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Next race: Northstar GS / GS (Feb. 20-21)
Please send entries
by Feb. 15.
Welcome to the Far West Masters!
If you are a new visitor to our site, you may wish
to visit the Information pages to learn more About masters racing.
See the How To Join page for membership information
and applications. We are open to all and welcome new racers!
Masters ski racing is the premier adult ski racing series in the country.
We are governed by United States Ski Association (USSA),
the sanctioning body in the US for organized ski racing at all levels from juniors
up through international and Olympic competition.
Far West Masters organizes USSA masters competition in the
Far West division.
Our yearly schedule includes all disciplines (SL, GS, SG, and DH),
with races held mainly at ski areas in the central Sierras.
Racers from 21 to over 80 years old compete in ten-year age groups.
Top News Items
- Sierra at Tahoe Races
After a stormy mid-January, the month closed out with the rescheduled
Sierra at Tahoe GS races held on the final weekend of January
with good weather and snow conditions. Competitors loved the race hill
and raved about the friendly and enthusiastic effort of the Sierra race crews
to make us welcome and put on a great event.
See the Race Results page for complete weekend results
and the updated Season Standings.
(Coming soon: race photos from Sunday's GS by Tommy Compton)
Next up on the season race calendar is the Western Regional championships
at Park City this coming weekend Feb. 4-7. Results will be posted daily on
ussamasters.org/2010/wr.
On a very sad note, Dave Phillips suffered a heart attack after the
Sierra at Tahoe GS race on Sunday.
Dave was a new racer with us this year. His first race was at Mammoth and he had
come to compete in the Sierra at Tahoe GS races from his home in Las Vegas.
We all share the sadness of his family and friends at this loss and will miss
having him with us.
Please take a moment to visit the Photos page
for a great race photo of Dave from Sunday's GS - on a beautiful sunny day, Dave's
looking good and going for it!
[-2-Feb-2010]
- Weekly News 1/27
The January Forerunner newsletter is out!
Newsletter editor Ingrid Braun has pulled together all the news
and lots of photos from our December and early January races,
so head on over the Newsletters page
where all issues are posted of
or click the link below to view now:
Sierra at Tahoe is going to provide free training to all of the competitors
racing this weekend. The training will be from 11:00 to 2:00 Friday on
"Clipper." This is the hill we will be racing on, and timed training runs
will be available. Sierra at Tahoe is going to provide tickets for training
to the competitors for $40.00. To purchase tickets at that rate, go to the
Season Ticket office and tell them you are there to train for the weekend's
races. If you have not yet signed up for the race, you may also do so Friday
at the Season ticket office. Also, there will be a competitors line (the ski school line)
for all racers this weekend. The weather looks good for the coming weekend,
after last week's storms, so this should be a fantastic event!
Far West Sking is once again putting on their Hoedown fund raiser for Far West athletes
on February 6 at the Squaw Valley Lodge. Far West administrator Lucy Schram says
"Some of the great offerings we have thus far for our silent auction
are: hand carved wooden ski bear, Squaw Valley Season pass for 10/11, ski backpack and ski bag,
skis and bindings, Descente and Mountain Hardware jackets, priceless art work, just to name a few."
For information and ticket order, visit the FW division web site at fwskiing.us
More race photos! Sasha Glushenko has posted race and party pictures from the Jan. 8-10 Heavenly and Squaw races,
to add to the photos from Tom Compton that were posted earlier this month. Links are available
on the Photos page. When you're checking the Results page look for thecamera icon
decorating the entries for all races where photos are available.
[28-Jan-2010]
- Sierra at Tahoe Races Rescheduled
The Far West Masters GS races scheduled for the weekend of Jan. 23-24 at
Sierra at Tahoe have been cancelled due to weather and snow conditions, as
the fourth in a week-long series of storms rolling through the
Sierras moved in Thursday.
Sierra at Tahoe has a storm total of over 50" of new snow by Thursday morning,
with over a foot on Wednesday and more coming on Thursday. Although a weather break is
forecast for the coming weekend, the race organizers and jury officials
concluded that there was too much new snow to be able to prepare
the race venue for a safe competition.
The races are being rescheduled for next weekend Jan. 30-31.
While we realize this is short notice for competitors, Sierra at Tahoe would like to go ahead
with the event and the last weekend of January was the best solution to finding an
open date.
All race entries will be carried over for next weekend.
If you were entered but cannot make it on the rescheduled date,
please contact Sierra at Tahoe Competition Services by email
to cancel your entry: swarman.st@boothcreek.com.
If you were not previously entered but would like to compete,
by all means send your entry in! we'd like to get as many competitors
on the hill as possible.
On short notice, it would also be
a good idea to contact Sierra at Tahoe to confirm entry.
There will also be training available
on Friday Jan. 29 - contact Competition Services for details.
[21-Jan-2010]
- Weekly News (1/18)
The MLK holiday weekend is bringing us the opening round of an expected sequence of El Nino storms
stacked up on a strong jet stream to roll through California this week with widespread snow and rain.
We have GS races this weekend at Sierra at Tahoe, so competitors should watch the weather this week
Any updates on weather and conditions that might affect our race schedule
will be posted on the FWM web site and broadcast on our news mailing list.
Entries are due next week for the Western Regional championships at Park City on Feb. 4-7.
Entries can submitted by mailing the entry form or by email, with payment due at registration.
For entry form and instructions visit the western regionals page on ussamasters.org
or use the Western Regionals Entry button on our own Race Entries page.
Entries for the Sun Valley national championships Mar. 29-Apr. 2 should be submitted to Far West president Marietta Frinell
by Feb. 1 - send by mail (address on Contacts page) or deliver at the next race.
For entry form and instructions visit the nationals page on ussamasters.org
or use the Nationals Entry button on our own Race Entries page.
Please write one check for all events, as described on the entry form.
To be eligible, you must have a USSA Masters competition license and be a current member of Far West Masters.
Because each division has a quota based on their USSA memberships, our Far West team selection criteria
is that you should have raced in four FW Masters races in the current 2010 season or six in the prior season.
We do expect additional entry slots to be available after the initial submission from all divisions under
their quota limits on Feb. 15, so by all means send an entry if you'd like to compete. If you don't make the initial
Far West team selection you'll be placed on a waiting list that we will draw from after the first round of division entries
are completed on Feb. 15.
For those of you who enjoy speed events, Mammoth is holding a 3-event open SG series this season.
Races will be held on Monday Jan. 15, Thursday Mar. 4 (the day before our 3-day masters SG race weekend),
and Monday Apr. 19 (the day following our season finals weekend).
This is an open race series held in conjunction with scheduled speed events that Mammoth is hosting, when
the SG venue will have course preparation and fencing in place suitable for the competition.
Anyone with suitable skills, equipment, and $25 can enter! See the info flyer or contact the Mammoth Race Department for details.
[18-Jan-2010]
- News Mailing List
To help get the word out when we have news and information about our Far West Masters
program and races, we have created a news mailing list that we will use
for sending out news messages and announcements. You can always come here to the
web site for the most complete and current information, as always, but now with the
news mailing list you can also receive notifications through your email.
We think the news mailing list will help to keep members and competitors
informed, especially during the course of the competition season when there
are schedule changes and weather news that we need to get out to everyone
quickly. The list will be "low traffic" - it will only be used to send
messages which have been approved by the list managers as relevant and appropriate.
Usually this will consist of a weekly news post during the season, occasional messages
from the president or other board members, and breaking news on our race calendar
during the season.
All Far West Masters competitors who have been active members in the past few season
and who have indicated on their membership application preferences that email contact
is acceptable will automatically be added to the news list. (You can remove
yourself at any time - instructions are included with your welcome message and
help is available from the list information page.) The list is open to anyone
interested - just sign up!
To subscribe to the list, browse the messages archive,
edit your subscription options, or remove yourself,
visit the news list information page:
[14-Jan-2010]
- Squaw/Northstar Schedule Changes
***SCHEDULE CHANGES*** In response to changing conditions,
we have arranged a "venue swap" between the GS race weekends originally scheduled
for Feb. 20-21 at Squaw Valley and on Mar. 20-21 at Northstar.
The Bernard Cup GS weekend originally scheduled for Feb. 20-21 at Squaw Valley
will now be held on Mar. 20-21. The Northstar GS races originally
scheduled for that weekend will now be held on Feb. 20-21.
(There will be no DH at Northstar this season)
The Bernard Cup GS race weekend will also feature a scheduling experiment
that we hope will be fun for competitors as well as giving us some additional
flexibility in putting on the races. We will have 3 GS races over the two days,
with three runs each day. Eh, you say?! Right - we'll have the first run of
the second GS race on Saturday afternoon; the second run will be on Sunday morning.
Plenty of time to plan your second run strategy and work on psyching out
your competitors! It'll be a little different, but we think it'll be fun
to try something a little different.
[13-Jan-2010]
- Regionals and Nationals Entries
The Western Regionals will be held on Feb. 4-7 at Park City UT.
This is a 4-event championship, starting with SG and SC on Payday
on Thursday/Friday, with the weekend GS/SL races held on CB's and Picabo's
at the Eagle Race Arena.
For event schedule and lodging information, visit the
WR event page on ussa.org.
Entry form and instructions on submitting by mail or email are posted on the
western regionals results page on ussamasters.org.
Entries are due by Wed. Jan. 27 and should be submitted directly to the PCMR Race Department.
The Downhill National Championship will be hosted by Rocky Mountain division thsi season as part of the Aspen speed weekend
on Feb. 13-15, the weekend following the regionals. (Sun Valley is not able to hold the championship downhill in conjunction
with the nationals, which is the preferred scheduling arrangement when possible).
Event information and online registration is available through the
Rocky Mountain Masters web site.
The National Championships will be held Mar. 29-Apr. 2 at Sun Valley ID.
For event schedule and lodging information, visit the
nationals event page on ussa.org.
Entry form and instructions on submitting are posted on the
nationals results page on ussamasters.org.
Entries are due by the end of January and should be submitted to Far West president Marietta Frinell.
[12-Jan-2010]
- Heavenly & Squaw SL Races
The new year brought warm weather and 3 packed days of SL racing to the Far West.
On Friday Jan. 8 Heavenly hosted a double-header race day on World Cup for the Viva Italia
SL, with sponsor John Gianotti in fine form encouraging the competitors on the hill
and organizing a great post-race party with food, prizes, and a special surprise to celebrate
another great performance by our oldest race Teddie Cantanho.
The overall Viva Italia trophy winners this year were defending champion Kurt Beldon,
with Deb "I love slalom!" Lewis reclaiming the women's title.
Shifting from the south shore up to the northwest corner of Lake Tahoe, the weekend brought
two more days of SL racing at Squaw Valley on Exhibition. With warm conditions and thin snow cover
on the race hill, the start was moved down from the road and the course setters diligently plotted
lines to challenge the racers and make best use of the hill. Some exciting runs resulted among the
younger men's classes, but all competed in good spirits. Saturday's post-race party featured
some fine catering provided by local chefs Eddie Mozen and Mark Mirviss, and with plenty of great
raffle prizes following well-executed speeches by scholarship athletes, everyone went home happy
and well-fed.
A big thanks to the race crews at both Heavenly and Squaw for putting on excellent events.
Both organizers worked hard to prepare the race hills and had good crews out working our races,
and their efforts paid off with well-run events.
***Schedule updates*** We will be posting some changes to our season schedule
this week, with a "date swap" between the originally scheduled Feb. 20-21 Bernard Cup GS races at Squaw
and the Mar. 20-21 GS weekend at Northstar. Details will be posted in a few days. Regionals and nationals
entry forms will also be posted.
See the Race Results page for complete weekend results
and the updated Season Standings.
Also, be sure to check out the race photos from the Viva Italia races and Sunday's SL by Tommy Compton.
[10-Jan-2010; updated 12-Jan-2010]
- Henry Kristaponis
It is with great sadness that we share the news that Henry Kristaponis passed away today.
We do not yet have any details, but will pass on further news when it becomes available.
Henry was a distinctive character and known to many of us for his passion for ski racing
and downhill. Always dapper, Henry was hard to miss on the hill or off!
Born in 9120, Henry was 89. He will be missed.
[06-Jan-2010]
- Happy New Year!!
Happy New Year to all, and welcome to 2010!!
Sierra ski areas celebrated the holidays with good weather and good snow conditions,
so hopefully everyone got a chance to do some skiing as well as spend time with
family and friends.
We have a good set of races coming up in January.
The weekend of Jan. 8-10 opens on Friday Jan. 8 with a SL doubleheader
on World Cup at Heavenly - this is the famous Viva Italia race,
with a great party afterwards as well as good racing, so don't miss this!
Saturday and Sunday we move to the north shore for a pair of SL races
at Squaw Valley. Squaw did an outstanding job putting on our December
race weekend before Christmas, so this should also be a great event.
It's not to soon to start planning your winter major events schedule!
The Western Regionals will be at Park City the first weekend in February,
providing a 4-event SC/SG/GS/SL race meeting. The regionals SG is also
the opening event of the 2010 National Speed Series.
The following weekend the traditional Rocky Mountain Masters Aspen speed events
are also the national championship DH this year. And not least, this year
the national championships will be hosted at Sun Valley the week of Mar. 29-Apr. 2.
Sun Valley has great race venues and is offering some very attractive lodging
packages for competitors. Entry forms for regionals and nationals will be available
on the Race Entries page the first week of January.
[03-Jan-2010]
- Squaw SL Races
On the last weekend before the holidays, Sierra ski areas celebrated
the recent snowfall and Far West masters racers gathered at Squaw Valley
for a pair of SL races. Competing on the lower section of Exhibition,
which will also host a challenging GS race for the Bernard Cup in February,
provided a good test of the skill and endurance of competitors early
in the season.
Our thanks to Squaw Valley's Race Department for putting on an outstanding event!
See the Race Results page for complete weekend results
and the updated Season Standings.
Also, be sure to check out the race photos from Sunday's SL by Tommy Compton.
[20-Dec-2009; updated 04-Jan-2010]
- Mammoth Opener
The 2010 race season kicked off with a GS weekend at Mammoth Mountain,
following the annual masters traning camp week that Mammoth has offered for many season.
A nice Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm provided a welcome addition to the early season
snowpack and a week of clear, sunny weather provided excellent conditions for
the season warmup.
Saturday's GS was held in clear but breezy conditions on the re-christened
Andrea's Double Gold race hill (formerly Far West), honoring the memory and
accomplishments of Andrea Mead Lawrence. The firm race conditions provided
a consistent racing surface for the field of over 80 competitors.
A good turnout for the post-race party at Giovanni's featured plenty of pizza
and lots of great raffle prizes for the scholarship athlete fund.
Sunday's race was regrettably cancelled as the leading edge of a strong
winter storm brought high winds and dropping temperatures. The jury's decision
on the safety of race conditions given deteriorating visibility was sealed when
lift operations shut down, leaving travelling competitors plenty of time
to get on the road before the evening arrival of snowfall.
[06-Dec-2009]
- Happy Thanskgiving
With the arrival of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, it's a nice time
to reflect and appreciate the good things that so many of us are blessed
to enjoy. Ski areas are opening for the season, with the first races of the
2010 Far West masters season a little over a week away. Having the opportunity
to participate in this sport and enjoy the athletic challenge and comradery
is certainly something we can all be thankful for. Hope everyone has
a healthy, happy holiday with family and friends!
Race entry form printing for the December race weekends at Mammoth and Squaw
is available on the Race Entries page.
(Additional race events on the schedule will be added for entry printing
in early December.)
A new option this year is online registration,
which will be available for selected events. All Mammoth races
this season can be entered online and we anticipate other areas
will also be making their races available through this service.
If you would like to enter online rather than printing and mailing
an entry form, go to alpinereg.com
and click on the Masters tab in the upper right, and select the
California event listings.
(Note: you must hold a current USSA competition license to use
the online entry service provided by Alpine Reg).
If you haven't yet joined USSA or renewed your masters license,
you can do this online at ussa.org.
Note also that this year you can only use a temp (weekend) license
one weekend. The weekend license is a great
option if you're new and would like to try masters racing before
making a commitment to the full license.
See the How to Join page for more information
and links to forms and the USSA web site.
[11-Nov-2009]
- Web Site Remodel
The Far West Masters web site has embarked on a new phase in its life!
In preparation for the upcoming 2009-2010 season, the site has been completely rewritten
and is now being relaunched on a new technology platform which will enable us to provide
more effective content and improved services to our racers in the Far West.
The site has come a long way from its creation in the late '90's thanks
to the pioneering efforts of Archie Monica in the early years of the internet.
In the ever-changing world of the internet and modern technology, the site was
beginning to show its age, however, and its early-generation web infrastructure
was no longer able to keep up and allow us to explore the new ideas and features
that we'd like to support.
For you technical cognoscenti out there, we have moved
from a first-generation Microsoft web technology called ASP to the
modern open-source web platform Ruby on Rails.
Please be patient for the next few weeks while we work out any glitches
and finish converting a few remaining areas of the current site.
Some of the features you may be used will be temporarily unavailable - the archive
of race results and standings from previous seasons has been taken offline for now
(but they're coming back!!), while the Member Lookup and user accounts features
are closed until renovation of the membership database features are completed.
And now back to our regularly scheduled ski racing action...
Race Entry printing is now open for the December races, with our opening
race at Mammoth on Dec.5-6 only a few weeks away now!
[15-Nov-2009]
- Weekly News (11/08)
**Schedule Update**
Due to scheduling issues, the Jan. 9-10 SL weekend at Heavenly on the preliminary 2009-2010 race schedule
has been changed to 2 SL races at Heavenly on Fri. Jan. 8,
with the weekend races moved to Squaw Valley on Sat-Sun Jan. 9-10 (SL each day).
Please note that final details of the Northstar event in March are not yet confirmed; the schedule
will be updated when final arrangements are confirmed.
Race entry form printing for the December races will be available in mid-November. (Please be patient!
The site is currently undergoing a major rework to enable improved services for the coming season.)
We are also working out arrangements with Mammoth to provide online registration for the opening Dec.5-6 race weekend;
details will be posted here when available.
[08-Nov-2009]
- November News
Halloween and the DST time change have come and gone, and as November opens
with a high pressure system over the Sierras and snow in the Rockies
it's time to start planning for preseason camps and the upcoming
race season.
The Training information page has been updated with information on training opportunities
for masters in the 2010 season. Training programs provide a range from season-long programs through single-day "drop-in" sessions.
Many of these are well-established season programs, while others are more recent additions that we are glad to welcome
and hope to see grow and be successful.
New this year is a free drop-in program at Sierra-at-Tahoe, where we had a very successful inaugural event last season and will be returning to in January.
Also new this year is a program at Tahoe-Donner started by Rich Aprile, who's been involved in racing in the FW for many years.
The Mammoth Race Department is once again holding a week-long race camp the week prior to our first Far West Masters
races. The camp is Mon-Fri Nov. 30-Dec. 4, with daily as well as week-long participation options, leading init the season opening races the weekend of Dec. 5-6.
(Note: the dates for the opening weekend races that were originally published in the Masters Comp Guide are not correct; corrected dates of Dec. 5-6 are
published here on our FW Masters site as well as on the Masters Schedule page on ussa.org.
As always, be sure to check here for news updates and on the Season Schedule page throughout the season for updates and event details on our race calendar.)
[02-Nov-2009]
- October News
October brought an early winter storm to the Sierras and Mammoth celebrated the first taste
of winter by opening on Friday Oct. 16, their earliest since the mid-90's
Although they've closed again as another round of high pressure and warm temps has settled over the west coast,
it's a nice reminder that winter is on its way. Hopes are high for El Nino and good snow year.
Far West Masters sponsor Granite Chief
will be holding their annual Team Day on Sat Oct. 24
at the Truckee store. Coaches and reps will be there, with team pricing
on race equipment and special offers on orthothics and boot work.
Be sure to stop in if you can!
Also coming up this weekend is the fall board meeting and officials clinic on Saturday Oct. 24, hosted by Mark Smallhouse. And on Friday evening Reno Mountain Sports will be holding their annual Race Night event. All masters are invited and owner/racer Dave Garner says "Industry techs, coaches,
and the RMS staff will be on hand for advice, fitting, or just a friendly
chat."
For those in Mammoth area, the Mammoth Ski Education Foundation (MSSEF) is hosting a tuning
clinic by renowned tuner Willi Wiltz on Saturday October 24 from 3:30 to 7:00 at the Mammoth High School.
Also, Command Performance will have race reps at the shop this weekend from 10-4 Saturday and Sunday
and masters racers are invited to come in for equipment advice and season preparation.
[18-Oct-2009]
- Fall News
The preliminary 2009-2010 race schedule is now available and membership renewal forms are being
mailed to all recent Far West Masters members in September with the fall issue of the Forerunner
newsletter. If you've joined FW Masters anytime in the past 5 seasons, you'll be receiving the
program information and membership application.
Complete information including links for the USSA masters alpine license and our Far West Masters membership
are provided on the How to Join page.
The Fall FWM board members meeting and the officials training clinic is tentatively scheduled for Sat Oct. 24
and will be hosted by Mark Smallhouse in Reno. Details will be posted when available.
Minutes from the summer board meeting held July 11 at president Marietta Frinell's home in Mammmoth are posted on the
Board records page (see link at left in the FWM Documents section of the site).
Passing on some sad news, Seth Joslin, son of long-time racer and former Squaw Valley race program director Toot Joslin, passed away last week.
A memorial gathering is being planned, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 26, at the Cedar Flat Lakefront lot and pier where Seth and Rachel were married.
[15-Sep-2009; updated 05-Oct-2009]
|
January Forerunner newsletter
http://lists.farwestmasters.org/mailman/listinfo/news
preliminary 2010 season schedule
Granite Chief Team Day flyer