Shelly,
How to handle the down hills: Glob Klister and wax onto soft camber skis. That should check your speed on the downhills quite nicely, and allow you to climb those uphills like Spiderman. I was skiing out of wave 5, and I made it all the way until the very end of the race without falling, and then I fell on that last downhill after Duffy's field before crossing the road. I skidded to a stop on my side about 6 feet from the road, and one of the volunteers said something like, "hey guy, your the first skier we've seen fall here", and I was thinking, "come on fellas, I'm as surprised as you are, and yet here I am, lying on my side."
I saw one guy fly past me on one of those early downhills you were talking about, and he was going so fast! he was hyper ventilating, going "wow boy, wow boy" and stepping around the turn, over and across those berms. he skied down the hill so much faster than everybody else, that people started cheering and congratulating him! I wish I had a medal I could have given to him right then and there for a spectacularly crazy downhill run.
In the Noquemenon, on one particularly bad turn just before crossing under the bridge, I flew off the course, over a 5 foot snow embankment, and onto a paved road with about a 1/4 inch of snow on it. I think I might have been the only skier to actually clear the embankment that day.
Sean
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