We trust you all summered well!
It has been a busy few months of prep for this year’s event at Lake Louise…where to start?
Post-event meetings started immediately after last year’s races. The Executive Committee & the ROC’s met monthly preparing for this year’s events. The Fall Works Program went very well with the installation of our snow farming fencing, the set up of the base for the athletes’ warm up tent at the Saddle and, as always, there is the pick up of garbage on the walkdown from the start to the top of the TOW chair where we downloaded (I think the gang also found $1.80 in change on the walk down). The Timing Crew went through their system integrity checks and repairs. Summer or winter – Lake Louise is always a beautiful spot to hang out. Stop me if I am repeating myself.
Rob Imbrogno & Darrell MacLachlan attended the FIS fall meetings in Zurich where they finalized what the FIS Pros expectations are for our event. These past two weekends, there were FIS Technical Delegate Updates that a number of our volunteers attended – both as TD’s and as race organizers.
Did you know that Alberta Alpine is honoring three of our long time volunteers? This year, they will be inducted into the Canadian Rockies Ski Racing Hall of Fame. The inductees include long time Race Chairman John Cassels, our current Men’s Start Referee, Don Boyce and Banff’s own Randy Tarchuk. Tributes to these three Sled Dogs can be found on the Alberta Alpine website: http://albertaalpine.ca/
The induction celebration will be on Nov 8th at Hotel Arts in Calgary. The event is always a great way to reconnect with fellow Sled Dogs at the beginning of the season and to support this year’s Alberta Alpine Ski Team. Details Here. Say congrats the next time you see this year’s honorees.
On the mountain, the Lake Louise Ski Resort is making snow when the temperatures allow and with the current accumulation, we have been able to get the cats out to track pack snow in a number of areas in the alpine. This past weekend was the Warm Before the Storm as it got up to 20 degrees in Calgary (perfect weather to put up my Christmas lights). The RWDI forecast – has a great run of cold in store for us to get a real jump on our snowmaking.
From today’s Lake Louise Ski Resort webcam:
The Net Monkeys have been on the ground since October 1st and are on schedule to have the Build Week crew join them soon. Under the leadership of Randy Pruden, the Net Monkeys have emptied all of our storage trailers and coordinated 65 loads of equipment to be flown up and cached on the mountain. They have already strung out and hung a number of the high-safety A nets on their towers.
This past weekend was the kick off of the World Cup season in Solden, Austra. The ladies GS event went great but the men’s GS was cancelled due to high winds – tough to have a fair & safe race with 120 km/h wind gusts. This World Cup season opener is always a good reminder for us all to check our gear before coming out to Lake Louise – maybe clean out your pack, perhaps wash those socks that were stuffed into the toes of your ski boots the last time you wore them (or quietly toss away that sandwich that has been hibernating in your pack since last season). Anyone find a drill battery or dingle balls that may be leftover from last year’s event? Its a good time to get some new edges on your skis and if you coming back with last year’s awesome Descente Sled Dog grey coat – put your name in it!
FIS Race Director Hannes Trinkl will be on the mountain starting on Nov 11th to check on our progress towards a successful Snow Control. This year’s Technical Delegates are both from the US and are new to Lake Louise – I know they will be impressed with our team’s capabilities. The Men’s TD is Mike Ginsberg from Squaw Valley, California. The Ladies TD is Jenna Ginsberg (no relation) is from Portland, Maine. They are both very experienced TD’s. Make them feel welcome.
You may want to give some consideration to getting a flu shot before coming to Lake Louise……and if you need a use for your leftover Halloween candy – it always makes for a good mid-afternoon boost to get you through to the end of a long day on the mountain.
Instead of sending out regular update emails when we are on the mountain as I did last year, I will be updating this blog so you can read it at your convenience. Share the link with family and friends so they can follow along with our Audi FIS Ski World Cup adventure at Lake Louise.
See ya soon!
Nama-ski,
Brian