Mother Nature has not been kind to New England to start off the winter. That said, I wanted to provide an update on the scheduled Wachusett GS race on Friday, Jan. 14th.
Wachusett has informed us that we will not be able to hold our GS race on Smith Walton because there is currently little to no snow on Upper Smith. Currently there is decent coverage on Lower Smith, which is where NEMS will be holding our camp next week. With Lower Smith available, we are looking at changing the scheduled GS race, into a 2 x SL race. There are some other challenges we will need to work through over the next few days to determine if that will work, but we are trying to make the best out of the situation we are facing.
What does a SL race on Lower Smith look like? While it would lack a serious pitch (can’t do much about that), the trail is actually a blast to run SL on. Racers should expect somewhere around a 45-60 second course with lots of rolling terrain and variety. There is nothing boring about it, and it would be a great course to start off the season to help build your confidence in SL gates, if it happens.
We should have a final decision on Wed. evening (Jan. 5th), so keep an eye out for updates, and let's hope the weather starts to improve.
Thanks,
Matt Mitsis