TOP 5 FRIDAYS: JANUARY 3, 2020
#1: FIS World Cup Ski Racing Recap: Shiffrin Shines, Ryan Cochran-Siegle Continues Development
Another week, another podium for Shiffrin. What else is new? Image: Mikaela Shiffrin on Facebook
Much unlike two weeks ago, this past week was a whirlwind of action on the FIS World Cup Ski Racing circuit, for both the American women and men’s teams. First up, as always, is a recap of Mikaela Shiffrin’s most recent superhuman accomplishments. As you may recall, Shiffrin spent the previous weekend training for the two technical events being hosted in Lienz this past weekend, while her competitors were struck with some bad luck and spent their weekend hoping the weather would clear up enough to compete. Ultimately, the races scheduled for two weekends ago were cancelled, resulting in Shiffrin putting in an extra weekend of training while her competitors sat idle.
While we’ll never know how much those circumstances mattered in last weekend’s races, we do know that Shiffrin found herself on top of the podium for both the Slalom and Giant Slalom races. In doing so, she remained undefeated in Slalom events this season, continued to grow her lead in the overall standings, and tied Lindsey Vonn’s record for the most wins in a single discipline with her 43rd Slalom victory. With all of that in mind, perhaps the most impressive part of Shiffrin’s weekend ultimately had nothing to do with her athleticism. In a story from the New York Times this week, we got a small glimpse into what makes Shiffrin as impressive of a role model as she is an athlete. Shortly after completing her first Giant Slalom run, Shiffrin hopped on a chairlift and met with teammate Nina O’Brien at the top of the course to offer support and advice. To read more about that anecdote, check out the story here. To see Shifrin’s weekends results, click here. Finally, to check out the schedule for this weekend’s Slalom race in Zagreb, click here.
On the men’s side, things were also pretty exciting for U.S. Ski Team member (and Vermont local) Ryan Cochran-Siegle. As you might recall, we were able to get a glimpse of last weekend’s races in last week’s recap as an additional Downhill race was added to the beginning of the race schedule as the result of a prior cancellation. In that race, American Travis Ganong finished 8th, while Ryan Cochran-Siegle (RCS) secured 11th. As it turned out, RCS was just getting started. A day later, he matched his result in a second Downhill race, finishing 11th once again. The following day (12/29) offered a slew of races in which to prove himself as the men competed in both an Alpine Combined and Super G event. In the Alpine Combined race, RCS notched his highest career finish ever, landing in 5th place. Later in the day, he managed to source enough energy to log yet another top 15 finish by securing 13th in the Super G event. Recapping his list of results, RCS managed to finish within the top 15 in all four of the weekend’s events, with a career best 5th place finish included in the mix. With his strong performance in Bormio, RCS now ranks 10th in the overall World Cup standings. For a Men’s U.S. Team that came into the season with more questions than answers, it’s extremely encouraging to see RCS begin to prove himself at a high level. This weekend, the men will head to Zagreb to compete in a Slalom race before heading to Italy’s Madonna di Campiglio for a nighttime Slalom race next Wednesday. As always, best of luck to Ryan Cochran-Siegle as well as the rest of the U.S. Men’s Team in the week ahead!
#2: Northstar Resort Sued Over Newly Introduced Paid Parking Policy:
A view of Northstar Resort, where crowds and parking congestion have become problematic in recent years. Image: Northstar Resort on Facebook
Next up in ski news is an update from a story we first brought to you the beginning of October, when Northstar Resort in Tahoe, CA announced that they’d be implementing a paid parking policy in an effort to reduce parking congestion at the resort. While you can read the details of the policy update here, the long and short of it is that guests are being charged $10-$40 for non-valet parking depending on how close they’d like to park to the base of the resort. For guests unwilling to pay, the resort offers a free shuttle service from an off-mountain lot.
This week, we learned that two seasons pass holders to the resort, one of which whom also happens to be a lawyer, have taken issue with the policy and have decided to challenge it in court by filing a lawsuit against Northstar’s parent company, Vail. As it turns out, the two have a reasonable argument: the paid parking policy wasn’t announced until after they’d purchased their season passes, and the resort refuses to offer a refund due to the change in policy. While it’s indisputable that Northstar maintains the right to charge for parking for all passes sold after the announcement date, the two men behind the lawsuit allege that paid parking was not part of the agreement they entered into at the time of purchase, and therefore cannot be enforced retroactively. The core of their argument hinges on the fact that, had they known they’d be charged an additional daily rate for parking, they may not have purchased a season pass to Northstar. As far as the bigger picture goes in regards to a potential trend of paid parking at ski resorts, this lawsuit is likely to have little impact beyond forcing ski resorts to make such announcements well before season passes go on sale. Still, it’s an interesting case, and one that could affect the parking situation for the current season at Northstar. For more on this, check out the recap from the Salt Lake Tribune.
#3: Colorado Sun Highlights How Women Are Shaping the Ski Industry:
Based solely on appearances in our Top 5 Friday recaps, we’re assuming that someone got a promotion or made an incredible hire over at the Colorado Sun in 2019. While there’s a strong chance we’re totally wrong about that, the fact remains that within the last year, The Colorado Sun has been putting out consistently great articles. This week continued that trend as the publication shared an article discussing the importance of women in the ski industry. Unlike previous articles of a similar nature, this writeup from The Colorado Sun dives deep behind the scenes, citing numerous women in various high level positions, ranging from executive directors to sports agents, all in an effort to draw a subtle yet powerful conclusion: women are reshaping the entirety of the ski experience.
Without getting too invested in telling this story for them (as you should really give it a full read over on their website), it’s worth discussing what that statement implies. For decades ski resorts operated on a simple premise: stick a motorized chairlift on a mountain, and charge people to ride it to the top. As we all know, the current shape of the ski industry is vastly different. From the development of small communities at the base of mountains, to multi passes and year round recreation, ski resorts are becoming increasingly focused on building experiences centered around mountain culture just as much as they are about shuttling people to the top of mountains. Of course that’s not to suggest women are the reason more resorts offer mountain biking in the Summer, but with women leading 8 of Vail’s resorts, Kelly Pawlak leading the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA), Meegan Moszynski acting as executive director of the National Ski Patrol, and countless others steering winter based non-profits and occupying board seats, it would be hard to suggest that women haven’t played a significant role in transforming the ski industry into one based more around experiences than simply plopping people on mountain tops. Again, we’re not going to be able to do the full article justice here, but if you’d like to learn more about this well presented perspective, we encourage you to give the full article a read over at the Colorado Sun!
#4: The Life of Lexi duPont: the Skier & Environmentalist With a Complicated Family History:
Speaking of powerful women in the ski industry, we have the pleasure of ending this week’s news with a very interesting interview of Lexi duPont: a skier, environmentalist, and member of the duPont family, of DuPont Corporation fame. If those three identifiers didn’t fully register with you, go back and reread them with careful consideration as to how they might intertwine. Complicated, right?
For those not fully aware, DuPont is a chemical company that specializes in creating products for both businesses and consumers. Amongst their greatest success stories are things like: Styrofoam, Kevlar, Tyvek, and of course, GORE-TEX. In other words, for a skier and conservationist such as Lexi, being a member of the duPont family is a seemingly difficult dichotomy to navigate. On one hand, her passions are centered around environmentalism and mountain culture. On the other, her family’s business has at times had a negative impact on the very environment she strives to care for. As it turns out though, she’s been able to make sense of her world by relying on one simple concept that her parents began instilling in her from an early age (and one that we try to preach here as well): there are two sides to every coin. Her interview is fascinating, and the way she’s balanced her family’s legacy with her passion for environmentalism is nothing short of remarkable. To read more about Lexi’s experiences as a professional skier, environmental efforts, and unshakable connection to one of the largest chemical companies in the world, check out her full interview with Freeskier.