This winter we decided to have Josiah participate with the Yosemite Winter Club Ski Team at Badger Pass. But what we didn't know, is that we would be hooked!! Adalie desperately wanted to be part of the team also, but rules are you have to be able to load and unload the chairlift by yourself. And seeing as the chairs, most of the time, only come up to her back and she has to be lifted on, it was a no go for Adalie. The up side of that, it was fun to give her all our attentions while Josiah was training with her team.
Josiah skied most every Saturday with the team and improved leaps and bounds each week. In a few short weeks, she was skiing faster and harder. Seth and I could barely catch her. She seemed to have no fear, but even tough falls didn't slow her down. She had caught the downhill bug!
With her new found talents, she got invited to participate in the last race of the season hosted at Badger Pass. We accepted and joined the whirlwind of racing! We learned how to slip a race course, how the flow of the races run, which way to travel around the poles, and that icy snow is alot more fun for racing than slushy.
The first day of racing, Josiah missed a gate on her very first run and was DQed. However, she skied well on both her races that day. What we didn't know, was that a DQ on 1 race was a DQ for the day and that meant she was not in medal contention. Boy was she disappointed that first night as we watched all the medal winners, knowing she had skied hard enough and fast enough to at least be in the running. But, we encouraged her to focus on the next day's races and we hoped she would catch all her gates.
Her 1st run of the last day's races was not super fast, but it was clean which kept her in the game. She wanted a medal so badly!! We caught up with Daddy for some lunch. He had been a gate judge on the lower course and warned us to listen closely because many kids had DQed on this last race. Now mind you, the racers don't get to run the race course at all before they are timed and judged and each of the 4 courses they race are a little different. They get to "slip" the course, which is basically just taking a good look at it and visualizing your strategy. So I knew that she would have to understand the course in order to not miss a gate and DQ. She took one slip with a big group of racers. It was hard to hear and she seemed confused on the lower half of the course. So, I caught up with 1 of her coaches and told him she was still foggy on the lower half. He suggested they hurry over to the course and see if they could slip it 1 more time before it closed for racing. Just as we got to the top I heard one of the judges holler "keep #435 up here she is the 3rd racer!" I shoved her off the start hill with her coach for that coveted last slip and hollered back " she is already on the course with her coach!" whew... I had bought us 1 more look.
It was the last race and she was lined up, ready to go on the start hill. Talking with her coach and singing "take me down to the paradise city", she was ready and having fun. I watched her push up to the timer arm, put her poles in front and ready herself. Then she pushed off, the race had begun. I could only see the top of the course. She looked strong, but the trouble sections were towards the bottom. I waited.... then I heard "racer #435 cleared" and knew she had done it!!
Meanwhile, Adalie was chomping at the bit. We knew some of the younger siblings were going to be doing the "post runs" (unofficial races). Unfortunately, we had been told by 1 of the more conservative coaches that 5years old was sort of the unwritten rule in racing. So Adalie would have to wait another year. But after the first set of races on Saturday, the head coach invited Adalie to ski with the other 5 year olds in the next post run. She was ecstatic!! But since we had not found out until late in the day, she didn't have a racing bib. So she was titled "no number racer".
Now mind you that start hill is steep! One day in practice, in a very un-Adalie like manner, Adalie backed off the start hill and started down below. But when asked for her 1st post run if she wanted to start on the start hill or below it, she didn't hesitate in climbing the start hill, tucking right up next to the timing arm and pushing her poles in, ready to race. And she was awesome! At the end of her race, Seth and I met Adalie at the finish line excited to give her high fives, when the head racing judge walks toward us. He asks, "is this your kid?" Oh no, she has no number on, she is only 4 and we are busted.... wrong! After we finally claimed her, he pointed a serious finger at Seth and said "you need to get this girl in some serious racing now!"
The next morning Josiah's coach met us at the lodge with a racing bib just for Adalie. Apparently she had proved herself worthy of a number. And boy she couldn't be more excited about that!! By the end of the weekend, she had successfully whooped all the 5year olds in her class..... unofficially of course!!
SO Josiah had run both her races clean, but would it be enough? We didn't have time to check the score boards before the awards ceremony began. We quickly learned that 6 year olds don't medal. They are pushed into the 7-8year old class. We were beginning to lose hope. Her class was called. 10th place, 9th place, 8th place..... I thought to myself, "oh no, she had wanted this so badly, she had put all her heart into it... but she won't be medaling..." Then we heard, "And 7th place goes to Yosemite Winter Club Racer JOSIE WALTNER!" Oh how our hearts lept for joy!! She had done it!! She stood up with that medal around her neck and a smile from ear to ear!!
All said and done, the girls had a great season, a great weekend of racing and both received an invitation to join the travelling team!! OH BOY.......
