Championship Slalom

Scott started 75th in a very strong slalom field today. I figured it would be tough given his start number and the snow conditions. The temperatures dropped to 27 degrees, and they heavily salted the course, but ruts still developed very quickly. They were the ugly, knee deep with verticle walls, variety. The course set was difficult and six of the top fifteen racers didn't finish. By racer number 30 finish times were coming in 4 seconds off the lead. By number 50 times were 7-9 seconds off the pace. Scott skied really well until about 15 gates from the finish, on the final pitch, when a rut spit him out and he did a full flip and a half, landing hard on his right shoulder. Naturally he hiked and finished, but he was dead last by a large margin. At the end of the day, only about half of the field finished.

So we decided not to do the second run, and instead let Scott heal for Giant Slalom tomorrow. The temps are supposed to drop into the teens tonight, so we should have a good, icy, surface for his final event.