A
Anonymous
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Saturday: <BR>Ugly ugly ugly. Ice to the left of me, ice to the right of me, ice ice ice. Gillian had ski club today in preparation for tomorrow's race, so while she practiced running gates on ice (Dad, this is just like the World Cup skiers do it!), I did a quick tour of the few open trails, found nothing redeeming in any of it, and went inside with a good paperback. <BR> <BR>In the afternoon I was challenged by both daughter and son to races in the dual courses set up for the last Tootsie Roll Race of the season. (Race down some easy gates and get a piece of candy at the bottom.) I did my absolute best, no parental sandbagging here, and just barely managed to keep even with both of them. <BR> <BR>My head had gotten pretty big after last weekend's soft bumps. Nothing like running gates on ice to hammer home just how bad I really suck. <BR> <BR>Sunday: <BR>Race day. A huge field of 252 6-12 year-old racers for the Devo finals. It was a gorgeous day, the race was smooth and well-run, and we were all through by 1:00 and ready for some free skiing. <BR> <BR>The sun had actually warmed the snow up nicely, and despite some treacherous ice at the top of Allen, both Allen and Ross were skiing beautifully. Ross in particular had some nice sugar snow and was very fast, very edgeable, and begged for high-speed screaming nonstop runs, much to the delight of Gillian and her friends. Of course there were rocks, dirt, and ice to avoid, but it was actually considerably better than "not terrible," which is high praise this season.