FIS day two--staying alive

Day two of training is done and I been invited back for day 3 (downhill race day).  Yea.  I am having the time of my life, but I kinda wish that didn't involve waking up at 2:30 AM thinking about what I am sure I will do wrong in the day ahead.  Either that or it might have been the week old quinoa chicken casserole I ate.

Some quick stats.  The downhill is 8,900 feet long (the super G is 7k feet) with a max pitch of 55%.  How steep is that--the steepest section in highlands bowl is 48%, corbet's tops out at 53%, Johnny mo section of kt-22 is 43% and Jay peak face chutes 37%.  So that is pretty steep.  Expected slipping speed 35-40 mph.  How the heck is a midwesterner slipping this course?  Get the right partner.

I am slipping with a 70+ year old Aspen native son.  We are a classic odd couple.  Tony knows everyone, knows everything but keeps that to himself and might be the best skier on the hill not in a speed suit.  I of course know no one, know nothing, have been in town less than a year, and the words best and skiing are only found in the same sentence about me if it includes the word fall.  How did I wind up partnering with Tony--luck.  Lots of luck, and maybe he wanted to do a good deed.  My job went from slipping the FIS world cup finals downhill course to following Tony.  So far so good.

I also am learning a bit of Aspen history too, which has been a huge added bonus.  If you want to meet my slipping partner Tony-- the local rancher, trash collection business owner, ski patroller, ski racer, piano player you can read some of his musings online with a quick search of Tony Vagneur or go all in and read a collection of his stories
Aspen then and now reflections of a native son

Training is done and tomorrow is the real deal.  The downhill starts at 9:30 AM MST.  Find NBCSN and watch some of the best racers put the peddle to the metal.  And pray you don't have a course hold because a slipper has fallen (and can't get up).

Below is a picture of Atez which does no justice to the pitch.   None at all.







Lindsey and I shared a moment or two today.....namely she blew past me and I slipped as fast as I could to try to catch her.  Didn't happen, but I did find her at the base a bit later.  Still no hugs and no sight of Mikaela.

And I promise I am trying to get some video, but I am old and slow.  Here is a short clip taken by a friend which shows slippers going to work.

slipping day 1

oye
showed up before dawn.  I went up the hill and had the moon setting over aspen highlands and the sun coming over the continental divide.  (top shot is moon bottom sun) u

The slip crew composition this morning seemed to be about 30% Aspen ski co instructors (of which there are 1,400 so there are extras to volunteer at this event), 80% ex racers (including some germans and other european ex world cup downhillers) 30% from outside the state of CO with an average age of 60.

Interesting group.  I am not an ex racer.  I am not close to an ex racer.   Instructions were given in racer speak which I was struggling to pick up.

For those of you who have not slipped a world cup downhill course the drill is as follows.  The course is divided into two sections, top and bottom with the cut off being Ruthies chair lift.  Each section has 4 slipping stations.  Basically you start at the top station in your section and slip fast over the racers tracks to the next station.   Right after the racer blows past you (and I mean right after) you and your partner jump on the course and slip like your life depends on it to the next station with a suggested 5-10 feet between you and your partner (vertical feet horizontal you should pretty much be on his ass and most of the asses are his and not hers sadly).  How fast are you slipping?  Maybe 40 mph.  How fast is that going sideways on a 37 degree vertical sheet of ice.  It's an experience that I can't really describe--maybe kinda like trying to slip corbet's couloir but for a mile and no air allowed.  And no snow plow--never ever snow plow.

I had many posters requesting video --but there is no time for video, or pictures or anything.  From go till they stop you are on the move or pissing your pants.  They are running racers with 1 1/4 minute breaks, which is slip for 45 seconds then pull to side for 45 seconds then repeat 3 more times then hop on chair lift and do it again.  I think I only got in about 5 runs during the training though because there are less than 50 skiers, but then there was post race maintenance.  Racers are posting times of about 1 1/2 minutes from top of Ruthies to bottom of 1A.

Is it cool to run the world cup race course right behind the pros--you betcha.  That is why guys are coming in from all over the world.  Is it cool to hear the skiers blast past you and see Vonn's ponytail plastered to the back of her speed suit.  Absolutely.  When a station chief tells you that the racers are putting down a left footer at the second sawdust gate so make sure you fill it but don't hide it do you really have a clue as to what to do.  Nope.

Next up--training day two (if Denzel Washington shows up I am out of here).

PS bode miller was hugging the female slippers much to their approval.  Mikaela where is my hug?

so a chicago friend asked me .............

are you happy you made the move?  Really are you happy?  Any second thoughts etc.

The answer is I am very happy.  I am thrilled by all that Aspen has to offer.  Today my daughter is learning to snowboard (and thrilled to be a cool knuckle dragger).  My son is skiing with school friends.  I am getting ready to run up sinclair road and then catch a couple of mushy blue runs in my swim suit (it's like 50+ degrees).  My wife is off working FIS stuff having hiked up smuggler and hit a yoga class.  The school seems good, my daughter's hockey times are great (although that 0-35 record could use some work).  My son does complain about the lack of sailing but I think I might have an excellent option or two for him this summer (more on that later).  Thursday night post hockey we went and saw some short films sponsored by ACES (aspen center for environmental study) which felt a bit like preaching to the choir but was a great reminder of all the cool stuff that goes on in Aspen (aviation at school, robotics club, ski lift out back of school, outdoor education as part of school curriculum etc).  As for me the view never gets old, I can road bike, mountain bike, hike, fish, ski, cross country ski, skin, snowshoe, camp, climb, paddle, etc all out my front door.  And then I can come home and sit in the hot tube.  Yea I am happy.

Also I would say there is more economic diversity in our lives now than in Chicago.  The 3 jobs or 3 houses rule is really accurate.  And while there are some old school yuppie type families the breadth of backgrounds and interests is pretty amazing.

Yes there are some challenges.  Services are more limited.  Waiting 3 months to get my car fixed sucks and then having to travel 190 miles to get it bites.  And it seems that Aspen sits in a kinda bermuda triangle which severely impacts peoples operational-communication skills (it's almost impossible to find half the stuff that is available- and I just got my marching orders for slip crew including to take the bus and be here by 6:30 AM--seeing as the first bus gets to Aspen at 6:45 I am not sure how to square that circle. )    I miss being able to walk to a bunch of bars and restaurants, and I miss my friends and the 10k flights a day out of Chicago but not enough to give me any second thoughts.

 I am off to run, ski, hot tub and then have dinner with some Chicago friends.  Where did I put my sunscreen?(high class problems baby).

good news- bad views

The wife came home from working the FIS admin job and announced that two hotties picked up their credentials for slip crew today.  She indicated that I am a very lucky man.  Yea slip crew.  And when my PC wife announces hotties to me (her words) ya just gotta be excited.

A bit less exciting was the view out of the snowmass town parking lot.  It's hot so there is some clothes changing going on, and I was treated to a very hairy guy with lots of body art (tats) in his very small tight green underwear and nothing else--except of course the hair and the tats.  I am working on getting that image out of my mind.

goldman family goes to work (FIS style)

Aspen is hosting the FIS Audi world cup finals this year.

The wife is working the guest services area multiple days.  The son is working green team (environment trash duty in the grand stand ---your champagne bottles go in that bin, your caviar tins in that bin etc) a couple of days as well as playing guitar at one of the events, and I am going to be slip crew for 4 days.

What does slip crew do?  Good question.  I will know more after Monday.  I have been warned by my friendly neighborhood ER doc that many slippers wind up injured (typically broken or dislocated shoulder).  My bet is I get to side slip down the super duper icy downhill course.  A lot.  From 7Am to 2pm.  I am hoping to get some good views of the racing and practice runs.  I will be working both the final downhill and Super G days so I should get to see some serious speed racers.  I have always had a thing for Lindsey and am looking forward to watching her work.  There are also some good bands playing which I expect to enjoy with my two free drink coupons I earn for 7 hours of work.

Stay tuned to the blog---should be some very amusing FIS posts next week.

snow day

Yesterday we got the notification from ASD (aspen school district) that school was canceled due to snow.  While at the time there wasn't that much on the ground I think they had enough snow days saved up to give the kids a day off.  And what do Aspen kids do with a snow day---sleep late and then play on their screens.  I couldn't rally anyone to go skiing.  Not my kids, not my kids friends.  No one.

My son is working his way through mastering the guitar for all of Boston's first album.  My daughter read and went to hockey (son had a Big Air class).  But no one went skiing.

Well except for me.  After doing a bit of work in the AM I hit the slopes around noon.  With a decent amount of fresh snow I went right to the top to ski various aspects of hanging valley.  While it was cold up top and I took a couple of crappy lines through baby ruth to start, the snow was great so I kept lapping.  On my second to last run the high alpine lift stopped 50 feet from the top.  As anyone who has been there knows that is a cold spot.  How cold?  Well the thermometer on the lift house showed a bit under 10 degrees and I would guess gusts of wind up to 30 mph (that is about -40F with the wind chill).  After about 5 minutes of freezing my butt off the lift started up again.  I had a GREAT run through the glades and went to go do it again.

Big mistake.  The next ride up high alpine the lift stopped.  For 30 minutes.  How do I know how long I was swinging in the wind--luckily I was much lower down this time and was able to listen to music playing from the speakers at Gwen's.  After 9 songs they re-started the lift which I am guessing was 30 minutes but there was no way I was taking my gloves off to check my watch.  At 1/4 speed.  Still being lower down was much more sheltered.  The guys near the top must have been dying.  And when I got off the lift I was greeted by ski patrol handing out coupons for $10.  I shoved the coupon in my glove to see if it warmed up my fingers--it didn't.  A quick run through the glades and down the hill and I was home walking the dogs and shaking like I had St. Vitus Dance.

As I sat in the hot tub post dog walk I started to think maybe the local kids knew what they were doing.

houston we have a problem

I went skiing with my son and daughter on Sunday.  My son complained the whole time.  Seriously who complains about going skiing.  Weather was great.  Snow was good.  We skied the steep trees (hanging valley) and the cirque headwall 3x each.  We even saw a fox while skiing hanging valley.  

so what is the problem beside having an adolescent son?  I think he is a better skier than I am.  I am not sure I was ready to see him pass me up, but I fear it has happened.  Also my daughter spent the day complaining that there was nothing tuff enough to ski.  Good news is I think I can still ski better than her.  Thank goodness for little things.

On Saturday post AVSC (aspen valley ski club) the kids got a great idea.  Lets ski behind the dogs (had dogs and skis in car with golf course across the street).  So I let em at it.  Best part of the video is when my second dog stops to eat some ice.










Lastly we got to do a compare and contrast of hospital ERs last night.  Big city ERs are busy and impersonal and have lots of staff.  In Aspen there was no wait, lots of friendly faces to take care of you and they were able to send the X-rays to be read by a specialist in Denver.  Pretty cool way to be small but leverage big city skills.  Why were we in the hospital---it wasn't the improvised dog sled, it wasn't a tumble off a cliff, it wasn't even a fox bite.  Naw it was hockey.  My daughter got run into the boards last night.  She is fine....just a sprained neck and some anxious moments.