Cold In Crested Butte!

This past weekend (Jan 1-2) I had my first Junior FIS race. It was two slaloms in Crested Butte, Colorado. It was BRUTALLY cold, -24F on the first race day. What made it even worse was that the gates kept breaking because it was so cold, so there was course holds every 4-5 people. I got held in the start during the second run, trust me, you can feel those extra few minutes it’s so cold. Warming up for the first run, I pulled my back pretty bad. I was doing leg swings to try to warm up, but instead pulled my whole back because it was so cold. I laid down and just tried to stretch it out. My coach actually was thinking of pulling me but I told him I would fight through it.

By the time I got into the start, the adrenaline had taken over so I almost forgot about it. I went out of the start, and down the first pitch, which consists of about 4 gates. Immediately following this pitch there was a hairpin right over a knoll that took a lot of kids out. I made it through ok and started to attack. The course started to get turny and I got really late, but managed to make it through a combination and recover. I skied a little conservative the rest of the way down but ended up in 3rd place after the first run and 1st for J2’s.

In the second run, there was a really offset first gate that took out some kids or at least caused them to slide. It was a little intimidating see my competitors go out on only the first gate out of the start. When I got into the start, there was a long course hold as I previously said. This may have given me a little too much time to think as well as get me cold again. By the time the course was ready to go I could hardly wait. I went a little conservative again because I really needed this second result so I didn’t punch it until the bottom. I came down with the fastest time of the day so far and outlasted the 2nd place finisher from the first run for the silver medal behind Conor McDonald from Summit. This was a great experience for me because it was my first Junior FIS and I got my first FIS podium in my first try.

.)) Alex Leever