Check out this article by Bryon Friedman and the discussion that follows.

http://www.yardbarker.com/skiing/articles/US_Ski_Team_Comes_Up_Short_again/267646

Here’s my two cents. Feel free to add yours…

This still makes my blood boil. Back in my day, and now we’re talking wayyy back, we had much less funding, but still, the administrators and trustees got the rain suits and the C team got one set of sponges to wear for the season. Badly injured athletes rode back across the pond in the smoking section while the CEO/ AD of the moment rode in first class. I found out my nine years of service–with two Olympics, WC podium and first seed in two events–was over by getting a letter canceling my medical insurance. It’s always been a real class act. As for the “pipeline” or the development program du jour here’s the irony. The most succesful athletes on the USST historically have been the ones who were decidedly off the program. Why? Because when you weedwhack instead of fertilize, only the toughest, wiliest, most audacious and often nastiest weeds can get through the cracks to the surface. The salary thing truly makes me ill, but much less ill that the bazillion dollar center for excellence. Puhleeez! Spend the money on funding gritty athletes, not on a Gucci monument to the organization. As a parent now, regardless of what skiing gave me, I can’t say I’d put my kids down a path that would lead them to the hands of the US Ski Team. And that makes me sad. I hope they love sking and ski racing, but I want them to have the option to succeed long term.

The Utah Edge women’s hockey team won the nationals for Senior C class yesterday.

Beth’s quote:

“WE WON!! IT WAS SO EXCITING! We were the underdogs!We got
pretty beat up by some of those young girls, but someone kicked in when someone had too. It was SO much fun! You can read about it on USAhockey.com Senior c womens hockey. WOW! I’m I sore! 6 games in 3 days. And the 2nd to last one was a triple over time.
weee wooo! Love Beth”

WAY TO GO PUP WE ARE PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!

What with all the great skiing to be had coast to coast this year there’s been little time (not to mention motivation) to blog. But now, Devo (the ski program for local tykes who are forced to listen to me on weekends) is over, and the rush to jam in as much spring skiing as possible has begun in earnest.

Here are the highlights so far:
Bringing the kids to Sun Valley and having them train with Sun Valley Ski Team thanks to Pat and Adele Savaria. Even better was getting the backstage tour with Adele (whose own boys clearly keep her spry).

Skiing Jackson with Andy Chambers and learning for m the master how to ski “the rock” without taking a beating. I managed to hit Jackson during the only three consecutive days without snow. But I got the sun, and honestly, for a Californian living in New England, sunshine and decent temps trump any form of precipitation, no matter how light and fluffy. Sacrilege, yes, but true.

The annual pilgrimage to the homeland, Squaw Valley, was brilliant, and here too coincided perfectly with a rare window of high pressure (atmospheric that is.) The kids got their steep fix on the West Face, their air fix in the terrain parks, their sugar and ski celebrity fix (Julia and Tamara at the same time) at Wildflour, and their nightskiing fix on the tram. Note to wimps like myself: that final fix is really key to get in California.

Book tour kicked in and brought Cindy and me to Vail and Aspen. First off was some quality time with Amy Livran in the back bowls under bluebird skies and the near religious ritual of nonstops on Riva Ridge with Cindy. Amy’s new website is vailparent.com so be sure to check it out if you are in the area.

The search for fame, fortune and a prominent spot in every ski chalet’s après ski library brought us to Aspen proper where the finer establishments, after a bit of coercion, welcomed the hausfraus peddling books. The trip thus legitimized, I was free to ski Aspen Highlands with Linda Mossman, and hike into Highlands Bowl for the first time. Nice! And reasonable enough that we still had the mojo to spare for some unreasonably long and steep bump runs (Dorothy, you’re not in NH anymore), before sending our quads to rehab and using nothing but skeletal alignment to support ourselves while cruising velvet boulevards to the base.

Here’s the surprise pleasure of the year: Ford Sayre’s annual big mountain day at Burke Mtn. As a young ski racer, whose only trips to Burke involved sleeping on the floor and hiking the slalom hill because the grease-spewing Poma broke down, I never imagined equating Burke with fun. But hey, times change, Poma’s get repaired and even lengthened. All kidding aside, Burke rocks. Who’da thunk? And even that mid mountain lodge has a certain charm I actually miss elsewhere.

And it’s not over yet! Still to come: sugaring at Sugarbush; Ski testing at Deer Valley for a veritable racer ex fest; the T-shirt race at Mt Sunapee, the annual threat to hike Tuck’s. Once I slay Tuck’s I’ll be one step closer to being a legit eastern skier. I still haven’t crossed Whiteface off my list. Does a summer visit count?

Of course, the only thing better than having all these experiences, is finding a way to get paid for them, so stay tuned for more on the following tidbits you might read about next season in print:

The zen with not skiing Corbett’s; what the TSA really means when it says “you must have a valid photo ID to travel”; what happens when you leave your skis outside the night before garbage day (and related information regarding getting pizza and coffee grounds out of your bindings); assorted air travel related rants regarding customer service centers in Bombay, and 20 hour cross-country journeys. OK, that won’t reach prime time, but it would make me feel a lot better to get it off my chest.

So there I was there I was there I was….Standing at the top of Corbett’s looking over the icy lip into the shadowy couloir below. So I’m 41, on chick skis, with no real cornice jumping under my belt for a solid ten years. This is Jackson for Gods sake. One must jump into Corbett’s to call it a proper visit. Right?

Well, now there have to be some good points about growing up, and the ability to turn around and ski away from Corbett’s without a twinge of remorse is a huge benny of middle age. The fact that I was able to squeeze in this boodoggle was a feat in itself and shining testimony to the virtues of babysitters on speed dial and willing neighbors. As with every trip, it seems like more trouble than its worth until you leave the house and are driving to the airport, with the long list of preparations done and out of your hands and your destination in your psyche. OK, it’s still a bit of a chafe until the cancelled and delayed flights are sorted out and you are actually on the way to said destination. But then you are in business…

Well, it sure would help if your expensive down coat–the one that rolls up in a bundle so tight that it can be stashed in the top of your backpack–didn’t fall out with such subtle grace as to go undetected on the airport floor as you leave the airport between here and there. Once your coat is gone it’d be really nice if the temperature at your destination was just a smidge above zero, instead of ten degrees below. But really–it’s a dry cold. Here’s the payoff for all these years now in the east. I actually get it. A dry cold is bearable. And the inversion that makes Jackson 10 degrees warmer on top of the mountain than it is on the bottom is a lifesaver, not to mention real incentive to get your butt off the beginner slopes asap!

I happened to hit Jackson during the only three days it hasn’t snowed all season. I know that would make a hard core sad, but I am a huge fan of sun, moreso now that I live in the east. It was tremendous. Pictures and more stories to come, but if you have any way to get to Jackson this year, DO IT! There is so much snow that you can feel like a hero and brag about all the lines you skied, then be done with it and hang with us middle agers who don’t jump into Corbett’s and are happy about it.

If you haven’t done so already, check out Carrie Sheinberg’s World Cup coverage at WCSN.com. Shiny also does radio for Sirius and ESPN. Check out her latest article, as ever without the pesky sugar coating.

Check out Shiny’s articles here!