Do you remember all of the mess we went through trying to get to Lenzerheide? Yeah, me neither. That mental trauma is all gone now, replaced with so many wonderful memories from our time in the Swiss Alps. I mean…we even met and sort of began to like Sascha and Maurin…
If you didn’t go, you truly missed out on an amazing time. I wouldn’t know where to begin to try to explain just how much fun we had. But…I’ll try.
There were 48 of us that made our way to Lenzerheide. Our first gathering was for the Parade of Teams. It was a beautiful and chaotic chorus of over 600 attendees making their way along the short parade route to the Opening Ceremony. Local school children were ringing bells and telling us stories of their lives and culture in Switzerland. This giant crowd actually managed remain quiet long enough to hear a group of Alpenhorns play their entire album…twice! And Delta’s Michael Pearson moved us all to tears with his beautiful memorial to Jodie Lemmer.
I know that I can speak for Kelli when I say how grateful we are for our racers and other volunteers. It was important to the both of us that we came with a full race team. We even had a few people to spare. There are several airlines at the WASC that only allow employees to attend. Additionally, most of these Teams also require each participant to compete. The fact that we can bring friends and family and still show up with a full race team is a win-win in my opinion.
Here are how our racers and Team fared…
The weeks’ competitions started early Monday with the parallel slalom. There were 57 total for the women, of that Kelli McDonald finished in 32nd place, Tabitha Kloss 45th. Sadly, our amazing Amy Clark straddled a gate on her first run and was DQ’d. She’ll be back! The men had a whopping 92 total racers. Our men were Geoff Shakespear with a 69th place finish, Dan Weiss in 81st, Brian Handy 91st and Charlie Patel 92nd.
Later in the day was the Nordic sprint race. Kelli McDonald and Kameron Troy were devasted…(sarcasm) to finish just out of the qualifying rounds with their 14th and 15th place finishes. Of the 62 total men to compete, our very rookie squad didn’t finish last! Danny Caccia was 51st, Charlie Patel 58th (Charlie will really shine later), I managed a 60th spot and Brian Handy was 61st!
Tuesday brought out the snowboarders. Of the 36 women on the race course, the Super Shredder from Nederland, Colorado, Kameron Troy took the 3rd spot on the podium! For the men, Salt Lake City’s own Danny Caccia finished 19th while I finished in 37th. There were 63 total competitors for the men’s race.
I’ll be totally honest with you…I was dreading the Nordic distance race. I thought for sure that it was going to be a grueling, near death experience. I mean…it was exactly that. But it was also some of the most fun I had during the entire week!
Whether it was cheering on Kameron and Kelli when they finished 17th and 20th, or when H and Danny lapped Charlie and myself on their way to 36th and 45th place. The fact that Charlie and I finished, me in 50th and Charlie making his way across the finish line as the final competitor, is nothing short of spectacular. Even more spectacular is when everyone at the track cheered Charlie on as he crossed the finish line. Then, lifted him into the air while we’re all shouting…”Charlie! Charlie! Charlie!”
It was without a doubt, one of the best finishes in WASC history! BTW, I have the video of that. I’ll get it edited and on our social media asap.
We woke up Wednesday morning to a whole bunch of new, wet snow. So much snow in fact that only 1 giant slalom run could be accomplished. 61 women were at the top of the hill. Amy Clark bounced back from her parallel slalom DQ with a respectable 20th place finish. Kameron was closely following with her 23rd place. And Tabitha finished 45th. SWA Ski Club Member Emeritus, Don Carillo topped our men’s group with his 37th place. Geoff Shakespear was 67th, Fritz Moyer…on rented skis… got 83rd and Brian Handy 98th. A total of 100 men were in this event. It was stacked with talent. Simply competing in the GS is impressive!
There were 35 or so Airlines in attendance. Not all airlines had a full team. In fact, most did not. Here’s the overall Team rankings for the WASC. In the Alpine discipline, we placed 13th out of 13. We were one of only three US Teams to be ranked. Edelweiss took the top spot. In Nordic we were again in 13th of 13. Our hosts from Swiss International took the top prize. The only other US Team to rank was our friends at AA with their 11th place.
In the snowboard rankings, we got an impressive 8th place of the 16 Teams eligible. Due in no small part to the awesome podium finish of Kameron Troy.
And finally, the overall Team rankings had us in the final 12th place with AA in 10th place. Just to be clear…I’m not the least bit upset about these “bottom of the list” rankings. Quite the opposite. I’m very impressed with them! We went to Lenzerheide with a full Team of competitors, we showed up. And most importantly, we had a great time!!
You can view the final rankings on the IASF website located here.
Speaking of great times…the night life was never ending. Although there was one evening, or morning when I was asked to leave a bar at 3 or 4am. Our Team Dinner was in a cozy grotto of da Elio pizzeria. Kelli deserves our thanks for finding the perfect spot for our Team. In contrast, I neglected to get us all together for our Team photo that evening. I’ll just point out that international law states that once you left Switzerland, your army knives officially became “Swiss army knives”.
If anyone should return to Lenzerheide, stop by da Elio and get a pic with the Southwest airplane model we gifted the owner….(It gets you a free drink from me).
On Wednesday night, we delighted everyone with our friendly and not creepy at all clown costumes. We were definitely not creepy. Friendly clowns that amuse and delight young and old alike. WE WERE NOT CREEPY!
…there was one guy that acted a bit weird. But I’m sure that he had the best of intentions.
The final day of these Ski Weeks is always the best. The Fun Race is the culmination of a week of camaraderie and competition. But mostly camaraderie. A special “Thank you” to our Fun Race Hospitality Ambassadors Kelly Regan, Hope Campbell and Doug Frost for their attention to detail and preparations. They turned into quite the task masters making sure that each of us brought contributions for our table. And for that, all of you deserve a special “Thank you” as well. We had more than enough to hand out to our Airline friends.
The Thursday night Awards Banquet was the final event. It’s always bitter sweet giving new and old friends one last hug and kiss until we see them again. And yes, Kelli and I totally planned to dress in similar colors…we’re that organized!
If you want to see more of our adventures, I invite you to look through our social media pages. We’re on Facebook and Instagram. You can find us by clicking on the icons located at the bottom of our website.
I could literally go on and on in this email about our time in Lenzerheide. I had better stop now. We need to start getting ready for the 64th World Airlines Ski Championships in Niseko, Japan. March 9-14 2025. It’s only 348 days from now.
Thanks for reading!
Woody