The following link is to the current race schedule. We may change one of the spring races by attending a race at Waterville in lieu of the race at Pat’s Peak.

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It is hard to believe that the last weekend of the season is coming up! What a fantastic year of racing!

Last weekend many of our racers ventured over to Wildcat Mountain for the State Championships. While we certainly had our game faces on for the races, we still made sure to make time for some less serious fun! From starting dance parties at the top of the race course to our team dinner on Saturday night at the White Mountain Hotel, we definitely made some really great memories!

We had beautiful, sunny skies not just on Friday but Saturday and Sunday as well! Each of us made sure to take a moment to realize how lucky we are to not only be skiing, but also to be skiing on a mountain with a few of Mount Washington right across the way! It is certainly a view that is hard to beat!

A special congratulations goes out to Phoebe and Sienna who will be competing at Piches this weekend at Gunstock Mountain- rip it up girls!

Our final week at Whaleback couldn’t have been any better. The 50-degree weather was a nice change up from the conditions that have forced us to wear layers and layers of clothing all winter long! I like to think that we deserved the warm weather treat we were given this week J

We trained a fast paced GS course on Tuesday, a full length GS with the U14s on Wednesday and yesterday another GS course that forced the athletes to “stack up” and be balanced on their skis. Between the deep ruts our racers skied Wednesday to the hard, slick and ungroomed conditions we had yesterday, our athletes are ready to take on any conditions that our final race on Sunday will bring!

As we come into the last weekend of racing the U12 team would like to congratulate all of our athletes on a fantastic season. We can’t wait to wrap it up with the Technica Winter Finish on Sunday! See you there!

It is hard to believe that the race season is coming to a close. The past couple of weeks have been busy with training, traveling, dual slaloms and lots of fun! Last weekend a number of athletes ventured to Cranmore where they competed in Finals. Congratulations to all of our racers who did an amazing job over the weekend! A special HOORAH for Forster who qualified from finals to the State Championships!

(ps- thanks Richie for the great photo!).

Midweek training days at Whaleback have been both fun and productive. With only a few races left we are now focused on treating every training run as a race run; we are turning up the intensity. Yesterday Paul and I set a dual Slalom which was an exciting change up to our usual training routine.

At this point in the season it is officially safe to say how much every athlete has improved. Just ask Marianne Doyle and Bruce Sacerdote how they felt about their kids crushing them in the course yesterday! (Sorry guys….I even held them back in the start to give you each a 3-gate advantage! :D).

This weekend a handful of our Ford Sayre racers will be competing at the State Championships at Wildcat Mountain. The anticipation throughout the season assures that our athletes are as determined as ever to ski their fastest.

Again, great job to all of our athletes for their fast skiing, positive attitudes, and commitment to the season!

Best of luck to all of our athletes competing in the State Championships this Saturday and Sunday at Wildcat!

We had an incredible time at our “Big Mountain Day” at Jay Peak yesterday. The early morning chilly temps were soon defeated by the sunshine that broke through later on.

Corduroy snow, powdered tree skiing, and the terrain park…we really did hit up the entire mountain! By mid morning we had worked up an appetite and took a quick lunch break before zooming over to the other side of the mountain where many of the kids took their first ride up a tram. Most of us forgot we were still in Vermont as the vibe of the “big mountain” gave us the sensation that we were actually skiing in the Alps!

Amidst all the hype over qualifiers, finals, championships, etc. it was great to take a day to simply relax and remind ourselves of why we ski in the first place! Today we were back at the Skiway for day two of our February break camp. We trained slalom in the morning and after the kids expressed their eagerness to continue gate training, Paul, Rich, Cornelia and I decided to set a full length, tall pole slalom down Thomas in the afternoon; it was great practice for Sunday’s final qualifier!

Tomorrow should be another fun day filled with both slalom and giant slalom training at the Skiway. It will be great for our racers to experience a day of skiing with other nearby clubs who have decided to join us for the day. We plan to set up timing which will give the athletes the opportunity to add a “race day” focus to their training.

The rest of February camp is sure to be a blast. We are all looking forward to finishing up the last qualifier on our home hill. As Matt mentioned in his last email, it really is incredible to see how much every athlete has improved this season! Way to go Ford Sayre! 😀

Think snow and stay warm!

The gang at the top of Jay Peak

Ingrid soaking in the view (and maybe the sun too!).

Wyatt focusing before running the full length SL today at the Skiway. Dylan and Theo were there to cheer him on! Great teamwork boys!

What a week! We spent two days freeskiing the powder at Whaleback and despite the chilly temps and wind we had a successful day of SL training on Thursday. We headed over to the Skiway on Saturday and Sunday where we trained GS on Worden’s steep pitch and moved into a gliding drill on the flats. The drill really helped the athletes to understand the importance of rolling with our ankles and being “easy on our edges” on flat terrain.

Sunday afternoon we migrated over to Winslow to catch the second run of the Dartmouth Carnival SL race. It’s a bonus for our athletes to be able to watch racers who are skiing at such a high level right on our very own hill.

With another qualifier approaching this weekend at Whaleback we are surely going to capitalize on our “home hill advantage.”

We can’t wait to see everyone out there on Sunday cheering on our athletes!

Until then, think snow! (It seems to be working! :D).

PS- check out this awesome film that Cornelia found for us!

http://www.tetongravity.com/video/ski/the-east-coast-is-the-best-place-to-ski-right-now