The 2018 EISA Alpine Ski season was due to begin today at Colby College’s Carnival: clear skies and mild temps greeted skiers this morning, but — as is often the case — Sugarloaf’s distinct weather system had something in mind other than ski racing.
Soon enough, the winds arrived. Gusts high on the mountain were reportedly well above 50 m.p.h. Conditions were too precarious to allow chairlift access to Narrow Gauge, and the Giant Slalom (GS) race was canceled.
Interestingly, last week’s Nordic season-opener was similarly foiled by weather. The Nordic teams were able to pull off a race during the second scheduled day of competition, and the alpine teams are hoping for similar success.
The Sugarloaf race crew is preparing for a variety of options. Ideally, tomorrow will feature a GS race. If the weather is too extreme to ferry athletes high up the mountain to the GS start — yet mild enough to run lifts lower on the mountain — a slalom race will be attempted. But, one thing to bet on at Sugarloaf is that you should never bet on the weather. If there’s another day of wind like today…well, we’ll have to wait and see.