WEATHER PERMITS RACE 2…MOSTLY / VIDEO / RESULTS.
Just before one of the largest storms that the Sierra Nevada has seen in years, the SCCSC gathered in Mammoth Lakes over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend for its second set of competitions of the 2010 competitive season. The storm, which was poised to dump feet of snow per hour on Mammoth Mountain, held off just long enough for the group to host Giant Slalom, Slalom, and Cross races on Saturday 1/16 and Sunday 1/17. No such luck for the Slopestyle competition which was set for Monday, 1/18 at neighboring June Mountain.
The Giant Slalom races were held under mostly blue skies on Fascination at Mammoth Mountain. The largest event the SCCSC has hosted in the past three seasons, over 180 athletes participated in the GS races, which was an impressive 89% of the riders seeded for the event. USC’s Female Skier Grace Parker set the pace of the event at 71.39 seconds combined time for the two run event. See http://www.sccsc.com/results/ for full results.
Under cloudy skies in windy conditions, the SCCSC hosted the first Ski Slalom competition for the season after the event was snowed over New Years. Again Grace Parker from USC beat the field with a two-run combined time of 100.66s. Her closest competition was male skier Dale Mitchell from LMU with a time of 114.06s. Despite Parker’s efforts, the UCSB team was victorious in both Women’s and Men’s Slalom Competitions followed by USC and USCD for Women, and UCSD then USC for men. The season results should prove interesting if this dynamic continues…
Sunday afternoon a snow storm blew in, but visibility was good at the Cross course so competition continued. In what will go down as undoubtedly the coldest Cross race the SCCSC has ever hosted, 215 athletes charged the course in the first set of skier and boarder cross races of the season. Sharing the course with riders from Sierra Nevada College and Sacramento State of the USCSA’s Northern California region, athletes were on course for 4 hours in the cold, wind, and snow to determine winners for SkierCross and BoarderCross. Full results can be found at http://www.sccsc.com/results/.
Heavy snowfall prevented the group from holding its second Slopestyle competition of the season Monday. The long awaited and much anticipated storm arrived Sunday night and left those willing to battle the low light, windy, and wet snowy conditions with a veritable cornucopia of fresh powder on to ride Monday before heading back to class Tuesday morning.
Be sure to check out the awesome video of the BoarderCross and SkierCross events. Videocourtesy of the USC Ski and Snowboard Team, the SCCSC Webmaster Abe Kislevitz, and GoPro cameras.
