Inside Edge: New year, more snow

Significant snowfall this week will be good news for our already solid base layer. The entire mountain is now open, and the holiday crowds depart on Sunday.

Schweitzer has done an excellent job serving the public while observing COVID-19 protocols. They also were very generous, offering 7-9 a.m. chair access to the two race teams, thus reducing their footprint on the mountain during regular hours. This also allowed race training to end sooner, thus easing lunchroom crowding.

World Cup Update — U.S. racers had a good week. The big news is that Ryan Cochran-Siegle has hit his stride, notching his first career gold medal in the super-G at Bormio. He was followed by Travis Ganong in 15th.

Cochran-Siegle also won both downhill training runs this week by convincing margins. He finished seventh in the actual race, three tenths of a seconds off the lead. Think about that for a minute. The 60 fastest downhillers in the world run a two-mile course at speeds approaching 80 mph and the top seven finishers are within .3 seconds.

Mikaela Shiffrin took the slalom bronze at Semmering after winning the first run. Nina O’Brien posted her first top 10, placing ninth. Katie Hensien was 27th.

Independence Junior Race Series — Registration continues for the race series. Again, a reminder … registration closes today. We have a plan endorsed by the mountain for circumventing your COVID-19 concerns. Do bear in mind that racers will need face masks when in the lift lines or riding the lifts.

The first day (Friday, Jan. 8) will be a coached, “learn to race” clinic followed by timed runs through the NASTAR course. The following three Friday evenings (January 15, 22 and 29) will center on the race course, with coaching both in the gates and between runs.

Each member of the winning team receives medals and everyone gets a neat T-shirt at the final party. The goal is having fun and making friends. A great deal at a very low price of $45.

Registration is limited to 80 kids, so act now! Registration forms are available at the Alpine Shop or contact Shep Snow at 208-290-6370. Don’t call after Jan. 1.

Potpourri — OK, this is bad. I received a note today advising me that 12:01 Friday morning will be the first time in history that hindsight is actually 20:20. Any comments, recommendations or contributions to this column may be sent to Shep Snow by email at shep@thesnowschool.com. Negative feedback should be sent to someone else.