 Poster: A snowHead
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The issue of race-prepared snow is in the news this week because of the situation in Beaver Creek, where the World Cup race courses are being cleared of 'top snow' to get back to the fast durable surface specially prepared to resist the erosion of sharpened steel edges in the most aggressive carves.
How are race courses water-injected to create the special surface? This thread on EpicSki.com reveals all!
From the description, these conditions and the techniques used to ski them are more and more divorced from the everyday piste experience.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks for that link David, I had wondered what it was all about. I thought the WC pistes were sprayed, but perhaps not. A couple of years ago I skied the OK piste the day after the World Cup circus had left town - it was awesomely fast and hugely intimidating. The only way to ski it was hard and fast; any other way and you slithered around like you were wearing slippers on an ice rink. Just makes you have even more respect for the racers...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I dropped my hat from a chair lift over a Slalom course in Les Arcs 1600 earlier this year during a race. I was determined to get it back as it was a cold day, I skied down the course during a break and can relate to it being like glass - didn't ski very elegantly but managed to get my hat!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Interesting timing, I was just reading an article by a sceptic earlier today...
This from the Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~114~2568280,00.html
The writer takes issue with the recent panic involved in removing 'real' snow from the Beaver Creek World Cup course when the skies had opened up and dumped nearly a metre on the race-prepared piste...
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"The fresh snow dried the surface of the man-made snow - which was really sufficient and well done on this course - so we had to push all the new snow off the man-made snow and start to prepare this whole course from the beginning," said Gunter Hujara, chief race director for the FIS. "First they tried to produce enough man- made snow to cover the race course, and now we must push the new snow off the course. That might seem to many people a little foolish, but it's absolutely necessary." |
And the concluding paras touch on a subject raised elsewhere, here and on www.snowracers.net . How do we interest the average recreational skier in races of this type?
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Beyond safety, the argument is essentially that the best racers, the truly fastest skiers won't necessarily win the race. It won't be the best show. And because it's a cumulative series, organizers like to see racers ski a uniform surface - not just from the top of the mountain to the bottom, but from the start of the season to the end, if possible. Even to the point of sacrificing training.
While it's arguably easier to reverse the Earth's rotation than convince FIS officials to change their policy and leave the snow on the slopes, I'd argue that's what the skiing public in the United States would rather see. It wants to see skiers adapt to the conditions like the Broncos and Raiders did Sunday night. If you want American skiers to embrace ski racing, give them something they can relate to. Give us the snow we covet, not just some guy in tights blazing through the perfect turn in the blink of an eye. I mean, that's cool, too, but wouldn't you really rather see them wearing snorkels?
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(the reference to training is because they had to cancel a day's practice while they removed snow from the run  . If only we had that problem in the Alps!)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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This is one reason why young racers should spend more time free skiing than doing gates. Those that don't have no problem in the early days with a high bib number in local races, nicely prepared courses, but later when the going gets tough, and they find themselves with bib number 128 in their first FIS races, they're in trouble. They realise they've only learnt to ski gates in the 'right' conditions - a problem that affects many aspiring young British skiers, who just can't spend as much time on snow as kids in the Alps.
So in a way I disagree a bit stuarth, cos all youngsters have to fight their way through the same system, starting races way down the field, and those who have the natural talent do get there in the end. And in the WC now they reverse the order after the first run for just that reason - to even things up a little. Still see the same names on the podiums, though!
Definitely think we should see more skiercross-type races, though.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| stuarth wrote: |
- they should televise bits of those crazy 'get from top to bottom anyway you can' freeskiing races they have in places like La Grave  |
Or the famous "Grand Raide" (Sp?) off piste race. (I can't seem to find anything about it on the net; am I spelling it wrong?)Trouble is that a "choose-your-own-way-down" race is difficult to film or spectate.
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