Alyeska Cup

Well, this post was supposed to be full of pics and video of Nick racing in the Alyeska Cup.  However, I ended up being the coach assigned to the start area of the race course....not good for filming as I could only see about 4 of the 41 gates.  The other coaches promised they would get me some video....they failed.  So it will be mostly narrative.  Sorry!!

Normally the kids race in the YSL, which is the Youth Ski Racing League.  All kids under 18 are eligible to race in theYSL, however the majority of racers are 14 or under.  Most of the really competitive kids that are 13 or older race on the Junior circuit.  Since the YSL caters to younger kids, the races are set up accordingly, 15 -18 gates and 30-45 seconds to complete the run on moderately steep slopes.  Challenging, yet still fun.
  The Alyeska Cup is a different animal.  It is an FIS points race and Junior qualifier for kids to get on the National teams.  Todays race had 41 gates with 38 direction changes,  it covered over 1000 ft of vertical drop and the first 10 gates were on a double black pitch.  It was impressive and intimidating!  Since Nick is only 11 we actually had to get approval for him to race, this isn't super unusual and there ended up being 8 boys in the Under 12 age group.  Its pretty fun to watch the 16-18 year olds race, but as Nick noticed, not that fun to compete against them.

  The first 2 days were both Slalom (SL), which means lots of short tight gates where the larger racers actually knock over all the gates as they go by.  Its very technical and difficult, and was very rutted out and icy...not Nicks favorite for sure.  In fact 14 of the original 48 male racers ended up crashing out or missing gates. But Nick hit it hard and ended up in 3rd in his age group on the first day.  Day two was a little less successful as he hooked a gate with his ski on the first run and had to hike back up the hill about 10 feet to get himself around the gate.  He did manage to complete both runs and it was a great learning experience.  Day three was Giant Slalom (GS), which is much faster and longer, with fewer gates.  My favorite race, and Nick's too.  For those keeping track there is also a Super Giant Slalom (Super G), and of course the Olympic favorite, the Downhill.  The kids can't race Super G until they are 14 and downhill wasn't even offered at the Alyeska Cup.  The GS went great for Nick, he completed both runs cleanly and came away with a 2nd place finish in his age group.  Of the original 48 males, 18 of them failed to complete the course due to missing gates.  A very successful weekend for Nick, with lots of experience which will (hopefully) serve him well in the next few years.  He even got his name in the paper!  I promise to have more pics and video soon.

Alex's 10th Birthday

KM and Alex on party day.  Obviously a football theme.  Alex had a great time.

Alex with all his friends.  A loud crew it turns out.

We did the Menthos in Diet Coke trick with the kit Alex got for his birthday.  It was pretty cool and the kids loved it.  That's about it.  Quick and dirty for this post.

Random Pics from fall of 2012

I was able to go hunting up North again this year.  We set up camp about 300 miles North of the Arctic circle in mid to late August.  We fly in using bush planes landing on a 900ft gravel bar.  It is an amazing experience.  Even if you don't hunt its a magical place.  Absolutely no lights, so when it finally gets dark around 11PM the stars are crazy.  You can fish for Grayling until your arms fall off.  They are really fun to catch and good to eat.  Most of them we just catch and release.

Here is the second of 3 caribou that I shot on this trip.  His antlers were huge!  Two of my caribou went into our freezer to feed us for the year, and the third went into a buddies freezer for his family to enjoy.  We are very meticulous about harvesting all the meat from the caribou so none goes to waste.  

We enjoyed sunsets like this almost every night of the hunt.  Its so refreshing to get out that far from civilization and just enjoy nature.  I really hope to bring Kerry and the boys up with me soon.  They would all love it.

Here are some (horrible) pictures of the baby walrus that I transported from Anchorage to Indianapolis. He was 3 months old and weighed 350lbs.  He was super friendly, like a giant puppy.  Plus he was still eating only milk and formula so he didn't even smell like fish.  He would hop right over to your side of the cage and even suck on your fingers.  He was rescued after his herd left him off the coast of Barrow, then rehabbed at the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward.  His new home is the Indianapolis Zoo.  Probably the coolest flight I have done in my time at FedEx.

More Skiing Pics

Alex

Nick

  Hard to tell them apart in their race suits.  Alex has bright orange boots and white framed goggles with green lenses.  Nick has dark orange boots and Max has white boots.

Max before the racing begins.

 

KM demonstrating to her friend how the camera works!

Nick with a first place medal.

Alex and Max hanging with their friend and on hill nemesis Liam.  Its a friendly rivalry, and they all rat pack around together when they aren't racing.

Max laying down a nice turn in a Giant Slalom (GS) race.  For now the kids race Slalom and GS, when they get older there is also the Super Giant Slalom (Super G) and Downhill.  And yes there are special skis required for each race discipline.

I think that's it for tonight, I'll post more pics soon  Also you can click on the pictures and bring them up in a larger format for much easier viewing.  I've never tried to take pictures off the blog on to my own computer so I don't know if its possible, but if there are any pics that you want for your very own (Mom) then just let me know and I'll be sure to send them to you.  

Back to the blog

Whew!  It just took me 40 minutes to figure out my password and login so I could post again.  I guess its been awhile.  We've been using Facebook for some photos and stories, but frankly its gotten a little out of control and can be accessed by too many people, plus the privacy settings seem to change almost monthly.  So its back to the blog for us.  This will allow us to put up more photos without looking like we're bragging to the world, instead just keeping our family and close friends up to date.  The theory being that if you are interested enough to actually come to our blog then you must want to see endless pics and videos of our lives.   So here we go.

Winter for us means ski race season, and it is in full swing right now.  We've raced the last three weekends despite having one of the worst snow years on record.  The kids are doing great, several years of practice seem to have paid off and all of a sudden they are flying down the mountain.    I've got a short video of Nick in his last race, I promise there will be much better photo and video coverage at the next few events.  And yes my video skills suck.  I always forget to look through the camera and just start watching the kids while yelling encouragement and advice...which makes for spotty video at best.  So for starters I'll put up a short ski video and and a quick snowmobiling video for practice.  More to follow.  We'll see how long my 'renewed' commitment to blogging goes.  Enjoy.

Ok, that took an hour and a half to sort out links and passwords and multiple google accounts etc...  Now I finally have this page linked up to my youtube account so we have some videos.  Good golly that was painful!!!