Waking up at 6:30 on Wednesday morning, I headed to Stowe for the NCAA Skiing Championships. The giant slalom, men's 10k nordic, and women's 5k nordic races were pushed up a day because of impending weather. It was a beautiful day on the mountain with plenty of sunshine in the morning. With three different races to cover in two different places, it made for a hectic day...
Women's giant slalom was the first thing in the morning. When I got there, I strapped on my snowboard and got on the lift. It's much easier riding down to the race course then hiking up. I found a good spot to sit and waited for the race to begin. As soon as that was done, I raced down to the parking lot, got in my car and headed over to the Trapp Family Lodge where the men's 10k nordic race was. I made it just in time to catch the start. This was my first time shooting a nordic eventso I was a little nervous going into it. It ended up being very simular to cross country running do I quickly learned how to photograph it. Getting good photos from the race was a challenge, but luckily I had two laps to figure it out.
After the 10k was done I had a little time to kill before the women's 5k so I went back to my office (the car) to do some photo editing. Just as I was about to make my way back to the course for the womens race, I decided to start the car. After one turn of the key, the battery died. Neddless to say, I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to make it back to the mountain for the mens giant slalom race. I tried to look for jumper cables a bit but then decided that I would at least get some photos of the women's race and deal with the car after that.
At the end of the women's race and with only a few minutes to spare, I ran back to my car to see if I could get lucky and get it to start. To my surprise, when I turned the key, the car started (just barely). I hopped in and took off for the mountain.
When I got to Spruce Peak, the parking lots were full and the race was just moments away. I was directed to another parking lot where I quickly got my stuff together and ran to another lift. I made it to the course and I only missed a couple of racers. Of course I did miss the run by Vermont's Kevin Drury, who came it second place. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes in this business. Here are some shots from the day...
