Game on! Winter resumes its steady drum beat of white stuff this Monday with a solid helping of eight inches in the upper elevation locales of southern New Hampshire. The storm slowly crept across southern New England with snow totals slightly lower than expected. The day time storm track made for disappointment in terms of looking for untracked powder but pleasing snow conditions across the board. Oh yea, we all had a beer league race tonight too.

Powder snow is great for free skiing but horrible for racing. Major rut action quickly became an issue on the first run and continued to worsen for the second run. Blue course ran better than the red course but neither offered a terribly great run. Our team finished third out of eleven, stepping backwards one place from last week’s second slot. My best handicap adjusted time for the team was fourth out of seven. The best handicapped time actually was delivered on my less than stellar red course run which suggests that the NASTAR system rewards good technique though slower times on a hard course more than cruising to a quick time on an easy course. Overall, I was disappointed with both of my runs and never felt quite on top of my skis.

That was perhaps due to my ski change shortly before the race. With eight inches of fresh falling throughout the afternoon, I got an early start with my mid-fats and changed over to my racing skis just shortly before my first run. The performance and handling differences between the two skis are significant. Though I regret not a second of the fun runs I had prior to the race, during which time I normally spend dialing into my skinny skis and working on race turns.

The first Monday of the new year marked the start of the Pat’s Peak Corporate Race Leagues. Not having raced since college and long having given up high speed ripping for low speed bark chewing, my primary aim of joining a race league was not the skiing but rather the camaraderie. Not to mention night skiing and racing beat my normal Monday activities. Which do not consist of doing anything other than browsing the internet and perhaps an occasional movie.

The Pats Peak course is a typical nearly straight line Nastar course without challenge or much variety week to week. I quickly discovered the novice friendly course required little advanced racing technique which allowed older groomer lovers with high handicapps to top out the results with marginal times. The handicapping system also assumes that younger racers are faster than older racers which is not always true. The best ski racers are never those fresh out of college but rather the seasoned pros and veterans that have logged many seasons on the tours. A benefit for our team was the telemark handicap which suggested that a racer on telemark skis needs a huge point advantage which is not necessarily the case for telemarkers that can alpine turn. Unfortunately for our snowboarding member of the team, the handicap system does not assist snowboarders at all and assumes that they are nearly as fast as skiers.

Regardless of handicap or point structure, our team has a great crew of guys that are fun to ski with. After warm up runs down Cyclone, we made our way over to FIS for inspection and two rounds of dual format racing. I took fourth place on the team with an overall middle of the pack finish. We finished the night out with three runs down Pat’s bump run called Hurricane including a final non-stop top to bottom bump run.