Funny looking back now on my Feb 19 comment about our desperate ski conditions: in the following days, the weather became even worse!
When I was out flagging the course in 60F+ temps I felt overdressed in my race suit as the lift-served racers were wearing shorts. Some of the alpine racers were even going topless (with the girls in sports bras).
Fortunately I still managed to pull off a race at our back-up venue of Berkshire East.
Even though temps became a bit more normal by race day on Feb 24, we were still skinning up through slush in many places, and we even skied through fairly deep standing water to reach the ski>skin transition at the resort base.
For Team Hagan results, Jerimy took the win with Alex in third. I took 4th followed by Misha in 5th. Some other guy I didn't know (Anthony Colby) was also on Hagan, and although an eventual DNF, that meant during the first ascent all but one of the six top racers were on various generations of Hagan race skis!
The first Saturday in March was Jay Peak. For some unexplained reason all the descents were easy groomers even though almost all of the usual race descents were open. Hagan results were Jerimy 4th, Brian 5th, Sheldon 7th, Josh 10th, and me all the way back in 24th given the deep field and the lack of any real skiing, sigh.
Then everything changed, and we got 6' of snow in the first half of the month!
Jerimy, Josh, and Brian were all away at the Pierra Menta for Bromley. But Alex took 3rd, Misha 6th, and for my first outing on the Ultra 65 I blasted through the cut-up powder and tight moguls to take 7th for the Master's win ahead of my 45+ rival this season.
For the last race of the season, Jerimy didn't return in time from the Pierra Menta. Jan took 2nd (Ram Mikulas's old setup), Brian 3rd, Josh 5th, and me 9th (eventually beating out five other racers who had all out-paced me on the initial ascents, followed by lots of tough skiing where I could fortunately make up time).
Finally some normal spring weather now, but should be lots of good spring skiing left well into May.
Thanks again for all your support this season, and hope the season has been good for all of you out West!
http://nerandorace.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/NERandoRaceSeries/
"It shines in variable conditions, hard pack, crust and wind affected snowpack - basically, any time when conditions get less than ideal."
