NorAm Practice Day and Leadville

Today was a practice day at Ski Cooper for the NorAm races. They kind of last minute changed the practice schedule and instead of having separate ski and snowboard practices had one combined practice. Whitney's guess was that either the snow wasn't that good or that there weren't that many competitors and it sounds like both were correct. She said there were only 12 women snowboarders, probably more men but more skiers (which is actually kind of weird, there's usually more snowboarders than skiers). The snow isn't that deep at Ski Cooper either; she said they didn't use the longer stakes for the gates because they would have been going into the dirt and they call practice early because of the conditions. We're supposed to get snow tonight (perhaps up to 8") which will help and will also totally change how the course rides.

Whitney said that the practice went well. She was happy to have a good coach along to work with her. The only thing she's having trouble with is at the start. There's an element that she can't quite get over; she can't get a strong enough pull out of the start to get the energy she needs to get over it easily. She wasn't the only one struggling with that element. She's good with the rest of the course and is excited about it. The first race is Wednesday, we'll see how it goes.

After she got back she rested for a bit, had a snack, showered, then we wandered around Leadville. It's an interesting town and Whitney hit it on the nose when she said that it reminded her of towns we saw in Alaska, a mix of Wild West and mountain town. A good portion of the downtown is designated a National Historic Landmark District. There's an original saloon still standing and many other "newer" but still very old buildings. Many of the homes right off the downtown strip are small Victorians, some have interesting paint jobs. We walked all the way through town, it's not really that big. There's mix of shops and restaurants, a few touristy type shops but not over the top. We had to stop several times to take pictures. Some were of the mountains that surround Leadville, some were of the murals that are on some of the walls in town, some were of the quirky finds in the store front windows. We picked up a few souvenirs to take home, just need to figure out space for them.

We'll have to see what tomorrow brings. We're under a winter storm watch but it's not snowing yet. That will make things interesting on the course (our Air B-n-B host assures me that the roads will be fine). I'll drop Whitney off in the morning then I may wander around Leadville again. Or not. Depends on the weather in the morning.