Day 44 - Seven Springs

Out at 9:00 with Dan and Tony, we skied until 3:00 and had a great time. We even got to do a few free NASTAR runs. With the recent snow the hill was in really good shape.

Day 43 - Killington

KSC Masters Training today - no gate, more drills - our group had a really good time today; Parked at Snowdon; Skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters; More snow started falling at 8:30 as we hit the hill - 3" by the time I left at 11:00, 6" by the time I left the condo for home - back in PA through at least next weekend.

Day 42 - Killington

Tons more snow yesterday and overnight - 18" in total; On the hill right at 8:00 for another Powder Day; Skied the Volkl Katana's; Parked at Snowdon; After trudging up to the K-1 through Bay 1, I bailed the liftline at 7:55 when it was apparent they weren't loading anytime soon - got to the Snowdon Quad with 7 or 8 folks in front of me and was rewarded when they opened at 8:05; Great Bear/Caper Woods - Great Bear/Caper Woods - Upper Double Dipper/Upper East Fall - Escapade/Flume - Ovation/Superstar - Downdraft Headwall/Double Dipper Glade - KBL coffee - HUGH lines when I came back out, so I got on the Snowdon Triple and finished with a great poach of the snow between the actual Snowdon Poma track and the rope - best snow of the past two days - deep and untracked; I took my first fall of the season today on Upper Double Dipper - I hit a half submerged bump and went over the handlebars; The mountain has to making some serious cash - when I left at 10:45 today, all the parking lots in the Basin area were full and they had people parked on the Access Road all the way down to the Santa Fe.

Day 41 - Killington/Pico

First real Pow Day of the year; 6" of new snow overnight; skied the Volkl Katana's; started at Killington at 8:00; parked at Snowdon; very windy, so the Snowdon Quad was the only lift running; first chair did Great Bear, then Highline; BIG line after my second run, so I got in the car and headed to Pico; on the way down the Access Road, the traffic coming up was bumper to bumper the whole way without a single break! Pico was way less crowded; the Summit Quad was closed due to wind, so I did Expressway twice, then hiked and did Wrangler, then went in for coffee; came back out and did a couple more and went home; nice day.

Day 40 - Killington

On the hill at 8:00 and skied till 11:30 with a coffee break in KBL; skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #1's; clear and cold again today; 2 hours up in the Canyon before coffee - Cascade was excellent, but East Fall was better.

Day 39 - Killington

Easily the best day of the season so far; On the hill at 8:30; Parked in the Vale; Skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #1's; Clear and cold with 2-3" of new snow overnight; The Canyon and Superstar were really good; Out about 4 hours with a KBL coffee break.

Day 38 - Killington

I forgot that today was a holiday, so I was a little late getting to the hill; Out from 8:30 till 11:00 with a quick warm up break in KBL; Clear, cold and windy today; Skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters; Other than a huge line at K-1 there were very few people ont he hill today; Conditions are outstanding; Cascade was nice - carvable up top, flat and extremly firm at the bottom.

Day 37 - Killington

If not for the limited opening at 8:00, it would have been a really good morning... Clear and cold after several days of snow left the hill in good shape; The K2 Apache Xplorer's are in such bad shape I had to change skis after one run - on a groomer none the less; Skied the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti's after that; Obviously my first day out after serveral days off; out about 2½ hours; did a Super-Cruise-Cross-Shed today - not sure I've ever put that combination together before; saw CM on the hill today - as I was heading off the mtn, she comes tearing of of MTS and pulls down Highline as I curise by.

Day 36 - Killington

Rain changing to snow overnight so of course getting around on the mountain today was a bitch... Parked in the Vale, rode the Ramshead lift straight to K-1... of course it was on hold. The Snowdon Triple was running, but had a huge line because of the hold on K-1 and they were only loading every other chair... Aborted that mess and skied to Snowshed, rode the chair skied down and rode the chair again. This time I went to the Superstart Quad... got to the top and they're blowing snow on the Headwall so crossing to 4-Way was a bitch... get through the snowmaking and 4-Way is roped... WTF? So back through the snowmaking around the chair and down Nivis-Lauch-Super-Sweet to the Snowdon Triple... I needed to head over and run the course on Highline for my first World Cup Wednesday... Of course when I got to the Triple it was stopped... ... ... I waited for five minutes without the chair starting, so I said fuck it and left!

Day 35 - Killington

On the hill at 9:00, skied till 12:00 with a KBL coffee break thrown in for good measure; 2" to 3" new snow overnight; 26° and snowing at 9:00, 26° and freezing rain at 12:00; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's; sick amounts of snow on Upper Cascade; signed up for Ski Bum Races today - Team Old S'Cool, thanks Kinley! I'm taking tomorrow off - heavy rain forcast :(

Day 34 - Killington

Out early, but waited till the Snowdon Quad loaded at 8:20 to actually get on the hill; 22° with light snow and a strong wind out of the SW; skied the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti's; blew off NEMS SL on Highline - see yesterday's post; skied about three hours with a quick KBL coffee break; finally saw Susan and Jay today in the KBL lot; backed off today and enjoyed just skiing; did some new trails: Header, Snowshed, and Lower Supe.

Day 33 - Killington

NEMS GS on Highline... I suck!

RANK	BIB	NAME	TEAM	CLASS	RESULT 1	RESULT 2	COMBINED
	133	MARTIN A BURNS	M		43.03 (84)	DSQ

Day 32 - Killington

Ok, a slight expectations adjustment is necessary. Tomorrow, my goal is to finish... Highline from the top today; same thing for tomorrow; used the Atomic D2 Race GS #1's for run 1 with limited success, so I tried the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters for run 2 but DNFed; no reset between runs; I need to get a lot stronger on my left side if I want to ski anything close to a fast line on the steeps; today I just kept getting lower and lower and lower on each right turn.

POS	RACER NAME	CLUB	BIB	1ST RUN	2ND RUN	TOTAL	HANDICAP
50	MARTIN A. BURNS	KSC	19	42.77	DNF	264.98	14.23

Day 31 - Killiington

ASRA Race Camp Day 4; more GS; beautifully sunny, warm day; skied the new Head i.Speed GS Cheaters again; I skied much better today - I didn't feel like I had two left feet; AM session only today - I want to save a little energy for tomorrow's race; 4 runs in a nice, full-length GS on Bunny; tomorrow's goal - top 25% overall; not sure where we're racing tomorrow - Bunny or Highline?; after AM runs on Bunny I did a few on Skye Peak and one on Snowdon with Bud, Tom, and Alex.

Day 30 - Killington

ASRA Race Camp Day 3; GS; Jon Lamb's group; why is my skiing so awkward on the first day of change from SL to GS; Atomic D2 Race GS #2's; AM - drills and a few gates on Reason; PM - lots of gates on Bunny; Jon provided lots of video - cool; two a day session are starting to take their toll - I'm really tired and sore; I'm questioning whether I should race this weekend or not...

Day 29 - Killington

ASRA Race Camp Day 2 - more SL; heavy rain overnight followed by dropping temperatures and late grooming made today's ski surface into death cookies and various other types of chunks on crust; skied the Volkl RaceTiger SL World Cup's - still love these skis; AM session - blocking drills on 2 short slalom courses on Bunny; PM session - full length slalom course on Bunny - approx. 40 gates complete with a start, 3 hairpins and a flush - did 4 runs; I'm skiing better - not great, but better; after some time back in gates, I've recollected that ski racing is not about skiing as fast as you can, it's about using control and precision to conserve accumulated speed through the 'tough' situations; some things to remember: get low - use a wide stance - start carving above/into the fall line with the inside edge of the inside ski, but don't lean in and make sure to fully pressure the outside ski in the middle and bottom of the turn - move down the hill - agressive cross-over without any rotary, then drive forward - KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!

Day 28 - Killington

Day 1 of ASRA Race Camp; SL today; Rick Svenson's group; warm and rainy; we got really lucky today - hard rain overnight, 1" of soup in the KBL parking lot at 8:00 with a steady rain, but the precip stopped by 10:00 and only started again after we left the hill at 3:00; good day - lots of gates and some OK skiing.

Day 27 - Killington

Blew off Day 5 of Race Week; took the new Head GS Cheaters out for a quick spin then off to the gym.

Day 26 - Killington

Race Week Day 4; clear and much colder today - 20° in the parking lot this morning, but with the sunshine and no wind it was a really comfortable day; yesterday's snowmaking and last night's grooming made a hell of a difference - Rime was marvelous today and Lower East Fall was 3F, 4 groomers wide; this morning's session was Race Day - WTF? wasn't expecting timed runs, so I took two 'tours' of the course fully clothed; they immediately reset for PM training and went in for lunch, so I stayed out and did 9 or 10 quality, solo training runs instead; 5 hours today without a break... OK, lots of standing around, but no break.

Day 25 - Killington

Race Week Day 3; hard rain overnight followed by falling temperatures led to lift hold for grooming until 10:30; AM session was gates on Reason - I declined, the course deteriorated immediately and was unsafe; a quick lunch and 2 Sky-High-Sweet's and a Highline before our afternoon session; our afternoon session started with the same course on Reason... I gave it a shot, jammed the hell out of my left ankle and lower leg in the top of a trough at the third gate so I called it a day.

Day 24 - Killington

Day Two of Race Week; on the hill at 9:00; sessions all day; afternoon video analysis - all I could see was how fat I am; very warm again today - the snow is dwindling fast; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's and switched to the Volkl RaceTiger SL Cheaters at lunch; they groomed Highline - SWEET; some of today's drills - ski on one leg, shuffle turns, teli-turns, practice starts, gates.

Day 23 - Killington

First day of Race Week - Doug Tucker's group; hard rain overnight and 40° temps turned anything they touched with the groomers into mush; drills and gates were difficult due to the super soft and variable conditions; Some things to remember in the gates - line! line! line! - get the turn started above the fall line, but don't pinch - quit fixating on where I am, rather focus on were I'm going! - at the start of a turn, focus on the top of the next turn. Forward pressure, corresponding angles, stance, and body position aren't too bad; also need to work on good, high hand position.

On the way down to the ATC this afternoon I hit Highline. I'm glad I did. The snow was marvelous with nicely spaced, medium sized bumps, but there were a couple of thin spots (one way up high and the normal one on the headwall) that make me think it won't be open much longer. After this afternoon's ill-fated attempt at video analysis, I headed over to Skye Peak and did a couple of non-stop Super-High-Sweet's. On Superstart the snow was nice and soft and the bumps weren't too too big; and Lower Bittersweet was nice, and soft, and smooth, and not too mushy.

Day 22 - Killington

KSC Masters Training again today; drills again from 8:30 to 10:30; skied the Volkl RaceTiger SL Cheaters; much warmer today - rain expected this afternoon; conditions were soft and creamy this morning; hit the gym right after this morning's session.

Day 21 - Killington

First day of KSC Masters Training; various drills from 8:30 to 10:30; stance, balance, edging, and pressure; between the ackwardness the drills were designed to induce and the cold I was ready to leave well before 10:30.