Freelancing

We spent last week at Red Mountain, BC apart from the rest of the US Team. Scott had a break and he had not done any races other than those prescribed by his coaches. His understanding had been that he could only race those events scheduled by the USST. Over Christmas, after he noted his teamates racing in regular FIS races and scoring, Scott scoured the FIS schedule for good tech opportunities. It was already too late to schedule anything in January or early February. This series at Red Mountain was the only good fit.

The race originally promised to have a good points profile. However two weeks before the event a number of top athletes pulled from the event due to a conflicting Canadian training camp. Fair, understandable, disappointing. So suddenly we were left with a seed including a few 20 point racers and Scott. If any athlete in the seed failed to finish (which some did each day), the points handicap grew exponentially. And so it was.

Notwithstanding it was a very valuable weekend for Scott. He completed all eight runs, skied very well, and restored his confidence in his technical skiing. He experimented with softer boots in Giant Slalom (and liked it), and closely monitored his edge sharpness relative to effectiveness (an issue this year). It was nice not to have a start bib in the 70's or 80s. Scott skied right with the 20 point racers, lowered his FIS profile by a few points and had a great time with all of his Canadian friends. As a bonus, his good buddies from our sister team at Schweitzer were in the same hotel. Good times!