Lookin' up!

Things are looking up. In the past two days the snow has setup and is getting really hard. Add to that a forecast including five sunny days, and we're ready to rock. Today was the Men's and Women's Super G competition.

The policy here is that there is no free skiing allowed on speed skis. This policy was imposed after the death of a racer last year. This posed a real problem, given that the transition from Slalom to speed isn't that simple. This morning they allowed warm-up runs for one hour on the lower part of the race venue. Slow lifts converted that to just two practice runs. Scott and I made good use of the opportunity, testing various waxes. Scott's Super G race skis were bent at Aspen, so we've been scrambling to get his trainers up to speed. Based on our tests, we decided to use an experimental wax with a new overlay not yet in the Podium product line. While Scott inspected the course, I prepped his skis.

To get to the point, Scott won the Super G, becoming the first athlete ever to defend a national title at J2 Nationals. This was not without adventure. He charged hard from the start and was still skating after the second gate when he got hung-up on his inside edge and tipped over. He caught himself with his hand and quickly pushed himself back up, having only lost a little time. The rest of the run was great and the skis ran very well.

So now the train is back on track. Tomorrow the Men have Giant Slalom. After that its three days of downhill.