[FWM News] Mammoth season finals

[Far West Masters news]

The final races of the 2013-2014 season were held at Mammoth Mountain on Fri-Sat Mar. 28-29. After 
a season dominated by warm, dry weather, our finals event was held in a "weather window"" between 
some welcome late-season storms that are bringing excellent spring powder skiing to the Sierras. 
Friday's GS on Fascination was held on a beautiful, sunny day. Saturday's SL race, the final 
scoring race of the season held on the Powder Bowl/Ralphies course, was windy but relatively 
sheltered as high winds ahead of an approaching storm system forced closure of the Broadway Express 
chair and eventually cancellation of the U14 SG race on the adjacent Fascination race hill.

Saturday evening competitors gathered with family and friends at the season banquet in Mammoth's 
Mountainside Conference Center. The evening featured a pasta buffet, a silent auction to benefit 
the Far West Masters Scholarship program, and season awards presentation of age class awards and 
leader bibs for the 2015 season.

The special season awards for most-improved racer went to Tatjana Polyakova (W04) and Doug Fulton 
(M07). Tatjana impressed all of us with her improvement this year, making the women's open class 
consistently and skiing strongly throughout the season. The men's award was a tough choice, with a 
number of worthy performances considered including Tim Stewart for some amazing performances 
throughout the season, Sam Crowell for impressing all of us with excellent results in a strong 
second half, Troy Grieppe and Scott Sady for raising the level of their racing throughout the 
season.

The Teddy Cantanho Spirit of Masters award recognizing a competitor who exemplifies participation 
with cheerfulness and joy, as well as contributions to our program, was awarded to Don Smith, who 
competes hard every race and has made numerous contributions to Far West Masters as an officer, 
past president, and head of officials working many races every season as a TD.

Complete results are posted on the Race Results page along with the final Season Standings rankings 
for 2014:
http://farwestmasters.org/raceinfo/2014/results
http://farwestmasters.org/raceinfo/2014/standings
http://farwestmasters.org/reports/results/2014/FWM2014-SeasonAwards.pdf