Durango High School welcomed hundreds of skiers from around the state to the Colorado High School Activities Association state skiing championships Wednesday night with a torchlight parade and fireworks. As the snow fell, it also helped dampen Durango’s big hopes of two days of skiing.
With multiple feet of snow in the forecast for Purgatory Resort and the Durango Nordic Center, CHSAA made the decision to run both alpine events – giant slalom and slalom – on Thursday instead of having giant slalom Thursday and slalom Friday.
A decision to potentially condense the entire state championships to only one day will be made by 4 p.m. Thursday when the Nordic 5-kilometer classic race is set to be held.
Girls giant slalom will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday at Purgatory Resort. The boys will immediately follow. Slalom is then scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m. Thursday with the girls to go first followed by the boys.
Instead of each skier completing two runs in each discipline, only one run will be held. If the weather allows, the second run of each event will be completed Friday. No official results will be released until a decision is made on Friday’s weather.
“Nordic will be as scheduled Thursday and Friday,” DHS athletic director Adam Bright said. “The alpine events, we will do one run of each Thursday. If the weather holds out, we will do the same schedule Friday. The second run of each would have to be canceled for official results to be posted based on the one-run times.”
Due to an expected several feet of snow, the state ski championships schedule has been altered:
— Ryan Casey (@jryancasey) February 21, 2019
Thursday:
Girls at 9 am - GS
Boys following
Slalom starts at 12:15
Girls first, boys following
One run each discipline tomorrow.
The meet may have to condense to one day. #copreps
As of 8 p.m. Wednesday, no change had been officially made to the Nordic schedule. The girls mass start race is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the Durango Nordic Center, followed by the boys at 3 p.m. However, Bright said the Nordic race times may be pushed back to accommodate the longer day of alpine racing.
Thursday afternoon, a decision will be made on condensing the state championships or letting the rest of the competition continue Friday.
“For Alpine, if the snow is knee-deep already in the afternoon and it’s going to snow the rest of the night and we can’t get a cat on the race course to move snow around, then we know it will be too heavy and way too much powder and we won’t have a way to do it Friday,” Bright said.
With the schedule in limbo, spirits were still high during Wednesday’s opening ceremony, and Friday’s night’s awards banquet and closing ceremony at the Fort Lewis College Ballroom will go on as scheduled.
“There’s a good vibe,” Bright said after the opening ceremony at Chapman Hill. “Once we turned the lights off at Chapman, everyone was excited. Big shout out to Chapman Hill, the city, the fire department and Dale Garland for being a DJ extraordinare. Anytime we get fireworks in Durango off in the snow, it’s pretty cool.”
For more information on schedule changes and coverage of the state skiing championships, stay tuned to www.durangoherald.com.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
