Day 5 - Warm January We're Having

Today was one of those days that you wait all year for - sixty degrees, blue skies, beautiful views, and great corn snow. It is really too bad that it had to take place in the second week of January. The January Thaw is well upon us now and Wildcat has lost a substantial amount of snow in just two days. The powder that once blanketed the whole ski area has turned to brown patches.

(Click on this picture for photo album)

We were still able to get in some decent training this morning on Bobcat training another full length GS. We had the timing system set up this morning with six race runs and most people skiing in GS suits. There were, unfortunately, about three slip runs in between as the ruts were building up to about knee depth in points (there was grass showing at the bottom of a few of them). We also got three runs on video which should be helpful as we are training GS again tomorrow.

In the afternoon, we bagged the course as the snow only softened up. We watched some World Cup video in the lodge and then free skiied underneath the triple. Lots of emphasis on basics and a great chance to focus on what racers are working on in the course. The general consensus, however, was that the snow was not the best for race training. The forecast predicts that it will have to be as we are looking at more warm weather for the rest of the week.

In equipment news Elisa's Rossignol boots came to the house after some careful footwork by Mallory with the skis. She's quite pleased and a happy Elisa means a happy Brown ski team! We were able to take lots of photos today on one of the best days of skiing we will probably see all season. I won't be able to post them today, but look for them later this week.