With the men’s and women’s downhill and super giant slalom FIS North American Cup (NorAm) races under its belt, local focus has turned to the NorAm “technical events,” giant slalom and slalom.

The men’s giant slalom got underway on Monday and is expected to run through today. Wednesday and Thursday are slated to feature the men’s slalom event. Those will both run down to the Andrew Weibrecht Finish Arena at the top of the Fox Trail, between the Freeway and Warhorse chairlifts.

The NorAms are one of six continental cups, and are considered just one level below the World Cup racing circuit, the pinnacle of Alpine skiing. With the Olympics occurring simultaneously, Whiteface General Manager Aaron Kellett said it was an honor for the mountain to host a series of events that are, essentially, just one step down.

“Basically, you were either at the Olympics, or you were competing at Whiteface if you’re a North American ski athlete,” he said. “We had a tremendous field of Americans, Canadians, there were some Swedes and Norwegians here, it was a really stacked field.”

Milan Novak, of Vancouver, British Columbia and a member of Middlebury College’s men’s varsity Alpine ski team, jumps out of the starting gate to begin his North American Cup giant slalom run at the Whiteface Mountain ski area on Monday. Wind made for tough course conditions, especially for skiers who had later runs, and Novak did not finish. The “Nor-Am” is a high-level FIS-sanctioned Alpine race circuit just one level below the World Cup Circuit, Alpine Skiing’s highest level of competition. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

Kellett said it was a combination of deliberate factors working in its favor — timing, intensive course preparation and projects that allowed the course to start higher up than it could have previously — as well as exceptional luck in the weather department.

He said the frigid cold and its consistency in the days leading up to the event, while not ideal for skiing in general, was conducive to what organizers were looking for in an Alpine course: hard and fast snow. On top of that, the ample winter conditions in the eastern U.S. this season have taken some pressure off mountain operations staff when it comes to putting out a great product on the rest of the mountain.

“There were a lot of things that we did to make it good,” he said. “And a lot of things that just happened to be working in our favor that we can’t really control added to the success as well.”

Kellett also credited the New York Ski Educational Foundation and its personnel for doing much of the heavy lifting with the NorAms.

“We’re super fortunate to have a great partner in NYSEF, dealing with our race programs and really taking charge on the programming and development of the different tasks that needed to happen,” he said. “Working with them is great because they definitley take a big load off of us when it comes to developing a race venue.”

Aksel Kitt, of Vail, Colorado, zips around a gate on the Upper Thruway trail portion of the North American Cup giant slalom course at the Whiteface Mountain ski area on Monday. The “Nor-Am” is a high-level FIS-sanctioned Alpine race circuit just one level below the World Cup Circuit, Alpine Skiing’s highest level of competition. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

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Downhill dreams

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While the giant slalom and slalom events are world-class in their own right, they are both disciplines that Whiteface hosts regularly, making the preparation and execution somewhat more straightforward. On the other hand, the two “speed events,” held earlier this week in the super giant slalom and downhill races, are rarer and logistically more cumbersome.

The last time Whiteface hosted a downhill was 2012, and that wasn’t on the same course. Kellett said being able to pull those off was something extra special, and a goal that mountain staff had been working toward for years. He said Whiteface first needed to complete a couple of projects that would facilitate the speed events start at the top of the Approach trail.

These included slightly widening the distance between towers with the installation of the new Little Whiteface lift so that the course could cross underneath it. There were also snowmaking enhancements in the area of the mountain, allowing for quicker and more reliable snow production there — something that would have proved more pivotal had the weather been less cooperative.

With more stringent safety standards and less reliable winters, Kellett said there are fewer mountains today that can host speed events than in years past — and there weren’t that many to start with. But Whiteface, he said, stands tall — in its height and in its history.

“It takes a big mountain to be able to host that,” he said. “I think this really opened our eyes again to the value of it, and the heritage of who we are.”

As special as the downhill and super giant slalom were to Whiteface, Kellett said the success is rooted in what it meant to the athletes, members of the speed racing community and mountain guests.

“I couldn’t have even imagined that we would have not only that much success, but that much praise from everybody — not just the racing community, but also the guests. They just loved seeing it, they loved that we’re bringing back part of our heritage.”

An Olympic mountain once before, Kellett said knowing that Whiteface still has it when it comes to hosting world-class speed events gives just as much reason to smile toward the future as it does at looking back at its legacy.