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2017-2018 Racing Team Photos Foggy Goggles |
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Coordinator: Brian Johnson |
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Click on the small pictures to view the full-size photos |
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 2018 Team Photo: Foggy Goggles |
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| (L-R): Sandy Powell, Scott Shields, Lezley Johansen, Ryan Long, Alyson Gamble Missing: Elliot Swiss, Mandie Swiss, Andria Kurbondski, Darin Long | ||||
| Photos by: Brian Johnson | ||||
560 Sandy Powell | 561 Alyson Gamble | 562 Lezley Johansen | ||
| Sandy
is the most intense racer on our team and always comes off the hill
upset with herself. But, when you’re good enough to have a
handicap in the teens, ways to improve are harder to come by. We’ve
been working with her to be satisfied with her runs and herself, and
just to note for next time what she might have done to improve. | This
is Alyson and daughter Amara, and our youngest team racer Escher –
seven months. He’s already raced down the hill 14 times, and is
well on his way becoming the most experienced racer in the entire
league. | Lezley
is the senior member of our team and our official cheerleader.
She’s the one who thought up the team's ULLR cheer. Besides
racing on Sunday, she’s captain of our Wednesday team andleads the ULLR cheer for both teams. | ||
563 Elliot Swiss | 564 Co-Captain Mandie Swiss | 565 Andria Kurbondski | ||
| Elliot
and daughter Mandie race in the morning and on our afternoon
team. When daughter Sammy returned from college on winter break,
she joined in and raced both morning and and with us. Right now
Brian is trying to figure out a way to sweet talk dad into flying Sammy
home from college every weekend so she can race with us. | It
was the last Sunday of January, brutally cold, and the snow was rock
hard ice. On top of that the league could not race on our normal
course, but had to race on competition which comes very close to be
being a true mountain Black Diamond. Captain Ryan long lost his
edge about halfway down, shot sideways across the ice and under an old
wooden snow fence that marks the edge of the run and protects skiers
from going into a very nasty ravine. We’re all at the
bottom of a hill praying to see some movement that would indicate that
Ryan was OK, but didn’t see any. Brian started walking up the
edge of the hill to help, but it was slippery and slow going.
When Brian was about halfway up Mandy took of her skis and literally
ran up the steep icy hill in her ski boots to help Ryan. | Andria
returns to us this year after taking time off to be married and then
buy a house. She raced before as Andria Bondie but when she was
married she and husband merged their names together and she is now
Kurbondski. Andria raced for the University of Minnesota
and is a very positive addition to our team. Missing from the
team this year is her dad Bruce sidelined with a back injury allyear. | ||
566 Scott Shields |
567 Captain Ryan Long |
568 Darin Long |
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| Scott
was recognized as the team's most improved for the year. Our team
is a group of very competitive racers, and to be recognized as most
improved is quite a compliment. Scott is also in charge of
bringing our mascot to every race. | It
was the fourth race of the season when Ryan went straight across the
course under the picket snow fence and into a ravine. When we’re
in the chalet after the race, Ryan shared with us - how incredibly
grateful he was that he had not hit a fence post or tree on his way
down into the ravine. The one thing he remembered most was that
Mandy was there for him. At that point the team didnot have a co-captain, and the next Sunday we asked Mandy if we could honor her by naming her co-captain. | Darin
is Ryan’s younger brother, and had not raced since high school.
Last year it took him a while to readjust to racing, but this year he’s
is really back in the groove and only about 1/2 second slower than his
brother. Darin has accepted one of the most important
responsibilities on the team - keeper of the medals. For
every 10 medals a team wins, Wild Mountain gives the team a freepitcher of beer. Darin has the responsibility of keeping track of all the medals. | ||