World Championships of Snow Slalom

While those poor Californicators endured tacky loam today, we Boulderites got to ride snow and ice.

Joey. Course A.

Santa Cruz, CA: 60 degrees and sunny

Boulder, CO: 20 degrees and cloudy

Brrr. We here in Boulder are restless! With the last snow starting to pack down, Steve Wentz rallied the troops for the first occasional World Championships of Snow Slalom.

It was best of two runs, in two classes:

• Modified – spike tires

• Stock – regular tires

The spike tires made a HUGE difference. I wouldn’t say spikes make snow riding easy, but they make it a bit less random.

Brian Buell rocks some modified action.

Course A

Old school slalom. Just place the markers and rip. In this case, place the markers and slip. The icy off cambers rewarded careful line choice and mature speed modulation.

Modified
1. Steve
2. TJ
3. Neven
4. Brian (but he lost a shoe)

Stock
1. Me, Lee
2. Lisa
3. Rudy
4. Joey
5. Arthur
6. Bama
7. Jess
8. Alex
9. Rob

Hey, um, Joey? … Yeah, that “berm” is made of snow.

Course B

New school. David dug ruts in a couple turns, and the aggressive riders attacked them like they were dirt. He also dug a set of speed trenches coming out of Turn 3, which were brutal. WHAM – BAM – BAM! People were losing it all over the place.

Modified
1 Steve
2 TJ
3 Brian
4 Mike
5 Neven

Stock
– Joey and Alex tied for first then did a head-to-head tie breaker.
1. Joey
2. Alex
3. Me, Lee
4. Rudy
5. Mari
6. Rob
7. Lisa
8. Bama
9. Jess
10. Arthur

I know what I’m supposed to do, but on snow it doesn’t always work out. Photo by Lisa Myklak.

The modified World Champ is definitely Steve Wentz. In the stock class, I guess I get it for consistency, but Joey and Alex flat killed it on Course B.

Steve: Thanks for wrangling the crew. David: Thanks for the timing and course work.

What a fun day. So nice to get out.

See also: Snow slalom – on bikes!