President’s Message: Last year, this year

By Rees Palermo

The Masters National Championships will be at Mammoth Mountain this season, March 2026! Kudos to Mammoth for putting together a great schedule for these races.

After getting blown out by too much snow in the mega-winter of 2023, we will now have a 4- event Nationals here in our region again. yes, it will include a DH race! The DH will not be required as part of the "combined" award, but it certainly will be an exciting part of the week long event.

As for this past season here in the Sierrra, it was average. But, average around here is good! We were able to have a good amount of gate training and a fair amount of powder. And, we also had some rain at lower elevations in January. A little of everything makes one appreciate those good days! We got weathered out of one third of our planned races last season but the ones we had were challenging and exciting!

I hope you had some excellent memories of some of our events. This year, bring some friends to participate with us. We always welcome new racers! This fall, there are early season Masters camps at Big Sky in November, and a Mammoth camp in early December.

Also, an issue which we will likely see more in the future is a "window" of time for course inspection. Rules for course inspection typically allow the competitor about 45 minutes for inspection. However, you may only have a "window" of about 10-15 minutes to actually get on the course to inspect it. The consequence of this is you may only get one look at the course, so you'd better take a very good look. There will be more information about this coming as we approach the first races of the season. We will do our best to to announce if there will be a short window.

Looking forward to another great season of Masters racing in the Far West! See you out there.
Rees