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February 12 and 13, 2005

Skaneateles Race, February 12^th

Believe it or not they can actually have a downhill ski race at Skaneateles. And we're not talking a Nordic cross-country affair but a certified official CNY Ski Council slalom race. Now I know what your thinking, "Who's hill do they use?" but the race is actually held on the main hill (called main hill so as not to confuse you with the surrounding pasture).

Historically this has always been a tough race for Cazenovia. Cazenovia ski racers simply don't do well on zero incline featureless surface racecourse. It's just a fact. Throw in a double black diamond steep with multiple fall lines, moguls, trees, with no grooming and they're fine. Skaneateles, on the other hand, just confuses them. Several of our racers were heard asking Coach Lapham when they got off the t-bar, "Okay so like which way is down, again?"

In the J4 Girls division both Sarah and Alex skied strong, finishing 25^th and 34^th respectively. In the J4 Boys division, for the second week in a row, Barclay had trouble with a gate on his first run but came back with the second fastest time of the group on the following run.  He ended up in 23^rd place and remains a sure bet for the State team.

Cazenovia Dual Slalom, February 13^th

The real racing of the weekend was on Sunday at the Cazenovia Dual Slalom. All season long we've been talking about how small our team is, but the Dual Slalom showed us how big our team really is. It takes a well choreographed, finely honed team to pull off an event of this magnitude. Just so you get a sense of what is involved, read on.

It starts with a team member attending CNY Council meetings so that the event fits in on the Council schedule. Then we have team members who handle all the registration card mailing and race fee collection.

What would the race be without the delicious concessions of Chef Falso and his Culinary Institute of America trained kitchen crew. This year was particularly memorable due to the manger like ambiance of the concession stand.

The race would not have been possible without all the hundreds of hours of hill grooming, snow squashing, and lift line maintenance.

Then of course there is the team that sets up the racecourse, speed fences, finish and start areas on the day before the race. Once the racers begin to arrive the smiling faces and cheerful service of the race day registration crew warmly greet them. Not to mention bib preparation, distribution and collection.

One of the more thankless and bone chilling jobs is done ably every year by the gate watching team. These stalwart individuals spend motionless hours on the hill ensuring that each racer correctly traverses each gate.

Then there is the racer queuing and start gate team. To the untrained eye this chaos appears to be akin to cat herding. These individuals have to make sure the racers are in order and ready to race and get off to a clean and timed start. To give you an idea of the magnitude of this job, a regular council race has maybe 240 total runs. The Cazenovia Dual Slalom format typically entails about 450 runs. The start team is in constant communication with the timing team located in the Sack Shack. This is command central on race day. You don't even want to know what goes on in there. Trust me its scary.

Of course none of this would be possible if the racers can't get up the hill. The T-bar loading and t-bar release polizia did an outstanding job this year. This job is like teaching monkeys to use straight razors; they either get it right or kill themselves.  Then there is the annual t-bar derailment on race day. This year's derailment was swiftly handled and resolved by a highly skilled elite team. This techno-SWAT team was able to re-rail the t-bar at its tallest tower in near record time under incredible pressure and without delaying the race.

If I missed anyone's contribution I sincerely apologize. But I wanted to give everyone a sense of what an incredible team effort the Cazenovia Dual Slalom is. The Cazenovia Dual Slalom is a truly unique event that is highly anticipated and enjoyed by hundreds of children, parents, and race coaches. As difficult as it is to pull off each year with aplomb we should be very proud of what can be accomplished by a dedicated and motivated team, and without even a single toilet backing up!

Thanks to everyone for all your help.