Boot and Rally

Event: Salomon Xwing Transalp Rally Qualifier Date: 2/17/07 Location: Loon Mtn, NH Team Reporting: Ullr's Avengers: Scott and Alex Skis: Xwing Tornado: 170 cm At Stake: A chance to win a trip to Europe, and also a bunch of swag Fatal Flaw: A sense of honor/stupidity This was to be my first downhill ski race since the mid 80s, so, you can imagine I was stoked about it. Basically, it was a scavenger hunt on skis. Salomon was putting on the event to promote their new "all mountain" ski series, the Xwings (They must have paid off George Lucas) and so they outfitted us with a pair of skis for the event. There were orienteering style checkpoints all over the mountain and then also scavenger hunt type photos (i.e. a neon ski suit) and also bonus point photos (i.e. chair skier). You also got points for the number of vertical feet you skied, as measured by an altimeter watch. I spent the night in Littleton with C and C, and so we got to Loon at like 8:30. C and C started right away, and then A showed up soon after and we started. They tried to give us the super fat Xwing skis, but, it being NEW HAMPSHIRE, we just laughed and asked for the skinny ones. That settled, armed with camera, altimeter watch, and checkpoint list we got in line for the high speed quad...and discussed strategy in the 15 minute wait for the chair. Ouch. That was a significant chunk of our alotted 4 hours. We rode singles for the rest of the day. Basically our plan was to get all the orienteering checkpoints as quickly as possible, and then move on to the photo scavenger hunt. We decided not to split up and not to pay attention to vertical feet skied. BIG MISTAKE, but alas, splitting up we thought was against the rules. It wasn't. The checkpoints were easy to find. They were all on marked trails, and were, for the most part, easy to see. We got every one we set out for the first time, except one that briefly eluded us. On most runs we got more than one. I also tried to shoot as many photos as I could in line and on the chair, but the camera they gave us was kinda crappy, and it was hard to tell if the photos came out. Some of the checkpoints revealed bonus points, which were find a chair skier, take pictures of both train stations, take a picture of you sticking your tongue out at the top of the mountain cafe, and one other that I can't recall. As we moved into the photo shoot phase we tried to get the highest scoring photos first, and then the lower scoring as they presented themselves. I got a guy wearing a cowboy hat simply because I rode the chair with him. We kind of lost track of time, and when we went to check in, we were told we had ten minutes. We scoured the lodge and base area in a whirlwind photoshoot. We actually got the picture of the adaptive skier at this point, and that was huge: 50 points. In the lodge, our camera fogged up, and ruined some pictures, but, with a little ingenuity, it was brought back into working operation, but not before some drunk guy wanted to punch me for taking his picture. oops! We handed in all our stuff with 1 minute to spare and got our tickets for the after party, to be held in the base lodge. It was 2 p.m., so we all hit the slopes for a while. My Scott Aztec Pros are a lot less carvy than the Xwings, but, then they're also a little big. If I want carvy, I can use my 155 rossignol 9Xs. Anyway after a few runs, we returned to the lodge for the after-party and awards. C went back into town and picked up some malt liquor, and we brown bagged it rather than paying out the nose for beers at the lodge bar. Ah being a graduate student! C and C tooled on everybody else and took 1st place. A and I were not in the top three, so, no prizes for us, but a good day in all.