[FWM News] Season Wrapup

[Far West Masters news]

The 2012-2013 race season is a wrap!  Our final races of the season were held at Squaw Valley on 
April 5-7, just getting in ahead of the rapidly advancing spring meltout.  Sierra ski areas have 
been shutting down over the past few weeks, with skiing continuing at Mammoth through Memorial Day.

We'll post any news that comes up over the summer on the farwestmasters.org web site and through 
this news mailing list.  Check the web site in August/September when the tentative race schedule 
for next season will be posted.

Looking ahead to next season, the national committee has selected Okemo VT to host the 2014 
national championships on Mar 17-22. Okemo did a great job hosting this year's eastern regionals 
and is reported to have excellent race venues for masters. They will host a four-event 
championship, with both the national championship DH and the three-event SG/GS/SL technical 
nationals. With a good race crew and venues this should be an excellent event, so give some thought 
to an eastern adventure when planning your calendar for next season!

http://ussamasters.org/news/2013/Okemo_2014_Masters_National_Championships.pdf

With the nationals returning to Eastern division for the first time in five seasons, planning is 
still in progress for a "big event" in the west next season. We'll post an update when calendaring 
decisions have been finalized for whether there'll be a western regional championship or a FIS 
international masters event.


Race Ski Orders
---------------

If you're interested in placing a preseason order with Rossignol/Lange/Dynastar rep Mike Braun for 
next year's race gear, you need to get your orders in this week by the May 1 deadline.  See Mike's 
flyer for details and contact information.

http://farwestmasters.org/announcements/2013/RLD-2013-farwest-race-sales-flyer.pdf

Squaw Season Finale
-------------------

http://farwestmasters.org/#squaw_season_finale

The final races of the 2013 Far West masters season were held at Squaw Valley on April 5-7. The 
determined Squaw race crew battled the onrush of warm spring weather and the rapidly diminishing 
coverage on the race hill and succeeded in getting the races off. After the scheduled SG on 
Thursday was cancelled, the drizzle cleared out on Friday and good conditions ensued through the 
weekend. With a bit of creative course-setting, the final GS and SL races were successfully 
completed for a satisfying end to another season of racing.

The Saturday evening season banquet presentations included the season awards to the top 3 finishers 
in each age class and "leader bibs" for next season awarded to the top 10 men and top 5 women in 
the overall standings were awarded. Several classes for both the men and women came down to the 
final day of racing to determine final rankings and the overall class champions, making for some 
exciting racing and tactical decisions on the final day of racing.

The Rookie of the Year awards recognizing new racers went to Tatjana Polyakova (W04) and Tom 
Bullard (M08) - we welcome them and everyone else who competed this season for the first time. The 
Most-Improved awards recognizing the racers who have most impressed their peers with significant 
improvement went to Ingrid Braun (W05) and Randall Sussek (M06). The Teddy Cantanho "Spirit of 
Masters" award was presented to Elizabeth and Mike Kennedy, who together have contributed greatly 
to our program for many years now by organizing race day checkin, helping both new and returning 
competitors to get registered and out on the hill racing.

http://farwestmasters.org/reports/results/2013/FWM2013-SeasonAwards.pdf