a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/bert@rest-762610.JPG”img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;” src=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/bert@rest-762600.JPG” alt=”” border=”0″ //abr /To begin with, I love winter. This weekend was a reminder of that fact. When work, travel, race day anxiety and other stresses build a wall over which it is hard to see winter, it is refreshing to have a weekend like this last one to revive the feeling.br /br /To begin with. The skiing was great. Not a lot of new, soft snow, but a great surface prepared by people who care and want to do a good job. If you have not skied in the Ketchum/Sun Valley area, it can be a real treat. Then there is the challenge of figuring out the snow and the wax, always a challenge there due to the nature of the Northern Rockies snow crystals and weather. I learned again that I should follow my own advise better and wax colder than I think. My skis were good. Could have been great. I learn and that is good.br /br /As far as Team SOLDA/WEBSKIS made out, pretty good results at Boulder. Brad Bauer, Seattle, was 9th over all in a very strong field. Brad was 1st in men age 30-34. Dan Packman, Bend, was 43rd over all and 3rd in men 40-44. Kathleen Kretz, Bend, was 3rd for women 40-44, 22nd overall for women. Dave Knoop, Park City, was 2nd in men 50-54 with Larry Katz, Bend, in 8th in that stong class. I was 11th in men 60-64, 20 minutes faster than last year. The winning times this year were 7 min faster than last year. Nice to know I am getting faster at something other than falling asleep watching the news after work. Kerie Raymond coached, chaperoned and also raced to a time of 2:10 for the 32 KM.br /br /Farther afield, Pat Lanin won his age group, 70-74, in the Mora Vasa Loppett in Minnesota. That is a 42 km classic race. Solda F31 Violet covered with S20 was gliding fast and Rex Blue Klister covered with Rode Green was kicking hard.br /br /Cynthia Engel finished her stay in France at the Masters World Cup with a 7th place in her age group on a goopy 30 km skate race. We are an international team ;-)br /br /Early Sunday morning I left Hailey, Idaho and headed toward Oregon. Not much traffic. Sky blue, no wind. Holly Wow!! The shadows in the folds of those open Idaho hills were deep blue agains the sparkle of a dusting perfect flakes. There had been fog, now lifted, and every branch and twig was encased in a white sheath. Telephone poles in both sides of the road were laced together with strands of crystal. A coyote loped along on the glittering surface. As I said, I love winter.br /br /Have a good one,br /br /Bertdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6589659500745667109-3278393915835977346?l=www.webskis.com%2Fwebskisblog.html’//div
