U.S. Nat'ls: Officials regroup as storm dumps on Alyeska

By Published On: March 26th, 2009Comments Off on U.S. Nat'ls: Officials regroup as storm dumps on Alyeska

The biggest problem for the U.S. Alpine Championships from Alaska’s erupting volcano has been a lack of air traffic, i.e. getting to the event from the lower 48 where most of the participants are coming from. The bigger issue has been winter weather.

After a training run Tuesday, missed by some of the competitors stranded in Seattle or elsewhere waiting for flights to restart, Wednesday and Thursday have been wiped out by white. A foot of snow was registered on the ground Thursday morning and a spokesman at Alyeska said, “We could get another 8 to 12 inches.”
The biggest problem for the U.S. Alpine Championships from Alaska’s erupting volcano has been a lack of air traffic, i.e. getting to the event from the lower 48 where most of the participants are coming from. The bigger issue has been winter weather.

After a training run Tuesday, missed by some of the competitors stranded in Seattle or elsewhere waiting for flights to restart, Wednesday and Thursday have been wiped out by white. A foot of snow was registered on the ground Thursday morning and a spokesman at Alyeska said, “We could get another 12 to 12 inches.”

“It’s dumping hard,” said men’s coach Sasha Rearick. “But they just started the tram up, so I’m hoping to get in some powder skiing.”

As nice as the powder is for coaches without a race to work around, it is a nightmare for the grounds crew. A report from the race office estimated a 20-foot wall of snow blocking the downhill course and that obviously will have to be moved before they can even think about holding a race.

The schedule had called for a FIS downhill Thursday with the national championship downhills for both genders on Friday. The FIS race will not be rescheduled and in order to get both races in Friday will take an enormous effort as work crews are split between the race and avalanche control. Then there is the added difficulty of getting some of the stars legally entered.

The plan is to get in a brief training run Friday morning before the races for the handful of athletes (Lindsey Vonn and Ted Ligety among them) who had not arrived in time for Tuesday’s trial. It is mandatory for a competitor to complete one training run in order to start in a downhill. Although the snow has let up, it was still snowing Thursday afternoon. If the course cannot be prepared in time, it is possible the downhills could get pushed to Saturday, backing up the schedule for the whole event. The giant slaloms are on the schedule over two days, so speculation is they would be held on a single day should that become necessary.

In the meantime, just for good measure, Mount Redoubt had another minor eruption Thursday morning (the seventh official eruption) but it was said further air traffic problems were unlikely.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh