[FWM News] Alpine SL weekend results

[Far West Masters news]

Happy Holidays to all!  Hope everyone is enjoying a holiday break to spend time with family and 
friends, and get out on the slopes for a little skiing after a nice series of December storms 
brought long-awaited snow to the Sierras.

Our race schedule is taking a break for the holidays as well, with our next events coming up in 
early January with a SL doubleheader for the Viva Italia trophy race at Heavenly on Friday Jan. 9 
and two GS races on the weekend at neighboring South Shore resort Sierra at Tahoe on Jan. 10-11.

http://farwestmasters.org/raceinfo/current/schedule

Newsletter editor Hamish Butler shares the story from the Alpine SL weekend, with a touch of 
Scottish flair.

Alpine SL weekend
-----------------

After the season opener at Mammoth, racing moved to Alpine meadows on the 20th and 21st of December 
for two pre-Christmas SL races.

The weather on both days was "driech"" as they say in Scotland, low cloud and a steady snow/drizzle 
mix made visibility difficult on Saturday. On Sunday the weather improved slightly and visibility 
for racing was much better. The soft wet snow on top of a hard base made for difficult conditions 
with deep ruts forming quickly on both days. Despite the conditions there were still some very 
impressive performances.

We were very pleased to be joined by two members of the Wattenmaker family, benefactors for the 
Jeff Wattenmaker college scholarship. Jeff was an avid Masters racer and it was a wonderful to have 
his kids join us. G.G. Wattenmaker was a forerunner on Saturday and her older brother Owen 
Wattenmaker joined us for his first Far West Masters race.

On Saturday Owen Wattenmaker took the honors with first place in mens open class, with Mike 
Schlovski placing second and Kurt Belden third. In ladies open Christian Patent placed first , with 
Linda Crowell second and Ingrid Braun third.

On Sunday Danielle Palermo made a welcome return to Far West Masters racing taking first place in 
ladies open, with Ingrid Braun in second and Linda Crowell in third, swapping their Saturday 
Saturday finish positions. In the mens open Kurt Belden took first place with Seth Cronin-Wilton in 
second and Are Papazian in third.

Many thanks to the crew at Alpine Meadows for putting on a well run event and for making the best 
of the conditions.

Complete results are posted on the Race Results page. (Season standings for 2015 will be posted 
after the scoring software is updated to handle the unusual split-courses results from the opening 
Mammoth weekend races)

http://farwestmasters.org/raceinfo/current/results