Mammoth

[sibhusky]

Well Siblet is out racing at Mammoth this week, as is another former CAT team member, Andrew Ginnelly.

 

Right from the bat I knew in my heart that this was utter folly to send a kid who has been at college, with only a few days on snow and only two of them in gates, off to a major FIS race. Add to that the fact that we could not book air tickets at the time the coaches wanted without having to mortgage the house and well, the stage was set.

 

Siblet arrived in Reno (closest airport to Mammoth) around 5:20 PM last Saturday. She was meeting other teams from across the division there (division includes teams from a wide geographical area, so they were arriving on other planes) so they could form up van pools. Anyway, she throws all of her stuff on the "luggage van". EVERYTHING. Money, underwear, cell phone, toothbrush...you get the picture. Van leaves. It turns out that the team they are sharing a van with HAS MISSED THEIR CONNECTION and they don't arrive at the expected time. It'll be four more hours of waiting for them to show. Finally, they arrive and they get their rental van. It has no snow tires. (Now you have to ask yourselves what kind of brains the coach had at this point.) They take off into the Sierras in a raging blizzard which was to drop three feet of fresh snow on Mammoth over the next two days. More on that later. Anyway, needless to say, their vehicle is not making it. So (thank god) they pull off at a Budget Inn for the night. (Of course, I've already paid for lodging in Mammoth. AND all of her stuff is IN MAMMOTH!) Next morning they are on their way BACK TO RENO for another vehicle. Of course the rental of two different vehicles was also not included in the initial estimate. Finally, they are on their way again and arrive in Mammoth about 24 hours after landing in Reno.

 

Next day, the races are cancelled due to too much snow. They've been trying to pack the course with groomers and having the racers run over it and over it and injecting it with chemicals, etc., but the fresh stuff is too deep. So, here I am thinking that the training day she lost GETTING TO Mammoth (oh, yeah, I had already paid for that ticket, too) will be returned to her. BUT NO, the coaches don't want kids wearing out or getting hurt so they ski for all of three hours.

 

Finally, yesterday, they run a slalom. Fortunately Siblet survives, but the course is still really too soft and she can't ski the gates, she can only ski the ruts and hang on. It's like a boblsled or luge run by the time she goes, 70-some people ahead of her. Her former SO, another team member, also finishes, but with a hike. For him it's a success, his first FIS SL race he didn't DNF. For her, well, she skied in her normal points area. Not bad for her first race of the season with no training. And she's in one piece. But from a budget point of view, no payoff since no points improvement.

 

She has perhaps two more races before she comes home. We still didn't know last night if it was going to be SL or GS.

 

Papasteeze, skimom, once your kids are racing FIS, this is the stuff you will sweat bullets about.

[Papasteeze]

Stories like that help me from feeling sheepish about the stage-mom little league Dad syndrome. I think the coaches already view me as a huge pain the arse.. But you know what? It is our money that we spend for our kids, we have a right to question and second guess.

 

Thanks for the story, keep them coming!! I'll try and do the same as the season progresses.

 

You brought up a point that was at the back of my mind. I understand the need for drills and training but, I think that 4 days on the snow without any gates to ski around is too long in an otherwise very short season here at CB. I fitted Stevens old twins to his boots, because he asked to try them out last weekend.... hmmmmm

[skimom]

GO SIBLET!

 

 

That's the problem with out west - every time you want to race, the fresh powder ruins it all. We are SO lucky to be in PA where we are not constantly cursed with pow!

 

P.S. Don't forget, we need pics.

[Ski]

Wow, Sib, I was afraid to keep reading...

[Glenn]

Wow, Sib, I was afraid to keep reading...

 

 

With the forshadowing I was sure there was gonna be a nasty injury. Glad to hear thats not that case. Thanks for shedding some light on the "subject" though.

[skimom]

Given the circumstances, the Siblet did a great job to score in her normal range.

 

You need to get your card company going, so you can stop worrying about the finances, and focus on cheering Siblet on. She's amazing.

[NJSkiFamily]

What a story!!!!! Siblet must be really dedicated as most people would have just taken the next plane home after going through all that.

 

I, too, was nervous when I first read through the story.

[skimom]

What a story!!!!! Siblet must be really dedicated as most people would have just taken the next plane home after going through all that.

 

Siblet has it all - brains, beauty, nice and she's fanatical about skiing/racing. Her edge angle would make you stop in awe.

[AtomicSkier]

Siblet has it all - brains, beauty, nice and she's fanatical about skiing/racing. Her edge angle would make you stop in awe.

 

She does have some pretty sweet edge angle. I wish her the best of luck in Mammoth, gotta boost those points...

 

and she's not so bad looking either

[sibhusky]

Wow siblet is hardcore. Where does she practice gates in the Bozeman area? For some reason I don't remember if MSU has a race team. Did you get any good eats in Bozeman? I miss eating Bison and Elk on a regular basis.

MSU has a race team, but she is not on it, she is still racing for Big Mountain. She needs to lower her points to be within the NCAA range. But, it would be a lot to be a freshman AND ski NCAA. She wanted to wait a year as well because she wanted to be able to keep up her grades.

 

So, she is getting some training at Bridger when she is at school and training here when she is home.

 

I forget what I ate when I was in Bozeman. That's what six hours of driving and three snow storms along the way will do to you. Then the same in reverse the next day on the way home.

 

Update. Another SL today. Course was in better condition. She started in 68th place today, but midway into the course her pole fell off her hand and was dangling from her wrist. As you all know, they whack the gates in SL, so the precious knuckle protection wasn't there. It was two gates before she regained her pole so she lost a lot of time. We are still awaiting results at this point, but she thinks she finished worse than yesterday overall.

 

She says the wind is horrible...so horrible that she actually LOWERED A BAR on the chair and was hanging on for her life. They had closed the whole mountain except the chair the racers were using. They discussed cancelling her race, but held it I guess as SL as not as impacted by wind as a speed event.

 

Tomorrow is GS, thank goodness.

[skimom]

Keep us posted, Sibby. She has a big fan club here.

[sibhusky]

This just in. She got within a point of yesterday. So far we only know the FIS points. The USSA translation of those points will take a couple of days. The combination of these two results from a FIS perspective could worsen her points by about 10 points. But she has a couple more big races coming up in January that could help and by then she will have loads more training in, PLUS NEW EQUIPMENT.

[sibhusky]

This is turning out to be the "perfect trip". The final race just got cancelled due to rain. Let's see, it was about $2000 for TWO races? And all the expenses aren't in yet.

 

Oh, and the weather tomorrow is just perfect for a flight to land at some OTHER airport. That happened to her team mate a few weeks back.

[sibhusky]

Expense Per athlete cost

 

Lodging $275.00

Coaches expenses 455.00

Race Entries 140.00

Lifts 200.00

Administration Fee 20.00

Total Due to Divison $1090.00

 

Airfare: 660.80

Walking around/lunch money: 200.00

Total so far: $1950.80

 

Doesn't include extra night in Budget Motel, or cost to switch vehicles. MIGHT get a couple of race entry fees back.

 

 

 

 

Basically paying for the coaches travel expenses and their time is the killer. Our team sent only two kids, Siblet and her friend. Plus the coach. Now, he was acting as a "divisional coach", but there were two other coaches as well, plus possibly a ski technician for the division.

[sibhusky]

You can race as an independent, in which case either you have to attend all the coaches' meetings or you have to find a coach to represent you at those meetings. Siblet may go as an independent to one race where her team is not going. We'll see how that works, but I am hoping to use the Bridger Coach to represent her at that race.

 

Normally the coaches do the driving, get the bibs and tickets, pay the hotel bill, coordinate meals, take videos of each day's racing and discuss it later that day with the kids. They may also (if no tech is there) assist with ski tuning and sharpening. You can see that a lot of that may fall on the racer if there is no coach. Going to a strange resort and handling all of this extraneous stuff in addition to the racing could easily be too much for some of these kids. And actually, since Siblet is only 18, most rental car agencies won't even rent her a car. For the one race where we have an issue, it may be ME going down to help her out. Which would cost just as much as having to pay for the coach.

 

It was a LOT cheaper skiing back East, most of the places were within a day or a few hours drive and you didn't have airfares and rarely had hotel expenses.

Edited December 22, 2005 by sibhusky

[ole2planker]

Sib,

 

In case no one else has said so lately, you and your husband are good parents.

 

What new gear is she getting?

[Papasteeze]

Sib -

 

How many of those type of weekends do you figure on this season.

[sibhusky]

Sib,

 

In case no one else has said so lately, you and your husband are good parents.

 

What new gear is she getting?

 

Volkl Racetigers. They weren't ready for her at Thanksgiving and we didn't want to slap her on new gear for the race, so she will pick them up tomorrow. Naturally, two pairs of skis, two pairs of new bindings, two sets of plates. $1500.

 

So, to Doug, we could be "rich" if we still had our old income levels, lived in the little townhouse we had back in NJ, didn't have to pay for college and didn't have this daughter with an expensive sport. Oh yeah, we just got a bill for $1200 for propane. Fortunately, our property taxes are lower here.

 

 

Sib -

 

How many of those type of weekends do you figure on this season.

 

None of this type I hope. The next set of races I don't have numbers for, but no flying involved. If I don't go, could stay under $600 for the Big Sky New Year's series. I seriously don't like to add things up it would mean confronting the folly of the whole thing.

 

If you go to the Northern USSA site and click on the info for some of the races, you can get a feel for the expenses involved. http://www.northernussa.com

 

We are going to get off easy this year as Siblet will not be cutting college to go to races, only attending "local" races or ones that occur while she is on vacation.