ASPEN — The women of the U.S. Ski Team make their living carving up unforgiving race courses that leave little room for improvisation, so when an epic snowstorm gives them a day to feel free, they’re ready to rip.
When a thigh-deep dump postponed Friday’s World Cup downhill on Ajax, many of them spent the morning frolicking in some of the deepest powder they had plowed in years.
So did I, forcing myself to ski ridiculous depths of frothy snow for hours on end when I should have been holed up in a gloomy hotel press room, pounding on the laptop.
“Is it bad that I’m not bummed at all?” a gleeful Kaylin Richardson said of the canceled race. “I’ve never had face shots like this.”
In town, the snow fell heavy and turned quickly to slush. But at the top of venerable Ajax, it was deep and remarkably light. Spiraling clouds of spindrift spun from the racers’ helmets as they dropped into the powder, their lower bodies hidden in a wispy blanket of white.
“Huge face shots,” Libby Ludlow said. “I was choking my first run — it was insane.”
They had to rent powder boards, but that was a small price to pay.
“The best powder day in a couple of years,” Stacey Cook said.
Even Picabo Street was blown away. The former World Cup downhill champion was in town with former ski team athletes Donna Weinbrecht and Jonna Mendes, holding a women’s ski clinic to benefit the team.
“I can honestly say that (Friday) in Aspen was probably one of the top five days I’ve had skiing in my life,” Street said. “I’ve had a lot of people say the same thing. Better keep your momentum and be ready for some face shots. It was inevitable to get face shots.”
The storm was a decidedly mixed blessing. Here was Aspen, a town with a long and rich ski racing history, trying to hold its first World Cup downhill since 1994. World Cup officials moved the downhill to Saturday, canceling a super-G scheduled that day, and they barely got the race off Saturday.
Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria and Anne-Sophie Barthet of France wound up in the hospital with knee injuries, and World Cup official Atle Skaardal took heat for allowing the race to go on. Austrian coach Herbert Mandl accused Skaardal of indifference to racer safety.
But if you didn’t have to race, the storm was a godsend.
Greg Johnson, who manages the race and events department for Beaver Creek, enjoyed the powder while empathizing with the crew at Aspen. Only two weeks earlier, he had been fretting about getting the Birds of Prey track covered. Now his Aspen counterparts were desperately trying to clear their course of snow they gladly would have done without.
Former U.S. Ski Team downhiller Casey Puckett, now a skiercross star, spent the morning playing in the powder. So did Finnish racer Tanja Poutiainen. One of her companions wondered aloud if their skis would be buried in powder and impossible to find after they took a break at Sunspot.
The Germans were out playing, and so were the Canadians.
“It was a rare treat,” said Canada’s Britt Janyk, who would win the rescheduled downhill on Saturday. “We don’t get a lot of chances to go out and powder ski and do what we love doing.”
It was the kind of day that reminded us all why we fell in love with skiing, why we love to go out and play in the snow even when it’s cold and nasty and wet and you can’t admire the gorgeous views from the top of the mountain because it’s socked in with storm clouds.
As U.S. slalom ace Resi Stiegler put it, it was the kind of day that “fuels my soul,” the kind of day that makes you feel alive and young. I relished listening to my cellphone tone with incoming e-mails I duly ignored, and tried not to think about the price I would pay later for putting off the writing I should have been doing.
I made sure to hit the trails named after 10th Mountain vets Pete Seibert and Steve Knowlton, honoring the memory of those great Aspen pioneers. When I got sucked into a tree well on Knowlton’s and got stuck, I got the sense he suckered me in there for a good laugh. If you knew Steve, you understand.
I never ski Ajax without feeling the great history of that mountain. I love it for that heritage, and because it’s such a burly, athletic mountain.
I’ve had a lot of great days there, but last Friday was the best ever.
