Not much to say about tonight, except it was awesome.
The Masters’ season is winding down; only one more Wednesday night race before the Finals. Tonight was the last GS of the regular series. Unfortunately I missed last Wednesday’s GS at Mont Cascades due to my attendance at the NSBS (Northeast Ski Blogger Summit) at Jay (post to follow in a few days). I was hesitating until the last minute, but it wasn’t until 2pm in the afternoon last Wednesday that I decided that it would be wiser to head to Jay after work instead of ski racing then driving down to Vermont. I’ve had way too many episodes of falling asleep at the hill.
Temperature was a beautiful -4c under the lights, not the stars as the forecast was for something like 15-20cm in town starting in the evening. I still had the car rental without Winter tires on. 🙄 Snow started falling hard as I reached Wakefield.
I don’t know how many liked the course, but there wasn’t any difficulties and I thought it was too tight for my liking and my GS skis. It looked more like a Dual course, but that’s just me. Didn’t really need to inspect (although I had time and did) as it was set pretty much the same way as the last GS we had at Edelweiss. Like the course, the results were tight. The winner won by 1 hundred of a second and I was part of group of 6 skiers within the same time within one second. Enough to win a beer. Beer tad score for the season 5-3.
What was great about tonight wasn’t the race, it was the skiing. As I recuperated my snow covered jackets and pants at the start, snow had been accumulating all night. A quick trip inside to put back my ski pants and drop off some jackets, I headed back out. I was too lazy to change skis, so I ventured off with my GS skis. Streif had been groomed since the weekend wet snow and had a nice layers from fresh snow. It was like skiing on velvet. Fresh tracks and nice arcs on Streif. Good enough to repeat a times. I also ventured off on the lightless Easter Bowl and under the new Quad which I hadn’t seen open all year. For a second, I remembered the damage I made to my skis on that race on a powder night in early February at Cascades. I also didn’t hit anything this weekend, so under I went. The hill had been groomed at one point, so there wasn’t any surprises in the dark. It was pretty late, so I decided to call it a night and collected my bet at the bar before people would leave.
Oh yeah, tonight was also my 100th lifetime visit at Edelweiss, 25th this season (record). The only ski area even close to the three-digits is Tremblant at 103 since 1981-82 and much more lifetime.
Night’s results.
When I got home, I started catching up on some emails and there was the Masters’ Newsletter, so who better to inform you on what is going on in the series. There is a Facebook group too, so join up, sign up and see you out there. One of the rare good thing about not going on Spring Break is that I’ll be able to make it at the Cascades Slalom next week (if I’m not sick).
Howdy Ottawa Masters!
We have 2 regular season races left so, Welcome to the Close to the End Newsletter.
Our penultimate race goes tonight at Edelweiss, and then next week we are back at Cascade for the last regular season race.Standings to Date
The Leader Board has been exciting in the last two weeks.
On the ladies, Karine Devost continues to impress with a string of golds. Aimee, Carmen and Camille are trying hard to catch up. Karine’s 115 point lead will quickly erode if she misses any race going forward. Attendance plays a huge factor. Laura Robson unfortunately is out for the season with a torn rotator cuff. We wish her the best.The mens saw a changing of the guard. Ron Kunstadt, our uncontested series leader since the opening race, was finally dethroned by Benoit who yanked the yellow bib right off his back while he was looking the other way. Benoit has been slowly creeping up and breathing down Rons back over the last couple races. It all happened at the Cascade race. Justin Tsang came out of nowhere to take silver and push Ronaldo down to third. Just when you got it figured out, Justin comes on board and shuffles deck. Boys, there’s a new kid in town.
Meanwhile, back at the bar stool, the entertaining race for the fabulous BeerMug trophy has narrowed down to a two racer duel: Camille and Carmen (who long ago left Aaron in her dust). At the Camp Fortune Slalom, Carmen narrowly edged out Camille to take the Yellow bib. Not content to wear white, Camille got her mojo running and came storming back for the win last week at Cascade to take back the Yellow bib.
Special Mention…
Goes to Martin, who upon arriving at the Cascade race, discovered that he had left his boot bag in the hallway. Unlike any other master who would have just hung around the bar, Martin drove all the way back home, retrieved his boot bag and drove all the way back to the hill to complete 2 runs and finish 11th! We salute you!Finals
The Finals will run at Camp Fortune on Sat March 19 on the Skyline side.
Rogers Cable will be on site to record the event!
We will start a little earlier than you are used to for Masters races so please plan on getting there early.
To accommodate the Play-by-Play, I am asking you all to send me a short one or two paragraph bio. It can be funny, informative, whatever you want the world to know about you!
More Details to Follow.Cheers Folks and see you all tonight.
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