This past four-day weekend there was still more grass-roots evidence of the attractions and occasional tribulations of alpine ski racing at Alyeska.  "Grass-roots" is very apt, in several ways.  Not just because the youngest racers (U12s and U14s) made up a large field of about 76 that included a bunch of novices who hadn't raced USSA races before, but because dense rain (not that "dry rain" that sometimes falls in Juneau) washed away a lot of snow low on the mountain and in the base area in Girdwood and uncovered grass and roots, as well as branches, fireworks debris, and other stuff that we had hoped would be hidden until May.    The weather ranged from snow and snow squalls (Friday), to rain (Saturday), sun (Sunday, fittingly), and overcast (Monday).  It made for exciting but challenging racing and race photography.  The ski club conducted six technical races in four days, and about 125 racers, total, participated.   Not too long ago a field of 60 would have been considered huge by Alaska standards.  

When you take 9,934 frames in four days, you are faced with a lot of editing.  And disruption. Tonight should finally see the very last race photo uploads to the photo galleries.  The result has been no time for new blog entries.

So it's time to blog.  

Racing is inspiring for many reasons.  And it provides a source of rich material for ruminating about ski racing and life itself.   Those ruminations are particularly timely, given that the great classic races are now being held during a three-week window in Europe in Italy (Cortina d'Ampezzo), Switzerland (Lauberhorn), Germany (Garmisch), and Austria (Hahnenkamm). So until distraction strikes, racing is the default subject.  

The local races illustrated some of the facets of ski racing.  A few images will help guide us. EF4A2298 EF4A8025-2 EF4A0957 EF4A8186-2