  Life is good.

High Times

Ever since last year's UAA Alpine Team Pre-Season Training Camp in Colorado, I've been begging the coaches to let me come back and drag panel gates around the ski areas of Summit County with them. They finally gave in and now I'm spending the week chasing the Alpine team around Loveland Pass with a video camera on a pair of skis that Conor loaned me. Thanks, Bucky!

Every day begins with a team warm-up.

Taco Night at the house.

It's no secret there are a lot of Canadians on this team. We've got satellite radio in the vans.  And it's usually tuned to this.

The alpine coaches, Sparky and Anna, have been letting me listen in on their strategy sessions.

UAA Base Camp

On the hill. During the first couple days on snow we've been focusing on the basics...

...and when we're talking about alpine skiing basics, we're talking about drills.  Here's Sparky demonstrating one of the drills.  I think this one is called "the sprinkler". We've got all kinds of drills, and they've all got great names. I'd show you pictures of the skiers doing the drills, but this is all proprietary stuff, invented by Sparky and Anna, and they wouldn't want their trade secrets out in the public domain.  So I'll substitute some of the drills' namesakes:

There's the Cornholio...

...and the Shiva (AKA the Björk)...

The Björk.  (In this picture, Björk is actually doing the Cornholio.)

There's nothing wrong with the skiing here - or the weather.

And as always, the alpine skiers are "sending it".

Skiing in Town

Kincaid Park and Hillside Trails.
It looked like this:

Mario, Toomas, Etienne at Kincaid

At Kincaid: Etienne, Mario, Toomas

At Hillside: Etienne, Andrew, Toomas, Mario

Spencer Loop at Hillside. Taking a drink break. Etienne, Andrew, Hanna, Marcus, Mackenzie.

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