We are finally starting the season and we are starting fast. We will have practice this weekend and we also have races. There is a U19 SL race at Berkshire East this Saturday 1/9, which is also open to U16’s. Recognizing the limited training they will have some pre-race SL training set up. They will also have some post race GS training, as U16’s have a GS race there this Sunday 1/10. BEAST has made some big moves to help TARA racers. There is also a TriState U12-14 SL race at Butternut on Sunday 1/10. This is tough without training but the schedules for all the age groups and USSA Championships do not provide flexibility. The first Interclub race has been rescheduled for 1/24, Thanks Blandford.

So please ensure USSA registrations and Catamount registrations are all in order. As A lot of snowmaking this week is allowing for the races to take place, so please check the TriState website for updates.

Registrations are now happening on line, you can link in on the TriState web site. This includes interclub, which is a major change, so we can speed up race day process.

Pete Chudy

At this point the first practice may be the 26th but forecasts are still not good. We will see 3 nights dipping into freezing but it warms up again all the way through northern VT. I will be available at 11AM this Saturday ,19th, to hand out jackets. I will be at the timing shack in front of the main lodge at the bottom of the Catamount Trail.

The web site has a market place function so please put up your items or items wanted. Sonia is looking for a used size 12 and/or 14 Catamount Spyder coat. Has a used size 10 in excellent condition for sale/swap. I also have a size 16 that is very lightly used, and an unused adult small available.

If you have been trying to ski and may need some good tuning services from all the rocks please look at the following options. Coach Mike Steven’s Black Diamond Tuning Center in Great Barrington. Coach Steph’s bike shop Ride of Pleasantville in Westchester and you can pick up some last minute Bike gifts, and Steiner’s in Valatie, NY.

Peter Chudy

The weather forecast is looking bleak and we are now planning, dependent on weather, to have our first practice on December 20th. This will be opening day. The struggles with snow making extend up into VT.

The Team Jackets have arrived at Catamount. I will begin the process of sorting them and will try to set up some time this weekend if people want to stop by. Timing will be dependent on if I can chase some snow this weekend.

The race schedule is up on the Tri-State web site with the exception of Interclub which is provided below.

Blandford GS – 01/10/16
Butternut GS/SQ – 01/31/16
Catamount GS – 02/07/16
Otis SL – 02/21/16 (U10+)
Bousquet GS – 02/28/16

Blandford Piche Qualifier – 02/27/16 (based on criteria TBD)

Peter

Today may be warm but we are getting close to starting up the race program.

Catamount is making some significant changes for this season. The most noticeable will be a new magic carpet from the current learning area to the Triple. I know some parents with young ones will miss the workout of pulling or carrying kids & skis up the hill to the lift. You will just have to spend more time in the gym.

As part of that change, the bottom of Holiday will be reconfigured into an expanded learning area. Holiday traffic will be routed to the right. This will provide entry level skiers a much better opportunity to develop some basic skills.

They are clearing a glade skiing area between Ali’s Ally and Colonel’s Caper. This will be the first glade option at Catamount and will be welcomed. Please remember that tree skiing elsewhere is considered out of bounds and subjects the skier to the mountain’s disciplinary process.

Over the offseason Steve and I made a formal proposal to management about hosting a Tri-state race on Alley Cat. Given the big changes mentioned above, Management has delayed a decision but is positive. The most significant difficulty is moving some of the snow guns but our project may fit in with some other plans.

Catamount is also offering two new programs. An All Mountain Development Team for 13-15 year olds who will ski and ride as a group on weekends. The focus will be on moguls, powder and terrain parks, as well as, general skiing skills.

There will also be a Junior Snow Sports Instructor program for 13-15 year olds. This program is focused on developing the participants into junior instructors within a year or two. These are exciting options for young dedicated skiers who may not be focused on racing.

Team Jackets have been received in Canada, and will be shipped shortly to Catamount.

One of our race families has a rental available. Newly Renovated 3 bed/3 bath on 10+ acres – centrally located to Catamount and many other local ski resorts. Link to listing and additional details -below.

http://www.vrbo.com/714979

Some Notes from the fall USSA Tri-State meeting

**U14 and older will require FIS conforming helmets**. These came out last year and have a sticker on the back. These will be required at the Tri-state races this year. U12 skiers at the races do not require these helmets even though they are at the same race. Interclub races will not require FIS conforming helmets. Make sure the sticker is not covered or removed.

The U18 age group is now replaced with U19.

Event Qualification Changes

Fundamentals Camp U14
In place of future stars, Tristate with have a U14 fundamentals camp at Berkshire East on December 19/20 for about 50 kids. This is part of a USSA change to have larger development camps at the regional level. The Tristate children’s committee is developing the process for invitation to the event based on race results from last year. The split will be 30 spots for 2nd year U14’s and 20 spots for first year U14’s

U12 Festival
There will be a U12 Festival at Wyndham on March 26-27. This will be joint New York, PA, NJ, SARA, and Tristate. Tristate will get 20 spots and is determining the qualifying procedures. This is a new event.

U14 Eastern Championship Qualifying
The qualifying procedure for Eastern’s at U14 Championships will no longer be based only on runs. The scores will now be based on the standings of the 4 individual runs and the two race finishes. The top the values from the set of six will be used. The goal is to reward racers to complete races, while ensuring a DSQ-F in a single run would not exclude a strong racer.

Piche Invitational
There have been several meetings regarding the Piche Invitational over the off-season. Gunstock Race Club has asked that Massachusetts develop a process to send the best racers in the U12/U14 category. It was decided that there will be one qualifying GS event open to racers in the Tri-State, Interclub and Buddy Werner divisions. The Eastern and Western MA, divisions will determine their nominating processes.
This has been a complicated process as historically the Buddy Werner league in Eastern MA had the relationship and spots for the Piche Invitational. As Tristate has gotten more spots over the years they have lost an important goal for racers. Starting with this race, no one division is guaranteed any spots at Piche.

The race will be limited to roughly 240 athletes (girls and boys) and will be held Saturday February 27th at Wachusset. The race will be a 2 run GS.

The expected Piche quota is 36; 20 U12 athletes split evenly between girls and boys
16 U14 athletes split evenly between girls and boys

U12’s that go to Piche will not attend the U12 festival at Wyndham. U14’s who qualify for Eastern’s will not attend Piche.

Please click on link below for details

Hillsdale Ski Rental 2015-2016

Orders need to be in today, please see the team website or previous email for link to the order form

Thanks

Peter

Karbon is requiring the order by end of day tomorrow Thursday, April 9th.

Please get your orders in through the link provided on the previous email or go to the Team website.

Sorry for the rush

Peter

We have an opportunity to order team jackets for next fall but we have to have the order in by April 10th. The jacket would be produced by Karbon. The quality would be similar or better to the Spyder Jacket. It would have the team logo.

Please respond to me ASAP if you are interested at peterchudy@mac.com
We need to see if there is enough interest and then set up an order process.

The season has wrapped up but Catamount still has a lot of snow. We had a lot of participation in post-season races with some details provided below. These events involved our racers going to FIS level hills and competing against ski academy racers who are full time athletes. I would like to congratulate all our racers on the outstanding efforts this season.

I would also like to thank all of our coaches, volunteers, and parents who lended a much need hand. The race program at Catamount is enhanced by all these efforts. We are lucky to have coaches who spend entire weekends teaching and motivating our child athletes over the season. All the parent efforts to enhance the experience and supporting our interclub race helps to create a strong ski racing community at Catamount.

We had a productive discussion with Catamount’s management and are proceeding with some projects.

• We will be looking at the homologation process to run a Slalom race (limited potential for GS) on Ally Cat as part of Tri-State. This would be a big project, as timing and safety requirements are demanding at the Tri-State Level. We may be looking for local sponsorship for such items as new bibs.
• The mountain suggested we may wish to hold a ski swap in the fall at Catamount and has offered some support. This would require us to come up with a team of volunteers, but this would be a big benefit to the area ski community and us.
• We will look to have a USSA Level 100 Coaching Clinic session at Catamount once again next year.
• We will purchase some 60” slalom gates, which are a foot shorter than the standard gates. These are much easier to block for our younger racers and will serve as a training tool for the transition from Interclub to Tri-State.
• I am looking for support on finding a new supplier/process for team jackets. Spyder’s lack of communication and avoidance of requests for information regarding their failure to produce an entire line of product has required us to find a new solution. Given the wide range of sizing requirements we have, Jacket orders often require a long lead-time.

I will be providing some updates over the next few months. We need volunteers to take many of these projects to the finish line.

Coach Sonia Tatlock has taken many pictures and you can find them on the following website.

https://picasaweb.google.com/bebecanuck/Catamount201415?authkey=Gv1sRgCJG8hqOh5uzarwE

Post Season Race Achievements

U18
Top ten regular season standings went to Allegra Colman (3), Lauren Carver (6), Elizabeth Cunningham (9). Meghan Diamond and Kelly Mcpartland joined the girls in qualifying for the U18 Eastern Finals at Gore. Allegra won the slalom race and finished 10th in GS. Elizabeth Cunningham joined in with a top 10 (7) in Slalom.

U16
Shiau-Tau Ciecierska finished the season in first place, and was joined in the top 10 by Sydney Murner (8). On the boy’s side, top 10 regular season results had Sevrin Sarachek (6), Tony Guzzi (8), Griffin Sarachek (9) and Tyler Coenraads (10).

Shiau-Tau and Sevrin went on to compete at the U16 Eastern Championships at Whiteface.

Sydney, Tony, Griffin, and Tyler went on to compete at U16 Eastern Finals at Sunday River and were joined by Tony Kasper. Griffin captured 6th in slalom, Tony Guzzi 9th in Super-G, Sydney 10th and Tyler 11th in GS.

U14
The regular season ended with Annika Carlson in 2nd, Emily Chudy and Marie DiVecchio tied for 3rd. Marie took 1st at Tri-State Championships and Emily 5th. They both went on to Eastern Championships at Stowe.

U12
Sage Siegel finished 8th at Tri-State Championships. Sage was joined by Winfred Mann, Henry DiVecchio, and Alex Bradley at the Piche Invitational at Gunstock.

I apologize for any errors or omissions in pulling this together from multiple sources.

Peter Chudy
Head of Catamount
Race Team Parents Association

Just a reminder we have our awards party after practice tomorrow There will also be the Parent Child dual race and don’t forget the 80’s theme. Hey florescent wayfarers are back in. There will be Pizza but please bring Drinks, desserts, apps or other items to share.

We will need help setting up the trophies. There are still a lot of t-shirts and it would be great if we could get some help at lunch to hand them out.

I will be at the U14 Championships but may make it back in time, otherwise I will see everyone at Sunday’s race.

Peter

peterchudy@mac.com