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!

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.

the river iced over below the Falls

American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls

Whitney

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!

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.

Blue Mountain, PA

We were at Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania this past weekend for competition. These competitions (one Saturday, one Sunday) were part of the Mid-Atlantic Series. Although it was kind of far, it was worth it to go and get some points towards her national ranking.

Although there wasn't much competition in her age group, the race officials grouped her plus the other girl in her age group with the only girl in the next younger group on Saturday and with three other girls on Sunday who were the only ones in their age groups. This was really good for Whitney; even though they weren't competing against each other, they could race together and push themselves to be better.

All the races went well. Whitney had a pretty good fall during practice on Saturday and hurt her shoulder a bit. She really felt it in the starts and didn't get as good a start as she would have liked in any of the races. She loved the races on Saturday, she and the girl from Blue Mountain in the lower age group really pushed each other and had fun racing. Sunday was also fun, although she was in a different grouping. She ended up coming home with two more blue ribbon snowflake medals. With the points she earned this weekend, she's now ranked 12th in her age group nationally.

So what exactly is "boarder cross?"

You may have been wondering what exactly is this snowboard cross thing that my daughter does. There are no high flying tricks, no flipping upside down, no jumping on rails or walls or pipes. She does get off the ground a bit going over jumps, but not too high. Mainly she just races down the mountain. Really, it's this simple - first one to the bottom wins. They do have a course to follow that includes things like rollers and tables, hip turns, spines, and other things with crazy names that I don't always understand.

The Washington Post Kid's Post on Sunday was all about the new winter Olympic sports and some not so new ones. They had.a great description of boarder cross.

"Only daredevils are allowed in this sport. Four snowboarders race down a winding, hilly course at breakneck speed. Every race has spills, thrills and plenty of excitement.

What I like best is that it's a real race. The snowboarders compete against one another, not just the clock. The winners move on; the losers go home."

Yep, that about sums it up. In the Olympics, you'll see four or maybe six racers start and race to the bottom. The top two move on, the rest are done and go home. Then there will be eight in the semi-finals (two heats), top two finishers from each race move on to the finals. Then it's a race to the bottom for the gold medal.

It's not too often Whitney gets to actually race against someone; there's very few girls her age that compete. One race last season, it was her, a guy that was in the age group above her's, his sister in one of the older groups and her husband. They were racing together but not against each other. In most of her races last season, it was either just her or her and one other racer until she got to Nationals.

I'm not sure when it's actually going to air on tv, but the women's BX is Feb. 16 and the men's is the 17th. Looks like the prelim races are in the afternoon and the finals are in prime time. There's plenty of other exciting snowboarding Olympic events to watch, plenty that Whitney's mom is just happy that she's not interested in.

A Long, Beautiful Drive

While I have a snowboarding loving daughter we have the unfortunate circumstance to live two hours from the closest ski areas. The first year she was on the snowboard team, it really didn't seem like a big deal to do all the driving we had to do to get there. This year, the two hour drive sure seems a lot longer. I guess it's because we've done it so often, the trip just seems longer now.

On the other hand, it can be a very pretty drive. There's two ways that we can go to get there, along the highway which is slightly longer or the back roads. During the winter, everything is brown and can be boring, but some days things just stand out. Yesterday was one of those. There was an ice storm overnight and as we were driving out the highway yesterday afternoon, the clouds were lifting, the fog was settling in the mountain tops, and the sun came out to make the ice glisten. It was very pretty, while the sun lasted. We also saw a field that was actually very green and spring looking. We've enjoyed looking at the snow in the mountains, the fields covered in snow, the cows, and the occasional llama or goat.

We haven't taken the back roads in a while. We've had enough snow/ice that I'm not sure how the road over the mountains will be, whether it's clear or slightly more treacherous. Since it's twisty and windy, I'd rather take the highways. I'd love to go the back way and see how the mountains and field are doing there. Maybe this afternoon.