Masters Moments: Racers go full speed in Aspen

Intermountain and Rocky Mountain hosted a gala of speed events at Soldier Mountain and Aspen as part of the Molecule F National Speed Series. Intermountain speedsters packed up and headed to Snow King, Wyoming, for the weekend for a joint race with the Northern Division — the Cowboy Classic. In the East, Brantling Ski Slopes hosted the New York Masters for two slaloms. New England, Far West and Mid West racers had a scheduled weekend off.
Intermountain and Rocky Mountain hosted a gala of speed events at Soldier Mountain and Aspen as part of the Molecule F National Speed Series. Intermountain speedsters packed up and headed to Snow King, Wyoming, for the weekend for a joint race with the Northern Division — the Cowboy Classic. In the East, Brantling Ski Slopes hosted the New York Masters for two slaloms. New England, Far West and Mid West racers had a scheduled weekend off.
    When racing resumes, Midwest racers will head to Buck Hill for a technical series. New England racers will battle it out at Loon and Crotched Mt for giant slalom and slalom, while Rocky Mountain racers can be found at Vail for the prestigious Duke Cup GS championship. The Far West racers will visit a new venue — Homewood, Calif., for two GS races. Feb. 22-24, Schweitzer Mountain, Idaho, hosts the Pacific Northwest Masters at the Don Brooks Memorial for six races including SG, GS, and SL.
 
Rocky Mountain Speed Series makes final stop in Aspen
A longtime Aspen resident tracking snowfall since the 1940’s reported that 2008 has broken all records. Yes, it’s been a snowy winter in Colorado as evidenced by the cancellation of last week’s super G race at the Winter Park Western Regional championships due to, you guessed it… heavy snowfall. So you can imagine the surprise of competitors during the long holiday weekend of Feb. 15-17 as they were blessed with blue skies and sunshine to create the perfect environment for an epic weekend of speed events.
     As the final speed event weekend of the Rocky Mountain Masters season, the Curtis Cleveland Memorial Super G races were held on Friday followed by the Miracle on the Mountain Downhill on Sunday after a day of speed training. Both sets of races were held on Racer’s Edge run on Tiehack with the same start and finish locations. The first super G and first downhill races counted toward the Molecule F National Speed Series.
     After leaving the start adjacent to the lift shack, racers propelled themselves along the flat upper ridge of the race trail where intermediate times were taken to track wax and tuck options. After a series of sweeping turns to build speed, the course headed over Waterfall, down a fast gully and over Wire Bump spilling into the Meadows and around Daytona Turn. Exiting the Meadows, there’s a high-speed traverse across coaches knoll. The Super G passed down through Toilet Bowl and up across to the finish line. For the downhill, instead of going left down through the Toilet Bowl, the course ran straight down Brown Streak with speeds exceeding 80 mph by top competitors.
     Erik Klemme won the first super G race for the men, followed by Franz Fuchsberger (aka Fuxi) and super G specialist Jim Estelle in third. For the women, Jennifer Kaufman took the win and also placed fifth in the men’s race, followed by Victoria Valar in second place. The surprise was recently retired Sandy Hogan joining the series from the Far West division and capturing third as a class 9.
     In the second super G race on Friday, Klemme had the fastest time of the day but in his hurry to get to the finish line he missed a gate coming out of Toilet Bowl and was disqualified. With the DQ, Jim Estelle climbed aboard the top podium step, with Fuxi again settling for second place and RMM president Jim Roberts claiming a top three position. Kaufman also won the second race for the women, just missing another top five overall time with Susan Roberts in second and Valar in third.
     During the final downhill training run on Saturday, weather rolled in and the light got very flat, raising concern for Sunday’s race day conditions. Despite the threat of clouds and more snow, blue skies prevailed during the race. The expert guidance of Aspen’s Scott Nichols allowed both races to be conducted under ideal conditions, and surely, Nichols is responsible for the sunny skies as well.
     Sunday’s first downhill race had a surprise winner for the men when Roberts completed the run of his life and took the lead over course-setter and Technical Delegate, Don (Cowboy) Johnson. The Cowboy is a regular contender for any speed event. Fuxi rounded out the top three, but obvious to all observers was that Fuxi’s fire had been lit. Kaufman once again proved her speed pedigree by capturing the win for the women, with Roberts in second and Valar in third.
     For the second and final downhill event of the day, Fuxi blistered the course and was the only competitor to break 1:20 with a 1:19.98. The Cowboy again captured second place and Roberts was only 0.01 behind in third. To illustrate how deeply competitive the field has become in the Rocky Mountain division, the men’s podium was separated by less than a tenth of a second! With Kaufman missing from the women’s lineup, Roberts took the final downhill with the fastest ladies time of the day, Valar moved up to second and Aspen’s young and fast Carly Hedrich claimed third.
Rocky Mountain Masters prepare for and head to the Duke Cup Giant Slalom Championship races at Vail next weekend.
    — Jim Roberts
 
Snow King Giant Slalom Weekend a delight
The two giant slalom races at Snow King's second annual "Cowboy Classic" were one of those wonderful race weekends that everyone talks about for weeks. But it was a true reality dream for Intermountain's new star, Donna Allen.
     For the first time, Allen was the fastest woman on the hill — both days. To top it all, on Friday, she had gone window shopping in Jackson and fell in love with a large, expensive wooden ski sign. During Saturday's awards, a start sheet raffle was held. Allen won the top prize. You guessed it — the prize was the sign. She jumped in the air repeatedly, screaming with glee. It was that kind of weekend.
     Snow King, one of the most underrated resorts in the country, had hero snow, and after a few gates, everyone realized they could risk taking chances. Saturday's first run, set by Bob Sarchett, was more like an easy super G that allowed everyone to test their daring, and the rest of the sets, though more technical, were all extreme fun, according to the racers enthusing about the great race hill at the finish.
     Mike Falk was the overall winner Saturday, by more than a second over second-place rival Dennis Wilhelmsen. Wilhelmsen won Sunday's GS, but by less than half a second, giving Falk the award for fastest man of the weekend. Allen won the women's award. Both awards were many hundreds of dollars.
     The race crew put on an impeccable show, with enough course slippers to keep ruts out of the soft snow, even for the last racers. Good natured starter Louis Able lived up to his last name, pouring water on the start to ice it into giving some extra momentum, putting an arm around shivering racers during course holds — though not to keep them warm. "I'm holding them back so they don't slide through the start," he explained, with a laugh.
     Saturday's awards banquet was a gourmet surprise. Rare roast beef, sliced ham and turkey, a huge assortment of expensive cheeses and French rolls and a veggie tray greeted ravenous racers. It
was a good show for a bigger future. Jackson Hole is bidding for the Masters Nationals. Speed events would be at the big mountain named after the town, the tech events would be at Snow King.
     Bill Skinner said, "The venues are very Masters friendly. The GS was a great hill for Masters racing, it was great weather, and a really homey atmosphere."
     One racer summed it up by saying, "It was a 'you shoulda been there' race."
    — Wina Sturgeon
 
New York Masters at Brantling for two slalom races
A small field of about 25, mostly Rochester and a few Syracuse area Masters racers, gathered at Brantling for four runs of slalom on Feb. 17. When a race is scheduled for Brantling, despite its small size, everyone knows the hill crew (aka: Kevin Spear) will provide a class act with well set courses and an efficiently run race. Typical for Brantling, course inspection could be done from the bar.
     The first course was set uncharacteristically straight for a Brantling course. Margaret Baleno, made an appearance — her first race of the year and her fourth or fifth time on skis this season. Upon hearing the second course was turnier, she declared, “Good, I was overturning anyway”.
     The main event was slightly curtailed when the weather decided to turn everyone into Krispy Kreme glazed donuts. Hardier racers stayed and trained on what was originally slated to be a dual run-off after the four runs of slalom. Everyone else headed to the bar. Barb Settel says, “rain started midway through the second race and was coming down sideways by the end”.
     There were no surprise results as Jim Thoman (no pirouettes today) won by 1.24 seconds over Darren Karn. Mark Sertl landed in third 0.73 off Karn. In the second race, Thoman increased his lead over Karn and Sertl. Many eyebrows raised when Thoman took two seconds off his final run. He claims he took a higher line.
     Megan Thayer shored up her bid for the women’s season title. Thayer won the first race by 1.41 over Margaret Baleno with Barb Settel a distant third. Amy Slade turned it up a notch after being nudged off the first race podium to take third. In the second race, a slightly more “trained” Baleno, landed within five hundredths of Thayer on the first run, but Thayer took the race by 0.56 seconds. It would have been nice to see these two women go head to head in the dual — maybe at Eastern Regionals, or perhaps sometime next year.
As the schedule winds down, NY Masters racers head to Bristol Mountain for two super G races on Friday and then to Swain on Saturday for a giant slalom, slalom and combined event for a five-event weekend.
    — Barb Brumbaugh