Day 55 - SNÖ Mountain

Beer League tonight; Clear and cold, 8°; Other than the league racers, very few people on the hill; Skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters; DSQ'ed my first run - I was the first racer so there was no track to follow and there was a gate hiding in the dark over to the right at the finish; Finished 1st in class M50-59, 8th men's overall, and 9th overall including women; Nearly killed myself on Smoke this evening - it looked groomed from the top and from the bottom, so I cruised over the headwall right into a mogul field. I didn't fall, but I scared myself to death; Cannonball on the other hand was marvelous.

RANK	BIB	NAME	BEST RESULT	HANDICAP
9	286	BURNS, MARTIN	33.62	19.81

Day 54 - Hunter

Clear, cold, and still; -6° at the top; 8° when I left; Chris and Jordan came up from PA; despite my left knee hurting, we had a nice day; started on the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters and changed to the Rossignol Experience 98's; lots of good snowmaking.

Day 53 - Killington

2"-3" new snow overnight; Partly cloudy and 10°; Parked at Bear; On the hill at 9:00 and jsut skied for a couple of hours; Skied the Rossignol Experience 98's; Nice morning. Bear Claw-Wildfire; The Stash-Lower Skyburst; Outer Limits; Skylark, Superstar, Gateway-Great Eastern-Skyburst-The Northway-Home Stretch-Great Eastern; 4 Way-Bear Trax-Bear Cub-Sun Dog; Rendezvous-Sun Dog; Bear View-Bear Cub

Day 52 - Pico

ASRA GS again today; 32°, overcast and very windy; skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #1's; today's race was back-to-back runs on the same course; screwed up the bottom on run 2 again today; finished 6th in class M6, 14th men's overall, and 16th overall including the women...

POS	RACER NAME	CLUB	BIB	1ST RUN	2ND RUN	TOTAL	HANDICAP
16	BURNS, MARTIN A	KSC	726	51.81 (24)	50.68 (16)	1:42.49	12.16

Day 51 - Pico

ASRA GS; Upper twenties, overcast and windy; Skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters in Run 1 - big mistake, the course was more or less straight; Changed to the Atomic D2 Race GS #1's for Run 2; I nearly got bounced out of the course near the bottom of Run 2 and ended up way off line; finished 3rd in class M6, 18th men's overall, and 24th overall including the women.

POS	RACER NAME	CLUB	BIB	1ST RUN	2ND RUN	TOTAL	HANDICAP
24	MARTIN A. BURNS	KSC	726	47.31 (32)	47.12 (20)	1:34.43	13.71

Day 50 - Wildcat

Clear, cold, and a little windy today; -5° to start, but it warmed up to around 10°; great views of Mt. Washington today; skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #1's; inside leg drills in the morning; full length GS in the afternoon; SWIX waxing clinic at 3:30; although these skis are a handful, my knee doesn't seem to hurt as much when I ski them; our group spent way to much time in the lodge warming up today, so I stayed out and did a few free runs - with all its twists and turns and drop-offs, Lynx is one of my favorite ski trails anywhere.

Day 49 - Wildcat

25° and snowing heavily this morning, 5" in total; clearing, windy and 15° by 3:00; day 1 of anther Race Camp; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters; 3 sessions today: drills, followed by stubbies and brushes, followed by standard GS gates; courses were a little short, but otherwise well set; coaches: Phil, Tom, and Craig - all very good, got a couple of good, new queues; added 'a box' to the Schlopy drill; got to the hotel last night without my coat or warm-ups - they're still hanging on the coat rack in the condo, so now I've got a new black Karbon jacket.

Day 48 - Killington

25° and snowing this morning - 2" by noon; on the hill right at 9:00 and skied till 1:30 with a coffee break at Bear; after doing my first Ski Bum Race on the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters, I skied my new Rossignol Experience 98's - they're a really great 'crud ski', today was the perfect day to try them out; skied with Bud, Tom and Alex a little bit today; today I got skied Double Dipper for the first time in a couple of years; was going to do Cannon today, but I checked the Cannon website last night and found out that today of $25 Wednesday for all HN residents. I figured it would be crowded so I stayed home.

RANK	BIB	NAME	CLASS	RESULT
19	98	MARTIN BURNS	MB	28.33 (19)

Bunny-Bunny-Bunny, Great Northern-Rime, Rime-Great Northern-Highline, MTS-Great Northern-Highline, Skylark, Gateway-Bear Trax-Bear Claw-Wildfire, Skyburst, Skyburst, Bittersweet, Superstar, Superstar, Superstar-Skylark, Superstar-Skylark, Great Norther-East Fall, Double Dipper, Double Dipper

Day 47 - Killington

Out at 10:00 and left at 12:30; skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #2's; skied with Bud, Tom and Alex again; it took a little while this morning, but once acclimated I got out in front of the skis and felt pretty good; found Cascade just before I was going to leave, but it was so good I stayed and did it three times despite having to use the K-1.

Day 46 - Killington

Back on the hill after almost two weeks resting my left knee. My insurance rejected my doctor's request for an MRI, recommending physical therapy instead. I'll take my PT on the hill please.

Out for a couple of hours to reacquaint myself with the snow. Skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's; Got to ski Lower Ovation today for the first time since sometime in the spring of 2011; After all the rain and warm weather the hill looks like shit.

Day 45 - Seven Springs

Out at 9:00; skied till 11:30; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters; 2" new snow on top of yesterday's groomers; did half a dozen NASTAR training runs on Sunset; very nice day.