SMC Carnival Alpine Recap: Slalom at Smuggler's Notch

This morning brought even colder temperatures than yesterday as EISA’s best and brightest prepared to duke it out on Black Snake for slalom supremacy. A sweet surface, plunging pitch, and hammer-ready final flat presented racers with a welcome challenge, while a bluebird sky and blazing sun gave coaches and spectators some much-needed warmth.

The University of Vermont had a massive day, with three Catamount men and all five women finishing in the top 10 (and two men and two women in the top three) for their respective fields. Although the surface didn’t hold up as well as yesterday—a FIS slalom ski has dug quite the trench after a few dozen racers—some higher bibs nonetheless lit up their afterburners and skied into impressive finishes. Special mention goes to Chauncey Morgan of Colby College, who ripped into 5th place from bib 43.

In the EISA men’s field, St. Michael’s freshman Eirik Kveno led a clinic on how to bend ‘em on his home hill with a third-place finish. UVM’s Mathias Tefre laid down the second-place run, and teammate Joachim Jagge Lindstoel—a veritable titan on the circuit—grabbed his third win of the season (Lindstoel won both races last weekend at Sugarloaf, but DNF’d in yesterday’s GS race). Lindstoel smoked his competition with more than half a second on Tefre and a full 1.18 seconds on Kveno.

Lindstoel laying it over at the 2020 season's Harvard Carnival (Image courtesy of flyingpointroad.com)

In the women’s field, Justine Clement and Moa Clementson of UVM got third and second place, respectively. And although the EISA podiums were awash with UVM’s green and gold today, it was Middlebury’s Lucia Bailey who nabbed first place in the women’s race. After three consecutive second place finishes (two at the Colby and one in the GS race yesterday), Bailey finally got the chance to check out view from the top with a 0.3 second lead over Clementson.

This next weekend is the season’s off weekend, and skiers will get a chance to take a short break from carnival racing to get everything locked down and dialed in before UVM hosts their carnival up at Stowe on February 4 and 5. Stay tuned for a new pair of Skiers of the Week!