Sugarloaf BX

Day 1

It was a super cold start to the day that didn't get much warmer. When we left Farmington it was 1* with a wind chill below zero and it just got colder as we got closer to the mountain. It was dark when we left but the sun was starting to come up and the sky was a pretty shade of light pink behind the mountains as we got closer to Sugarloaf.

Whitney, at this point, has her race morning routine. At the mountain she scraped her board, stretched, put on more layers before heading out for inspection, practice, and later time trials. Meanwhile I sat inside, in the warmth, chatting with my friend Kati, a mom from Massanutten whose son is training with CVA this season in ski cross. Time trials went pretty well considering it's not Whitney's strong suit. There were five open class women racing today, which makes it interesting figuring out brackets for racing. They ended up putting the top two forward and the other three ran a heat and the top two there moved on. Whitney had a good start but got tangled with another racer and fell so finished third and didn't move on. She said she'd been riding the course really well, better than at least one of the other riders. Ah well, things like that happen in bx and tomorrow is another day.


Day 2

It was even colder this morning when we left, got to -17* on the drive but it did warm up into the teens on the positive side and there was very little wind. We again saw the pretty pink sky as the sun rose.

Whitney was a bit achy this morning, her back was hurting when she went out. I again stayed inside where it was warm, waited through the course inspection, practice, riders meeting, and time trials. She came flying in and asked if she was listed as DQ as she slid on one turn and took out the flag. She was good, although had a pretty slow time. There were only four girls racing today and one had an even slower time than her. She also said that she fell off the wootang. That was a crash that knocked the wind out of her, so much so that a coach nearby heard it and coaches, race officials, and some of the volunteers near by were talking about it. Only her. She managed to hurt her elbow and tailbone. After the excitement of finding out about time trials wore off, she was really sore and tired. I think between not having a lot of time on snow, how dang cold it was, it was just wearing on her body. She ate some lunch then we headed out for the race. With only four girls they did one race, which was nice. It was definitely warmer today in the sun but cold is cold.

She was in the sixth heat and most of the ones before her seemed to be similar - the first two racers came down pretty close together then a gap before the third one came and another gap if there was a fourth racer. Same for her race, the first two came pretty close together, then Whitney, then it took a bit before the fourth girl finished; there was a crash up hill. I'm happy she had a good finish since her goal today was just to finish. After the adrenaline wore off she was feeling pretty sore again. We stayed around to see Eli race since he was the heat right after hers, then Kati and I walked down to the lodge. Another third place to add to her list of accomplishments.

Next weekend she's off to Waterville Valley in NH for a GS race, then she's off before it's back to Maine for another GS.