sibhusky

a day to hold on to

Well, yes, the Flathead Valley has the highest growth rate in Montana.

Big Mountain in January

If any of you PA racers remember a guy at Elk with a HUGE voice always yelling "COURSE!!!!" when the next racer came, he was at our races about 10 days ago, helping out. He was here on vacation for a month, had a pass, and was helping at the races for the J1's and 2's. I notice he managed to rack up over 200000 vertical feet on the Big Vertical Tracker while he was here. Name of Wolfgang. His wife was my gatekeeping partner for two days. As soon as I heard him, I made the connection.

Siblet looked into the "club" team where she is, but all they talked about was parties and drinking at the meetings, so she decided it wasn't for her. She wanted to race. So she is still trying to race for the mountain, even though she is six hours from here.

Big heavy duty rubber bands hold the brakes out of the way.

Why

http://www.siberianrescue.com/other/Jan2006 Same link as before, with new pictures. Old ones all tossed now.

Why don't you look into seasonal rentals? Usually they are only a year or two old. In fact, we used to get NEW skis as seasonal rentals, which next year became the shop's daily rentals. Same with boots. Added feature -- if she needs to get longer ones, or bigger boots you just show up at the shop mid-season for an exchange.

He's not gonna tell YOU, he wants to BEAT you.

That place looked closed when I was down there last time.

Just to add a bit of weight to your side. One of the racers here, the coach's son, WON the Rail Jam competition back in December. He also scored very highly in the Slopestyle comp. I've been looking for those results to have something to post, but haven't found them yet. So race training does help with freestyle, because they work on skiing fundamentals, NOT JUST GATES.

They are gates meant to be hit, so they knock out of your way like one of those clowns you had when you were a kid. You definitely want to go the shortest distance down the hill.

But she looked good. 1/14/06 GS First Run: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prpv.d...AE486FF357E59D8 1/14/06 GS Second Run: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prpv.d...2E74DE530654434 1/15/06 SL First Run: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prpv.d...D1A4B383B21406D

Actually, in reading the PARA guide, it seems like there are designated qualifier races for each region, so if you go to a race in another region, they may let you race, but it will not count as a qualifier for you. So, you would get nothing out of traveling to 7 Springs other than experience....in theory. However, I remember Siblet qualifying for derbies using races she had gone to that were not qualifiers for her. She was tied with some other girls, so they started looking at her "extra" races and it was her performance in them that allowed her to go to derbies. Where she got killed by the competition, I might add. If you barely qualify, maybe you shouldn't be there is the moral of the story. (She just experienced this again in a FIS-U race where most of the competitors were from overseas.) Looking at Ridge's performance at JF, I would assume he would make derbies easily, so there is something to be said for going to training rather than racing extra races.

Generally you only race in the races close to home at the J4 level: Elk, BB, JF, CB, Blue, Shawnee, etc. I think you can go to the other races in western PA, but we never did. An interesting item is that there are two groups (regions) of ski areas that you will be racing at and you only use the competitors from your own group (Northeast) when you do first, second, third, and you ignore the others. I can't remember which ski areas are in which group, but I am sure you can find it on the site. But, as an example, if Blue, BB, and JF are in the same group as CB, you would ignore the presence of Elk and Shawnee (or whoever is in the Eastern region) competitors when you try to figure out your WC points. Example 1 - Blue 2 - Shawnee 3 - Blue 4 - Elk 5 - CB 6 - CB 7 - JF The CB skier's WC points would be like they were in 3rd and 4th place, not 5th and 6th. Sure both groups are racing each other, but it is like the other group isn't there. The quotas apply to each group and not the combined groups, which is how they are racing. Very confusing, I know, but it gives the ability to provide lots of races but each area only has to hold one race. Otherwise you might have to have 3 or 4 races per mountain.

For J4's and 5's in PARA, each run is like its own race, rather than the combined runs. They use World Cup points to determine derby standings. George Risi, who beat Ridge in run 1, apparently didn't finish run 2, so Ridge moved up. At some point they drop some of the individual scores and only take the best x number or something, so Risi could still end up ahead of Ridge. "Eastern and Northeastern Regions – Qualification to J3 and J4-5 Championship events will be based on World Cup Points earned in the racer’s best of one less than half of the individual runs held from regional qualifier races. The applicable PARA Region Chair will compile the results from the qualifier races held within each region."

Only on PARA. Since the full competitor fee isn't paid, you get fewer features. Non scored race also means non listed results.

There's Member Lookup and Athlete History, no Athlete Lookup.....

By the way, I looked on the CAT team message board and back in October you were saying that PARA required the USSA number. So I would think that meant that you were doing that back in October. Maybe you should check your checkbook.

They should list him as a competitor even though he hasn't been in scored races. And he is listed, member number 6057962. Use the Member Lookup feature, not the Athlete History. By the way, looking back, I mentioned a PARA card back on January 5th. If you didn't have one, you should have asked then. http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/index.p...indpost&p=51500

Here in Northern Division, we pay USSA Northern Division BMRT (team) FIS The last one is strictly due to Siblet's age level. By the way, the Alpine Competitor and FIS dues are WAY bigger as you get older. Alpine Competitor is $125 compared to Youth Competitor of $60. Then FIS is another $80 if you register in August, but $180 if you wait until 8/16. Then Northern is $15 if you do it early, but $30 if you wait until October. Consider yourself lucky. By the way, I've become part of the divisional group here and there is NO money being made. We have ONE paid (part time) position, the rest is all volunteers. Believe me, the paid person puts in a full week of work for her part time pay. Paperwork for races, working with quotas, intent forms, insurance, etc. takes a lot of time and is needed, not optional. We are going to be upping our fee to probably $30/$50 for next year due to operating costs. By the way, this is covered on the team website: http://www.catteam.com/page4.html . If you didn't FAX in your membership YESTERDAY, then according to their rules, your kids can't be in derbies. Now, if I were you, I'd be lifting up the phone right this minute to call someone at PARA to plead for forgiveness and get that money in.

You get a pin in the appropriate color. After a while you tell them to keep the pin.

By the way, conditions here are PHENOMENAL right now, I am so charged up about it. Unfortunately didn't arrive there until 11 today after driving back and forth to Bozeman the previous two days I was feeling lazy. But, Big Face, Powder Trap, Langley, Slingshot, are all superb...I can't even describe them. Steep, but powder over packed powder, all the rocks and mini-trees covered, all the moguls re-covered, just the pitch and the powder. Map here: http://www.big-mountain.com/img/tmap_front.jpg and here: http://www.big-mountain.com/img/tmap_hell.jpg Unfortunately, I am working the races tomorrow and don't know if I'll be able to fit in any runs. Really want to get over to Gray's Golf Course.

I will be gatekeeping at the NorAms here in February. There are downhills and Super G's. A good time for Atomic Jeff to borrow his buddy's jet. Of course, the mountain is all blocked off and some good runs are not available and for about a week afterwards the runs used for the events are like skiing on rock hard marble (not nice). But, to hear them roar by you is quite an experience.