Wisp

Wisp was interesting. It's in a really pretty part of Maryland and I'd love to go back, either in the winter or summer. The day we were there it was REALLY cold, 5* when we got to the resort and windy. Not sure it made it much above 20* that day. Check in was easy this time, we waited around in the lodge a bit, then drove around to the top of the mountain, which was much closer to where the race was being held.

Again, there weren't too many racers so if things went smoothly, we should have been done in good time even though there were two races. Things did not go smoothly however. Whitney said that the course was hard (a good hard - challenging but not too hard), it was also longer than ones she's been on in the past. It had a couple of jumps, a hip turn, a banana turn, and some other things. On one of the practice runs, a boy fell going over the first jump. While he was swinging his arm all around, complaining that it hurt, the ski patrol was on it's way. Found out later that he broke his arm. That was a long delay while they took care of him. Finally the races started about 10:30. Later there was a delay in the afternoon race when a girl in the 14-15 group fell on the same jump (bruised tailbone and looked like she did something to her elbow).

Whitney was the only one in her age group. Usually when that happens, the racer can either go down by themselves or be grouped with a higher or lower age group that has fewer than four racers. This time was a bit different and they had to get the ok from the race judges. There was a guy in the same age group as her plus an older female racer and an older male racer that were also the only ones in their age groups and they decided to race together. This worked out really well; it was good to have the competition even though they weren't racing against each other. It was kind of funny, they were the mixed age/sex group, the odd-balls.

So being the only one in her age group meant that Whitney came in first and got a couple more snowflakes to add to her collection, this time with blue ribbons. She also picked up the medal from Wintergreen that we missed getting last week. All this raises an interesting question - is she going to get an invitation to Nationals? We think so, but we're not really sure. She will be the Series champ for her age group but does that get her an invite or does she need to be the regional champ? Is she the regional champ? With 2 first place finishes and a second, I don't know. I just know she's got a lot of points. Nationals is the last week of March at Copper Mountain in Colorado. I sure wouldn't mind a trip to Colorado! I guess we'll have to keep checking the website and see what happens but for now, the race season is over.