[FWM News] March Madnews

[Far West Masters news]

A busy month in the Far West!

Mammoth Speed Weekend
---------------------

The outlook for the Mammoth speed weekend wasn't promising when a foot 
of fresh snow fell on the preceding Wednesday, with another storm 
forecast for the weekend. But Thursday was a bluebird powder day, the 
weather forecast shifted to scattered showers, and the grooming and 
race crews set to work to produce some Mammoth magic.

Thanks to the outstanding work by the Mammoth Race Department to 
prepare and maintain the courses, along with some excellent course 
setting by Pierre Jeangirard to accommodate the conditions, we had 
three very good SG races on Friday and Saturday.  The weekend wrapped 
up on Sunday with a Super Combined - 1 run each of SG and SL. The SL 
run rapidly became bouncy due to the soft snow conditions, but racers 
attacked in good spirit with varying combinations of quick feet and 
dynamic recoveries to put on an exciting show for spectators and fellow 
competitors.

Complete weekend results and updated season standings are posted on the 
web site.

Upcoming Events: Squaw, Mt. Rose
--------------------------------

This coming weekend of Mar. 20-21 is the Bernard Cup GS races at Squaw 
Valley. Always a good event on the challenging Exhibition run, this 
year we're adding a new wrinkle of 3 races in 2 days - 3 runs per day! 
The weekend weather looks likely to bring some lovely spring racing 
conditions, so this should be a lot of fun.

Squaw Valley will be offering GS training on Friday, March 19, 2010 
from 9:30 - 12:00 on the same race hill where we will be competing 
Saturday and Sunday. The coaches for this training will be Kurt Belden, 
well-known to most of us as a top competitor and now the masters coach 
at Squaw, and Barry Thys, former US Ski team member. The training will 
also include timed runs, (thus simulating actual race conditions) and 
video recordings of your runs. Price for this training will be $49.00. 
Check with the Squaw Valley Race Department for details and to sign up.

The next weekend of Mar. 27-28 will be the popular McKinney Cup stop at 
Mt. Rose, with a SL race on Saturday and GS on Sunday.  This is always 
an excellent event, with good race hills and a warm welcome for us from 
everyone at Mt. Rose.

National Championships
----------------------

March winds up with the USSA Masters National Championships the week of 
Mar. 29-Apr. 2 at Sun Valley ID. Far West is sending a good-size crew 
of about 30 competitors and this should be an outstanding week of 
racing on Sun Valley's Warm Springs race venues. The preliminary 
competitor list is posted on the 2010 nationals event page on 
ussamasters.org. There are still slots open before the field size is 
filled, so if you're able to make a late decision to compete you can 
still get your entry in. (see the nationals web page for details and a 
link to the entry form)

Pam Warman Fundraiser
---------------------

Some of you may have met Pam Warman at our Sierra at Tahoe races, where 
she's worked as a starter on our races (or Sean Warman, the Competition 
Services director). The word has been spreading rapidly through the ski 
racing community in recent weeks that Pam is battling cancer and 
efforts are being organized to help with fundraising for medical bills. 
Pam was a successful WC tech for the USST for a number of years - 
actually the only women ever to be a WC ski tech - and many US team 
athletes are stepping up to help out (Bode donated his Olympic helmet 
to auction on ebay) along with others in the racing and ski communities.

There's going to be a fundraiser event in Tahoe on April 13th to help 
her with medical expenses. She'll have tons of current USST athletes 
there, as well as many from the PSIA demo team, and the day will 
include a fun race, ski clinics, and dinner with auction of donated 
items. For more about Pam and the April fundraiser, please visit the 
http://pamwarman.webs.com web site that's been put together by her 
friends and supporters.

April Season Finals
-------------------

The final event of the 2010 Far West Masters season will be the season 
finals at Mammoth Mountain on Apr. 13-18. This year we're making this a 
complete event (just like the World Cup Finals, almost!), starting with 
DH on Tue/Wed, a SG on Thu, and GS/SL technical races on Friday and 
Saturday. Come for as much of the week as you can, it should be a fun 
week.

Saturday will wind up with the annual season banquet.  Sunday will be 
our now-traditional dual "fun race", where we put together teams mixing 
up masters, family, friends, and some of our junior scholarship 
athletes and tackle some head-to-head competition.

Banquet details will be posted next week and you'll be able to put in 
your reservation along with your race entries on our usual Race Entries 
form.  Check the web site next week for updated details and entry 
information for the April season finals at Mammoth.

We are also planning to hold a general membership meeting during the 
finals weekend - time and place will be posted on the web site.