Wachusett Race

This weekend marked the last qualifying race for the Tri-State championships. Gianni entered the day in 17th place, with 19th being the cut off. After two runs of GS, Gianni rocketed to 12th place overall for the season. He had two top 10 finishes. He was the "star" on his team for the day with the highest placing of the 8 members. I am so proud of him. With over 35 kids in his division, he finished 12 for the season, in what was his first season racing. We are really looking forward to the championships in March!

Training at Stowe

Gianni spent the weekend skiing and skiing- training at Stowe. It was a cold one though. On Saturday, Gianni ran NASTAR gates all morning and then spent the afternoon training with the MMSC kids. It was a cold day, but sunny and without wind, so really it was perfect- no lines. On Sunday, he was first on the Gondola and skied Gondalier and Perry Merrrill all morning. It was really cold, -15 or so, plus wind. Later in the morning Ben, Rosalie and the gang caught up with him and they skied a few more runs before the cold won.

MLK Weekend

We enjoyed a really fun, long MLK weekend. On Saturday, Gianni participated in his second official ski race. They did two slalom runs and one GS. He did better than the week before, particularly taking a liking to GS. We headed up to the Highland Center afterward. Sunday was a special treat. We went up to Great Glen Trails and enjoyed one of, if not the best, days of skate skiing ever. We arrived early and the staff there set us out on a scavenger hunt to find various signs throughout the touring center in French. It was a cold morning, but with a mission at hand and truly incredible grooming set, we skated for 6 hours with only one break! We covered every inch of the touring center, some of it more than once. We easily did over 25 km. Back at the Highland Center, you can see that Gianni was hard at work taking advantage of his XMas present (snow saw) to build an incredible snow fort. On Monday, we headed to Boston to watch the Bruins game, complements of Paul. It was a great father/son experience and being the day before my birthday, a great birthday present. We were privileged to witness Chara score his first ever hat trick in a fun blowout. It was three days of pure father/son bliss.

Wild Weekend

We enjoyed a very busy weekend. Gianni raced at Bradford on Saturday, his first official race (slalom). He placed 19th out of 32, and really enjoyed learning the routine. We headed up to Stowe, left the kids home, and Bob and Mike treated us to a Little Feat concert at Spruce Peak. Gianni insisted on catching first chair at 7:30 am, which he thoroughly enjoyed. It was a cold, windy day, but the endless snowfall created a wonderful winter playground. I did a backcountry trip to the top of the Burt. The decent was fabulous, as I linked nice turns in my own powder stash the whole way down. I caught up with the boys at Sterling Gorge, where Mike and Rob took them ice climbing. We called it a day and hit the road again (after Patti fed us, and Mike and Bob hauled me out of the snow bank!). Tired, but couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

Busy Day in Mt. Mansfield State Forest

Yesterday, the boys were eager to hit the slopes, first chair. We arrived in the lodge before 7am. They were in line by 7:20, yes there was already a line. I watched them take their inaugural run down Liftline, with Ben doing the last big drop head first. The trail was just groomed so he couldn't stop. He was flying on his back! I left them and skated from the Stowe Touring Center over to Trapps. I had hoped for some better skating on the upper loops over there. The conditions were starting to get really soft as is warmed. Due to the warmth and early hour, not much was groomed, so skating was so so. I stopped at the cabin to take a call from the boys. They had had a great morning of skiing all that was open on Mansfield, but were done for the day due to the long holiday lines. The skate back to the Touring Center was nice (thank you for grooming the ranch connector!). I brought the boys home late morning and then headed back to the Touring center. As I skied the backcountry section of the Burt Trail, the sun came out and it was just beautiful on the Skytop Ridge. I ran out of time and had to head home. After having done 4 tours in 2 days, I was definitely tired! Happy New Year!