New scoring system for Mountain Meisters

Every run counts for team score, no more mulligans

Mountain Meisters gets underway Wednesday when nearly 700 skiers and riders are expected at Cranmore for the first race of the season.The popular 10-week program will feature a few, significant scoring changes designed to make everyone competitive and create more fun for one and all. The first skier out of the gate is expected at 8:45 a.m."For the past three years we've been tinkering with the scoring trying to make it more ski racer friendly," Danbo Doucet, the coordinator for Mountain Meisters, said, Tuesday afternoon. "I think we've finally done that and the process I think we've brought back the team spirit that may have been missing."Doucet said the meister program still plans to recognize the top snowboarder and telemark skiers at the end of the season, but during the season everyone will be in the same category whether they're on skis or a snowboard. "It's all about how you get down the hill," Doucet said. "There's no more distinguishing between a Ford and a Chevy it's all one car... Another thing we're going to do is make every race count. In the past we've let people drop two times, but now every score counts no more mulligans. As long as you kick the start line you count. We want everyone on the team to count. If you have 15 members and they all race, they all count. I think this is a change that clearly had to happen. You can't tell someone when they've shown up and skied that they don't count this week. We looked it up, and last year there were 3,000 points (skier runs) that were thrown out that's skiers who made the effort but weren't counted."Doucet said meisters will have Green (the outer course) and Yellow (along the woods) courses this year for the entire season. "We've got gates the whole way," he said, laughing. "Last year we didn't have enough so we had to change back. The poles are still going to be blue and red so I guess confusion still rules... The course will be a little different (Wednesday) because we've moved it a little to the middle of the slope (more snow cover). Ed Bradley and Dave Clancy are creating the course and promise we will have a very good, fair course for everyone." Mountain Meisters is the largest single day citizen's race in the country and has been a tradition at Cranmore, starting as "local yokel" races back in the 70s."We have 694 people signed up so far and people can continue to join through the season," Doucet said. "This program is one of the biggest things in the Valley everyone knows about Mountain Meisters. Right now we have 46, 15-member teams, along with two 'wannabe' teams', which I'm going to try to fill. I know there are people out there who want to be on a team and they can still join. If people sign up by Week 3 (of the 10 week program) we'll take them."The cost to join a team at this point in the season is $60 per skier. "It works out to less than $6 per day to ski," Doucet said. "You can ski every Wednesday, plus there are built in bonus days towards the end of the season, like Meister Party Day... What I'd like to see is us get up to around 50 teams. We've had over 800 people involved in meisters. I don't think we'll reach that number this year, but I'll bet we're well above 700."Cranmore Mountain Resort opens at 8:30 a.m. with the race courses open at 8:45 a.m. Doucet said the courses will be identical, but may feature a few more turns than in previous. "It's going to be challenging, but fair to everyone," he said.The main sponsor for Mountain Meisters is Anheiser Busch. Following Wednesday's festivities there will be once again the traditional apres ski party, with food and DJ, in the Cranmore Pub.The weather looks good for Wednesday. "The best advice is to bundle up and dress in layers," Doucet said.