ASPEN INSIDE OF A WEEK
The women will race in a slalom and a GS in Aspen next weekend, in just six days. Winter weather with snow and cold temperatures has helped them create a nice surface for the girls on Spring Pitch/Strawpile. It is a tough hill and I have not heard from FIS about what kind of surface preparation we can expect. We are experiencing a bit of a winter storm in Vail right now and looking at the radar and it seems to be coming right through Aspen. About a foot over the next 24 to 36 hours is forecasted for Vail and so far it seems the storms have stalled in the Aspen area and then split or dissipated. In short, from hearsay, Aspen has had more natural snowfall than we have had in Vail but not by much. And we have had a fair amount over the last 10 days. Markus Mayr, the FIS Race Director for the women’s World Cup is unsure of the direction they will go at this time with regards to injection. The forecast and the quality of the man-made already on the hill will help with making the decision. At some point, the question will be about how long the storm stays around. If it is over by Tuesday night, as expected, I could see them going for an injection plan on Wednesday morning and starting a slipping protocol on Thursday morning after the water freezes well. Then the slipping can bring a better compaction to the slope and by Friday, the girls will be able to have their free ski on the race hill. If it ends earlier, they can step it up a day. But either way, with the new snow, the women will have a totally different experience with the quality of snow on the hill compared to last season. Last year there was almost zero natural on the ground in Aspen, now there is quite a bit. The natural snow will also take some of the terrain challenge out of the hill as well. The normally very sharp rolls on Strawpile proper will soften a bit and with some good, solid white-ice. The experience should be much more fun than last November when we saw pools of clear water frozen throughout the hill with some extremely slick spots settled in the front-side of the rolls and in the fall-away turns in the GS. Just as a reminder, the last qualifier for the slalom second run was well over five seconds out!
The GS hill starts on Spring Pitch just below Aztec and after five or six turns it drops hard onto the Dago Road. The girls will hammer across the road at high speed and then have to deal with a sharp break-over into Strawpile. The end of the road can be abrupt and I have seen the athletes leave the ground a bit in GS. After entering the Strawpile section, the athletes will have to deal with a series of sharp and moderate rolls in the middle of a moderate to steep pitch with a strong fall-away pull to the left as the hill bends right and then quickly back to the left for the steep finish. It might not be the longest hill in the world at just over a minute, but it brings a lot of difficulty from start to finish. It should be an exciting GS hill.
At 200 meters of vertical drop, the Aspen slalom falls just 10% short of World Cup maximum. The slalom starts near the end of the road entering the Strawpile pitch and basically free-falls from there to the finish. The task of setting a skiable and entertaining slalom race on the hill is challenging with very little flat where a flush will be able to be attacked. Hairpins will need to be against the grain on the pitches to control speed and the setters will be fighting with the fall-away for most of the upper pitch. Luckily, the course-setters drawn for the weekend are all experienced and qualified.
The former USA Men’s World Cup Tech coach, Rudi Soulard will open the setting with the first run of GS representing Sweden. Guenther Obkircher, a former long-time Men’s coach with Austria will set the second run. The first run of slalom will be set by Jim Pollack of Canada. Jim has been around for a while and certainly understands the intricacies of setting good slalom courses. And the final run of the weekend will be set by Christian Schwaiger (GER) who is currently enjoying coaching the best slalom team in the business. I would look for courses that control speed well with nice rhythm in all cases giving the women a chance to carve a good proportion of their turns while looking for more speed. Obkircher is the only one who set here last year. He was the first run course setter in GS and the run was won by Kati Hoelzl who went on to win the race. Rudi was with the USA men last year and Jim did not set at all on the World Cup last season. Schwaiger set in Levi for the first run and we know how that ended up. Christian also set the second run in Garmisch at the World Cup Finals, which was won my Marlies Schild. Zettel, who did not make the trip to North America due to her continuing hip pain, was second and Garmisch’s own Fanny Chmelar was 3rd on the run. For the most part, the hill used in Garmisch is not very similar to Aspen and the snow that time of year in Garmisch is not comparable to the super-grip they are likely to see in Aspen.
There is more to come soon with previews of the hill in Lake Louise, the men’s races up north and the women’s races in Aspen. I am looking forward to watching some of the women ski slalom here in Vail over the next few days and passing along some observations. I got to see some GS today but would like to see some more before I get into that. Have a great Monday and enjoy if you are anywhere in snow country!
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Greg “Grande” Needell grew up ski racing at Stratton Mountain,
Vermont. After graduating from SMS he skied for NCAA Division 1 St.
Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he was co-captain in 1986. Greg
returned to SMS to coach there for five years serving as the Head
Women’s Coach as well as the Head J2 Men’s Coach. He then moved to
Mission Ridge in Wenatchee, Washington in 1992 to become the Program
Director and Head Coach of the Mission Ridge Ski Club. In 1997, Greg
became the Head Coach at Mammoth Mountain, California.
In 2002 Needell was asked to join the U.S. Ski Team staff as a World
Cup SL and GS coach. From 2002 to 2008 Needell helped lead the U.S. Ski
Team Men to 43 wins, 105 podiums and 264 top ten finishes. Now at the
helm of Alpine Race Consulting, Needell offers his knowledge and
experience to clubs nationwide.
About the Author: Pete Rugh
