The Beginning of Winter 09-10 Ski Season!!!

Stratton officially opened on the 8th of December. It was a rough week and a half opening delay. We arrived back in VT from Colorado on the 19th and had Thanksgiving Break until the 30th, when we had to start back up with school. That week we had dryland in the mornings, since the mountain wasn’t open yet and on Friday the 4th, we trekked up to the mountain to get our ski passes, hiked up to the top of American Express lift and also went to the new Sugar and Spice Cafe to get some snacks/beverages. When the mountain opened on the 8th, we went freeskiing on Black Bear, Polar Bear, and Grizzly Bear mostly because they were the only trails open up top. Further on in the week we trained some GS and SL and raced at Stratton both on the 13th and 14th (which because of the race, school was cancelled for all). Sunday was a Vermont Cup GS on North American and Monday was a Vermont Cup SL on the bottom section of North American. On Sunday’s SL, there some good results for SMS. For the women, Emily Bamford placed 2nd, Marley Pawlak placed 4th, and Paige Chardavoyne placed 10th. And for the men, Nick Krause placed 7th. There were better results on Monday, as SMS swept the women’s podium. For women, Emily Bamford placed 1st, Paige Chardavoyne placed 2nd, Marley Pawlak placed 3rd, Tami Razinger placed 6th, and Claire Hamnett placed 9th. For the men, Nick Krause once again placed 7th, Eric Rasmussen placed 8th, and Tanner Mottau placed 10th. We also trained hard this past week, taking a day off on Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we trained SL. This weekend, 12/19 and 12/20 we had a Vermont Cup SL at Bromley and a GTS GS at Okemo. At Bromley’s SL race, SMS was proud to have many representatives in the top ten, as well as once again having the women sweep the podium. For women, Elle Gilbert placed 1st, Tami Razinger placed 2nd, Kelsey Bresnan placed 3rd, Amanda Reilly placed 5th, Kelly Appenzeller placed 7th, Kelsey Pearson placed 8th, and Marta Decarli placed 9th. For the men, Stefan Shmidt placed 2nd, Hunter Lathrop placed 3rd and Trevor Lennox placed 4th. There are also a group of SMS alpiners at different races that are FIS. The women are at Sunday River, and the men are at Attitash, where the fields are more difficult. They have 2 SLs and 2 GSs. The men are racing from 12/17-12/20, and so far they have had amazing results. Jay Ogle won the first SL on the 17th. In the SL on the 18th, Blake Pendleton placed 2nd, Scotty Mclaughlin placed 5th, Nick Krause placed 7th, and Tanner Mottau placed 10th. In the GS on the 19th, Jay Ogle won once again, Nick Krause placed 3rd, Scotty Mclaughlin placed 4th, Hunter Resek placed 6th, Cole Skinner placed 9th and Cole Gibson placed 10th. The women are racing from 12/19-12/22 at Sunday River. In the SL on the 19th, the first SMS girl was Paige Chardavoyne in 16th.

Here are some pictures from the first few races

This is the women’s podium for the VC SL at Stratton on 12/14: