Karbon leads in Aspen snowstorm with U.S. in position

Aspen is developing a reputation it is not going to like.

As the women gathered for the second giant slalom of the 2009 World Cup season, the area was decidedly short on snow. The race hill was the exception, but it was still a rough course without serious depth of snow to fill in terrain. But then the snow came in Friday night, and it started snowing even harder as the first run of the GS continued, with winter storm warnings being issued about 6am.

“It was bumpy,” says first run leader Denise Karbon, “but it was okay.”

It was more okay for the early runners than for the later racers. Julia Mancuso, with the first bib, put down a good run. She didn’t hold the lead for long as Karbon, last season’s runaway winner of the GS title, started second and put down a lead just shy of a full second.

Aspen is developing a reputation it is not going to like.

As the women gathered for the second giant slalom of the 2009 World Cup season, the area was decidedly short on snow. The race hill was the exception, but it was still a rough course without serious depth of snow to fill in terrain. But then the snow came in Friday night, and it started snowing even harder as the first run of the GS continued, with winter storm warnings being issued about 6am.

“It was bumpy,” says first run leader Denise Karbon, “but it was okay.”

It was more okay for the early runners than for the later racers. Julia Mancuso, with the first bib, put down a good run. She didn’t hold the lead for long as Karbon, last season’s runaway winner of the GS title, started second and put down a lead just shy of a full second.

Tanja Poutiainen of Finland and Maria Pietilae-Holmner of Sweden starting fourth and fifth respectively, pushed in within three tenths of Karbon’s time.

U.S. Ski Team officials breathed a sigh of relief when Lindsey Vonn, the defending overall champion, managed to put a nasty training spill behind her and made a stellar, safe run to finish seventh and within range of the leader, one placing in front of Mancuso. The duo held seventh and eighth through the early runners.

“That was my first run of GS in a month and a half, and this is one of the more challenging GS courses we see all year. It was good to get down and realize my knee wasn’t going to fall off,” Vonn says.

But even as Vonn spoke with reporters the hill was starting to take its toll. By the end, 17 skiers had failed to finish and a couple had been carted off, Spaniard Maria Rose Rienda among them.

“The light was really flat,” says Vonn. “You couldn’t see a thing.”

And that made all of that bumpy terrain difficult to see and that called for maintaining a solid stance and hoping for the best.Things worked out pretty well for the Americans. Along with Vonn in seventh and Mancuso in eighth, Sarah Schleper—skiing from the 33rd start—produced a solid run to finish 17th and Megan McJames was tied for 19th.