By john Schultheis      NorCal photos     Full GS Results     Full Slalom Results

At the end of March, about 30 die-hard members of the Après Race Team signed up to race at the Northern California Championships (NorCals). The NorCals includes racers from Open League, Singles League and Sierra League for two days of ski racing. This year the NorCals were held at Alpine Meadows.

About 20 Après racers stayed at the Lodge for the organized weekend captained by the Race Director, John Schultheis. A bunch came up Thursday night to attend the Race Clinic on Friday. The clinic included 17 "Après and Friends" participants. We had two separate groups by skill level, with a coach for each group.

Dinner on Friday was a simple affair with Lasagna, salad, garlic bread etc. for about 15 people.

There was a steady stream of people through the Après shed, waxing and tuning their skis. Some of the more experienced racers were teaching some of the newer racers and skiers the finer points of ski preparation.

On Saturday morning we started with a hot breakfast and then headed over to Alpine Meadows for registration. We picked up bibs and souvenir T-shirts and lift tickets.

The races on Saturday were Slalom races, with the Expert and Advanced classes (1-6) racing on Lakeview, the Novice (7-10) and Snowboarders racing on Ladies Slalom. The Intermediates were split since the other leagues break their class groupings different than Open League does. The upper level races went off as scheduled, but a serious injury to a racer from another club and some equipment failures delayed the races for the 9’s and 10’s by almost two hours. The courses were very soft by the time the last racers hit the gates.

Highlights from Saturday include gold medals for first year racers Jesse Tibbetts and Bob Howard, and returning racers Laura Bryan, Mike Stevens, Cheryl Lawson and Randy Salzman. Earning Silver medals were Sean Powers, Sandy Kiyomura, Cathy Boyer and Courtney Berger. Anne Chartier and Ed Martin brought home Bronze medals.

Saturday night we trudged back over to Alpine for the dinner and awards ceremony. Open League distributed their season awards first, and then later the NorCal Slalom awards were handed out.

Sunday morning we feasted on Laura’s burritos before heading to Alpine for the Giant Slalom championships. The upper classes raced on Ridge Run (off the Scott chair) and the lower classes raced again on Ladies Slalom. This time the Novice races held to the schedule, but computer timing problems delayed the 3’s and 4’s by about 45 minutes.

With the heat and the number of racers on the hill, the courses got pretty chewed up. There were not ruts like a normal race, more like New York City potholes. The key was to keep your skis on edge and power through the junk. If you let your skis lay flat, you got bounced to death.

The Giant Slalom awards were handed out on the deck at the main lodge at the end of the day. Highlights from Sunday include a second Gold medal each for Jesse Tibbetts, Bob Howard, Laura Bryan, Mike Stevens, Cheryl Lawson and Randy Salzman. Scoring their first Gold medals were Sandy Kiyomura, Cathy Boyer and Linda Indreboe. Also bringing home medals were Marie Barberi, Sean Powers, Courtney Berger and Ed Martin.

The final results had Open League crushing the other two leagues in total points, but finishing second in the "points per racer" competition.

We had a great time, and we brought home a lot of individual awards. There were some problems and some challenges, but it was a real nice weekend of racing.

If there are any of you out there that would like to join the Open League Champion Après Race Team next year, or to just find out more about racing, contact me through email or see me at one of the General Meetings.