Day 23 - Hunter Mountain

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Day 22 - Hunter Mountain

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Day 21 - Hunter Mountain

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Day 20 - Hunter Mountain

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Day 10 - Hunter Mountain

Mid Atlantic Race Camp Day 4. Out 9:00 to 2:45 with lunch in the cafeteria again; heavy rain overnight, but no rain and cooling temps today - temps might actually get back below freezing tonighyt; 13 runs; 6,360 vertical; skied the Atomic Redster G9 RS's; conditions continue to deteriorate - Hunter races cancelled; nobody else out again; GS in Doug Lewis' group, actually skied okay.

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Day 9 - Hunter Mountain

Only out 9:00 to 11:30 - had to go home and pick up the speed suits I forgot; 5 runs; overcast with temps in the fifties again; 6,240 vertical; skied the Atomic Redster G9 RS's; more wet snow, snirt and running water; nobody else out again - given the weather it's not surprising; GS training in Jim T's group - we replaced Tobi and ? with Peter and Scott.

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Day 8 - Hunter Mountain

Mid-Atlantic Masters Race Camp Day 2. Out 9:00 to 2:30 with lunch in the cafetereia again, warm and rainy with temps in the lower fifties; 13 runs; 7,197 vertical; skied the 2015 Volkl RaceTiger SL World Cups; soft snow, slush, snirt and running water; nobody else out today; SL training again - Lisa D B's group with the same group as yesterday; actually skied okay;

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Day 7 - Hunter Mountain

Mid-Atlantic Masters Race Camp Day 1. Out 9:00 to 2:30 with lunch in the cafeteria in the main lodge; overcast and warm with temps in the upper forties; 13 runs; 8,416 vertical; skied the 2015 Volkl RaceTigerSL World Cups; slush, snirt and plenty of running water; in John P.'s group with Dave W., Alex, Lisa and Bill Z., Tobi, and Steve; took a little while to get my feet back under me this morning.

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Day 20 - West Mountain

Mid-Atlantic Masters Race Camp Day 4. Out 10:00 to 2:00 with a ½ hour in the car for lunch; partly sunny with temps in the twenties and no real wind; 13 runs; 6,550 vertical; skied the 2015 Volkl RaceTiger SL World Cups; groomers with patches of fresh snowmaking; no real crowd other than the campers and a bunch of West Moutain Jr Racers; odd morning course - full gates on the left, stubbies on the right, then half way down it switched; full course for the afternoon which was full of cute little tricks; good tip on tactics from John Jacobs, adjust the rise line based on changes in direction of the course not changes in terrain like fall-aways; I didn't ski particularly well today - we'll have to see what the video says. Review of the video proves Coach Lisa's adage, 'The rut trumps all.' Two seperate times in a twenty second video I was bounced well off line after going too straight and slamming into the rut, once in the hairpin and again in the flush.

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Day 19 - West Mountain

Mid-Atlantic Race Cammp Day 3. Out 10:00 to 2:30 with a ½ hour in the car for lunch; sunny with temps in the twenties and little to no wind; 15 runs; 5,800 vertical; skied the 2015 Volkl RaceTiger SL World Cups; groomers; very light crowd; slalom training today; Lisa Ballard lead our group today - very good coach; slalom skiing: 100% of your weight on the downhill ski with the upper body down the fall line at all times with both hands sterum high and forward; drills: make turns lifting inside ski off the ground while keeping the tip on the snow; frame drill - grasp both poles half way up the shaft, then holding them both straight out in front of you, make short, rythmical turns with your body facing straight down the hill keeping a single object down the slope 'framed' within the two poles; hold both poles horizontally out in front of you, make short rythmical turns keeping the poles (and your upper body) level across the hill and square to the direction of travel; fun brush course in the afternoon - left hand flush to right hand flush to diagonal flush to picket fence - it also provided great lesson on looking ahead, spot the top of the first turn after the flush as you enter the flush; additionally 2 stubby courses set over the terrain on the race hill - a good lesson here was SL inspection isn't just about combinations, check out the terrain and make sure to note when to move forward over the knolls; got like 5 runs through both stubby courses - plenty of SL gates today; skied okay generally, but horribly on video.



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Day 18 - West Mountain

Mid-Atlantic Race Camp Day 2. Out 10:00 to 2:30 with a ½ hour for lunch in the car; overcast with temps around freezing and little to no wind; 22 runs; 10,324 vertical; skied the Atomic Redster G9 RS's; groomers; basically we free skied while they set the course, then we ran The Wall Drill - they set 3 brushes just outside the ideal line on each turn, 1 at the top, 1 at the apex and 1 at the bottom -the idea is the brushes form a wall keeping you inside on the fast line; 4 timed runs this afternoon; I guess I skied okay, because I beat all the women including Sharon Way and Amy Patterson who beat me soundly on Sunday at Swain.

Trying to put a few thing together today. Eliminate all the extra motion. Up and down motion during transition, rotary motion of the shoulders at the top of the turn and various gyrations of the hands to duck the gate or execute a double pole plant. All these extra motions take time and potentially change balance and/or pressure - that's bad. Through undisciplined free skiing I've fallen in love with countering my shoulders at the very top of the turn. While this locks in the new edge right from the very top of the new turn, when started too early it causes a rotation of the shoulders away from downhill ski of the old turn which occasionally causes my tails to slide out. Because of my low hand position during the turn, the up motion of my hands and body that happens when I double pole plant is causing a couple of issues. First as I come up and get tall my stance tends to narrow. Second the up motion unweights my skis. This loss of pressure takes time to correct and happens just I should be rolling up onto the new edge with forward pressure. This loss of pressure can be accentuated in rolling terrain. So to sum this all up... ... ... Stay low - especially during transition, stay square, stay forward and keep the hands up and forward.

14 30 Martin Burns 32.10 (14) 32.21 (14) 1:04.31 (14)

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Day 17 - West Mountain

Mid-Atlantic Masters Race Camp Day 1. Out 10:00 to 2:30 with ¾ of an hour in the car for lunch; overcast with temps in the low thirties and no wind; 16 runs; 6,696 vertical; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheater 19's and the Atomic Redster G9 RS's; groomers; never a liftline, but quite a few people out given the amount of terrain open; in Group 3 of 4 with Carlene and Stu, Andrea and Steven, Allan, and Bastion; had John Pierce as coach today; outside ski pressure drills: statue of liberty, outside pole down/inside pole up, and with hands out and no poles match hands and shoulders to slope; got to run a 30 second GS course 7 times; skied okay; much better with fewer people in camp.



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Day 22 - Killington

Almost a powder day. Out 9:15 to 2:45 with a long lunch in the ski club building; 4" overnight - cold and blustery all day; 25 runs, 20,000 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; powder and packed powder - but we slipped a course on Upper Double Dipper and ran gates; GS and SL - keep the upper body tall and forward, don't collapse the upper body especially at the bottom of the turn; made several free runs today to check out the mountain - did Escapade, Panic Eye, Bittersweet, Cascade; Doug T. characterized my skiing as elegant.

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Day 21 - Killington

Race Camp race on Highline. Out 9:00 to 2:45 with a long lunch at the ski club building; cold and blustery with significant snow showers; 15 runs; 10,000 vertical; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheater 19's and the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; firm and flat; the Heads worked significantly better than the Fischers on the steep, icy pitch on Highline.

Run 1       Run 2       Total
22.93 (3) 23.23 (3) 46.16 (3)

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Day 20 - Killington

Race Camp Day 3. Cloudy with flurries and temps rising into the twenties and very little wind; 15 runs, 10,000 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; firm and crunchy; PM session was 4 runs on the Ski Bum course on Highline.

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Day 19 - Killington

Race Camp Day 2. Out 9:45 to 2:45 with lunch in the Ski Club Building; broken sun and clouds with temps in the teens and a diminishing wind; 15 runs; 10,000 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; video analysis first thing this AM; great video from yesterday on Mouse Trap;

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Day 18 - Killington

Race Camp Day 1. Out 9:00 to 2:45 with lunch in KBL; temps started just above freezing but were dropping fast by the time I left; windy all day; a little mix of everything in the sky: rain, snow, fog, clouds, sun...; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; 17 runs; 11,000 vertical; in John Pierce's group with Kathy, Bob, Ken, Tim, Andy, and Dennis - everyone except Dennis was in our group last year; worked balance, specifically fore/aft balance - edge release, pivot-slips; falling leaf; 360's; worked early edging - statue of liberty; worked turn shape - apex drill.

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Day 13 - Killington

Race Camp Day 5. Out 9:15 to 11:30 no break; overcast with temps around freezing - mixed precip in the air when I left the hill at 1:15 after doing skis; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheater 17's; 9 runs; 5,500 vertical; crappy snow conditions - granted I only did Bunny and Chute, but they were trying to make snow on top of a botched grooming effort last night; AM session only - full length GS on Bunny, 4 runs; skied ok; day 5 of race camp produced the usual carnage - 2 injuries this morning, one from our group.



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Day 12 - Killington

Race Camp Day 4 - Race Day. Out 9:00 to 3:00 with an hour for lunch; snowing with temps right around freezing - minor accumulation of new snow; horrible visibility most of the day; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheater 19's; 14 runs; 10,500 vertical; variable conditions - from soft, wet spots to firming granular with a light new snow frosting to frozen solid and scraped; AM session - race on Bunny, PM session - statue of liberty drill; stumbled badly at the start in run 1 when I didn't compensate for the transition from the start ramp to the flat on my second skate; also temporarily lost the grip on my right pole after hitting my hand on a gate during run 1; still had an OK result.

GS:    Run 1 - 35.83 (7)    Run 2 - 33.87 (2)    Total - 1:09:70 (4)



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Day 11 - Killington

Race Camp Day 3. Out 10:00 to 12:30; temps in the forties and raining; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheater 17's; 9 runs; 6,750 vertical; soft and slushy; with heavy rain overnight and today the snowpack is diminishing quickly; nobody else on the hill today; with all the rain our group opted for one session on the hill and one watching video; full length GS with timing brushes; I skied OK, but I did have one feel good moment keeping up, more or less, with Pierce on Upper Mouse Run.

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