Crotched Mountain BWL Race 2/5/2006
It was a tale of 2 races...... The racers were greeted at 7:30 at the Crotched Mountain Lodge by rain and mud. By course inspection time, the rain had dwindled to a sprinkle, but it wasn't looking like a fun day on the mountain. The 1st run started almost on time with no rain, but very thick fog. On the upper part of the course visibility was 2-3 gates. At one point the race was halted for 15 minutes when a very heavy fog settled on the course. During lunch, the sun finally burned through the fog to reveal a beautiful spring like day. The slush was scraped away to expose a firm but very ski-able base and the 2nd run was underway. The 2nd run was much more enjoyable for both racers and fans and the day ended a huge success for the first USSA sanctioned race at Crotched Mountain in over 15 years.
Official race results are available at the NHARA site.
The 2nd run of the race was filmed in high definition video (if you were there, you probably understand why there isn't video from the 1st run). Here are some previews of all of the racers sorted by class. They're small and highly compressed so they can be viewed over the internet. The video clips will look jerky when the skiers move at high speed against a background of the trees. It looks great on DVD on a high-def TV....
The entire footage of the 2nd race is available on DVD. It contains all racers in start order and all racers sorted by race team. It will be very useful for ski analysis and fun to watch for years as our little skiers get bigger (and faster).