Audi Fis World Cup Coming To Squaw Valley

[Swede]

It was a very nice run. Lot of the girls have problems with the soft surface. See how much Emelie can climb. Season best?

 

[Swede]

Nice run by little sister Schild.

 

[Swede]

Strong catch up by MS. Steep section in the beginning combined with the surface was tricky. Glad to see Emelie climb to finnish 4th. No podium yet but matching her seasonal best.

 

[Muleski]

Awaiting the report on the hill from our men @ScotsSkier and @DoryBreaux.

That hill is a real challenge, and I bet the ruts up close and personal, were a real challenge. It also looked like neither course setter went on the easy side. So jammed....right out of the gate.

I would love to see Stuhec, who did not start today, make a statement that she's not racing the SL at Aspen. It's over. MS will not race the SG....no need to risk anything. She could still have a nearly 500 point margin in the end in the overall.

How dies Stuhec win. Wins the DH AND SG. Doubt it. Wins the GS. No chance at all. Finishes no lower than second in the SL. Ahh....impossible. And......MS scores NO points at all. No chance of that. 378 points up, done deal.

I think Tessa Worley has the GS wrapped up, which is great. She is awesome.

Nice Tahoe bluebird day for the fans!

 

[ScotsSkier]

SPOILER ALERT

Quick update, just waiting for the press conference. What a day! It got colder last night so this morning we had a real world cup surface for the first run. I was in the slip crew straight after inspection and I noticed when I looped back around that the numbers of slippers had dwindled... and coming down dogleg face to get to the course was equally challenging!!

And both sets were extremely challenging. Lots of swing and really used the terrain, especially the second run. the carnage at the third and fourth gates on the first run was not totally surprising!.. But some awesome skiing across the board. And most of these girls are small!!.

So MS .02 behind after the first run. She had not looked as comfortable as usual. Was getting tricked back a bit while Wendy was smoother. And great to see Alexandra Tilley from team GB making the flip from a start number of 40.! Unfortunately both Lila and Resi came out early in the first run, Resi doing it in spectacular fashion. Course held up well, didnt take a lot of work, mainly slipping the slough.

For run 2, temperatures warming up amnd snow softening a bit (was able to charge dogleg face on a GS ski on the way to the start. And a lot of DNFs as the run progressed. Then Strachova laid down an awesome run! I had timed my slipping perfectly so i was about 10 gates up from the finish when the last 5 racers ran. Mikaela went for it, much smoother than her first run and took the lead back. So down to Wendy... she really looked like she was trying, but unfortunately not as smooth, hitting the gates hard, almost boot -topping and losing time. Didnt see the splits but was obvious when she came past me , and the coaches I was standing with, that she had dropped some time to MS.... and i guess she knew it as well as she went into the final flush......Not the way we would have wanted tp see it settled but a great result for the home crowd.

And another connection to Squaw from third place Bernadette Schild. Turn out she spent a lot of time here in the summers as a kid with the Paulsens (the real founders of Squaw Valley).

A nice touch when asked about the US crowds. Schild remarked that she had never before been thanked for coming to a race!

 

[ScotsSkier]

Your Pugski reporter with third place WC slalom finisher Schild

 

[DoryBreaux]

Photos coming soon. Slipping down to my shooting position this morning was a beast terrifying as I haven't tuned my carvers since last spring... reminds you that edges are very, very important.
Like I said yesterday, it's unreal being that close to people who ski that fast and look that good doing it.

 

[Rudi Riet]

Record cold back East today. A bit "firm".

Yah, it was a wee bit chilly at Okemo today. Never got above 7°F on the hill. I tried not to expose too much skin. Treated a few athletes and fellow coaches for frostbite.

It was one of those frigid New England... er, northern Quebec days.

At least it was (mostly) sunny.

My slalom set was a hit with the TD, referee, and coaches. For the racers? Well, it was a test. The first half of the run had a lot of swing with a few right-foot fallaway turns to follow the contour of the trail. After the second hairpin, I made it into a speedway: low offset, quick, into a royal (4 gate) flush with a cranky exit, then more low-offset rhythm into a hairpin three gates before the finish. Quite a few athletes blew out in the lower part - it's a style of setting you don't see a lot up north, it seems. It's bread-and-butter in the flatlands of PA.

But the athletes who attacked it and didn't get into the back seat had great times!

 

[crgildart]

Great race,. awesome finish. The three Italians laid down a gauntlet for Shiffrin. Fantastic.. On to Aspen to settle the GS title..

 

[Alexzn]

Shiffrin on her first run.

 

[DoryBreaux]

Nice shot Alex!

 

[Frankly]

Boy this SL race really threw off my fantasy ski racer results, which average around 300 points. But so many DNFs! 9 out of 10!

Didn't help that I picked back in December, probably thought I was picking GS, and included injured non-starters like MPH ;-p

 

[Philpug]

Shiffrin on her first run.
View attachment 20813

Thats a keeper.

 

[Alexzn]

A few more pictures:
Squaw looked great today:

The podium:

The winner: (note the custom BigTruck hat

 

[DoryBreaux]

@Alexzn dude, nice images!
Here's another one... I'm not sure who this is, bib check is in order but its time for bed.

 

[Swede]

Denise Feierabend or Meillard? But hard to tell. Nice photo anyway.
Very well done Squaw. Looks like it was the place to be yesterday. Overall nice weekend and it looked like Schild had an extra gear, explained by SS's inside information.
Also 'fun' to hear what people who have never exeperienced racing on this level up and close think. They are mind blowingly good, right? I have skied "with" Jessika Lindell Vikarby on one occasion -- she came from our club and did half a day with my daughters team the season after she retired from the WC -- and ... holy crap!
And also refreshing to get the real perspective on just how challenging a WC course is; seldom gets across on the Tv.
Nedless to say, a petit female skiing the c**p out of the 'dudes' is about as cool as it can get in my book. I also like the Tv-friendly hours that Pacific time translates to over here.

 

[Swede]

re photo:

Simone Wild! Fiereabend on Head and Meillard on Rossi/Lange. Wild is on Fischer.

 

[Tricia]

re photo:

Simone Wild! Fiereabend on Head and Meillard on Rossi/Lange. Wild is on Fischer.

Great shot @DoryBreaux
@Alexzn Nice photos from you as well. Thanks for sharing!

 

[4ster]

Had to go skiing yesterday, so didn't watch the race till last night. What a great weekend on Red Dog! So many old friends were there, wish I was too.

In case you missed it, this is how you slide out...

Anyone know if Resi gets to go to finals?

 

[Tricia]

According to the press kit, we weren't supposed to publish video, only stills, and absolutely no Facebook live.
Meanwhile, the average attendees are posting video all over the place.
This one on Instragram of Mikaela finishing