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Aspen puts finishing touches on World Cup course

Elise Thatcher

  Some of the fasted ski racers in the world will take on Aspen Mountain this weekend, when the resort once again hosts the women’s FIS Ski World Cup. We stopped by on Tuesday to see how the course is coming along.

 

  “We’re finishing lots of the installation, this big scaffold is for the giant TV screen,” explains Jim Hancock, Chief of Race for this weekend’s Aspen Winternational. He’s in charge of making sure everything goes smoothly before, during, and after the events this weekend, and has worked on World Cup races here since 1982.

On a ride up Lift 1A, Hancock’s phone rings non-stop, often answering detailed questions about the final preparations. Then he heads to the top of the Giant Slalom course, where the pros will race their hearts out on Friday. He describes our location as “basically the top of Spring Pitch Run, and the bottom of Aztec.”

Hancock points to the carefully groomed corduroy, saying “we now have the surface that we want, and we hopefully will not put the cats on it any more until the race.” This is after weeks of snowmaking and prepping for the big weekend, “and from now on, all the skiers that come down, we’ll go sideways and look for any tiny little ridges and smooth them out so we just get the most perfect smooth surface that we can.” The best way to do that is by side slipping over over those bumps. “ I’ll just put my feet right on the ridge, that’s where the most pressure is,” he demonstrates. “You go sideways and... push it out.”

In other words, a small legion of ski coaches, employees, and others are putting in the almost-finishing touches by carefully smoothing out the course by foot-- or ski, rather. The competition here could come down to a fraction of a second.

This weekend’s World Cup races begin Friday, with the women’s Giant Slalom. The GS race is at 10 a.m on Friday, followed by finals at 1 p.m. On Saturday, the slalom is at 10:15 a.m. with finals at 1:15 p.m. Sunday will see a second slalom race at 10 a.m, and finals at 1 p.m.

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