Ramapo Mountain Ski Club

Training and Instruction

​

Weekly Training With John Pierce 

John, a member of Ramapo and one of the top racers in the east (that's his picture at the top of the page), has in previous years run sessions at Mountain Creek's South Peak on Monday evenings.

It looks like Mt. Peter is working on running training on Wednesday evenings (last season, we ran from 6 to 8 PM.) The training alternates weekly between slalom and giant slalom.

Very proficient juniors have attended, but you should check with John first.

​

Hunter Mountain Mid-week training.

This program will run weekly on Mondays for 9 weeks at 10 AM, starting December 19th 2022.

​

Ramapo Improvement Weekend. 

The Improvement Weekend will run again in 2023. Click here for details.

 

Race Camps

Ramapo members have previously attended the week-long December race camps at Killington and Mt. Tremblant, as well as Mt. Hood in the summer and day clinics elsewhere in the northeast. These camps have been the best means for picking up your skiing and racing ability.  

​

• This year the Mid-Atlantic Race Camp (Hunter Mt.) was fully booked within 24 hours of opening of the on-line registration.

• Killington Race Camp has been running for decades This year the Grand Slalom portion runs five days beginning December 5th 2022 followed by an optional two days of slalom beginning on December 10th 2022.

• Stowe Race Camp (also known as the Comet Race Camp) is similar to Mid-Atlantic, it has two days of Grand Slalom and two of slalom, December 13 through 16 2022.

​

Wednesday Night Racing – the “Met” League

The Wednesday Night Race League of the New Jersey Ski and Snowboard Council has been held at Mountain Creek's South Peak. For years past, the Met League venue was at Tuxedo Ridge, and before that at Hidden Valley.

​

Unfortunately, there will be no program for 2022/2023, although see below for the background. 

Fingers crossed for future years.

​

Ramapo races against other clubs in the New Jersey Ski and Snowboard Council. For each race, the team scoring consists of the three fastest men and two fastest women. The five best team scores for the first six races count for the season standings. Individual racers with at least three finishes get a standing for the season. The races include three giant slaloms, and three slaloms. Over the past six years, Ramapo's women's, and combined men's/women's teams both took first place and the men's team took first place for one year! We certainly had some outstanding racers, but the main reason we won is that we had a lot of participation – both seasoned and novice racers – see how the racers are scored to understand why participation by novices is important.

​

Scoring is based on the following calculation. The fastest racer gets 1 point. All other racers get points calculated as a ratio of their times divided into the fastest racers time. So, if the fastest racer had a combined time (two runs each race, except for the super-G which is one run) of 60 seconds and another racer's combined time was 70 seconds, that other racer's score would be: 60/70 = 0.8571. Then, the three men and two women with the highest points from each club count for the team standings for that race. Ramapo's team includes expert and novice racers. You should be a competent skier, but expert ability is not required. For past races when the top folks did not show or fell, the team has been saved by having a novice make it through the course and getting us the third man's or second woman's time that we needed to have a complete team finish for the night. The reason is that a novice can easily score 0.5 points, and that score is a whole lot better than zero points. 

​

Helmets are strongly recommended. Show up with sharp edges on your skis. Nothing is more frustrating than skidding sideways through slick sections of a race course. 

​

In previous years races have started at 7:00 PM (they usually start later than this target), but you should show up early enough to sign up and have time to warm up and inspect the course. If you show up late, and the race is underway, just jump into line. 

​

The races have been open to all adult (age 19 and older) club members at a cost of $10 for the gate fee.

PREVIOUS YEARS RESULTS  2018  2019  2020

​

​

New Jersey Ski and Snowboard Council Consolation Race

This is a big party with an easy race that Ramapo has won several times over the last decade. Held in the afternoon after the President’s Race (below). Rules and scoring are similar to those for the Wednesday Night Race League.

​

​

Legacy Ski Club Race at Mad River Glen 

This event was cancelled for the last couple of years, but returned in 2020. 

​

​

The State Race

The State Race has run with other clubs in the New Jersey Ski and Snowboard Council at Pico Ski Area in Vermont. This is a competitive race, and over the last several years Ramapo has won the combined team trophy twice and came in third twice. The team consists of six men and five women. If there is sufficient interest, there can be a second B-team.

Scheduled for Saturday, February 11 2023

The event includes single-run slalom and giant slalom run on Saturday, and a party at the end of the day.  Unlike the other Ski Council events, you must be pre-registered to enter this race.

​

PREVIOUS YEARS RESULTS  2018  2019  2020

​

​

The Junior State Race

A race for junior members of the clubs in the New Jersey Ski and Snowboard Council, held at Pico Ski Area in Vermont . If your child wants to race, call or email Stu. You must be pre-registered to enter this race.

 

​

President's Race and RMSC Annual Race Weekend Race

This is two events in one: the Council President's Race and RMSC's annual race for club adult and junior members. 

​

Held this year at Hunter Mountain on Saturday March 18 2023, this is an easy NASTAR race; you get two runs through the course.  The competition is between clubs of the Ski Conference and is a fun event.  You will know why you jointed a ski club if you attend.  Scoring is based on where you stand in your own ability class, so novice racers can score just as many points as the top experts.  This race also counts as Ramapo’s annual Race Weekend, which establishes our own club champions, parent-child champions, and winners of Ramapo’s different age and ability divisions. 

​

Points are based on the racers age and time.  Given equal times, an older racer will have more points than a younger racer with the idential time.  In 2022, Ramapo women fell just one point out of first, as did our men.  The net result is that Team Ramapo took second place overall, just two points out of first.  Full times/results here.

​

Anyone seeking to compete in 2023 must pre-register with the Racing Chair by Friday, March 10 - and PROVIDE A CHECK at time of registration.  This year the Juniors committee will refund the race entry fee for any under-eighteen aged club members.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

The Stanley Sharaga Memorial President's Race

Named after Stan Sharaga who brought this race from relative obscurity and developed it into the popular event that it is today. Stan died at an early age. Always a blast, the President's Race is held at Hunter Mountain. This is the last race of the year and draws the most clubs and participants of all the New Jersey Ski and Snowboard Council races. Scoring for the President's Race is a bit strange to say the least. Each racer gets two runs: one on the blue course and one on the red course. Each time gets handicapped based on how the professional pacesetter did on both courses. The better of the two handicapped times is then used to determine placement among all racers. Based on the handicapped score, each racer is then placed into one of three groups: A, B, C, with A for the fastest one-third of the racers, B for the middle third, and C for the slowest third. The top racer in each group receives 30 points, and each successive racer behind the winner for that class gets one point less. The top three point getters for the women and the top four for the men are then counted for the team score. It is a random scoring, but typically the team with the most participation wins – that is the purpose of the scoring. 

​

Juniors, though they don't count for the team scores, also enter the race; they are grouped within two age groups, separate for boys and girls, and the top three finishers in each group are awarded medals.

​

There is a party at the end of the day, with pizza included in the package. Photographs showing each racer in the course are also included. There is a huge raffle with about half of the participants walking away with everything from skis to poles to wax. Last season, a first time racer from Ramapo won the grand prize – skis and bindings.

​

Last season the cost for the full package of discounted lift ticket, race fee, party fee, raffle and photograph was just $70. That's more than $10 less than if you just showed up at the ticket booth and purchased only a Saturday lift ticket! If you did not need a lift ticket, the cost was $31. So if you were planning on taking a day skiing at Hunter, why not join the Ramapo team?

​

RMSC Annual Race Weekend Race

Moved from Sugarbush where it has been run for many years to be run in concert with the President's Race. We simply take the times for the President's Race and apply them to the different RMSC racing classes, which are: 

​

1. Adults are put into one of three race groups (A, B, or C) depending on their ability – separate groups for men and women. 

2. Men age 65 to 74 years old instead compete in Ramapo's prestigious Dinosaur class. Women of that vintage are Dinosettes. Ramapo even has a class for racers 75 and over: Trilobites! Definitely more prestigious than the youngster Dinosaurs. Last season, we had three trilobites in competition.

3. Juniors are separated boys from girls. 

4. There is a Three Generation Cup (grandparent, parent, grandchild)

5. Husband-wife (actually “Couples” as listed in the club roster)

6. Parent-junior teams. 

 

Two runs are offered, but you only need to finish one to qualify for a medal or trophy, except for club champion where both runs must be finished. 

​

​

Mid Atlantic Masters

MAM runs several events at ski areas in the northeast, mostly in NY and PA.  Although the races are more challenging than our other events, they include skiers of all ages (including juniors) and abilities.

The schedule for this year:

​

● Hunter Mt. Jan 2, 3, 4, 5: Lisa Ballard race camp 

● Hunter Mt. Jan 6, 7: GS, slalom
● Montage Jan 22. GS, slalom
● Berkshire East Feb 3. GS
● Southington Feb 4. slalom
● Catamount Feb 5. GS
● West Mountain Feb 17-19. super-G, GS, slalom
● Gore Mar 3-5. super-G, GS, slalom

​

Check out the website at www.mamasters.org

​

​

Additional Events

The ski areas often schedule additional club races and some of the local and Vermont ski clubs set up additional events.