Craftsbury E. Cup - Saturday

Craftsbury did a great job getting their courses ready with manmade snow for the E. Cup opener.  There was no natural snow left after the recent warm spell, but all my concerns about the course vanished when I went out for a headlamp ski on Friday night when I arrived.  It was really excellent skiing. 

It turned out to be an interesting day.  We had about 30 CSU juniors and a number of college CSU alumni to wax for the classic sprint.  We have lots of experience with man-made snow and so it was no surprise that the old standby, toko base green layered with red and a layer of Viola on top turned out to be the wax of the day.  The wax team did a masterful job getting right back in the swing of things under the watchful eyes of Peter Hoenig and Amie Smith.   We had good skis!  Most everyone had good qualifying races and it looked like several juniors would make the heats, but the race results were screwy and after much discussion the race organizers decided that the situation could not be fixed and instead of the elimination rounds they decided on another qualifying round instead.  Disappointing because the rounds are fun to watch, but a great chance for many of the juniors to get another shot at the race.  Many took full advantage to improve on the morning performance.  The wax team regrouped and touched up all the skis and off everyone went again into the sunset.  A few photos: