how far they came - us alpine masters · 2018. 10. 3. · respective class: overcoming adversity....

spring 2013www.ussa.org

Schedule a Masters ski rac-ing event at Big Sky Resort,and they will come.And with the 2013 Phillips 66 USSA MastersChampionships on the calendar for March18–23, 2013, they came in droves from allacross the country. The numbers were impres-sive: 200 racers contributed to 630 race startsover four furious days of racing with nationaltitles at stake.

With an average of 12 women’s classesand 14 men’s classes being contested each day,the event takes on the persona of a three-ringcircus, but Big Sky was up to the task of ring-master. Each race was marked by good cours-esets, firm mid-winter snow conditions, andSwiss-like efficiency. And yes, by all accounts,the post-race awards parties were outstanding.

The event marked how far many Masterscame in other realms, as well: recoveringfrom injuries, battling mysterious illnesses,and then, at Big Sky, handling the unpre-dictable conditions. Nearly two feet ofsnow fell on Big Sky during the week, andblustery, cold winter weather made strip-ping down to a speed suit akin to skinny-dipping in the nearby Gallatin River. Butteamwork prevailed as racers and racecrews slipped the fresh snow off thecourses and lugged parkas to the finisharea.

One common theme seemed toemerge from so many of the racers compet-ing for the 26 titles awarded each day,whether they finished first or last in theirrespective class: overcoming adversity.When competing as an adult in a sport asvigorous as ski racing, setbacks are in-evitable. Whereas ski racing is often thecause, it can also be the motivating force forrecovery. These are stories of unflaggingcommitment.

Day 1: DownhillPNSA RulesTry telling the 100 racers attempting to getto sleep the evening before the downhillrace that it doesn’t really count, and you’llget a stern difference of opinion. The downhill may not count in the tally for thecombined awards (SG, GS, SL), but it’s stilla national championship event and a

supreme test of nerves and skill. Whereasthe Big Sky venue might be considered“Masters-friendly,” there was nothingfriendly about the conditions on race day.

Six inches of new snow coated thetrack, and snow squalls made racers feel as ifthey were behind a snowplow clearing theInterstate. The snow slowly subsided, how-ever, and a massive group side-slippingeffort kept the track clean. But what is spamfor some may be caviar for others.

Led by men’s race winner Luke Keenan,the Pacific Northwest contingent took fulladvantage of its familiarity with the condi-tions to take the first three overall spots inthe men’s race, and collect a total of eightclass-medals. “In PNSA we run a lot ofspeed, and we race in these conditions allthe time,” said Keenan, class 2. “All thesnow and flat light is just like racing athome.”

With the two Class 6 elder PNSA states-men, Willy Scroggins and Bob Cravens, insecond and third overall, no one was goingto dispute Keenan’s observation. “We’re thetarget for our younger friends,” said Scrog-gins, sporting a six-inch goatee. “We had tolet one of them beat us or they might quit.”

Also medaling among the men for

How Far They Came For many Masters racing in Montana, this year was about overcoming adversity By Bill McCollom, SR Editor

These companies support Masters Ski Racing…

…and we support them.

Continued on page 4

Rocky Mountain’s BrocThompson, on his way towinning the overall titlein SL.

Racing for the Futureby Steve Slivinski, Masters National Chairman

“What a Hoot!” Those werethe words I used after a quickrun down a fast downhillcourse at Big Sky. It was a ter-rific Nationals with cold,hard snow, and a great crewto run it. It takes numerous

dedicated people to run a ski race, let alone aNational Championship. One of those hard-working people that gets rarely noticed isthat humble, soft-spoken person, the coursesetter. That talented fellow has to be a crossbetween Isaac Newton, Fred Astaire, andMichelangelo to create those wonderful trailsthat wind their way down the hill. In thespirit of Ernst Hemmingway, I contacted anoted Sun Valley poet to pay tribute to thesesensitive souls. So as I bask in the springtimesun at the bottom of Warm Springs, I dedi-cate the following to that outstanding indi-vidual, the course setter.

News & Info of the Alpine Masters

Masters Membership Newsby Bill Skinner, USSA Masters Manager

2013 has been a great season. Sure, someareas were snow-sketchy early, but mostMasters races came off in style. We had agreat four-event Nationals at Big Sky, MT.What a mix! A/B group spent one day ski-ing superb powder in the morning and run-ning a hard fast SG track in the afternoonon the classic Big Horn speed venue.

Our membership held fairly stable thisyear. We implemented some of the suggestions our Masters Work-ing Grouop made last spring. Many thanks to Bill McCollom, RyanFuller, Nadine Price, Thunder Jalili and Lisa Densmore. See ourchairman reviews on this project. We held our National Comm.meeting at Big Sky, reviewed our year, and feel positive going intothe 2014 season.

Masters will be making their every five-year-or-so Eastern pil-grimage for the 2014 Phillips 66 Nationals. Four events at Okemo,VT, March 17–22, DH/SG/GS/SL. Okemo has very Masters-friendlyvenues and are very excited to host the biggest event on our calen-dar.

In the West, our major event will be at Park City, UT for afour-event FIS Masters Cup SG/SG/SL/SL. The SGs will count forNational Speed Series points. PC always attracts a large Europeanturn out.

Have a great summer, and I look forward to seeing you on thehill.

Major events 2014Feb. 6–9Phillips 66 FIS Masters CupPark City, UT SG/SG/SL/SL

Mar. 17–22Phillips 66 Masters National ChampionshipsOkemo, VT DH/SG/GS/SL

Ode to a Course SetterO scurfy beast, o foul scoundrel, yon course is set like the scourge of a black-hearted maze.It wanders to and fro, first up the hill then down, till I’m skiing in a haze. What addled plan has your warped and pitiless mind engaged inWhat nefarious route have you dreamed up for Nancy, Steve, and Keith.The devil’s brew you have partaken in makes what seems go down go upand what goes left go right.Repent now before you have to run your own twisted trail of pestilenceand become afoul of what your own black hand has crafted.That twisted route you set has brought forth a torrent of victims’ wrath that melts snow, and caused even harden ski patrolmen to blush. Who set yon devil’s path?May a cauldron of red klister engulf your skis for your demented misdeeds. Somewhere the sun shines, somewhere birds sing, and somewhere cheery children play,but not today for as I sit in the snow with goggles askew, that evil troll of a course setter has sent me into the land of DSQ.

As always keep those ski tips pointed downhill, and have a great summer, because fall is just around the corner.

Kristina Koznick teaches potential Masters at“Give it a try” clinic at Buck Hill in January.

The Alpine Masters Series newsletter is produced by Jim Hayes (a Master in age only) in Salt Lake City. Visit www.Ha-YesDesign.com.Thanks to Lisa Densmore for most of this newsletter’s photography.

PNSA’s Knut Olberg


A note by Bill Skinner:

Top GS and Speed skis next year will beconsiderably less shaped than what we usedin past. This is an FIS rule which does notapply to Masters, where sizes and shape arerecommended, but not mandatory. Mastersmay use the skis that work the best forthem. We have skied less-shaped skis inpast, and with the advance in ski design wefound friendlier equipment. Now on theFIS level there have been the controversialski changes; we won't go into the reasoning.

For Masters, the feeling is we do notwant to go back to the past, but still wantthe top levels of construction that go intoWorld Cup-caliber equipment. (They holdand are stable on hard snow at speed.)Where do we find them?Fisher last yearstepped up with a25-meter versus35-meter 188.They produceda limited num-ber and soldthem. Atomic

and Head have similar plans for next year.Don Sears, PC Masters coach, and I haveboth skied this ski and found it a friendlyGS ski that held on ice. The question is: inthe future will more shaped GS skis bemade with top level construction?

Next problem: where do we go forSG and DH skis that turn, for us agedchampions? Should we stock up on lastyear’s skis for the future? I have.

Article by Chris Smith, Fischer Promotions &Product Development

The Fischer World Cup Masters GS ski is de-signed around the needs of Masters ski rac-ers. With the new FIS rules coming intoaffect for the 2013–14 season, Fischer saw a

gap in ski radius for the Mas-ters market. The

new ski rule changes for World Cup, Eu-ropa Cup, Nor Am, and all FIS skiers arechanging to 30 meters for women, 188cm,183cm and 35 meters for men, 195cm and190cm. Fischer will no longer be producing23- and 27-meter GS skis. Fischer startedlooking into what radius would work bestfor the Masters segment and started testingwith Austrian Masters; we determined that25-meter radius would fit the needs of aMasters skier best. With most course condi-tions, gate offset and distance, skill level,25-meter skis are a perfect combination.

Knowing that Masters are still look-ing for the same construction as World Cuprace skis, we make the 25-meter ski thesame way, with a sandwich sidewall woodcore, double titanium, equal shovel. The

World Cup Masters GS ski comes in twosizes, 183 and 188.

Check out the FischerMasters GS skis at your

local Fischer retaileror Jans/Rennstall.

Steve SlivinskiNational Chairman

The future is now.Back in 2012 at the Nationals in Park

City, your National Committee set up aworking group to look into the future ofUSSA Masters racing, and come up with ini-tiatives to grow our sport. The group con-sisted of Lisa Densmore, Thunder Jalili,Nadine Price, and Ryan Fuller, headed byBill McCollum.

This year, at the National committeemeeting in Big Sky, they provided us an ini-tial progress report. The first area addressedwas marketing and promotion. Posters withthe 2013 Masters schedule were distributedto all of the divisions. They were in turnused at ski shows, sports shops, and skiareas. The committee was inclined to de-scribe them as a good promotional tool,but in some cases hard to distribute. Thebrochure templates that USSA provided, onthe other hand, were easier to customize foreach division and distribute to multiple lo-

cations. It was felt the brochures dramati-cally help with increasing the exposure ofMasters racing opportunities in each divi-sion.

Temporary USSA memberships avail-ability was increased this year, and USSAprovided divisions with a number of com-plimentary temps. This initiative by USSAenhanced the exposure of Masters racing tonew racers, and has the potential to in-crease full-time membership in the future.However it will take time to determine theeffectiveness.

The last proposal was to develop intro-ductory “Give it a try” race clinics to beerleaguers, NASTAR sliders, and town seriesracers, and give them a look at Masters levelski racing. One was held back east atWachusett Mountain on January 25, andthe other in Central division at Buck Hillon December 8. Both were an unqualifiedsuccess, with more clinics planned for nextseason.

The National Committee has tasked

the working group to continue refiningthese initiatives and other creative ideas toenhance USSA Masters racing. On behalf ofthe National Committee and Masters racersnationwide, I want to thank the committee,Bill Skinner and USSA for their tireless ef-forts on behalf of Masters ski racing. Tosum up, I want to quote chairman Bill Mc-Collum who said, “We need to recognizethe need to continue to be creative in mar-keting each race through special awards,age-handicap scoring, different seedingschemes, social gatherings, giveaways, andpromotions. We can no longer take forgranted that racers will show up simply be-cause a race is on the schedule. Our awardsand social committees need to be aggressivewith drawings and raffles. And our divi-sions need to be proactive in this hyper-in-formation age with social media, Facebook,websites, and e-mail to inform and pro-mote our sport.” The future is in our hands,so let’s grab ahold and ski as fast as we can.

The IntermountainMasters

GS and Speed Skis — Where Do We Go?

Launching Masters Racing Into a New Era

PNSA were Jim Doudna, third in Class 8;Dave Kornish, third in Class 7; and An-drew Vetterlein and Chris Maxwell, whotook gold and silver in their Class 5.

In the women’s race, it was hardly asurprise that Rocky Class 4 speedster Jen-nifer Kaufman would win the overall title.She showed her experience by tucking theentire first pitch and posting a time thatwould put her in the medals for most ofthe men’s classes. “I was comfortable withthe conditions and just tried to ski itclean,” said Kaufman. “I’m satisfied in thatit was a good clean run.”

Central’s Class 5 Kristin Grebe postedthe second fastest women’s time, despitethis being her first downhill and despite afew fresh stitches in her shin from a fall intraining. Dasha Kudulova, an accom-plished Intermountain Class 5 speed skier,picked up the bronze.

Day 2: Super GOld Age and Treachery Will OvercomeYouth and SkillTreachery might not have been involvedin Willy Scroggins win in the men’s SG,but in this case, old age certainlytrumped youth. With his trademarkgoatee flapping in the wind, Class 6Scroggins bested Class 3 Mihai Filimonfrom the Far West by a scant 0.06 sec-onds to take the win. IntermountainClass 6 compatriot, Rich “Slabby”Slabinski claimed the bronze.

As was the case with the downhill,fresh snow blanketed the course and snowflurries obscured vision, but aggressivecourse maintenance action by the racecrews led to a rollicking ride down theBighorn racing trail. Class 9 winner PepiNeubauer said, “This was a great set. It wasflowing with fallaways, banked turns, andplenty of speed.”

For Scroggins, this race meant morethan just a gold medal; it was a celebrationof his full recovery from a near-fatal car ac-cident two years ago. “Oh yeah, I nearlydied,” said Scroggins with a chuckle. “Ibroke my ribs, ankle, femur, along with afew other things, and spent 10 days in thehospital with a brain injury. I’m glad to saythat at this point I’m pretty functional, andwhen I’m racing I don’t feel a thing, exceptfor being out of breath.”

Scroggins is a stay-at-home dad in thePortland area and heads up to MountHood Meadows for skiing and trainingwhenever time permits. His two boys are

ski racers working their way through theranks, which require his attention, and inthe summer he coaches at Mt. Hood withhis brothers. This was Scroggins’s thirdtime racing speed at Big Sky, and the expe-rience helped.

“I know the hill and I’m comfortable

with it,” said Scroggins. “It ran like I antici-pated; it was like ‘game on’ after the rightfooter. I had so much fun that I’m stillthinking about it.”

Beating Slabby is always a motive forScroggins, as is trouncing all the youngerracers. But Scroggins hasn’t lost sight of thebig picture. “Thinking back to two yearsago lying in my hospital bed, I can’t be-lieve how far I’ve come,” said Scroggins.“Just to be able to compete is satisfying,but I never expected to be at the top of mygame.”

In the women’s overall standings forSG, Dana Alexandrescu (Class 3) from In-termountain continued her dominance ofspeed with a resounding win. Newlyanointed Northern Class 6 racer Lisa Dens-more took the silver, while Intermoun-tain’s Chris Katzenberger marked herreturn to ski racing with a third in theoverall and a win in her Class 5.

Day 3: C/D GSFrom Sick Bed to Sick WinOne would need an adding machine tocalculate how many class titles Lisa Dens-more has accumulated during the courseof her career, but winning the overallwomen’s GS title after entering Class 6could be considered one of the highlights.

“I haven’t won the overall at the Na-tionals in over a decade,” said Densmore,who now skis out of Red Lodge, Mont.,after growing up in and racing out of theEast. This win was also especially mean-ingful as she finished second in the entireC/D field, only yielding to the men’s racewinner, Pepi Neubauer.

In Densmore’s case, maybe havinglow expectations was the key to her suc-cess. “I really didn’t expect much becausethere was a six-week block this winterwhen I was so sick that I was totally dys-functional,” said Densmore. “It was some

sort of auto immune disease that affectedmy joints. I woke up on Christmas Eve,and I was essentially crippled.”

Eventually, doctors were able to iden-tify her ailment, and Densmore eased backinto her skiing routines, racing atSchweitzer Mountain, WA, at the end ofFebruary. But still, she felt compromised.

“On the morning of the GS I finallyfelt like I was loose and athletic,” saidDensmore. “After my first run, I didn’teven stop to check my time. It was goodenough to know that I skied well.”

Dana Alexandrescu nipped Densmorein the second run, but could not overcomeher first-run deficit and had to settle forsecond overall. Jennifer Kaufman added toher medal count by collecting the Class 4win and third place overall. Other womenin the intensely contested hunt for theoverall were Class 4 Alaskan Rada Khadji-nova, who placed fourth, and Chris


.

Continued next page

How Far They Came Continued from Page 1

Gaet Demattei, Far West, trumps adversity with victory.

Alphonse Sevigny, East, a Masters legend.

MargaretVaughn,East.


Katzenberger, who rode a fast second run tocapture fifth overall.

Neubauer trounced the men’s Group D(60-plus) field as veteran Class 8 racers Vic-tor Roy (Intermountain) and Bob Andree(East), pulled down second and third over-all, respectively.

Day 3: A/B SlalomJoint VenturesRacers were bundled up in the face of tem-peratures hovering around zero, but thesnow was of that western variety — that is,grippy, but doesn’t rut-up or break downinto spleen-rupturing chatter marks. Com-bined with two good sets, it was SL nirvana.

As the A/B Group racers moved fromoldest to youngest in the first run, Class 7aces Bob Skinner and Mark George set blis-tering paces, and were soon joined atop theleader board by “Slabby” from the ranks ofClass 6.

But when the Class 5s hit the course,perennial SL medalist Tim Hill took the leadby two seconds. Hill’s lead was short-lived,however, because Rocky Mountain racerBroc Thompson soon blew the doors off thefield by more than a second and a half.

Thompson cruised home on his secondrun to easily claim the class win and theoverall title, leaving classmate Hill in sec-ond. Class 4 racer Ara Papazian was fastestin his class, but a distant third overall.

Those familiar with Thompson havemade the following observations: it’s hardto believe that Thompson is old enough tobuy adult beverages, much less compete inClass 5; secondly, it’s even harder to believethat anyone could win in this competitivefield by such a large margin; thirdly, it’s astretch of the imagination to think thatThompson is skiing on a artificial hip that’sonly two years old.

“I was reduced to just side-slipping onlytwo years ago,” said Thompson, whocoaches Masters programs at Eldora andEcho Mountains in Colorado. The new jointhas given him a new lease on life on skis,however, as he now trains with the Univer-sity of Colorado Ski Team at Eldora, andtravels the Rocky Mountain Masterscircuit. Rumors abound that Thompson stillcan go toe to toe with many of the colle-gians, despite a ski racing background thatonly includes high school racing at hishometown of Duluth, Minn. “But I did skievery day after school, and I raced my senioryear in college,” said Thompson. “It’s amaz-ing to think of where I was then and where Iwas just two years ago. I’ve come a long way.”

Day 4: C/D SlalomBattle of the AgedWith so much of the focus on the younger,faster men and women in the field, some-times the fights for national titles among theolder classes don’t receive the attention theydeserve. Take the Class 12 (80 to 84) men,for example, which included seven racers, allof whom are competitive and legends onthe Masters circuit. Alphonse Sevigny fromthe East had won the DH and SG in thisclass, but Far West’s Gaet Demattei finishedright on his heels in both races. In the first

run of SL, Demattei finally took the lead byjust over a second with Bob Tengdin, a Cen-tral SL ace, in second, and Sevigny in third.With the top five running in reverse orderfor the second run, Demattei watched fromthe start as Sevigny made an uncharacteristicerror, hooking a tip. Tengdin was up nextand put down a blazing run, but Dematteikept his cool and skied just fast enough totake the win by 0.25 seconds over Tengdin.With Sevigny out of the race, Harry Baxterfrom Intermountain Class 12 moved up totake the bronze.

The past two years have not been easyon Demattei, and he credits his pursuit ofski racing as the primary motivation for hisrecovery. “I ruptured my Achilles tendon lastseason,” said Demattei, who lives in SquawValley and didn’t even start Masters racinguntil he was in his 70s. “It’s taken me abouta year to get back up to speed, but it stillbothers me. I went to a camp at Copper thisfall with Pierre Jeangirard, and that’s whenthings started to get better.”

But things didn’t get better for long.Shortly thereafter, Demattei’s wife passedaway after a short illness. “It was difficultand took me out of racing for most of theyear…but I had my immediate family, andthen there’s always this family,” said Demat-

tei, gesturing toward the mass of Masters skiracers collected at the awards’ banquet.“It’s a beautiful sport with the mountainsand snow, and it’s always been a family af-fair for me. After all, a family that skis to-gether stays together.”

In an extremely well skied and competi-tive women’s SL race, Dana Alexandrescu de-cided that enough was enough andhammered her second run to move fromthird to first in the overall. Skiing as aggres-sively as ever, despite minimal training time,Chris Katzenberger hung on to second, leav-ing Jennifer Kaufman a few tenths in arrearsin third place.

Day 4: A/B GSTight RacingUnder cold, but sunny conditions with near-perfect snow, Broc Thompson showed thathe’s more than just a one trick pony by tak-ing a hard-fought win in the overall of theA/B GS. After the first run, only 0.55 sec-onds separated the first four racers: Thomp-son, Mihai Filimon, Tim Hill, and TobyChapman from Northern Division.

Course-setter and head of the Big Skyrace department, Jeremy Ueland, set a wideopen second run, using the rolling terrainand width of the hill to maximum advan-tage. Hill and Filimon tied for the fastestsecond run times, but Thompson hung onfor the overall win. Filimon edged out Hillby only 0.12-seconds for the silver. Perhapsslowed by crashing through a GS panel aftera blind knoll, Chapman just missed a spoton the podium by a scant 0.56. After all wassaid and done, less than one-second sepa-rated the top four.

“These Nationals have been good tome,” said Class 7 winner Bob Skinner, whoalso swept his class in the SG, SL, andGS races. “It’s the first time that I’ve won allthree events. It’s my first year in this class,and I’m glad to leave the 6s behind, but itdoesn’t get any easier in the 7s.”

Skinner could have been speaking onbehalf of all the racers competing at theseNational Championships when he added:“Jeremy Ueland and the race department re-ally came through this week. This series was-n’t easy, given all the snow we’ve had, butthey put on some top-quality races. You stopto think about all the efforts of the racecrew, all the volunteers and officials…yeah,this was a good one.”

Article by Bill McCollom,reprinted courtesy Ski Racing magazinePhotographs by Marshall Tate/BigSkyPhotos.com

Bob Skinner, recipient ofsome damn good days.


CentralRyan Fuller, chairmidwestmasters.org

Midwest Mastershad a good seasonthis year. We setlofty goals for our-selves, and hit on

most and missed some others. Ourmembership and participation, as awhole, was flat. We are not particularlyupset by this, as we are seeing peer or-ganizations see decreases, as well. Finan-cially, we went about 7% over budget buthave reserves with which to offset thisoverage. We intend to reel in expenses nextyear without considerable increases tomembership costs.

The season startedoff strong, with anadult SL clinic hostedby Midwest Mastersand coached by locallegend KristinaKoznick. The campwas a great success and resulted in posi-tive publicity as well as new faces getting in-volved. We hope to once again hold acelebrity camp next fall! More on that thissummer.

We are in our 4th season usingSkiRaceReg and continue to be very happywith the system. For 2013, we imple-mented a custom temporary membershippricing structure that allows racers to regis-ter online for a daily, 7-day weekend,weekly, or monthly memberships. All maybe utilized several times during the season.These were a very popular recruiting tool.

CENTRAL TROPHY WINNERS

Each season, Midwest Masters awards threetrophies to our membership. Each trophyis awarded to a male and female member.Congratulations to our winners for 2013!

Ironman trophy — awarded to the memberswho attend the most races. Winners:Meghann Condit and Mike Wenner (JohnMcElligott lost in tiebreaker)

Cyr Cup — Our winners are Andrea Wo-jahn and Scott Malmsten.

Slalom Cup — The winners are Lilla Gidlow and Mike Wenner

PERFORMANCE VERSUS OUR SEASON GOALS

Last fall, we posted our goals for this sea-

son in our newsletter. As promised, here isour performance against these goals

We believe in publishing these num-bers to our Membership so the MidwestMasters board is held accountable! We’llhave refined Goals for 2014 noted in thefall newsletter.

YEAR-END METRICS

Midwest Masters tracks very specific num-bers year to year to help us understandwhere we are headed. This information isavailable to anyone who requests; it is apart of our annual report sent to USSA. Seeit at program.director @mid -westmasters.org.

Membership Summary• We have apparently—at least for the time

being—stemmed the tide of lost members. • Our promotions in Classes 1–4 workedwell, as we saw a huge increase in partici-pation with women (42.1%) and men(32.6%).• Temp licenses remain very popular; ofour 146 members that raced with us, 77,or 53%, utilized a Temp license in somemanner. • Our overall Goals for Distinct Members,Utilization, and Attrition Reduction were abit aggressive. We did make some progressin the right direction, and will use this ex-perience to tweak these goals for 2014.

Bright Spots• Attrition has dropped dramatically. Al-though our membership is flat and we arestill losing members, the rate at which weare gaining members has risen and couldoffset losses completely if the trend contin-ues. We have more new faces than we haveever had after a single season. • Our average age has dropped for the firsttime since measuring it 7 years ago. • Although we haven’t closed our financialbooks yet, we expect to see the average costper race for our members to stay the sameor drop from the approximate $15 mark.• Our contact list continues to grow, andour outreach is stronger than ever due to

aggressive Internet marketing. We intendto continue using these channels to keepour program in front of our customers.

LOOKING FORWARD

Overall, it was a mildly successful season.We have a lot of momentum and plan tokeep it going. The major areas of focus are:

RecruitmentWe intend to continue to focus heavily onmarketing and member recruitment, withlocal exposure (brochures, awards,newsletters, etc in public places), visitingwith college racers, use of social network-ing, special marketing efforts (targetinglocal NASTAR members and 18 year oldUSSA Junior racers and their parents), and

promoting womenracers and youngermembership in gen-eral.

Bigger EventsWe’ll go back to thebasics and holdfewer, but larger,events. Our champi-onship races thisseason have ignitedmore excitement at

the grass-roots level within our divisionand we plan to capitalize on this next sea-son as we work with partner organizationssuch as MACC (Michigan Alpine Competi-tion Council), CMSC (Chicago Metropoli-tan Ski Council), and Ski Challenge. Wewill continue to focus on our membersduring these events with more awards andrecognition of new members and greatperformances.

Social ActivitiesThis year, we held more organized awardsceremonies and we intend to expand onthe social aspects of our races next year.

Training OpportunitiesBy partnering with more Junior USSAclubs or by upgrading our club member-ship to allow for Midwest Masters to runtheir own training program, we can ex-pand the available training opportunitiesavailable to members in the Twin Citiesarea.

Thanks to all of our loyal membersfor another successful season! We hopeyou are finding that Midwest Masters isimproving every year. Keep your eyes openfor the Midwest Masters Fast TimesNewsletter over the summer for updateson our plans for next season!

Division News

Central Division End Goal Actual Goal % PercentMetric (includes temps) 2012 2013 2013 Change ChangeDistinct Members: how many members we have 146 163 146 12% 0%

Utilization: how often our members race with us; starts per member 6.8 8.2 6.5 20% -4%

Attrition Reduction: % of members we lose from season 1 to season 2 28% 15% 22% n/a n/a


2013 Skier’s Edge National ChampionshipsBig Sky, MontanaThe 2014 Spyder National Masters team isselected from the top finisher in each agebracket at the 2013 national champi-onships at Big Sky MT, based on totalworld cup points in the SG-GS-SL com-bined events.

NOTESM01 — tie at 52 points between BeauBuehler (CN, 4-1-3) and combined winnerJosh Stuart (IM, 2-2-4). Spyder team selec-tion goes to Beau Buehler based on thebest-finish tiebreaker criteria.

Women MenClass Competitor Competitor14 John Droege (IM, x-1-x)

13 John Duffy Dodge (EA, 1-1-1)

12 Virginia Reed (IM, 1-1-1) Gaetano Demattei (FW, 2-2-1)

11 Rich Robertwon (PN, 1-2-2)

10 Anna Droege (IM, 1-1-2) Keith Thompson (IM, 2-1-4)

9 Ann Ozuna (PN, 1-x-x) Pepi Neubauer (EA, 1-1-1)

8 Pamela Sheeler (PN, 1-1-1) Victor Roy (IM, 1-1-1)

7 Deborah Lewis (FW, 1-1-1) Robert Skinner (IM, 1-1-1)

6 Lisa Densmore (N, 1-1-1) Richard Slabinski (IM, 2-2-1)

5 Chris Katzenberger (IM, 1-1-1) Broc Thompson (RM, 1-1-1)

4 Rada Khadjinova (AK, 2-2-3) Toby Chapman (N, 1-1-2)

3 Dana Alexandrescu (IM, 1-1-1) Mihai Filimon (FW, 1-1-1)

2 Melissa Dettmer (PN, 1-x-1) Luke Keenan(PN, 1-1-4)

1 Lauren Macmath (RM, 1-1-1) Beau Buehler (CN, 4-1-3)

Keenan, Alexandrescu, Karjalainen are thetop speedsters in the 2013 Masters Na-tional Speed Series. The Series just com-pleted its 9th year of gathering speedspecialists for a season-long series of thebest SG and DH venues in the country. Itbecame a repeat performance for Keenanand Karjalainen. For the third year in row,they have traveled and dominated themen's races. Luke Keenan also claimed thenational downhill championship overall.Jennifer Kaufman had the title almost wonbut a slip up in the DH allowed DanaAlexandrescu to come from behind. Thismakes it two years in a row Don Johnsonhas been runner up in Group A/B. GrahamSmith and Robert Craven were newcomersto the top three overall this season.

The cherished Molecule custombelt buckles were handed out to class win-ners at the final SG at the Big Sky Nation-als. With continued sponsor support theSeries should continue into 2014.

Overall Molecule F Trophy standingsA/B – MEN (AGE 18–59)1 Luke Keenan (M01, PN) 1822 Don Johnson (M06, IM) 1163 Robert Cravens (M06, PN) 103

C – ALL WOMEN

1 Dana Alexandrescu (W03, IM) 752 Lisa Densmore (W06, NO) 703 Jennifer Kaufman (W04, RM) 653 Lisa Marien (W02, EA) 65

D – MEN (AGE 60–90)1 Rauli Karjalainen (M09, IM) 1932 Graham Smith (M09, RM) 1533 Wiebe Gortmaker (M09, EA) 77

Complete results athttp://ussamasters.org/2013/nss

Molecule F National Speed Series

2013 National Speed Series championsDan Alexandrescu, Rauli Karjalainen,and Luke Keenan.

2013 Spyder Masters National Team

Ted is the best GS skier of the past six years,having won four GS globes. The 35-meterdirective from the FIS fueled Ted's alreadyintensive summer training.

In the opening race of the 2012–13season in Sölden, Austria, Ted made a state-ment winning by 2.75 seconds. A huge win.To put this in perspective, the average GSwinning margin has been 0.11 seconds.Ted’s 2.75 margin is the sixth largest gap inmen’s World Cup GS history, and thelargest since Ingemar Stenmark won in

Jasna, Slovakia, in 1979. To show that thiswas not a fluke, he put a 1.76 second mar-gin on Marcel Hirscher in Beaver Creek,Colorado. Ted finished the season winningsix of the eight GSs and never finished offthe podium.

So how did Ted crush the competitionthis past season? According to Men’s HeadCoach Sasha Rearick, five things:

1. Ted was stronger.2. Ted has exceptional lateral balance.3. Ted moves from the tip to tail during

the turn.4. Ted has tremendous leg independence(with ankle flexion).5. Ted skis a deeper, cleaner line.

1. STRONGER! According to USSA’s Director ofSport Science Dr. Troy Flanagan, Ted was 20percent stronger this year. Being able to re-sist your body weight and adjust pressureunder the ski is essential as speed increases.The best way to achieve the leg strength ofTed is to hit the weight room.

How Did GS Change This Year?

When the FIS mandated World Cup men to adopt a 35-meter radius giant slalom ski,Ted Ligety was not pleased.

2. LATERAL BALANCE! Achieving extreme edgeangles in bulletproof snow does not leavea lot of ski in the snow to balance against.Don’t think bottom-of-the-foot, think oflaying your arch on the snow. Learning tobalancing on a miniscule amount of edgein World Cup-injected snow is not impos-sible. Out-of-gates exercises such as “out-side ski turns” and “garlands” will enhancegross and acute lateral balance.

What does this mean for the Masters ski racer?

AskTed.

3. TIP TO TAIL! To arc a skilike Ted requires using the entire ski. Ted initiates theturn with tip pressure. Next,the important part: he thenprogressively translates thispressure through the midsec-tion and finishing on the tail.This is a very smooth fore/aftmovement that has no deadspots in the fore/aft movement.Note that when Ted is on thelast centimeter of his ski he isnot using the spoiler of theboot… the spoiler is for "emer-gency use only". This leaves himin an athletic position to move forward for the upcoming turn and repeat the sequence.

Ted’s 2.75 margin is the sixth largest gap in men’sWorld Cup GS history.

4. LEG INDEPENDENCE Race cars have in-dependent suspension for a reason.Legs that can respond independentlyare better at absorbing terrain, re-sponding to terrain irregularities andadjusting pressure. The new skisdo not arc the big trenches ofthe former sticks. Thismeans they do not pushas much snow andcan be faster, but italso means they area bit more erratic infeel.

5. DEEPER, CLEANER LINE! WhenTed is in the fall line of thered gate he knows exactlywhere the next red gate is set.His anticipated line has a di-rection above and to the out-side of the upcoming bluegate that he refers to as“deep.” Not aiming at theblue gate, but above it permitsTed to ski a round line.Round is fast since is doesnot decrease in radius (whichunduly increases forces). Thisallows Ted to be clean, withthe ski scrubbing virtually no speed.

By Ron Kipp Photos by Getty Images

Ron Kipp is the USSA Alpine Sport Education Manager.He has worked with the U.S. and Norwegian Ski Teams.


New England MastersNadine Price, chairwww.nemasters.org

As we continue to enjoysome of the best mid-winterskiing April has ever seen, I

have to give those prescient old New Eng-landers credit. The squirrels, with theirextra bushy tails, and the caterpillars, withtheir big fat black belts, were all right lastfall when they predicted a long, snowywinter. In a complete 180 from last year,we had record amounts of snow and lotsof great skiing. Our numbers held steadyand we welcomed alot of new faces, espe-cially in our youngerclasses.

The USSA MastersWorking Groupgrowth strategies wereimplemented and wellreceived. We believethe long-term impactwill be significant. Thetemporary licenseshave been very impor-tant in introducingnew racers to Mastersand in keeping thenumber of race startsup. We used 95 temps this season, andwhile only a handful (5 or so) convertedto full licenses this year, we are optimisticthat many who used them will be backfull-time next season. The third major ini-tiative was the “Give it a Try” Clinic held atWachusett Mountain on January 25. Thisexceeded our wildest dreams. We hadhoped for 35 participants and ended upwith 62 and a waiting list of a quite a fewmore. We distributed vouchers for tempo-rary licenses, including those funded byUSSA, and many redeemed them. About athird of the participants entered at leastone race. Because the clinic was at the endof January, most did not invest in a full li-cense this season but expressed interest inbecoming more involved next season.

For the fifth time, we kicked off ourpre-season with a booth at the Boston SkiExpo, made possible in part with the helpof USSA. It was our best experience yet. Wetalked to more people than ever; handedout over 200 of our slick, new brochures;and added more than 50 folks to our mail-ing list. Many more people had heard ofus than in years past and many folks ap-proached us with questions. So we are def-

initely making headway in our quest to getthe brand of Masters Ski Racing out there!

Our mid-December season opener atKillington was a huge success. In our thirdalmost-annual joint venture with ASRA, aski racing organization with races in Ver-mont and venues a little west and south,we held an SL and a GS on the always-challenging Highline racing trail, withgreat early season conditions, and, ofcourse, a Saturday evening fun-filledawards party at the Grey Bonnet Inn.

January took us to some traditionalvenues, a new favorite, and an old favorite

in a new way! The new favorite, Blackwa-ter, home to the strong ski program ofProctor Academy, confirmed its status asone of our most popular SLs. It was fol-lowed by the season’s first Rockport Mort-gage Corporation GS race at Sunapee, atruly great GS hill and always one of ourmost popular races. The venue drew a ter-rific field, including Jeremy Hill, son ofNEMS legend Bob Hill. Jeremy won thefirst run but couldn’t hold on in the sec-ond, leaving it to Ben Green to claim thevictory. The GS at Middlebury, with its al-ways-thrilling upper pitch was back, and asexhilarating as ever. The ever-popularJaneway Cup GS Race at Stratton, a venera-ble tradition of many years, attracted alarge and deep field. The men’s overall wasall about a pair of class ones who we hopeto see more of next season! Stefan Oglewon the first run, but with a killer secondrun Chris Knortz took the overall. TheJaneway Cup, awarded to the fastest manand woman over 40, went to two first-timewinners this year. With two smoking runsand an overall fifth place finish, TerenceFogarty claimed the men’s Cup. Cinthia

Audet came all the way from Canada to laydown a pair of great runs and take thewomen’s cup.

January’s old favorite in a new waywas the return to Attitash for four SGs!These races marked our first collaborationof this type with junior races. The venuewas Attitash’s premier, and very challeng-ing, SG hill, Illusion. Though some mightsay that pond ice is not ideal, conditionswere perfect for the number of racers andraces, and the course held up from start tofinish. Since the first race each day was in-cluded in the National Molecule F Speed

Series, Bill Tomcichand Don Johnson,our favorite jet settingWestern speed freaks,joined the small butdevout group. Theventure worked outwell and will hope-fully mark the begin-ning of a beautifulfriendship.

Regionals wereheld at Okemo inearly February in themidst of the “blizzardof the century.” In-trepid racers from allover disregarded

weather forecasts and driving bans andfound their ways to central Vermont andwhere richly rewarded with a terrific week-end of races and parties. While Nemo wasdumping feet of snow on locations not faraway, the first of two SGs came off withouta hitch. Due to an odd trick by Mother Na-ture of adding freezing rain, only thewomen finished the second SG. After itcoated the goggles of the first thirty or soracers, the race was stopped. Saturday’s sin-gle digit temps and 30 mph winds didnothing to daunt the hardy field and theSL was a frigid success. The reward cameon Sunday, under a cold, still, crystal-clearsky.

After the President’s Day weekend off,the schedule moved on to several of themost popular SLs of the Series. The oldestcontinuously-run ski race in North Amer-ica (but for a year off during WWII), theHochgebirge Challenge Cup at Cannonboasted the largest SL field of the seasonand included a number of new faces. Therace was followed, as always, by the tradi-tional party at the house of one of the old-est ski clubs in North America, the

Division News

2013 EasternRegion team.


Hochgebirge Ski Club. Partiers were sur-rounded by skiing history and fascinatingphotos of Tenth Mountain Division veter-ans and some of the sport’s pioneers, in-cluding Al Sise, founding father of Mastersski racing and our series.

Our return to Crotched Mountain insouthern New Hampshire marked the in-troduction of a new cup. Last season, afterthe loss of the beloved Harold Wescott, wededicated our GS at Crotched to his mem-ory. This season, we introduced the Leg-ends Cup to honor those no longer amongus. This Cup is unique among our individ-

ual race trophies in that it is scored on ahandicap system. The inaugural winnerswere John Lussier and Nadine Price.

This year, our Finals moved to Cran-more Mountain, and included the venera-ble Gibson Cup, awarded to the man andwoman with the fastest combined time intwo races, traditionally a GS and a SL. Inaddition to the Gibson Cup, a GS, an SLand a Dual GS, the festivities included aPizza and Awards Party at the EasternSlope, a fabulous banquet at at the base ofthe mountain on Saturday evening (morethan one diner was heard to say “bestever”), and a bike giveaway after the dualon Sunday, won by Tom Lahaise. Thoughthe overall battles were settled by Finals,the level of competition was as high asever, with the Gibson Cup on the line. Inthe men’s GS, Rick Cesati seized his sec-ond win of the season in commandingfashion. Katie Green authoritatively puther stamp on the women’s race, provingthat she was not to be slowed down by aconcussion earlier in the season. The age-less and faster-than-ever Mark Georgestomped on the field in the men’s SL, win-ning by more than three seconds and AlexAndrews took the women to school, best-ing the field by six seconds in the women’sSL!

The Gibson Cup was very hotly con-tested this year. After the GS, a mere three

hundredths of a second separated MarkGeorge and Alex Gadbois but Mark’s out-standing showing in the SL etched hisname on the Cup. On the women’s side,Katie Green had a comfortable lead goinginto Saturday’s SL but a very challengingset took its toll and when the dust settled,it was Margaret Vaughn who rose to thetop and took the women’s cup.

Sunday’s dual was a duel in everysense, complete with spills and thrills andno-holds-barred throwing it down. Prov-ing that he knows how to do just that,Charlie Randall lit it up for eight runs and

prevailed in the men’sA division. In anequally hard-foughtbattle in the men’s BDivision, Mike Suri-ani showed that he ismeant to dual andtook the division.Alex Andrews tookthe women’s divisiona bit decisively and inresponse to the taunts

of the eager crowd, graciously agreed, asdid Charlie, to participate in one moreround between the men’s A and women’swinners. Amidst the cheers and hoots ofthe onlookers, Alex served notice that shewas the fastest dueler of the day!

Although temporarily sidelined with atorn Achilles, Ben Green had amassedenough points before his injury to clinchthe Overall Sise Cup as well as the Speedand the GS titles, but not enough to holdoff the relentless SL ace (and his father-in-law!), Mark George. With the victory in thefinal SL of the season, Mark took the title.

In the increasingly deep women’sfield, Lisa Marion claimed the GS title andfended off Jackie Levy to take the women’sSpeed Series title by a mere twenty points.Alex Andrews made a good run at the SLtitle, but in the end, Katie Green’s leadproved insurmountable and she walkedaway with the SL title. Katie’s consistentlyexcellent skiing also earned her thewomen’s Overall Sise Cup, her second.

The 2013 Tobin Award for outstand-ing contribution to Eastern Masters ski rac-ing was awarded to former NEMSPresident and longtime board memberPete Donaghy. His service to Eastern Mas-ters has been invaluable.

The George Anderson Spirit of Mas-ters Award was established five years ago tohonor and remember George, one of our

most loved members. It is awarded eachyear to the NEMS competitor who exem-plifies the spirit of Masters ski racing. Thisyear’s recipient was Dale Maynard.

One announcement—Check out ournew website!

Special thanks go to our Race Admin-istrators, Kip and Lucy Blake, and our In-formation Manager, Stacey Weston for alltheir terrific work.

As always, our series is made possibleand enhanced by our sponsors. Our GS se-ries has been generously sponsored byRockport Mortgage Corporation. We wishto thank them most sincerely. Our endur-ing gratitude goes to Artech, for its gener-ous and continued support. And we thankDenby, Booster Strap, KHS, ProTek, Reli-able Racing, Green Ice Ski Wax, andSkiChair.com for their continued support.When you have need or use for any of theproducts or services our sponsors provide,we hope you will visit them first.

AlaskaGary Randall, chairwww.alyeskaski -club.org

Here in mid AprilAlaska is still cold,with 3' of snow. Wehad our last SL race

Saturday, in cold weather and new snow,so we’re still in the middle of winter,whereas most of the rest of the US is en-joying warmer weather. As I sit here in mychair writing this article with my left hand,due to breaking my right wrist skiing inSun Valley, it’s still snowing. This year, wedeveloped a new Masters web page, wherewe can now go to pull up the individualrace results and the videos for each race tocheck out your progress throughout theyear. This is a great training tool.

One of the fund raisers for our clubthis year was the #1 bib. Griff Steinerbought the bib from the Alyeska Ski Cluband after each race we auctioned it off ( ittypically went for $250) which gave theholder of the bib the opportunity to runfirst in the course. This racer typically wonhis or her class.

As we wind down the year we lookback at a successful season, with eightraces, good training, and fun for all. I hopeto see you at the Summer Fun races. Havea good summer and stay active.

Division News

Legends at Big Sky:Baxter, Dodge, andCooper.


Division NewsIntermountain Masters Amy Lanzel, chairwww.intermountain-masters.org

Intermountain Mas-ters has just wrappedup one of the best

seasons we have ever had. The reasons forthis are numerous. First: the snow. Thisyear we were blessed with early snowfall,which led to some great early-season freeskiing and drill work. Second, we kickedoff the season in a big way with one of ourbiggest races of the year, the Loritz Pendle-ton Cup. The event drew over 100 racersfrom multiple divisions. We had fabulousparties and social events thatwere helped in a large part toour amazing sponsor partner-ships.

Many laughs and friend-ships developed over the sea-son as we met new membersjoining the ranks. A season up-date could not be completewithout mentioning Meri Strat-ton. Meri Stratton serves as ourrace coordinator, and we couldnot survive with out her. Shesecured all the race venues andwas able to get many three-dayrace weekends—a requestmany of our Masters have beenrequesting for a long time.

We plan on keeping the social andMasters memberships active over the sum-mer, with a new annual golf tournament.We’re also working on scheduling moun-tain and road bike rides. We hope to beannouncing a big event next year thatshould add additional opportunity andhopefully new race venues. Enjoy the sum-mer, stay in shape and keep your skissharp!

Far WestArticle by Ingrid BraunMark Mirviss, chairwww.FarWestMasters.org

FAR WEST RECLAIMS THE DIVISION’S CUP!On Sunday, April 7, Far West Masterswrapped up another successful season ofski racing with our Finals and Banquet.But let’s start at the beginning.

Way back in November, we kicked offour season with the Masters Camp at

Mammoth Mountain. Many membersseized this annual opportunity to get backon skis and in the gates under the keen in-structive eye of Coaches Pierre Jeangirardand Tom Peterson. An early snowstormpushed back our scheduled races from thefirst weekend in December to the nextweekend, but we put our skills to test ontwo SLs and one GS. We quickly followedup that great opening with two SLs.

After enjoying a snowy and cold holi-day break, we resumed racing in Januarywith the Viva Italia! SLs at Heavenly Valleyon a Friday. The Viva Italia Cup is spon-sored by John Giannotti and is awarded tothe top male and female racers in the firstrace, utilizing an age handicapping for-mula. The 2013 Viva Italia winners were

Deb Lewis and Ara Papazian. FromHeavenly we traveled a little bitwest for a weekend of GS racing atSierra at Tahoe.

Late January brought us backto Mammoth Mountain for somefast skiing. The Rick Conrado SGseries of four races honor Rick, aFar West Master who loved to race and wastaken from us far too soon. In late Febru-ary, we headed up to Squaw Valley for theBernard Cup, awarded to the fastest manand woman in the overall weekend’sstandings handicapped by age. The 2013Bernard Cup winners were Tim Stewartand Ingrid Braun, both first-time winners.

Breaking up our race schedule was the2013 FIS Masters Cup races, sponsored byPhillips 66 and hosted by MammothMountain. It included a large national andinternational field. The winners of the firstSG were Pierre Jeangirard (Group B), MikeBraun (Group A) and Ingrid Braun (GroupC). The winners of the second SG were

Pierre Jeangirard (Group B), Willy Scrog-gins and Dasha Kadulova. We only heldone SL race before weather pushed us offthe mountain, but the event was a hugesuccess and great fun for all! Big thanks toBob Davis for making this event happen!

Before a group of us drove up to Na-tionals, we fought for the McKinney Cupat Mount Rose. After an SL and a GS, CarolLevine and Matt Savage were declared thenewest recipients of the Cup. We thenbrought 17 racers up to Big Sky for Na-tionals, where we fought hard and re-claimed the Division’s Cup. The Cup hasbeen engraved, polished and is nowproudly displayed at the home of DonSmith, who is arguably the heart and soulof Far West Masters.

Now back to whereI started…we wrappedup the season at SquawValley to give everyonea final opportunity toscore some points andvie for a leader bib,awarded to the top tenmen and top fivewomen. We presentedawards to our Rookiesof the Year: TomBullard and TatjanaPolyakova, and ourMost Improved Racers:Randall Sussek and In-grid Braun. Last year wecreated the Teddy Can-

tanho Award to acknowl-edge the person(s) whobest represent the spirit ofTeddy and her love of rac-ing. Our 2013 recipientswere Elizabeth and MikeKennedy, both of whomensure event registration

and check-in runs smoothly at every event.Mike and Elizabeth are moving to the eastcoast, and we will miss them more thanthey can possibly know.

Northern DivisionToby Chapman, [email protected]

The 2013 race seasonwas successful onceagain, thanks to ourneighboring divi-

sions, PNSA and Intermountain. WithPNSA and Intermountain’s help, Northern

Exuberance at the Nationals at Big Sky.

Rauli Karajalainen,

IM speeddemon.


was able to have a full schedule of races.Thank you!

Master’s Nationals were a success thisyear at Big Sky, Montana! Nationals werewell attended by Northern Division com-petitors, with 19 entries, but unfortunatelyNorthern finished 5th in the Division’sCup. Northern was also well representedby the Big Sky Ski Education Foundation’scoaches, volunteers, and race organizers,who put on a great Master’s NationalChampionships.

Highlights of this year’s Nationals atBig Sky included Toby Chapman and LisaDensmore winning their way onto theSpyder 2014 US Alpine Masters Ski Team.Lisa dominated at Nationals, winning theSG, GS, and SL in class 6. Lisa also fin-ished 1st and 2nd overall in the SG and GSrespectively, for the women. Toby won theSG and GS, and was 2nd in the SL in class4. Toby was also 2nd overall in the SG, GS,and SL in group A. Other notables at Na-tionals were Fran Noel placing 2nd in theclass 11 DH and 3rd in the SL and com-bined, Dennis Wilhelmsen finishing 3rd inthe class 6 Slalom, William Wassermanfinishing 2nd in both the class 14 SL andGS, and Roger Lemke finishing 2nd in theclass 4 DH.

A new Masters race program was alsostarted in Red Lodge this year, thanks toLisa Densmore and Silver Run Ski Educa-tion Foundation. Red Lodge also put on agreat SL and GS race that combined jun-iors and the Masters, with the Masters get-ting to run first, before the kids! There’snothing like running first.

Gate training opportunities for North-ern racers are available around the divi-sion, with Lookout Pass, Big Sky, RedLodge, and, potentially, Snowbowl havingMasters programs next year. Contact TobyChapman with questions: 406-541-0866or email at [email protected].

I look forward to seeing you all nextseason or at Summer Nationals!

Rocky MountainGraham Smith, chairrmmskiracing.org

Wow, it’s hard to be-lieve, but I just gotback from a wonder-ful Nationals gra-ciously hosted by the

pros at Big Sky, MT, and we are now host-ing our finale for the season at Loveland.Thanks to the wonderful piece Bill McCol-

lom wrote for SkiRacing, “Re-membering the Titans.” Ourlast races (a unique triple raceformat, with an SG, a one-runGS and a one-run SL) werehonoring our own titan, D.J.Tengdin, graciously sponsored by theTengdin family and graced by the presenceof D.J.’s father Bob. Highlighting the eventwere costumes, lots of raffle items, includ-ing a pair of skis donated by Foothills Skiand Bike, fun costumes, (with Lauren Mac-Math winning for best costume as theEaster Moose), lots of food and fun, andsome incredibly fast ski racing. The high-light of the racing day was provided by oneof our Junior Athletic Development Fundrecipients, Jack Plantz from Telluride, fore-running all three courses and scoring thefastest time in each of the three races.Guess we picked a good one! Congrats tothe fastest Master female (combined threeruns) Jennifer Kaufman, and the fastestMaster male, Franz Fuchsberger. A bigshout out to the race program folks atLoveland for hosting and supporting suchan incredible event.

With congratulations and support asthe theme, I also congratulate the RM rac-ers who competed admirably at the Mas-ters Nationals. Two very notableperformances were turned in by BrocThompson and Lauren MacMath, bothearning places on the Spyder U.S. AlpineMasters National Team. And for all of us atRM, kudos to all of you who contributedto our 2nd place overall team result. Seethe results on the USSA Masters website,and more on our season at our website,www.rmmskiracing.org.

Sponsorship is a huge part of our con-tinued operation, so thank you to all ourcorporate support including: A Culture ofSpeed (aCos), Alpine Base and Edge, A

Racers Edge, Foothills Skiand Bike, FK/SKS ski tuningequipment, FUXI Ski RacingUSA, Greenlight Collabora-tion, Saucer Wax, Schnee-hexe Photography, and ourown trophy and medal store,U.S. Recognition. We couldnot do this without yourgenerous support and prizedonations. And, while onthe sponsorship theme, ourSponsor A Race Day programcontinues to grow and a bigthank you to all generouspeople who financially con-tributed to our successful

race season. They are KevinWard, John Davis, Bill and LisaGooch, Scott and Jeanette Say-lor, Lori Hamilton and JonWolf, Kevin Butler, Mike andSusan Horton, the Sandy Treat

Family, Hans Oberlohr, Chuck Tower, RolfFunk, the “Old Guys” (Bob Benson, Char-lie Hauser, Bruce Wienke and Lee Kauf-man), and of course, Bob Tengdin and theTengdin family. This generous support pro-vided 100% sponsorship for our entirerace season. SALUTE!

On an administrative note, our long-time treasurer, David Velasco, has unfortu-nately tendered his resignation to pursueand manage his own growing company.David unselfishly gave a great deal of histime and energy to ensure that our organi-zation remained fiscally and financiallysound and we, Rocky Mountain Masters,owe him a huge thank you for a JOB WELLDONE. Fortunately, we do have a formerboard member who knows a bit aboutbanking and has agreed to take the finan-cial reins. Welcome back, Jennifer Kauf-man! For the entire Rocky Mastersmembership, if you want to get involved,don’t hesitate to get in touch with me andwe’ll be happy to put you to work. Speak-ing of work, I would be remiss in notthanking an integral (most important) per-son in our working group and that wouldbe Lydia Young, for her tireless efforts inarranging and coordinating all of our post-race parties. They are the reason we gatherto ski race!

Last, I want to thank everyone whopitched in and helped me in my first yearas president of such a gregarious and activegroup of people known as The RockyMountain Masters. Pray harder for snowthis coming season, I don’t think He heardus loud enough.

Division News

Brad Scott and Larry Konstacky, class winners on thestrength of the last run of the season. Larry was crowned“King of the Road” for amassing 20 more points in theseason-long chase.

RobertCravens,PNSA


Division NewsNew York State Snow Masters SeriesJack Eisenschmid, chairwww.nymasters.org

The 2013 NY Masters Series was anothergreat season! Even though we had a latestart, we had one of the best ski seasons inyears. Throughout,there was nice weatherand great snow condi-tions for our 39th raceseason. This year, wedecreased the numberof races to 14 at sevendifferent mountains.We still did not havegreat numbers for theraces, but made up forit with fun and greatcompetition. Alongwith racers from NY,we were glad to havequite a few fromCanada, Pennsylvaniaand Ohio join us. Westill enjoyed finishingfour-race runs by 2:00,with time for free ski-ing and our après raceawards party.

Once again, we had great competitionamong most age classes, as well as for theoverall season awards. For the men’s over-all title it was Greg Sarkis who claimed theMarshall Skiff Cup—his 20th NY MastersChampion title. For the women, it was GaeOrsini who took the women’s overall JoanSkiff Cup. Congratulations to Gae andGreg on a great season!

As most of you know, our friend andfellow racer Dick “Rockett” Prentice passedaway last fall. This year we re-dedicated theGreek Peak race; it is now the Joan Skiffand Rockett Prentice Memorial race.

This season, we once again had somegreat sponsors to help keep the NY Mastersseries going and who also donated somenice prizes. Many thanks to MountainsideSki and Sports, Reliable Racing, and South-town Beverages for their continued sup-port! Also big thanks to the NY MastersStaff and volunteers that help out eachweek: Nancy Fella, race Administrator;Laura Moats,webmaster and scoring; MarkSertl, treasurer; Jack Eisenschmid, chair-man; Joie Komarmi; Barbara Settel; JimThoman; Ellen Miller; Marsh Rich; MarieEve Thoman; Judy Vyverberg and EmilyLinsler. We can’t run the series withoutyour help.

New York Masters had a terrific show-

ing at the Eastern Regionals held atOkemo. We had nine racers on thepodium at Okemo, including Dick Ko-marmi M10, Barbara Settel W8, PepiNeubauer M9, Mark Sertl M6, Jim ThomanM3, Tom Sheeler M1, Greg Sarkis M6,Doug Paul M4 and Lou Moore M4. No

wonder the Nationalsare usually held in theWest.At the Nationals at Big

Sky, once again PepiNeubauer won the M9 overall, as well asthe DH title. Barb Brumbaugh finished 3rdfor the W5 overall.

Up north in Canada, the OntarioMasters Championships were held atGeorgian Peaks and Osler. Greg Sarkis wonthe overall in M6, as well as the SG.

Congratulations all!Enjoy the next few weeks of spring

skiing and have a great summer. See youall at the START in 2014.

PNSAAnn Ozuna, chairwww.pnsamasters.org

The Pacific Northwest Mas-ters season-long point chaseto the championship came

down to the last gate of the last run of theseason in a blizzard at Mt Bachelor for thetwo “Road Warriors” who made every raceall season long. In class 7, warrior BradScott “snugged up” to frontrunner DaveKornish to steal away the gold medal by 2points. Class 8’s gold medal went to LarryKonstacky by just three points. Larryearned the “King of the Road” title by gar-nering 20 more points overall than Brad.

This year, we had 14 race venues andmanaged to pull off almost all of the 34

scheduled starts, losing just a few races toweather. 49N had a good turnout in sun-shine for their SG; Schweitzer had snowfor the Brooks and Molecule F SG races,but boasted interval and speed trap timingwhile Mt Bachelor got one SG concludedbefore the blizzard closed in. The two-tem-porary license rule enabled more racers totravel away from their home area for a sec-ond race and brought back some folks toracing, including John Day who brought

his son Michael along. We look forward toseeing them again next year. Our scheduleis set up to allow three racing opportuni-ties somewhat close to home for Oregon,Eastern and Western Washington racers.

In spite of our “softer” snow, PNSAMasters love to go fast and showed it atNationals, with the three fastest men over-all in downhill: Luke Keenan, Willie Scrog-gins, and Rob Cravens. Other class DHgold medalists were Karen Killian, MelissaDettmer, and Andrew Vetterlein. In the SG,PNSA had the fastest man on the hill inWillie Scroggins. Class gold medalists inSG were Rich Robertson, Ann Ozuna, PamSheeler, Melissa Dettmer, Luke Keenan andMichael Day. The “tech events” were a littlemore challenging, with only Michael Day,Pam Sheeler, and Melissa Dettmer takinghome gold in the SL. Willi Schmidt, PamSheeler, and Luke Keenan scored the goldmedals in GS.

PNSA racers atop the combinedpodium SG/GS/ and SL results in classwere Chuck Evans, Rich Robertson, PamSheeler, George Frazier, Tim Hill, and LukeKeenan. Overall, PNSA took home 18Golds, 8 Silvers and 10 Bronze medals atNationals. See full results, as well as finalstandings at www.pnsamasters.org.

Luke Keenan repeated as the nationalchampion in the Molecule F Speed series

Far West’s Ara Papazian makes this run his bitch.

Drury Cooper, Intermountain,winding down


This year, we celebrate thesilver anniversary of the Summer Fun Na-tionals at Mt. Hood on Palmer Glacier, July19–21. Summer is a fun time for ski racing.The weather is warm, the skies are blue, andthere is no pressure for season points. Thewhole family can race together, party to-gether, and enjoy vacation on scenic Mt.Hood and the surrounding area. Mark yourcalendar for this action-packed weekend offun! If you have the time, plan on a racecamp a few days prior to the race to wake upthose ski muscles.

To enter yourself and your family mem-bers, go to www.SummerFunNationals.com.While entry is via skiracereg.com, it is notthrough your regular race series sign-in.Everyone must be a paid current USSA mem-ber for the 2013–2014 season, which beginsJuly 1, 2013. All USSA participant member-ships are accepted: Masters, Coaches, Juniors,Youth.

In addition to racing fun, the town ofGovernment Camp is the summer home tothe ski industry demo centers from aroundthe world. It is a ski racer’s paradise, demo-

ing

next season’s equipment before it hits thestores (or Internet!). Also available are thelast season’s leftovers at greatly discountedprices in some of the summer ski shops.

In twenty-five years of Summer Fun Na-tionals at Mt Hood, over 800 racers raced inthe event from across the US, Canada, Eu-rope and the South Pacific. Six racers havemade all 25 events: Ann Ozuna, JosephMucci, Dave Prochazka, Oliver Lajoie, KnutOlberg and Meri Stratton. There were yearsthese racers, even though injured, worked therace instead of racing—but they were alwaysthere. During our 25 years, there have beennearly 150 volunteers, many returning yearafter year. Our volunteers make the racecome alive!

This is your year to make history andcome to Mt. Hood for this exciting event.

See you there! You’ll be sure to have alot of fun!

25th Masters Summer Fun NationalsJuly 19–21, 2013 • www.SummerFunNationals.com

Friday, July 19Government Camp3:00–6:00 pm Welcome party and racer check-in

Saturday, July 20Timberline Ski Area6:00–7:00 am: late check-in at day lodge

6:30 am Ticket office opens

7:00 am Lifts open

7:45 am Inspection

8:30 am 1st run GS

11:00ish 2nd run GS

4:30 pm Beer/root beer & raffle @ day lodge

5:00 pm BBQ dinner

6:00 pm Awards: GS

Sunday, July 216:30 am Ticket office opens 7:00 am Lifts open 7:45 am Inspection 8:30 am 1st run SL 11:00ish 2nd run SL 1:30 pm Awards @ day lodge

Photos courtesy of B

rianRobbphoto.com

All the Juniors

Course setting at o’dark thirty am.

Masters volunteer girls

for the under-60 men’s class. Other PNSA racersare also sporting the special Molecule F beltbuckle. See full results at ussamasters.org/reports/2013/nss/ES-NSS2013-WCPoints-By-Class.html

Final Year-to-date standings are available atwww.pnsamasters.org.

See you at the 25th edition of “Summer Fun”

Nationals at Mt Hood, 3rd weekend in July, andin the gates at a race or training group this sum-mer or next fall. Schedules will be posted atwww.pnsamasters.org and onwww.skiracereg.com. We welcome all levels of rac-ers—take the challenge in the gates with newfriends!

Phillips 66 FIS Masters Cup

Park City, UT, Feb. 6–9SG/SG/SL/SL

Phillips 66 Masters National ChampionshipsOkemo, VT, Mar. 17–22

DH/SG/GS/SL

USSA Masters Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . .

The VISION of the USSA AlpineMasters is to provide adult skiers with alifelong opportunity to enjoy the chal-lenges and rewards of alpine ski racing.

The MISSION of the USSA Alpine Masters is to make this vision a reality by developing,promoting, organizing and coordinating the highest level of alpine ski racing throughout

snow country in the United States and internationally, and to fulfill our passion for and loveof nature, the outdoors, mountains, freedom, self-challenge and accomplishment.

P.O. Box 100Park City Utah 84060

National Masters ChairmanSteve Slivinski

tel: 208.726.3442email: [email protected]

USSA Masters ManagerBill SkinnerP.O. Box 100

Park City, UT 84060tel: 435.647.2633fax: 435.649.3613

email: [email protected]

DIVISION CHAIRPERSONS

Alaska: Gary Randalltel: 907.243.4259


Central: Ryan Fullertel: 612.501.3268


Eastern: Bill McCollomtel: 802.234.9561


Eastern/New England: Nadine Pricetel: 802.746.8850


Eastern/New York: Jack Eisenschmidtel: 585.288.4554


Eastern/Southern: Horst Lochertel: 540.856.2121fax: 540.856.8567


Far West: Mark Mirvisstel: 530.583.6971


Intermountain: Amy Lanzeltel: 435.649.5751


Northern: Toby Chapmantel: 406.541.0866


Pacific Northwest: Ann Ozunatel: 509.455.7944


Rocky Mountain: Graham Smithtel: 719.510.0747


2014 Major Events

Phillips 66 FIS Masters Cup

Park City, UT, Feb. 6–9SG/SG/SL/SL

Phillips 66 Masters National ChampionshipsOkemo, VT, Mar. 17–22

DH/SG/GS/SL

Whether it’s a beaming smileor the grimace of determination,PNSA’s Tim Hill’s face is working as hard as his legs.

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Salt Lake City

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how far they came - us alpine masters · 2018. 10. 3. · respective class: overcoming adversity....

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