Some random thoughts

Just some end of season ramblings, things that struck me as funny, odd, or interesting.

First up is the old guys at Mt. Sunapee. I just found it really funny when Whitney and I went up there for our second trip in March. We got there just after opening on Monday morning and there weren't too many younger kids because school was in session. There were, however, lots of old guys (and women, too). These were men in their upper 60s, 70s, and probably 80+ years old. I kept seeing them coming in and out of the lodge, getting a cup of coffee, chatting with their friends, heading back out. Then about noon or a bit after, they all started clearing out. Guess they had gotten in their exercise for the day and were heading off to do other things.

Next is helmets. We have always told the girls they had to wear helmets to bike; no helmet, no biking. Same deal with skiing/snowboarding. Down here at Massanutten, not many seem to wear helmets. You would think with all the signs about it, with Sony Bono and Natasha Richardson both dying from head injuries sustained while skiing, that more people would wear helmets. Maybe they think it's a small mountain so they couldn't get injured that badly or since it's right near the campus of JMU, it's the invincibility of youth (in this case, college students). It's a requirement of the ski/snowboard team to wear helmets during practice. One of Whitney's coaches wears one all the time; he's had a couple of concussions in the past so wants to stay safe. The other coach wears one during team practice but I've seen him without one other times. I'm really surprised that Massanutten doesn't require their instructors to wear helmets. I think I would. I was just reading up about Natasha Richardson (to make sure I had the right person) and she was taking a beginner lesson when she fell and hit her head. It doesn't take racing down the mountain and falling or crashing into a tree (as Sony Bono did) to have a serious head injury.

Big difference when we were in both NH and Colorado. Helmets are much more prevalent both those places. The funniest thing was the suntans that people had in Colorado. Their helmet and goggles covered a good part of their face and many had some sort of mask that covered their nose/chin area but there was still a nice tan on their cheeks. You could really tell that some of these people spent a lot of time on the slopes.

And last is night skiing. Almost all of the ski areas around here have night skiing but very few in New England have it and Copper doesn't. I have no idea why it's different. Is it because we have a shorter season and they have to make the money where they can, i.e., night skiing? The slopes are usually open until 9:00 pm. It's definitely different skiing at night; the lights make shadows and they don't light up the whole width of the slope usually. That's about the only thing I can come up with as to why there's night skiing here and not in other places. I guess if they're going to put all that money into snowmaking they might as well get good use out of it.

That's it for this season. It was a great one, we really enjoyed the trip to Colorado and Nationals. See you all next winter!

End of the season

We made it home from Copper just fine. They ended up getting 6+" of snow; Whitney really wanted to head back out there for more boarding in the powder. Alas, school and the rest of life was calling. At least now, a few weeks later, there's not as much snow falling and Copper is closed for the winter.

Whitney had an awesome season this year. For whatever reason, there were many nights at practice where it was just her and one or two others; one night it was just her. It made for some great one on one coaching and since the one boy that was usually there didn't really care what they did, she got to work on boarder cross skills quite a bit. I think the coaches, seeing how well she did this year and how serious she is, will help her more next year. She enjoyed the local competitions. I think the one at Wisp was the best and probably the best preparation for Nationals. They had a tough course and it was long, although not quite as long as the one at Nationals. She was really stoked to be ranked 6th at one point, she ended the season at 12th in her age group. Both her coaches were really excited for her and how well she did at Nationals.

As far as I know, no decisions have been made about next season yet. She really wants to compete again next season and we're trying to decide if we stay in Virginia or head north, probably to New Hampshire. I think the coaching would just as good in NH, but the mountains are bigger and more challenging/fun. Plus it would be nice not to have to drive so much for practice. Up there, we could probably find someplace within 20-30 minutes of a ski resort, if not closer. On the other hand, she does have a lot of things going on here at home that she can't do in NH, her horse, work, some of her church activities. School is portable, her Girl Scout troop doesn't meet in the winter, so those things don't matter. We'll see what she decides, I really don't know what it's going to be although I think she's leaning towards staying here.

Copper Mountain, Days 4 & 5

The last two days were mostly just days to relax and have fun. Whitney went snowboarding for a few hours yesterday morning, then came down to say good-bye to Bob who had to head back East. She and I got lunch, then she went out for more fun on the snow. The day was pretty nice and she had a good time.  We caught the awards ceremony where a friend got a second in boardercross, then we had an early dinner. After a bit of last minute shopping (I had to get a shirt from Copper), we went back to the condo.

This morning we got up, packed, then went to enjoy some sun while watching the Open category half pipe. Some of them were really good! It was a beautiful, warm morning, then about when we were leaving the clouds started rolling in.

Once we got on the shuttle, it was some crazy weather! It started snowing as we were leaving Copper, then it turned into hail for a bit (longer than I've seen it hail before), then more snow, and finally fog and rain. It's really rather dreary here in Denver.

Copper Mountain, Day 3

Yesterday was a busy day, filled with fun and lots of hurry up and wait. Whitney was up early to head out to the boarder cross course. They had an early inspection of the course, then since they had made changes to the bottom, they had two practice runs. Bob and I came up a bit later; took the chair lift up then walked down to the course. We walked past the slope style course and saw them getting ready to get started.

The competition was run a bit differently than we were used to. They started with time trials, each girl went down by herself, racing the clock. After that, the girls were ranked by time, then put into brackets. The long wait occurred here. There was a problem with the times for the Youth Women group, so they had to fix that, then redo their brackets. It took quite a while so the race start was pretty delayed since that group was the first to race.

While we waited, we spent lots of time sitting on the mountain, enjoying the beautiful day. It was warm, sunny with clear blue skies. Really nice. I've got some pictures I'll share when we get home.

Once the races started, we had to wait for Whitney's turn. She was in a group of three; she was ranked 16 in the time trials, the other two girls were 6 and 11. She had a poor start but got it together and did really well. She ended up in third, which meant she didn't move on, but she said she had her best run down the course. She felt really good about how the race went.

When she was done, Bob and I walked the rest of the way down the mountain, the three of us grabbed some lunch at the outdoor grill, and walked back to the condo. Whitney was pretty pooped, so we relaxed for a while.

Later we went out and walked around a bit, got a sweatshirt for her and something for her sister. We watched the crowd at Burning Stones plaza and part of the awards ceremonies, went to find dinner.

Whitney said she had a great time, it was lots of fun, and she was really glad she came. One more day here to get in some good snowboarding, then we'll be heading home. We're glad she had her race yesterday, the weather is taking a turn for the worse (possibly some rain/snow today, and warmer temperatures coming).