For me, four days of junior racing translates into about 10,000 frames.  And no time for blog entries.  Full days with the camera on the hill, followed by at least one hour of processing time for each hour shooting.  But it's worth it, even when (as it did Saturday) it rains.  As always, the kids are fast and skilled, supremely agile and athletic.  Even middle-rank U12s and U14s ski with technical skill.  The kids are also resilient, rising stoically when they crash and lose a chance at success or self-fulfillment.  Here are a few of the highlight images of local juniors, most taken this year.

Piper appears over the crest of a fall-away in a snowy GS.

Finn peers under a GS panel as he carves around a gate, en route to winning.  A U12, he regularly beats U14s.

Ava S. shins a flexible stubby slalom gate in the U12 State Championships.

Airborne now, then back on the snow to make the next gate.

Sanne, on a cloudless race day.

Ely takes out a GS panel.

Surprised by the end of a rut on a flat-light day, Mary went on to finish third overall. 

Randi loads her left ski by fully retracting her right knee in a GS, while looking down the course.

Ava S., skiing cleanly and aggressively at 40 mph, sat back just a little and crossed her tips, but she managed to uncross her skis

and make the next gate and then finish the race.

Ava L. demonstrates what a U14 can do, skiing fast and cleanly (and winning) in rain and tough conditions.

Piper runs cleanly through a gate.