My 11 year old son’s first ski cross race

[unclebilly]

My son did his first ski cross race on Saturday.

For those that don’t know what ski cross is, imagine this…

A bobsled track made of pure ice, about 20’ wide and with jumps. Oh and they send 4 kids at once and they race to the bottom.

It’s awesome to watch, and the kids LOVED it!



They ran 4 heats and those with the most points carried on to the round robin finals.

This was his last heat and he is in the red bib. He finished up 3rd but was reeling in 2nd. He had a bit of a crappy start and didn’t nail the first jump otherwise he could have won it. He’s super proud of where he finished up (mid pack), he had a ton of fun, and prefers this to slalom and giant slalom racing gates for the best time.

Top of the course:



Bottom of the course:

[Ayles]

This is great! What mountain?

My son is in his 5th season of skiing/lessons and I dont have any doubts I wont be able to keep up with him by the time hes 10.

[Tishabet]

Super cool!

[unclebilly]

That race was at Sunridge in Edmonton (hardly a mountain). Our home hill is Castle Mountain.

Both of my kids were skiing double blacks by 6 years old, including Desperado, the run with the most vertical drop in North America (my then 6 year old daughter had a bad wreck on that run 2 years ago). The kids are both in a race program and train 2-3 (usually 2) times per week.

I can’t keep up with either of them anymore. My knee reconstruction a year ago set me back and they have continued to improve.

[Ayles]

Sounds like a lot like my son, hes ridden double blacks at 7yo. Though he took a tumble at the top of one last year where he didnt get hurt but it definitely shook him up. Alpental is our home mountain, its also known for its extremely steep terrain.

[unclebilly]

Alpental looks awesome! I’ e always wanted to ski snoqualmie. I see that the snoqualmie resorts aren’t on the Powder Alliance anymore. There was some great hills on there before Covid.

[Ayles]

Castle mountain looks incredible per the trail maps. Quite a decent amount of challenging terrain.

Alpental is great, very old school. Which is one aspect I really enjoy. All we need now is some precip. The 6 feet we got in early December is 2/3 gone and the last two weekends have been damn near spring skiing conditions.

[unclebilly]

We had spring conditions in January today at Castle. Also an old school hill and that’s what I love about it.

[Tim Hancock]

Love it.... At 55, I would sign up for one of those in a heart beat if they had those type of races where we ski. Still have an informal "Chinese Downhill" once a year at our college gang annual ski trip. I always win but now it is not as challenging as the other guys are starting to ski like old grandpas for some reason. lol

Racing head to head in any type of racing is always the most exciting. Awesome that you encourage your son to race!

[ZOO]

One of the best sports at the Olympics these days . . . So much intensity and drama!