When I was a second year U16 we had a speed [Super G] series at Burke. Pretty much every U16 girl went to this series, and Burke was hosting a training camp on the track that we would be skiing a few days before the races. The U16 girls decided not to do the training camp. This was a bit of a mistake. We weren’t sure what we were getting into.
There’s this one jump at Burke. It’s called pavilion. Pavilion is fine-if you prepare for the jump correctly. But if you don’t prepare for pavilion correctly, then you’re either getting sent into the B-Net to the right, or getting tons of air right onto the pitch. We had like a 50% chance of us doing this jump right. I love the 04s/05s, but we were screwed.
Race day came and there was a foot of snow on the ground, the wind was shaking the chairlift, and the race was put on hold. We were all a bit anxious, as extra snow for speed events can make things more dangerous. It was also really hard to see, the light was flat and dark. Somehow, the course was set, and we went up to slip. Course maintenance had us to tip to tail slips, but the snow was just not going anywhere. We did around three slip runs before we were told to head inside.
I can’t remember who, but someone had an Uno deck in their boot bag. The NYSEF girls started playing and slowly more and more Vermont girls joined in on our game. Eventually we had pretty much everyone racing that day playing a huge game of Uno. I’m pretty sure US Ski Team Member Zoey Zimmerman, who was at the race, even played.
Eventually our coach came in, sat down, and started talking to us. We asked him if the race was canceled and he was like “I don’t know. It could be.” Five minutes later the race director came into the lodge and said the race was cancelled.
The next day is just as hectic, it was -18 degrees. You couldn’t have any skin exposed or you would get frost bite within a matter of seconds. We put tape on our faces to try to protect out skin, but it wasn’t working.
It’s time for the U16 girls to go, and we’re terrified. We all make it down ok, but everyone did pretty bad. Our usual speed queens were around six seconds out, and the rest of us are close to last, or just last. But at the end of the day it was a good experience.
Photos from that race:
As told to Leah DeFilippo ’22. Photo of Cilla by Mr. Michael Aldridge. Race photos provided.
