It has been said that the Brown Ski Team puts the "able" back into "variable." That could not have been more visible than today. When we arrived at Sunapee at 7:35, the lift was not running, the course was not set, and the fog was so thick that we couldn't even see 100 ft up the mountain. The original plans had been to start slipping at 8:15, but those plans quickly deteriorated alongside the weather. Overnight some of the snow had frozen with the sleet, but beneath that was some pretty soft mush.
We waited until about 9:30 to really get things going. For those who haven't been to a race in a while, most of the decisions are made on the hill and radioed back to those at the bottom of the mountain. Like the children's game "telephone" the message frequently gets garbled in translation. There were multiple messages floating around on the airwaves today on start times and inspection runs which made for a morning that was nothing short of chaotic.
Eventually we had a group slip to break through the hard layer of snow and try and harden up the mush. This involved all of the athletes slipping down the hill in line formation. While this was able strengthen some parts of the course, the top quickly started to go brown as we hit dirt. It is amazing to think that only one week ago there was too much snow! The final verdict from the coaches was a delayed start time of 12 noon, a lowered start that cut off the top ten gates, and a one run race. In close to fifteen years of ski racing, I don't believe that I have ever seen a one run GS. The weather today left us with no choice. Around 11, racers got an inspection from the lowered start.
In a sprint race like this it is difficult to really do much critical assessment, but it seemed like both the men and women put together a solid effort. We have yet to see the results, but I will update this once they come in. The women's team was consistent with nearly everyone finishing under forty seconds. It was the first race for both Krista Consiglio '11 (2nd place!) and Blaine Martin '11. I was posted up at the bottom of the course and I overheard several surprised parents comment on how fast our new girls were! Overall the women came up in third place and with more training and races, we are poised to do even better. All members of the men's team had great runs also. All six guys stood up and it was the first runs for Dow Travers '11 (just in from Aspen), Mike Cohen '11, and Jeff Ernsting '11. It was a great first finish for our men and something that is a great stepping stone for the rest of the year.
David Sonshine and Susan Kovar did not race today but were assets providing moral support at the bottom and helping post the scoreboard for recording times. Even after the rocky start, the course seemed to hold together quite well. A special thanks to the Casey and Taub Families for coming all the way out to Sunapee to provide the team with both moral and edible support.
We are hoping for an equally strong finish tomorrow, and the weather looks like it might even include some sun!
In other news, we have been mentioned on the blog of our new home mountain Wildcat:
http://skiwildcat.blogspot.com/
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