They might not have captured medals, or even cracked the top ten, but coach Jeff Wadsworth is proud of local skiers Ian Towers, Ben Ritter and Autumn Gauthier. All three competed in last weekend’s  K2 Western Canadian Alpine Ski Championships, for racers between the ages of 13 and 14. 

“All the kids skied really well,” said Wadsworth. “Who knows what the actual placings mean, but they were mostly in the middle of the pack.”

Ritter finished 30th out of 65 competitors in the giant slalom race, but Wadsworth said that the result mattered less than the way in which the young skier raced.

“Ben skied the best technically that I’ve ever seen him,” Wadsworth said. 

Both Ritter and Towers struggled in the slalom event, crashing out of contention, but they weren’t alone. 

“The slalom course was very difficult,” Wadsworth said. “A lot of the kids fell in one run or the other.”

As for Gauthier, she was only expecting to be an alternate for the races, which brought together the top club competitors from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. Then, on Tuesday night, the team discovered she was qualified to race.

“It really made her day, for sure,” Wadsworth said. “Autumn is really all about the social aspect of racing, so she was very happy to be a part of it.”

Gauthier and Ritter are 13, meaning they can compete at Westerns next year, while the 14-year-old Towers is wrapping up his first year of racing.

“I think it was a big accomplishment for them to qualify for these races, because two are first-year K2s and Ian is in his first year ever,” said Wadsworth. “All of our athletes qualified, which is what you want to have happen when you host an event.”

The one member of Jasper’s K2 squad who wasn’t involved in the competition was making turns across the continent instead. Emma Carroll competed in the Canadian Juvenile Championships at Mont Tremblant, Quebec, last week.

Racing against top level competition from every province and some visiting skiers from the United States as well, Carroll acquitted herself well, finishing most of her races in the upper third of the field. Carroll was not able to negotiate the second slalom run, however, but came 27th out of 64 in the super giant slalom and 25th of 53 in the GS.

Carroll also performed well in the skill/ability race, a discipline she hasn’t had much practice in. She placed 23rd out of 57 finishers, which impressed her coach.

“It isn’t in our race series,” 

Wadsworth said of the skill event. “They run it in B.C. and some other provinces. It isn’t any one type of course — there are a couple of GS turns, you can have slalom turns where you have to go uphill or do a 360. It’s basically a test of how well you can perform on your skis.”

Overall, Carroll’s race results put her in good position in terms of the Alberta team that travelled to Quebec to compete.

“Of the Alberta girls that were asked to go, she finished in third place overall,” said Wadsworth.

The entire K2 team will wrap up their race season in Banff this coming weekend. The provincial race series finals are held at Mount Norquay (slalom event) and Sunshine (giant slalom). Carroll’s strong skiing this year means that she will have one more competition to look forward to after that is done, as she has qualified for the Whistler Cup, held on the weekend of April 7 at Whistler, B.C. The event is a truly international ski competition and is officially sanctioned by FIS (the federation that organizes the World Cup circuit). Top 11-14 year-old skiers from around the world will be racing slalom, giant slalom and Super G races.