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Song Mountain Race Report
February 15, 2004

Looking down from the top of Bali Hai, Song Mountain's main trail, you can see a number of small round lakes in the valley below. These lakes are called kettle lakes. In fact there is a very good restaurant in Tully named after these geologic oddities. As you may know kettle lakes were formed when the last glaciers receded from the area. Large chunks of ice calved off as the glacier headed back to Canada. The sediment from the glacier's meltwater subsequently buried these large ice blocks. Eventually the ice chunks melted away and the overlying sediment collapsed leaving holes in the ground. Over time some of the holes filled in with water and became small lakes. Others became bogs or swamps. In Tully they became the focus for an up-scale housing development and the name of a gourmet restaurant.

None of that, however, was on the minds of the six intrepid racers from the Cazenovia Ski Club. They were there to race on the big open GS course in sub zero temperatures. It was a sunny but bitterly cold Sunday for a race. Race participation had dwindled due to winter break vacations. It would prove to be a hard day for the Cazenovia team, which, due to their youth and home training terrain, hadn't had much experience on lengthy GS courses.

Kaitlyn Button, the Tiny Tiger of Perryville, continued on a tear this week caging her third straight fourth place finish in the highly competitive and talented JV girl's division. Some of the CNY Council's most talented skiers are in this division and Kaitlyn is certainly among them.

For the boys in the JV group Barclay Talbot came in 21st. Shortly after the race a frustrated but always optimistic Barclay was in serious negotiation with his equipment manager/sponsor. Rumor has it that Barclay will soon be riding on a new pair of sticks. The always-philosophical Barclay was quoted as saying, " I know a good carpenter never blames his tools but even good carpenters have to eventually replace worn out saws." Also in the JV boys group and finishing back to back were James "Shaken Not Stirred" Smith and Bennie "Hana" Concilla. "Even though these two fierce competitors are on the same team they were going after each other all day. I like that kind of aggressiveness." noted Coach Button.

The other half of the Smith brothers racing team, Nate Smith, was over in the boys JIV group. Nate managed a 39th place finish and skied well on a very intimidating course. "I am continually impressed by Nate's progress. He is skiing more aggressively each week and I think he will eventually begin to move up in the standings" effused Coach Lapham.

Next week is the last regular season race of the CNY Council and it will be held at Toggenburg Ski Center.