First we started with the tech events at Sunday River. After record low temps in Colorado I boarded a flight for Maine and packed for the worst. As was expected temps plummeted to daytime highs of -3f with wind chill around -33f. On Thursday (the first day of GS) the Referee called me on the radio at 9AM (scheduled start for forerunners at 9:55) and asked the possibility of moving the start down the hill as the wind at the top of the course was blowing people uphill. I told him this was possible to move the start to the flats at the first intermediate, but it would take time. At 9:10 the jury decided to make the move. Race crew mobilized and pulled a start out of their a$$ that was ready to go at 11AM with all of the mission critical and nice to have pairs (primary /backup starts, comm and hand time pair for electronic transmission of HT to the timing cabin). We ran the entire day in sub-zero temps and I am shocked that no one went to the clinic with hypothermia or frostbite.
Day two we moved back up top for the second day of GS with temps around the mid 20s.
Day 3 was the first day of Slalom and the finish line was moved up the hill. We ran nearly 1000' of wire and put a finish together in time to get the start off on time.
Day 4 was the last day of slalom and was probably the easiest and most pleasant day of the week. Following the race the RA and I packed into a car and were transported to our next stop, Sugarloaf USA for the speed series.
Things looked good on arrival and when I went up the lift on Monday Morning (DHT 1) most of the protection was up and we set up the start and slid down to set intermediates and finish. Things were just about ready in the timing cabin when Swampy and Cowboy were finishing the set for the start of the first training run at 10. As the morning wore on the weather got worse as fog and wind began to move in. The jury delayed 1.5 hours waiting for the wind and fog to clear before pulling the plug.
Tuesday broke with even higher winds and warm temps destroying the snow surface and melting out the protection installations. Lift unload ramps were down to dirt and they could not even run the t-bar to the top. Racing was called for the day before we even loaded the lift. At that point the plan was to regroup on Wednesday and rebuild the damaged piste for an aggressive Thursday program of two training runs (mens and ladies) and a mens race.
We woke up today (Wednesday) to rain, high winds and more rain. The mountain did not open at all. The jury made the call to pull the plug on the series with no hope to get anything off. In less than 36 hours the mountain lost 4 feet of snow and looked like most mountains do after being closed for two weeks in late April.
Going from sub-freezing temps last week to 60 degree temps with wind and rain this week was the biggest mid January swing I have ever seen (can you say global warming). The 2008 NAC series of extremes is now history. I did not take too many pics but here are a few.
The Atomic tech gets the DH boards ready in Sunday River tuning room
Tim Kavenau (aka Kav) built a better mouse trap dubbed the wheel of death (peanut butter on rotating can above a bucket of water). No mice were caught but it did feed a hungry timer.
Head Ski Tech gets his game on in Sunday River. If you look closely you might notice the reflection in the diamond plate box of a 30 pack on the floor from his athletes paying homage to the tuning gods.
The first run, first day set of the slalom comes down shortly after the finish line is placed. Rob Worrell does a decent job with the set and dumps 30% of the field on the first run.
Inside the Sunday River timing cabin on Obsession. Matt Howard running the software with star race crew Jake Treadwell standing by. Someday you will see Jake as a TD I am sure.
A 4 port MOXA pulled start and finish Hand times from CP520s along with Primary and backup timing from Alge clocks to the TC monitoring station. BTW a 520 running at 9600 baud will transmit over 5000' of 24 gauge copper. Not one packet was lost in 4 days of racing.
Swampy and Cowboy at the finish after setting the DH course. This was as close to racing as we got in Sugarloaf.
Coaches at the finish after the DH set.