Baby blue skies. Soft, grippy snow. Blazing sun, zero wind. You might think I’m describing the ideal spring day to hit the slopes, but this was what improbably awaited EISA alpine skiers today at day one of the Colby Carnival up at Sugarloaf--not a mountain known for tropical weather or delightful January conditions. Beneath that soft upper layer of snow was one heck of a surface just waiting to be unleashed on the race hill, making it a pretty solid day for anyone wishing to unleash some heroic GS arcs down the headwall and show the ‘loaf what was up.
As the race ended, UVM and Middlebury had one skier each their on the podium. Dartmouth provided three, and our formidable Canadian neighbors to the north provided the sixth with Quebecker Justine Clement.
In women’s giant slalom, Dartmouth’s Tricia Mangan once again climbed into the top three with the second fastest first run (59.84 seconds) and third fastest second run (1:02.80). Teammate Claire Thomas added some nice symmetry to the mix with the third fastest first run (59.87) but second fastest second run (1:02.51), sliding into second place 0.4 seconds ahead of Mangan. The aforementioned Clement got off to a (relatively) slow start with the eighth fastest first run (1:00.52), but turned on her afterburners for the fastest second run by almost 0.8 seconds (1:01.72).
In men’s GS, Middlebury could once again count on junior Erik Arvidsson to make it onto the podium—he came off a GS win last week at the UVM carnival to take third place today with the sixth fastest first run (58.88 seconds) and fastest second run (1:00.78). UVM’s star freshman Jagge Lindstoel showed his stripes with deadly-consistent second place first and second runs (58.45 and 1:01.07, respectively). In first place, winning it all for Dartmouth, was sophomore Andrew Miller. Miller earned his first podium of the season with the fastest overall first run (58.03) and third fastest second run (1:01.29), winning the giant slalom by two tenths of a second.
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