Letter: Racing at local ski areas

I’d like to add a thought to the article preserving speed and his suggestions to try to get more recognition and opportunities for speed skiing development for the advancement of the US speed team. I love ski racing. Long time skier but began racing later in life mid fifties. I live in the Boston area and live near one of the best racing mountains in the country, Mt Wachusett. I can’t get enough gate time. But most ski areas barely offer any racing opportunities at all for young adults once they are out of high school. I find myself cutting a line and jumping into a training course and occasionally get yelled at. So one time I stopped and said to that person. Why do you think the European Ski team are most always better as a whole, aside from Vonn, Miller and Shiffrin, it’s because just about every ski area I’ve skied in the Alps has a full time, timed and videotaped GS course available all day to anyone. Some hills even offer the BMW speed chute where you can hit speeds up to 60 mph. I skied the Lauberhorn and beside access to the entire downhill run they had 2 GS courses set on it for anyone to use. In the US they let you ski in the trees but they won’t set up some gates for people to practice on because of the liability. One time I tried to get on a Slalom training course set up on a bunny slope at Wildcat and was told I couldn’t use it. There are hardly any Nastar courses anymore. It would seem likely that if more racing opportunities were available that more skiers would race. I would like to see a push for the euro ski area model

—Michael Tilton
Natick, Mass.

This letter was submitted in response to the article “Another perspective … preserving speed in the USA.” Have some thoughts on this? Send a letter to the editor. If it’s good, we’ll publish it.

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