Back at the Beav (he said)
by Kent 2Feb2015The time since our return from France has passed by in a blur, with trips to the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show, the Bahamas, Beaver Creek for the annual World Cup ski races, followed by the holidays in Virginia with associated game nights, movie nights, cookie-decorating night, pot-luck dinners with friends, and the always popular Caddyshack Trivia night.
Now we are back in Beaver Creek for the rest of the winter, helping to prepare for the Alpine World Ski Championships. The WSC comes along every other year, and is normally held in the European ski powerhouse countries like Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy. But every one to two decades the Championships are held in the USA, and the past two in North America have been held right here at the Vail/Beaver Creek areas (1989 and 1999). The only other North American host was Aspen way back in 1950.
Countdown to the 2015 World Ski Championships
Over the past six years of working with the Talon Crew (the on-hill course workers who help prepare and maintain the race tracks) we have become quite heavily involved, with favorite wife Heather building and maintaining Taloncrew.com, the official website, and your correspondent filling in as Crew Chief a number of days when, in desperation, the leadership turned to me to lead up to 20 of our fellow volunteers through the days’ work projects. Now, suddenly, the 2015 World Ski Championships, which Beaver Creek has been working on for close to three years, are only one day away.
K & H with Mikaela Shiffrin
Celebrating a successful training session
About 10 days ago we were powder skiing late morning on Grouse Mountain, a section of Beaver Creek with expert-only trails, when a couple of folks with US Ski Team jackets approached us. Would we mind slipping the training course (pushing the powder off to the sides) for Mikaela Shiffrin (Olympic Gold Medalist, World Champion, and overall World Cup Slalom Champion skier)? Her coaches had set up a private training course on lower Grouse Mountain for her to train slalom. Heather said “sure”, while I said “how much” (naturally). So we skied over and took a couple laps pushing the snow out of the way and got to watch her race up close (amazing) and then got to meet the young lady herself. An unexpected bonus to an already excellent day.
After that it’s been pretty much a blur of hanging A-net, shoveling, sideslipping, and general course prep, while every day more foreigners show up (broadcasters, coaches, racers) and the excitement builds. Tomorrow it’s a training day for the women on their new downhill course, followed by the opening ceremonies in downtown Vail, and then it’s game-on for the next two weeks as the most important event in ski racing happens outside our back door. NBC and Universal Sports have an extensive coverage package for the races, so check your local listings and then look for us on the slopes – we, along with about 2,200 other volunteers, will be in the red/white/blue ski outfits.
