Saturday, January 29, 2000 - Sunday, January 30, 2000 -- Davis, WV
US Ski Series (Slalom)
Story and photos by Marty Lamp

[Coverage] [Overall Results] [Results by Class] [Pro Results]
[Pic Set 1] [Pic Set 2] [Pic Set 3] [Pic Set 4]

Touching down after the big jump

The US Ski Series made a stop at Timberline Ski Resort the weekend of January 29-30th, and conditions were great. After a beautiful, sunny day for all the fast-paced ski competition on Saturday, Sunday gave way to a good-sized snow storm and temperatures hovering right around the freezing level. When the lifts starting running Sunday morning, all the slopes were covered in a blanket of fresh, fluffy snow.

On Saturday, the amateurs had their chance to shine. The 16 gate dual slalom course was laid out on Lower Thunderstruck, one of timberline's moderately steep runs. All racers were timed on two runs, then the times were combined.

And they're off!

The fastest person down the hill on Saturday was Seth Williams(41.67). Williams had two very consistent runs; the second of which was just .07 of a second slower than his first. Speaking of consistency, Spencer Reed(42.03) grabbed second place overall, with only .01 of a second difference between his two runs. Canaan Pollack(43.54) finished third overall, and the 5 fastest combined times all came from the Men's Junior Class.

Andrea Dearborn(45.58) of the Women's Division set the standard for the females on the day, but Women's Junior racer Jill Huber(47.12) wasn't far behind. Dearborn and Huber finished 6th and 8th overall, respectively.

In the Men's Division, James Huber(46.04) got the win while finishing 7th overall.

Matt Youngblood enjoying a lead

On Sunday, the course was stretched out a little bit to give the pro's a little more room to move. The course was still on Lower Thunderstruck, but the starting ramp from the day before was now a 6 foot jump, with four gates to navigate above the jump.

After some qualifying runs, it was pure dual slalom, single elimination for the speedsters. What started out as a heat of 16 was wittled down to four racers within two runs. When all was said and done, Anders Wigneer of Sweden proved to be unbeatable on this day, barely holding off an unrelenting Francis Carminati from France. Marcus Witmer of Austria finished third, while America's own Emil Englund finished fourth overall.

None of this fun would have been possible without the efforts of Annie Snyder, and the countless other Timberline employees out keeping the course in prime condition.