This past monday I got up at 4am and drove the 3.5 hours up to Crystal Mountain Michigan for the NASTAR Regional Pacesetting Trials, I have been a pacesetter for Pine Knob Ski resort for the past 4 years, so I'm out racing every saturday and love it! The reason I drove up in the morning and not sunday with the rest of the team, I had tickets to see the Strumbella's at St Andrews Hall and didnt want to miss this show, 4am came really fast. Driving up was no issue in past years the roads have been a snowy mess, for the most part it was a dry and fast drive up. I met the rest of Pine Knob's team for breakfast, after prepared at the their condo and headed to the hill. At the lodge we registered, then went out to warmed up, which was tough to do, I have a habit of forgetting things and realized that my shell was at home, all I had was my puffy jacket which I usually wear under the shell, it would have to do. Temps on the drive up were anywhere from -3 to 10 deg yes cold! but once on my boards skiing, I felt pretty good the sun was shining which really helped, we slipped each course a few times and before I knew it we were called to do our coat runs. NASTAR pacesetting you get 3 handicaps, one with your full ski wear or coat run, one with your skin suit your suit run and slalom. For todays race NASTAR had brought Daron Rahlves, who has a list of accomplishments that would fill up my blog, he is most well know as the only American to win the Hahnenkamm Downhill race in Kitzbuhel Austria, skiing's Superbowl and we would getting handicaped against him, I was hoping to at least get to shake his hand.
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| Cold but Sunny day at Crystal Mountain MI |
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| Waiting in line for our coat runs |
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| Riding up the chair with teammates Keith and Jason |
It was now time to race, there were 2 courses and I took the skiers left for run number 1 once at the bottom I realized that my wax wasnt working quit like I had hoped, the course's turned out to be short, tuck the whole way down course, not what I really like, a skiers course where you actually need to work some turns, needless to say I wasnt very happy with any of my coat runs. One of my teammates Keith decided to head to the car put some more wax on so I did the same, then headed in for lunch and got ready for the suit runs. 99% of the time when I paceset I'm running in my suit, as a cyclist I wear skin tight bike kits all summer, and my skin suit allows me to wear something tight in the winter, anyway dont want to bore you with my tight clothing fetish LoL, the suit run was important to me. I get in line and make my way to the start, they run 2 of us at a time but staggered, I look to my left and notice someone is slipping in ahead of the guy that was next to me, he removes his shell and I see a pacesetters bib, Oh man I'm gonna be running with Daron, this was awesome and nerve wracking at the same time, I went first and once I kicked out of the start, my skiing instinct set in and none of it would matter. At the bottom, the Pine Knob crew started talking to Daron, I had my phone and we took some pictures with him on the hill, what a great guy he is!! After we headed up and did the remainder of our runs, I was much happier as my re-waxed ski's seemed much faster and I was more relaxed, prior to trials I had only had a few hours in some stubby gates,not much practice at all.
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| Lining up against Daron Rahlves in the start gate was an awesome experieicne! |
Giant Slalom runs were now done, and it was time for Slalom, I havent run Slalom in years and actually had sold all my equiptment not that I needed shin and pole guards for a stubby course, but slalom ski's would have been nice. As I waited in line people started to notice my GS ski's yah I caught some crap but it was all good I just needed a handicap incase one of the other guys can make it. I make my run it wasnt all that bad turning the ski's but I did notice that I really had to work them in the much shorter ruts. I was now done racing for the day, the wind really had picked up and clouds came in with it, I was now getting cold so I called it day headed in and waited for our dinner. To start off the dinner the manager of Crystal Mountain thanked us all for attending and mentioned that wo would have a special guest Lou Batori, Lou is 105 years old and still skiing, he actually is the oldest person to ever run NASTAR, wow this would be very cool. BilL Madsen the director of NASTAR came up the podium and talked some shop with us, then this older man walkes in wearing a white one peice suit, it was Lou, we stood and applauded, absolutly amazing not just being 106 but still throwing a ski run in here and there, come to find out Lou has his own private parking spot at the ski resort. Lou got up the microphone and started by giving us advice one liveing to be his age, #1 have a good wife #2 only drink top quality alchohol and #3 pick your parents wisely, think I'm ok with #3 my Mom is 78 and still working my Dad 83 and still skiing :) Lou was then given special recognition from NASTAR and I'm pretty sure that when he sat back down his glass was filled with what looked like a quality craft beer!! Daron then came over and asked he could join us, we were more than happy to have him at our table as we could talk to hm about things like oh being one of the fastest American skiers ever!! We enjoyed his company and it turned out to be a wonderful day of ski racing! Drove the 3.5 hours home and crashed from exhaustion on the couch.
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| Lou Batori recieves special recognition from NASTAR's director Bill Madsen and Ex US Ski Team member Daron Rahlves |
For more on Lou here is an article about him in a local newspaper
For more on Daron Rahlves a link to his page
For more on Daron Rahlves a link to his page
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