[FWM News] President's message: Mammoth nationals

[Far West Masters news]

Well, after a rocky start to the season when we had to postpone races due to lack of snow, we are now suffering from an embarrassment of (snow) riches and having to delay/cancel races because of too much snow! It has given us some awesome powder skiing but has also created all sorts of headaches for our racers, race organizers and host areas. However, we have still been able to run many of our scheduled races so far including an awesome speed weekend at Mammoth with perfect ski racing weather. I can honestly say that that was one of the very best weekends of racing I have experienced in 15 years of Masters racing and, judging by all the enthusiasm and smiles at the bottom of the course, most of you were thinking the same!

We now have the opportunity to return to Mammoth for more speed races - both DH and SG - as well as GS and slalom at the US Masters Nationals from March 18-23. Now I understand from talking with many of you that some think Masters Nationals is only open to the very best racers. Well, I would like to dispel that myth! While it does attract some of the top Masters racers from around the country it also has racers of all levels of abilities competing. It lets you meet your fellow Master racers from other Divisions as well as experience the atmosphere of a national level event. Having it local to Far West at Mammoth provides a great opportunity to compete without having long distance travel to other parts of the country. For those who do not want to race Downhill I should also point out that the overall rankings and awards at Nationals are based on SG, GS and SL only. There are separate courses for women/older men (>65) and the younger men(<65) in GS and slalom to ensure as far as possible clean course conditions.

The schedule for the nationals at Mammoth is: 
 - DH training - Mon-Tue Mar. 18-19 (4 DH training runs!)
 - DH race - Wed Mar. 20
 - Super G - Thu Mar 21
 - GS and Slalom - Fri-Sat- Mar. 22-23
usalpinemasters.org/news/2019/Mammoth_2019_Nationals_schedule.pdf

Given that Far West is hosting the Nationals I would really like to see as many as possible of our racers competing. Registration is open at SkiRaceReg.com/nationals <https://www.skiracereg.com/nationals> until Friday March 15. The early registration deadline is *Sunday Mar. 3*, after which there is anadditional $10/race late fee for late entries, so sign up this week! The cancellation deadline is *Sunday Mar. 10* to withdraw without any charges.
www.skiracereg.com/nationals

Also note that deadline for making reservations with the discounted event lodging is *Friday Mar. 1* - see the event announcement for details:
usalpinemasters.org/news/2019/Mammoth_2019_Nationals_info.pdf

I would encourage you all to sign up and look forward to seeing you there! 
*Ray Tulloch - President, Far West Masters*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.farwestmasters.org/pipermail/news/attachments/20190228/f6a23d07/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Mammoth_2019_Nationals_schedule.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 135372 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.farwestmasters.org/pipermail/news/attachments/20190228/f6a23d07/attachment-0001.pdf>