By Jesse Wood
The second week of SMARL (Sugar Mountain Adult Race League) was held yesterday at Sugar Mountain Resort and nearly 85 percent of the 100 racers in the local beer league came out to ski and snowboard in temperatures that were spiraling to subzero range.
Sean ‘Stumpy’ McKey, who works at Sugar Mountain Resort and is one of the competitors, recalled looking at a temperature gauge at the bottom of Oma’s Meadow and saw it read -1 degrees.
Nonetheless, McKey said all the participants had a blast and he touted the participation rate of about 85 percent of the skiers out during a night when the temperature – not to mention wind chill – was below zero.
“That’s a pretty good number,” McKey said.
While the conditions were hard-packed and fast, it was also windy.
“We had some winds that slowed some skiers down for sure,” McKey said, laughing.
Team Sugar and Banner Elk Café remain atop the standings. Both are tied at 40 points apiece in the skiing category. As for the snowboarding teams, Edge of the World remains in first place with Sugar Ski School and Modern Rustic tied for second place.
See the individual results and team standings for week 2. Also see photos from the first week of SMARL.
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