Today was the big race day. We were up early to get going since they had to be at the race course by 7:45. Whitney and Chad were out the door by 7:15 to hit the chair lift when it opened so they could get to the course. They started the course inspection on time and Chad was allowed to go down the course with her for the inspection. This is really helpful because he can help her figure out what lines to take, point out things she may not notice about the course, and give her any last minute tips. After that, there were two practice runs, although Whitney was able to sneak in a third.
I was able to get up to the course shortly after the end of the practice runs. I bought a walking ticket and took the chair lift up. Then I had to walk down past the slopestyle course to the boardercross course. Shortly after I got there, they had the riders meeting, which goes over the basics - the rules (no intentional contact), how they're going to run the race, etc. They then did the time trials. Each of the girls went down by herself against the clock, then when all the girls in an age group were finished, they were ranked by time. The race officials then set up the brackets. Whitney finished 13th in the time trials. She was in a bracket with the girls that finished 3, 4, and 12. They cut her age group to 16 racers (18 had entered) so had four brackets of four. For each bracket, the first two finishers moved on, the last two were out. In the semi-final round, the top two moved on to the finals and the bottom two moved on to the consolation final.
Whitney had an awesome start when she went out, she said it was her best start she had gotten. She ended up with a lot of speed and on the top of a pretty rough (bumpy) part of the first curve and had to speed check so she didn't end up in the nets and off the course. She had a great race the rest of the way down and finished 1.5 board lengths behind the girl in front of her, which put her in fourth place. By the time all the racing was finished, she ended up in 13th place. She's really happy with that. It is five places better than last year, she feels like she raced better than she did last year, and best of all, she had a lot of fun.
It was really helpful to have Chad out here with us this year. He was able to help her figure out the best lines of the course, gave her tips to run better, and waxed her board last night. Probably the biggest help to Whitney was helping her figure out the start. The start was almost straight down, like going across a half pipe but more straight on the downhill part and the uphill was a bit more open. It was crazy! The two of them worked on the half pipe here for a while the other day to get her start better and it really helped.
I think it's great having Chad out here because besides helping her with the race, he and Whitney are having an awesome time boarding around the mountain. Having someone with Whitney has been nice, I don't have to worry about her being out there by herself. If he wasn't here, she wouldn't be boarding in the trees or high up on the mountain. He knows her skills and she can keep up with him, so all is good. They're really looking forward to another great day tomorrow, a day of fun boarding, before we head home on Wednesday.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Copper is a Really Big Mountain
Yesterday was the first chance Whitney and Chad had to get on the mountain. They had some fun time in the morning before they had to go to Whitney's practice after lunch. They had a really good time in the morning, enjoying the snow and the mountain.
It's really good this year to have a coach here to help Whitney. Chad was able to look the course over with her, help her figure out how to get over elements, and refine her technique to better attack the course. She (and many of the other competitors) were having a hard time with the start. After they finished the practice runs, they went over to the half pipe to work on some things that would help her starts.
By the time they all came in for the day, they were sore! Copper is a big mountain and they're not used to that. Probably the lack of oxygen doesn't help either. They're feeling better this morning, but are going to take it easy. Later today, they're going to meet up with a friend of Chad's and go explore the bowls at the top of the mountain. Should be fun.
The Opening Ceremonies were also last night. It's the 25th anniversary of the first USASA Nationals. They first do a parade of all the athletes and coaches, there's a big welcome, the national anthem, and a couple of awards. It's interesting to see the "uniforms" of the different series, apparently black was the color of choice this year. There were lots of black sweatshirts, except the Ohio Series, they were in bright yellow sweatshirts and the Northern Vermont Series, they had great flannel shirts.
So today is a day to chill then have some fun on the slopes, tomorrow is the big day.
In news from back home, today is the last day that Massanutten is open. They extended, then extended again when they were closing. We've just had that kind of winter. It was their longest season ever. They did a pretty cool video to close out the season. We'll be back next year!
It's really good this year to have a coach here to help Whitney. Chad was able to look the course over with her, help her figure out how to get over elements, and refine her technique to better attack the course. She (and many of the other competitors) were having a hard time with the start. After they finished the practice runs, they went over to the half pipe to work on some things that would help her starts.
By the time they all came in for the day, they were sore! Copper is a big mountain and they're not used to that. Probably the lack of oxygen doesn't help either. They're feeling better this morning, but are going to take it easy. Later today, they're going to meet up with a friend of Chad's and go explore the bowls at the top of the mountain. Should be fun.
The Opening Ceremonies were also last night. It's the 25th anniversary of the first USASA Nationals. They first do a parade of all the athletes and coaches, there's a big welcome, the national anthem, and a couple of awards. It's interesting to see the "uniforms" of the different series, apparently black was the color of choice this year. There were lots of black sweatshirts, except the Ohio Series, they were in bright yellow sweatshirts and the Northern Vermont Series, they had great flannel shirts.
So today is a day to chill then have some fun on the slopes, tomorrow is the big day.
In news from back home, today is the last day that Massanutten is open. They extended, then extended again when they were closing. We've just had that kind of winter. It was their longest season ever. They did a pretty cool video to close out the season. We'll be back next year!
Friday, March 28, 2014
Copper Mountain, USASA Nationals 2014
After getting up super early this morning (I'm not even sure it was morning yet), we've made it to Copper Mountain. We had time in the Denver airport to grab some breakfast before we hopped on the shuttle for the ride to Copper. Today was the perfect example of why we take the shuttle instead of getting a rental car and driving up here. We drove through snow showers, snow on the roads, and lots of traffic.
There's been flurries off and on all day long but the sun is out now. Hopefully we'll have good weather for most of our stay here. The only day I really care about is Monday, we need good weather then so the competition goes off on time.
Whitney (and her coach, Chad) are all registered and checked in. Whitney got some pretty cool swag - a USASA hat, some cool socks, a army guy-type snowboard dude, and some other things. We still need to connect with the Appalachian Series director to get our App Series Nationals gear. When we checked before coming out here, there were 18 girls in the 16-17 age group who accepted invitations to Nationals. That seems to be a pretty good field, a few less than what came last year.
Tomorrow is practice day, Monday is race day. In between she's going to have some fun snowboarding, high up in the Rockies. I just hope she doesn't wear herself out having fun before race day.
There's been flurries off and on all day long but the sun is out now. Hopefully we'll have good weather for most of our stay here. The only day I really care about is Monday, we need good weather then so the competition goes off on time.
Whitney (and her coach, Chad) are all registered and checked in. Whitney got some pretty cool swag - a USASA hat, some cool socks, a army guy-type snowboard dude, and some other things. We still need to connect with the Appalachian Series director to get our App Series Nationals gear. When we checked before coming out here, there were 18 girls in the 16-17 age group who accepted invitations to Nationals. That seems to be a pretty good field, a few less than what came last year.
Tomorrow is practice day, Monday is race day. In between she's going to have some fun snowboarding, high up in the Rockies. I just hope she doesn't wear herself out having fun before race day.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
The Countdown Begins
Right now we're just about at T-12 hours until we leave the house for Copper Mountain and Nationals. Yep, we're leaving at 4am. Sigh. Way too early in the morning. On the other hand, we'll get to Denver at 8:30 and should be at Copper by noon.
We're in the middle of packing, making sure reservations for the condo and shuttle are in order, checking the snowboard and making sure all the snowboard gear is ready to go. And trying to finish up school.
Copper is having an amazing winter, they've had over 300" of snow so far, they had 5" of snow this morning and are expected to get more tomorrow. Should be awesome conditions out there. Hopefully we'll have some sunny days with bluebird skies to enjoy as well as some snow (just not on competition days).
Some pictures from last year --
We're in the middle of packing, making sure reservations for the condo and shuttle are in order, checking the snowboard and making sure all the snowboard gear is ready to go. And trying to finish up school.
Copper is having an amazing winter, they've had over 300" of snow so far, they had 5" of snow this morning and are expected to get more tomorrow. Should be awesome conditions out there. Hopefully we'll have some sunny days with bluebird skies to enjoy as well as some snow (just not on competition days).
Some pictures from last year --
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| Start of the course last year |
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| Glow on the mountains behind Copper village |
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| The mountains our last morning |
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Cleaning out the DVR
Tonight Whitney and I were cleaning out the DVR and watched a couple of things worth discussing.
Paralympic Snowboard Cross
This was rather interesting. It's run totally different than "regular" snowboard cross. First off, the athletes all had lower leg impairments. Some had other impairments but they had to have a lower limb impairment to compete. Of the women only one, Amy Purdy, an American was a double amputee. The race was run more like a time trial, rather than the crazy race that was in the Olympics. Each competitor went down the course by themselves and was timed. They went down three times, their best two times were combined and the fastest was the winner. Amy Purdy won the bronze medal in the women's boarder cross.
This was the first year that boarder cross was competed in the Paralympics and it was pretty obvious. Some of the competitors were quite accomplished, really knew what they were doing, and were very fast down the course. There were others that had not been snowboarding for very long and were much slower, more hesitant. I think this is one of the main reasons for the races being run they way they were. They did say it was a matter of safety for the racers. The course was a bit more narrow than the Olympic course, perfect for one person at a time; it also had fewer (no) jumps. There's a lot more to Paralympic boarder cross, but mainly it's a different race than the Olympics.
Last World Cup Ski Cross
I just happened upon the last World Cup ski cross this afternoon. I've always though ski cross was just a bit more crazy than snowboard cross. With snowboarders, you just have a person and a board. Yes, crashes happen and they can be pretty spectacular, but they're nothing compared to ski cross and their "gnarly yard sale" crashes. With the skiers, you've got a person, two skis, and two poles and lots of opportunity. I recorded this afternoon's show so Whitney could watch it with me since they had some pretty amazing crashes. I don't think anyone got hurt too seriously, but in one semi-final race one guy went into the air and took down two other racers as he came down. Skis, poles, goggles went flying (thus the "yard sale" comment).
There was one race that was the perfect example of why, when you fall or ski out of the course, you get up, backtrack if you need to and keep on going to the finish line. One racer made it through to the end clean. A Canadian fell towards the top; a bit further down the other two competitors crashed. Meanwhile, up top, the Canadian got up, pulled himself together and got his missing ski back on, back tracked up to go inside the gate he missed, and got back into the race. Because he got up and went down instead of giving up, he finished in second. The other two skiers eventually made it down as well so all finished the race. Even in the race where three of the skiers wiped out, two of them managed to get up and make it across the finish line.
Paralympic Snowboard Cross
This was rather interesting. It's run totally different than "regular" snowboard cross. First off, the athletes all had lower leg impairments. Some had other impairments but they had to have a lower limb impairment to compete. Of the women only one, Amy Purdy, an American was a double amputee. The race was run more like a time trial, rather than the crazy race that was in the Olympics. Each competitor went down the course by themselves and was timed. They went down three times, their best two times were combined and the fastest was the winner. Amy Purdy won the bronze medal in the women's boarder cross.
This was the first year that boarder cross was competed in the Paralympics and it was pretty obvious. Some of the competitors were quite accomplished, really knew what they were doing, and were very fast down the course. There were others that had not been snowboarding for very long and were much slower, more hesitant. I think this is one of the main reasons for the races being run they way they were. They did say it was a matter of safety for the racers. The course was a bit more narrow than the Olympic course, perfect for one person at a time; it also had fewer (no) jumps. There's a lot more to Paralympic boarder cross, but mainly it's a different race than the Olympics.
Last World Cup Ski Cross
I just happened upon the last World Cup ski cross this afternoon. I've always though ski cross was just a bit more crazy than snowboard cross. With snowboarders, you just have a person and a board. Yes, crashes happen and they can be pretty spectacular, but they're nothing compared to ski cross and their "gnarly yard sale" crashes. With the skiers, you've got a person, two skis, and two poles and lots of opportunity. I recorded this afternoon's show so Whitney could watch it with me since they had some pretty amazing crashes. I don't think anyone got hurt too seriously, but in one semi-final race one guy went into the air and took down two other racers as he came down. Skis, poles, goggles went flying (thus the "yard sale" comment).
There was one race that was the perfect example of why, when you fall or ski out of the course, you get up, backtrack if you need to and keep on going to the finish line. One racer made it through to the end clean. A Canadian fell towards the top; a bit further down the other two competitors crashed. Meanwhile, up top, the Canadian got up, pulled himself together and got his missing ski back on, back tracked up to go inside the gate he missed, and got back into the race. Because he got up and went down instead of giving up, he finished in second. The other two skiers eventually made it down as well so all finished the race. Even in the race where three of the skiers wiped out, two of them managed to get up and make it across the finish line.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
(Almost) End of Season Wrap-Up
We just got back from our last trip to Massanutten for the season. The next couple of days Whitney can go, the weather just isn't going to be cooperative - too warm and/or rainy. Also at this point in the season she's getting pretty physically beat up and tired. It's time to take a break for a week or so before Nationals. The ski area closes on Sunday so it's the end.
The "bad" things this season:
The "bad" things this season:
- Coaching chaos! After Scott got hurt and was out for the season, for a while Whitney didn't know who the coach was going to be on a given night. It was rotating coaches for a while.
- The crazy weather. The snow started falling early and lasted long into March. That was good, except that we also had several rainy days, sleet, and crazy thick fog.
- Ten year old boys. Enough said.
- The long drive. For whatever reason, the drive seemed really long this year. Maybe it's just because we know how long it is now.
- The coaches! Even though it was crazy for a while, Whitney had fun meeting the different coaches and felt it was good having a different set of eyes every so often on her skills. She also learned different things from the different coaches.
- The weather was both good and bad. The early snow got the resort open early, which meant that she could start boarding early. Even though she was there on several rainy days, the plus side was that a few times she was the only one there for the team practice and got individual coaching. The snow has kept coming, they got almost a foot the other day and spring is just around the corner.
- Improved skills. For a while, especially because of the coaching problems early in the season, Whitney felt she was stagnating and not getting better. Once things stabilized (there was one pretty regular weeknight/Sunday coach, rotating ones on Saturday), she said that she really felt her skills were improving.
- Awesome boarding! Because of the early snow and all the snow that's fallen this winter, there was some pretty awesome snowboarding. Whitney really enjoyed her time at Massanutten again this season, learning from the coaches, having fun with the team, a trip to New Hampshire for a couple of days of boarding there.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Winter, Extended
Since we live in Virginia, usually by this time of year the trees are starting to bud, the early flowers are blooming, and the cold and snow is becoming a distant memory. Alas, that is not this year! Right now, it's beautiful - almost 70 degrees, sunny, light breeze but big changes are coming our way. We're under a winter storm watch for tomorrow evening into Monday afternoon, supposed to get 5"+ of snow. This is the cold, snowy winter that never ends. It has been much colder than usual with lots of "big" snowstorms. Even I, as much as I love snow, am ready for spring. At least you can start to see the trees getting that red blush of buds and we have been seeing green fields on the drive to Massanutten. Soon enough spring will be here and winter will finally be over! That also means that snowboard season is done for another year, just another couple of weeks.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
National Rankings
So the competition season is over, all the results have been sent in to USASA, and Whitney is ranked 7th in the country. We are so proud of her and all the hard work she's put in this year. After the crazy season she's had, she ended up doing really well.
USASA sent out the invites to Nationals today. As the Appalachian Series champion, Whitney got an automatic invite, which she accepted (obviously). It'll be interesting to see how big the field is this year. The series champions get automatic invites, then they'll fill out the field by going down the rankings. They invite up to 35 girls in her age group, but last year there were only 22 there. Snowboarding girls are few and far between. It's pretty easy to get an invite to Nationals if you're a girl involved in bx; even though they invite twice as many boys, it's harder to get invited since there's a lot more that participate.
We have our flights booked, room reservations made, shuttle from the airport is set. Now we just need to get in a few more practice days before we head out to Colorado. She decided that she didn't want to spend any more time in the car driving up to New Hampshire again so we're staying home. A cold front is coming through tonight and it'll be a good day on the slopes here tomorrow. We'll head down again on Saturday. New England is getting a pretty good snow storm today/tonight/tomorrow and she may regret not wanting to head back up for some fresh powder. It's off to Colorado on the 28th, ready or not.
USASA sent out the invites to Nationals today. As the Appalachian Series champion, Whitney got an automatic invite, which she accepted (obviously). It'll be interesting to see how big the field is this year. The series champions get automatic invites, then they'll fill out the field by going down the rankings. They invite up to 35 girls in her age group, but last year there were only 22 there. Snowboarding girls are few and far between. It's pretty easy to get an invite to Nationals if you're a girl involved in bx; even though they invite twice as many boys, it's harder to get invited since there's a lot more that participate.
We have our flights booked, room reservations made, shuttle from the airport is set. Now we just need to get in a few more practice days before we head out to Colorado. She decided that she didn't want to spend any more time in the car driving up to New Hampshire again so we're staying home. A cold front is coming through tonight and it'll be a good day on the slopes here tomorrow. We'll head down again on Saturday. New England is getting a pretty good snow storm today/tonight/tomorrow and she may regret not wanting to head back up for some fresh powder. It's off to Colorado on the 28th, ready or not.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Paralympic Athletes
If you want to see some pretty awesome athletes in action, watch some of the Paralympics! I was doing some catching up late this afternoon and watched the downhill ski events. I am so amazed at what these people can do. Whether their disability has been with them since birth, was the result of a degenerative disease or accident, or the result of military service, they are impressive.
For the downhill ski events, they first had the vision impaired skiers race. These skiers have limited vision and follow a guide who has on a shirt that the skier can see. For some, it's a bright neon color, for others it was black. The guide also has a mic so they can talk to the skier they're leading and help guide them down the mountain.
The next skiers down were the standing skiers. OK, some of these have amazing strength and balance. It looked like to ski in this event, the skiers were either missing a leg or part of their arm. By not having a second ski pole, it's much harder to keep your balance. Of course, watching the skiers with one leg keep upright and make it down the mountain was impressive.
Last to go were the mono-skiers, or sit skiers. These guys (and girls) have a lot of upper body strength to control the mono-ski.
The downhill races were run on the same course that they used during the Olympics earlier this month. There were similar problems - a warm day, soft snow that froze overnight and became a sheet of ice, a tough course overall. We saw some pretty spectacular crashes, one American ended up in the hospital (no serious injuries from what I heard).
I can't wait to watch more of the Paralympics, we've got a bunch on the DVR as we're not up in the middle of the night to see them live. In case anyone is wondering, the snowboard events are Friday night.
For the downhill ski events, they first had the vision impaired skiers race. These skiers have limited vision and follow a guide who has on a shirt that the skier can see. For some, it's a bright neon color, for others it was black. The guide also has a mic so they can talk to the skier they're leading and help guide them down the mountain.
The next skiers down were the standing skiers. OK, some of these have amazing strength and balance. It looked like to ski in this event, the skiers were either missing a leg or part of their arm. By not having a second ski pole, it's much harder to keep your balance. Of course, watching the skiers with one leg keep upright and make it down the mountain was impressive.
Last to go were the mono-skiers, or sit skiers. These guys (and girls) have a lot of upper body strength to control the mono-ski.
The downhill races were run on the same course that they used during the Olympics earlier this month. There were similar problems - a warm day, soft snow that froze overnight and became a sheet of ice, a tough course overall. We saw some pretty spectacular crashes, one American ended up in the hospital (no serious injuries from what I heard).
I can't wait to watch more of the Paralympics, we've got a bunch on the DVR as we're not up in the middle of the night to see them live. In case anyone is wondering, the snowboard events are Friday night.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Holiday Valley
The Appalachian Series rescheduled the cancelled BX for this weekend at Holiday Valley, NY. It's about an hour south of Buffalo and about 6 hours from our house. Not ideal, but it worked out fine. The kind of weird thing was that the races were on Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday. That's the only way they could fit it in. There weren't very many people registered to race and as usual, Whitney was the only one in her age group on Friday and on Saturday there was only one other girl. There were two races on Friday and two more on Saturday.
Friday
Friday was a beautiful day as it turned out. The nice thing was that even though we were staying about a half hour south of the resort, we didn't have to get up super early to get there since the registration time was later than usual. The course was way up on the top of the mountain so I didn't get to see her race this weekend. It ran with the usual format - course inspection and practice runs, riders meeting, time trials, then the races. There weren't many signed up so things moved pretty fast and they were done shortly after 1. The good thing about this race was that they had the same type of start gates that they use at Nationals. Whitney needs practice with those since the usual races she runs don't have any sort of start gate.
Even though there was no other girls in her age group, she did have someone to race with on Friday. There was one girl in the age group below hers and two older women (in separate age groups). The starters gave them options and they decided that Whitney and Paige (the girl in the age group below) would race together and the other two would race. It worked out well, especially since Whitney knew Paige from the last race.
Saturday
Today was not as nice as yesterday. Yesterday was close to 50 and sunny; today, on the other hand, was right around 32, snow showers off and on, cloudy, and around lunchtime, a pretty thick fog rolled in at the top of the mountain. It did thin out some, but stuck around.
There were a lot more racers today; the Western New York Series was also running a couple of races today. One of the girls in that series decided to race in our races today, so she gave Whitney some competition. The course wasn't as good as yesterday, I think the warmth yesterday softened the snow, then it iced over last night. So it was a bit faster, but not necessarily in a good way.
The races today went pretty well. Whitney said that she didn't speed check when she should have so went into the curve too fast and almost fell. That gave the other girl a chance to get ahead and Whitney didn't have enough real estate to catch up and pass her. The second race, she got a good start and lead to the finish.
After most races, they give out the medals (this season, they're special 25th anniversary medals), usually have raffle drawings for prizes from the national sponsors, and of course, give out plenty of Hi-Chew (another of the national sponsors). Today, Whitney was the lucky winner of a really nice Under Armor sweatshirt. These were the last races until Nationals. The invitations should start going out later this week or next week and we plan on being there!
Friday
Friday was a beautiful day as it turned out. The nice thing was that even though we were staying about a half hour south of the resort, we didn't have to get up super early to get there since the registration time was later than usual. The course was way up on the top of the mountain so I didn't get to see her race this weekend. It ran with the usual format - course inspection and practice runs, riders meeting, time trials, then the races. There weren't many signed up so things moved pretty fast and they were done shortly after 1. The good thing about this race was that they had the same type of start gates that they use at Nationals. Whitney needs practice with those since the usual races she runs don't have any sort of start gate.
Even though there was no other girls in her age group, she did have someone to race with on Friday. There was one girl in the age group below hers and two older women (in separate age groups). The starters gave them options and they decided that Whitney and Paige (the girl in the age group below) would race together and the other two would race. It worked out well, especially since Whitney knew Paige from the last race.
Saturday
Today was not as nice as yesterday. Yesterday was close to 50 and sunny; today, on the other hand, was right around 32, snow showers off and on, cloudy, and around lunchtime, a pretty thick fog rolled in at the top of the mountain. It did thin out some, but stuck around.
There were a lot more racers today; the Western New York Series was also running a couple of races today. One of the girls in that series decided to race in our races today, so she gave Whitney some competition. The course wasn't as good as yesterday, I think the warmth yesterday softened the snow, then it iced over last night. So it was a bit faster, but not necessarily in a good way.
The races today went pretty well. Whitney said that she didn't speed check when she should have so went into the curve too fast and almost fell. That gave the other girl a chance to get ahead and Whitney didn't have enough real estate to catch up and pass her. The second race, she got a good start and lead to the finish.
After most races, they give out the medals (this season, they're special 25th anniversary medals), usually have raffle drawings for prizes from the national sponsors, and of course, give out plenty of Hi-Chew (another of the national sponsors). Today, Whitney was the lucky winner of a really nice Under Armor sweatshirt. These were the last races until Nationals. The invitations should start going out later this week or next week and we plan on being there!
Friday, March 7, 2014
Our Grand Adventure
This post has nothing to do with snowboarding, except that snowboarding made it possible for the fun we had this afternoon. We're in NY for a bx competition at Holiday Valley. It's about 30 minutes south of Buffalo. The competition finished early this afternoon, we had a lot of time that we didn't want to spend sitting in our hotel room. I mentioned that I had seen Niagara Falls on the map and she said that some others were talking about going there tomorrow after the competition. Spur of the moment, we decided to go this afternoon. We had more time today than we think we're going to have tomorrow so off we went.
It was SO cool to be able to see Niagara Falls in the winter. We've been there in the spring/summer and it's pretty, but it's so different in winter. There was lots of snow around, the river below the falls was frozen, the mist had frozen on the trees/walls near the falls, it was all so neat. The river above the falls was pretty much freely flowing but the ice was quite thick below the falls. There were a few open spots, but they weren't very big. We could see the Maid of the Mist boats across the river in Canada pulled up out of the water, waiting for spring to come and the ice to melt. We did a lot of waking today, took lots of pictures, and hopefully didn't wear Whitney out too much since she does have to compete again tomorrow.
It was SO cool to be able to see Niagara Falls in the winter. We've been there in the spring/summer and it's pretty, but it's so different in winter. There was lots of snow around, the river below the falls was frozen, the mist had frozen on the trees/walls near the falls, it was all so neat. The river above the falls was pretty much freely flowing but the ice was quite thick below the falls. There were a few open spots, but they weren't very big. We could see the Maid of the Mist boats across the river in Canada pulled up out of the water, waiting for spring to come and the ice to melt. We did a lot of waking today, took lots of pictures, and hopefully didn't wear Whitney out too much since she does have to compete again tomorrow.
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| the river iced over below the Falls |
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| American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls |
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| Whitney |
Thursday, March 6, 2014
End of the Season, Part I
We're closing in on the end of the season. Whitney went to her last practice last night at Massanutten. There was practice tonight, well sort of, it's the end of season tubing night and there's also practice on Saturday. That one is a shorter, fun practice, then end of season cook-out/party. She's not there because we're in northern Pennsylvania, heading to New York in the morning for a competition. We may get back to Massanutten again before it closes for the season but I'm not sure. They don't have evening hours anymore but because of the snowstorm we had Monday they've extended their closing date to March 23.
We're working on what the rest of the month is going to look like, how we're going to fit in snowboarding in New Hampshire, get school done, and make it to Nationals at the end of the month. She wants to go to NH to get in more practice on a bx course before Nationals and since we have a free place to stay thanks to my sister-in-law, it's pretty easy for us to hit the road north. I have to say though, I think I'm just about ready to leave the ski slopes and sit in the golf cart with my other daughter. It's been a long winter!
We're working on what the rest of the month is going to look like, how we're going to fit in snowboarding in New Hampshire, get school done, and make it to Nationals at the end of the month. She wants to go to NH to get in more practice on a bx course before Nationals and since we have a free place to stay thanks to my sister-in-law, it's pretty easy for us to hit the road north. I have to say though, I think I'm just about ready to leave the ski slopes and sit in the golf cart with my other daughter. It's been a long winter!
Sunday, March 2, 2014
The Olympics
The 2014 Sochi Olympics are over and the Paralympics are going to start at the end of the week. We love the Olympics in our house. They were actually quite the distraction to getting school accomplished. There were a lot of new sports added this year, including snowboard events. We enjoyed watching and analyzing the BX events. In typical BX style, you don't necessarily need to be standing when you cross the finish line, you just need to cross it. You also can't quit when you fall down - pick yourself up, get back on the course, and keep going. You never know what will happen further down the course.
The Olympic course was a TOUGH course. Harder than most and was compared to an X Games course, although my source tells me that they don't do BX at the X Games so not sure where the commentators got that from. Anyway, it was tough, harder than anything Whitney will encounter this season. We had fun watching and can't wait for the Paralympic BX.
The Olympic course was a TOUGH course. Harder than most and was compared to an X Games course, although my source tells me that they don't do BX at the X Games so not sure where the commentators got that from. Anyway, it was tough, harder than anything Whitney will encounter this season. We had fun watching and can't wait for the Paralympic BX.
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