At every Mid-Atlantic Masters race, you will have between 30-45 minutes (depending on the race schedule) to inspect the course before your race. Course inspection is a critical opportunity to slowly preview the course and plan your approach to the race. Before the season begins, we wanted to provide a helpful refresher about key inspection do’s and dont’s so that you can make the most of your inspections this season!
Inspection Do’s
- Proceed slowly, sliding in and out of the race line to check critical gates. This preserves the snow surface of the course. As a bonus, sliding like this helps you warm up your edge control!
- Pay attention to both the course set and the terrain when inspecting. How does the rhythm of the course change? Are there rolls, fall-aways, or bumps? How do those terrain features impact your line?
- Plan your line and identify areas of the course where you will be skiing fast and skiing slow.
- Explore the snow consistency throughout the course.
- Try to identify the “money gates” and think about how you want to ski them—every course typically has one or two of these!
- If there is snow that needs to be removed, wait for race official instructions on how to proceed with the course slip.
Inspection Don’ts
- No fast skiing on the race trail during inspection.
- During inspection, avoid snowplowing through the course unless otherwise directed by the race officials. Snowplowing through the course often creates dangerous pileups of snow just outside the race line that can cause injuries.
- Do not shadow the course.
- Do not go through the finish line unless you are racing or directed by a race official to slip the finish.
- Don’t free ski on the race hill except when directed by race officials. It’s important so you don’t accidentally hit a course worker or someone that is inspecting the course.