EMSC
Well-known member
It's always a good time for me going to the World Cup races in Beaver Creek. You get to mix it up a bit and get some runs in while also having a fun event to go see.
There's not a ton of terrain open, but the mellow upper portion of the main mountain is all open, Though with just enough small rocks to be wary and on your toes at all times. A couple of man made trails are open as well including Redtail down into the finish stadium. After a handful of runs up top I headed down to watch the race.
Today was the 'premier' event of the 3 held - Downhill. It's a heck of a course, with a long flat up top followed by extremely steep an icy sections with wild turns thrown in. Eventually with another flatish section and 3 large jumps that you can see from the finish area. In some years you can ski to a section known as pumphouse and get a real sense of the speed and commitment involved. Having skied the course prior to the race back a few years ago, let's just say it's pretty crazy to point em straight down Golden Eagle for 2,500 verts (it's a double diamond normally).
The organizers go all out at this level as you might imagine, installing numerous tents, a stadium that holds a few hundred, large tv board so you can watch the television feed and they have announcers just for the stadium. And a surprising amount of sponsors/vendors either selling or often times simply giving away free-bee's. They also run shuttles up half of the beginner trail out of the stadium from the village for those that do not want to ski.
I'm not too good at speculating on crowd size, but probably at least a few thousand spectators watched the race. The stands were full, the standing area in front of them was full, a couple hundred had hiked at least part way up the course. This year the rowdiest part of the crowd was pro- Marco Sullivan, yelling from a section of the stands and holding up signs to spell 'MARCO- ROCKS'.
With the weather very nice; sunny with high clouds and probably upper 20's, it was a great way to spend an hour and a half. It is early season after all so why not insert a distraction into the middle of the day instead of lapping the same 8 or 10 trails. You never know, I've ridden lifts with some of the competitors over the years including recently retired Herman Maier. Not many sports where you can get that close to world class competitors.
You can also see a portion of the steep pitch far above and see the spray of snow in the turns and the speed at which these guys go. Even when coming straight down the last pitch into the stadium there is a slight spray of snow from the wind they create. It's alsoa bit weird to see TV interviewers on the sidelines talking to skiers. You just don't see that in regular ski life.
How did the NA contingents do? The US team had a decent though not spectacular day. Bode got the 'wooden spoon' as 4th place is known. Andrew Weibrecht screamed out of 47th start to finish 11th, and Marco? He ended up 14th (with several other US'ers scatt0ered beyond that). It was not a good day for the Canadians with their top finisher in 28th (Manuel Osborne Paradis). The podium was Carlo Janka (SUI), Didier Cuche (SUI), and Askel Lund Svindal (NOR).
After a quick lunch at the mostly open-deck style Red Tail, I was quickly back up the Birds of Prey lift and skiing. Short afternoon lift lines (singles line was basically none) and lots of HSQ's meant some more fast vert.
I'll be back for tomorrows 2 run GS race. Supposedly a decent storm is going to come in overnight which might make the race interesting, but aso might cover the small lurking rocks too. Should be interesting.
(I think I got some good pics, but I'll have to deal with those later).
There's not a ton of terrain open, but the mellow upper portion of the main mountain is all open, Though with just enough small rocks to be wary and on your toes at all times. A couple of man made trails are open as well including Redtail down into the finish stadium. After a handful of runs up top I headed down to watch the race.
Today was the 'premier' event of the 3 held - Downhill. It's a heck of a course, with a long flat up top followed by extremely steep an icy sections with wild turns thrown in. Eventually with another flatish section and 3 large jumps that you can see from the finish area. In some years you can ski to a section known as pumphouse and get a real sense of the speed and commitment involved. Having skied the course prior to the race back a few years ago, let's just say it's pretty crazy to point em straight down Golden Eagle for 2,500 verts (it's a double diamond normally).
The organizers go all out at this level as you might imagine, installing numerous tents, a stadium that holds a few hundred, large tv board so you can watch the television feed and they have announcers just for the stadium. And a surprising amount of sponsors/vendors either selling or often times simply giving away free-bee's. They also run shuttles up half of the beginner trail out of the stadium from the village for those that do not want to ski.
I'm not too good at speculating on crowd size, but probably at least a few thousand spectators watched the race. The stands were full, the standing area in front of them was full, a couple hundred had hiked at least part way up the course. This year the rowdiest part of the crowd was pro- Marco Sullivan, yelling from a section of the stands and holding up signs to spell 'MARCO- ROCKS'.
With the weather very nice; sunny with high clouds and probably upper 20's, it was a great way to spend an hour and a half. It is early season after all so why not insert a distraction into the middle of the day instead of lapping the same 8 or 10 trails. You never know, I've ridden lifts with some of the competitors over the years including recently retired Herman Maier. Not many sports where you can get that close to world class competitors.
You can also see a portion of the steep pitch far above and see the spray of snow in the turns and the speed at which these guys go. Even when coming straight down the last pitch into the stadium there is a slight spray of snow from the wind they create. It's alsoa bit weird to see TV interviewers on the sidelines talking to skiers. You just don't see that in regular ski life.
How did the NA contingents do? The US team had a decent though not spectacular day. Bode got the 'wooden spoon' as 4th place is known. Andrew Weibrecht screamed out of 47th start to finish 11th, and Marco? He ended up 14th (with several other US'ers scatt0ered beyond that). It was not a good day for the Canadians with their top finisher in 28th (Manuel Osborne Paradis). The podium was Carlo Janka (SUI), Didier Cuche (SUI), and Askel Lund Svindal (NOR).
After a quick lunch at the mostly open-deck style Red Tail, I was quickly back up the Birds of Prey lift and skiing. Short afternoon lift lines (singles line was basically none) and lots of HSQ's meant some more fast vert.
I'll be back for tomorrows 2 run GS race. Supposedly a decent storm is going to come in overnight which might make the race interesting, but aso might cover the small lurking rocks too. Should be interesting.
(I think I got some good pics, but I'll have to deal with those later).
=D> What type of camera and lenses were you using???
