Eastern Masters Battle it Out for the Regional Champion Title

Thank you to Carol Tomassetti for this writeup!

Leading into the weekend for the Dunkin' Eastern Regional Championships, Mother Nature was up to her 2024 tricks and game plan, dumping pouring rain all day Wednesday and into the wee hours on Thursday.  The Gore team leveraged lots of salt and many years of experience to pull off the races despite all the precipitation Wednesday and Thursday which foiled the plans to move snow or groom.  Thursday John Pierce shared some super helpful SG tactics and the folks that were there early, helped carry salt and slip the course before the salt solidified.  The hard work paid off, allowing us to still have two SG's on Friday.  The SG's counted towards the National Speed Series, so it's great that the East managed to get those races in.  Saturday's GS was a bit of a rough ride but we still managed to get the race off.  Saturday night while we were at our party, the precipitation started as rain and turned to around 8 inches of wet gloppy snow for Sunday's SL.  Gore groomed at midnight and a 6 am which allowed the show to go on.  It still required the team to fix lots of b-net that had fallen over, not to mention some pretty rigorous course maintenance.   All in all everyone had a great time and we are most grateful to Rich Burnley and his team at Gore for working so hard to make the races happen despite the weather.  In addition to Mid-Atlantic racers, we had Jay Knox from Canada join us as well as racers from Intermountain, Southern Masters, NY Masters and New England Masters.  

We wish both JP Madarasz and Patti Lane a speedy recovery from their injury.  You guys are warriors and we look forward to seeing you back on the hill soon.   

Eastern Regional Championship Results: usalpinemasters.org/2024/er

A big thank you to our sponsor Dunkin' and Alex Smigelski who made the sponsorship happen.  The medals and tops the Eastern Team winners receive were sponsored by Dunkin' as was the Dunkin' swag and gift certificates.  A big thank you to Lauren Beckos our US Ski & Snowboard lead for making the trip and for all her help, getting medals, the banner and the Hydroflask racer gift.   John Pierce was with us all weekend, providing hints and tips during inspection, he officiated and was there to help the crew from Gore across the whole weekend.  A big thank you to all the racers that help slip, take down b-net, carry salt, you name it.  Being helpful like this is so important for us being welcomed back to a mountain in the future.   Thanks also to everyone that helped across the weekend, we are most appreciative for your help and support:
Banners: Paul Fowser
Referees: John Pierce, Dan Scuderi and Alex Smigelski
TD: Bill Bolte
Registration: Gail Bolte, Greg Gallup, Maureen Viglielmo, Joel Evans (boyfriend of Hannah otherwise known as The First Man)
On hill help: Gail Bolte, John Pierce
Friday Night Party & Scoring: Ryan Whitson
Welcome bags: Sandra Schwinzer, Karen Sanderson
Photos: Mark Phillips, Liam Moya, Lars Knudsen, Kathy Hart
Event Planning, Banquet, Announcing, Custom Brushes and lots of other stuff: Hannah Knudsen
Scoring & Results: Deb Lewis, Lauren Beckos, Ryan Whitson
Event Planning, Flier, Ability class vetting and lots of other stuff: Connor Carreras


You can find pictures from the weekend at the following locations:
Misc Photos across the weekend: Google Drive  
Mark Phillips race photos from SG
Mark Phillips race photos from GS
Mark Phillips photos from SL