Stratton Mountain, VT - Part I

So she's finally back on the race course. It seems really weird for me to be sitting here in Virginia and she's racing in Vermont. This is the first time in four years that I've missed one of her races. I'm not sure I like being on the sidelines at home. Although I don't usually see the whole course, at least I can get a pretty good feel for it. I also enjoy being there for moral support. But it is what it is...she's growing up, off to college hundreds of miles away, and at least for this winter will be racing without me there until Nationals. Today she's got her aunt there for moral support (and picture taking).

So today it was off to Stratton Mountain, racing in the Southern Vermont Series. As usual she's the only one in her group, the only Open Class woman. That's nothing new for her. Hopefully like they've done in other races she's been to they'll combine some of the smaller groups and she'll be able to race against someone. Not sure the Open Class men want to race her though, it sounds like she'd clean their clocks. I got a message from her earlier that said during time trials she shattered the open class men's best time. I'm not sure how much faster she was than they were but she said they were shocked. Just goes to show you what a girl from Virginia can do when she puts her mind to it. The actual races are going to start shortly, then it's back again tomorrow for another day of racing. I hope it all goes well!

The Season Begins

Apparently I forgot to post this last month...

So here it is, January 21 and it's looking like the snowboard season, at least on the East Coast is finally getting under way. At the moment our area is under a blizzard warning for tomorrow and Saturday so there's not going to be any snowboarding around here for a while since we won't be able to get out for several days. The good news is that Whitney is in Maine and they're not supposed to be getting any snow from this storm. She should be hitting the slopes this weekend for team practice and probably the local mountain as well. I'm not exactly sure what her practice schedule is, some days they'll be at Titcomb Mountain which is the local one and on the weekends they'll be at Sugarloaf. I think the coach has hooked her up with someone to work with at Sugarloaf, someone who knows boardercross so she can keep improving.

It's been a slow start to the winter and that has meant a slow start to the race season. The original plan was for her to go back to school early and race in a Maine Mountain Series race last weekend. Then she was going to come home for her first "spring" break next month and race at Massanutten. Unfortunately Maine Mountain had to do some schedule shuffling and the bx races were moved to the same weekend as the Massanutten races. They already had races 3 and 4 scheduled for then but now all four races are that weekend. Whitney debated switching back to the Appalachian Series and racing down here but we decided that was kind of risky based on how the winter has gone so far. Of course now we're supposed to be getting 18-24" of snow so I think it's safe to say the Massanutten race will be fine.

She also finally got some information on how the USCSA works. USCSA is the US Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association. Apparently, unlike for the alpine and Nordic skiers, there is no competition schedule for the snowboarders. I guess it's still too new or they don't have someone to coordinate, at least on the East Coast. So for the snowboarders it's up to the college to decide who to send to the USCSA National Championships. There are no USCSA races, no competitions except Nationals. Whitney is pretty confident that her coach will send her; she's been working out hard, knows what she's doing, and will be racing in USASA events. That will be pretty cool for her since the USCSA Nationals are at Whiteface, Lake Placid, NY.

Weird, Warm Winter

This has been the weirdest, warmest winter so far. It was cold enough at night for a few days that Massanutten was able to blow some snow, then it got warm and it all melted. I think they made more later and were open a day or so then had to close because on Christmas it was 70* outside! So there's been no snowboarding in Virginia so far and I'm doubting that Whitney will have the chance to hit the slopes before she heads back to college. It is supposed to get cold again towards the weekend so snowmaking should resume but we'll see how long it takes to get open again. Not really worth it for a season pass for Whitney at this point.

Up in Maine they had some snow over the weekend and are under a winter storm warning tonight/tomorrow. That means that they should have some good snow on the slopes when she gets back and also probably in town. Hopefully she'll have plenty of time to get out on the slopes before she has a race. She just found out that the Maine Mountain Series is moving the date of the first bx race to February. Major bummer. Her boyfriend was going to drive back up to school with her and watch her race next month. It also means that she won't be coming home for her February break since the race is the end weekend of break and because of that she won't be racing down here. Maybe she should have stayed part of the Appalachian Series. Oh well. It will all work out in the end.

Where's the Cold....and the Snow?

Here in Virginia we had a few days in the 70s recently. Not exactly snow making weather. Even in Maine it's been a tad on the warm side. From what I've been hearing from my source in the North, she said it's been in the 50s and not nearly cold enough for her. She loves the cold weather and they're not getting it. Sunday River had some man-made snow and opened for weekends last month but I'm not sure if they're still open or not. Hopefully the cold will return and the snow will come with it. As far as I know Sugarloaf has had some snow on the peaks but not really much. They posted some pretty pictures of "snowliage," snow on the peaks and pretty yellow and orange trees in the valley. The college has posted the ski and snowboard team schedule and the good thing is that races don't start until January. By the time she gets back to school after Thanksgiving she should be able to get on the slopes.

A Great Day in Maine

So if the highlight of her year was becoming National Champion in April, the second highlight came yesterday. The snowboard team coach, who also is in charge of the alpine operations certificate at UMF, invited Whitney to sit in on his class last night because Seth Wescott was coming in to speak. He's one of Whitney's idols. He grew up in Farmington and his "home mountain" is Sugarloaf, which is where the UMF team practices. He is a two time gold medal winner in the Olympics for boardercross (2006 Torino, 2010 Vancouver), he also has a gold medal in the World Championships as well as several silver medals in the World Championships and Winter X Games.

Seth is one reason she went into boardercross. I'm not sure what the class was about but she had a chance to talk to him for a few minutes after he was finished then the two of them walked out together (neither was staying for the rest of the class). She was super excited last night when I talked to her! She had the chance to talk to him for about 15-20 minutes after the class and they talked about her snowboarding, his snowboarding, and he gave her some advice on next steps in her snowboarding career. She found it interesting that he started doing half-pipe but moved to boarder cross when he saw people like Shaun White coming up behind him. I think that was probably a good move! He thought it was funny that she didn't do half-pipe because mom said no and she was not as coordinated as you need to be to survive half-pipe (never mind the fact that there are no half-pipes in Virginia).

I'm so excited for her to meet one of her idols, especially since she missed her chance to talk to Alex Deibold (bronze medalist, 2014 Sochi Olympics) when we were at Nationals in April. This sounds like a good start to her season...now for the snow to start falling.

Fall into Winter

Tomorrow is October 1 and a new season is getting so close. There are signs of it everywhere - the leaves are slowly starting to shed their green and change colors, pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks and Panera, the weather is starting to cool down which means that in New England it's getting really cool, especially at night. Another sign is that we got an early look at the Appalachian Series schedule for the winter. The big news there, at least for us, is that there will be a bx race at Massanutten again and the timing is such that Whitney will be home from school on her first spring break (or is it her winter break, I'm not sure). Whitney has already registered with USASA again and has made some big changes. She's moved up to the Open class and she also switched to the Maine Mountain Series. The good news is that since she's the Jams Champion from last season, she has an automatic invite to Nationals this year.

Another sign of the coming season is that dry ground training has started up in Maine. Whitney has had several meetings with the ski and snowboard team at school and they've started running and working out. She said that the other day they were playing football. Not sure how exactly that gets them in shape for skiing or snowboarding, but it sounded fun.

The snow is going to start falling in Maine pretty soon and they'll be able to start making snow there long before we have a chance to here in Virginia. Here's to an awesome season!

Making Progress Towards the Season

Winter is getting closer. The weather may not feel like it (it was still hot and humid until yesterday) but the calendar, my email, and my Facebook feed say otherwise.

Signs of the coming season -

• Whitney registered yesterday with USASA for the new season. She's moved to the Maine Mountain Series and to the open class. Should be a challenging season for her. {we'll miss the Appalachian Series}
• Whitney has a meeting with the UMF ski and snowboard team in a couple of weeks.
• I've seen postings on Facebook from the Appalachian Series director that she's been making phone calls about the new season. That means that she's calling resorts to set up the competition schedule. She can't say anything yet, but I sure hope there's a race at Massanutten.
• Also on Facebook I saw a posting by Whitetail about getting ready for winter.
• I had an email today from Copper Mountain that they are opening on Nov. 6. Yes, they're in the Rockies but that's soon! Hopefully Sugarloaf, which is where Whitney will be this winter, will be opening soon after that.
• Bob and I have been talking about which ski passes would be best to get this year. We'll have to take a look at our options and figure out when we'll be down at Massanutten. We also need to decide if Sarah is getting skis for Christmas or if we're going to rent for her again. 

I'm looking forward to winter. Once I see Whitney's schedule I'll make some plans to head to Maine and watch her race. I'm not sure what I'm going to with all my free time this winter; for the first time in four years I won't have to take her to practice or races.