McCauley Mt Jan 21-22 2017 - SL race

My typical race day dad routine is to get there early at 7:30 and make sure everything is set my son without lurking too much as teens want to feel independent.  For our McCauley races this weekend that left me about an hour to have some coffee and boot up before exploring the Mt.  The lodge is really pleasant in an old school way and the bar is cozy with a fireplace going.  Even with a pretty big race of 130+ kids the lodge didn’t seem cramped.  There was very few people there beyond employees and racers.  Not sure if it always like this or not.  I get in about 2 hours of skiing before watching the end of the girls 1st runs and then the boys.  After my son runs I head down to the timing board area and check in with him and figure out the plan for 2nd run inspection and lunch with him.  Then I ski some more after lunch until the boys run again and watch.  This usually nets me about 3 hours of skiing on a race day. That is actually a perfect amount for a small but fun area like this for me.



Saturday was very foggy so there was no view what so ever.  The couple of blue groomers where ok but due to the short vert and they just go out to the sides and then traverse back to the center and the lift.  I liked Sidewinder better of the two.  The lift is a 1973 Hall Double and they kept it cracked up with pretty much nothing but strong skiers there and it was a quick ride.  The trees where open but boney with somewhat soft small bumps.  You could avoid the rocks fairly well on most of the routes except for Bark eater.  The place has a nice steep pitch down the middle which for a smaller hill was quite fun to ski.  My favorite was Olympic which follows the old T-bar that runs up a cliff.  It had big whales and bumps on it and I skied it at least 15 times over the weekend.  You could see the potential of the trees there when they had more snow but given the conditions which got more soggy on Sunday it was not really worth it.  Sunday the sun finally poked thru and the view is very nice. The warmer temps also made Helmer’s skiable by lunch time as it had a rain crust on it Saturday.  You had to wait for a course hold to get to it as it shares a section of the race trail at the top.  It had even bigger bumps and whales on it than Olympic and was super fun.








The race trail is very good for SL which some pitches and a double fall line in one spot.  It is a challenging course and was about 48 seconds for the top U14’s which is the longest SL my son has every run.  He did very well finishing 2nd on Saturday and 4th Sunday after getting a really bad bid draw starting dead last on the first run which is part of ski racing.







We stayed at the recently remodeled Great Pines about 6 miles east of Old Forge.  The rooms were very comfy especially the mattresses.  The walls are a bit thin so you hear the next store guests though.  The food and drink in the Lean-to Pub was very good and reasonably priced for the quality.  I would stay there again.



I was not that enthusiastic about the prospects of this trip when I saw it on the schedule in the fall but would welcome returning in the future especially if it recently went thru a lake effect cycle.  This place had a really nice feel to it and it was a good weekend.

Awesome report, coach. It's got to be gratifying seeing your son do so good with the racing. Seems like you're both getting a lot out of iit. McCauley looks great. I'm gonna have to get there I think.

I'm beginning to get less nervous watching him race than I used to.  I did have a nightmare about f-ing up his tune a few weeks back though.

His SL really seemed to click in the last couple weeks.  Now it's onto GS and SG.

The nice part is spending time with him talking skiing, tuning, and hearing his take on the course and race.  He told me about becoming so hyper focused on the race he didn't remember much about one run.  Sort of did it on auto pilot I guess though he had memorized blocking for the difficult combos.

At dinner tonight he again said how much he liked McCauley.  Shame is he didn't get to ski the trees or bumps.  He wanted to after the race but it ran so long the coach was afraid he would miss the podium presentation.  

Coach thanks for the TR.  Nice pic of little Z, not sure we can call him that anymore.

I got respect for alpine rippers who can see the beauty in a place like McCauley.

Did you check out the ski shop and they guy who runs it?

Nice report ,and kudos to your son that was a very strong placement . Now that you know McC go back when Ma Natch  opens up the LES machine , it delivers .

His coach calls him Double Z as his name is Zach.  He is not little any longer.  He has grown 7" in the last 10 months and is 5'7" now.

This place certainly qualifies for a little hill that rocks.