NASTAR

The NASTAR (short for National Standard Race) is a good way to entertain your urge for competition, whether it’s a casual interest in seeing if you can ski better than you did a month ago, fulfilling a secret desire to kick your brother-in-law’s butt, or satisfying an urge to see where you stand in relation to the best racers on the U.S. Ski Team.

DOWNHILL

Downhill is the fastest event. The course is determined largely by the shape of the mountain itself. Speeds are high, upward of 80 miles per hour on some World Cup courses. At downhill speeds, the effects of terrain are amplified immensely, so the racer must deal deliberately with every variation in the shape of the hill. Rolls in the mountain that might go unnoticed by a recreational skier become jumps that project the racer a hundred feet or more through the air.

SUPER G

This discipline was created around 1980 to fit somewhere between downhill and giant slalom. It took a few years for it to mature, but now is a unique event that places unique demands on the racer. Speeds are high, over 50 miles per hour much of the time, making the effects of terrain considerable. But in contrast to downhill, the racers do not get to train on the course prior to the race. This places great emphasis on the skier’s ability to anticipate how fast he or she will be going at every point in the course, and what effects the terrain will have on them as a result, based entirely on inspection the course prior to the race. The entry and exit points of every turn must be estimated so that when the racer is coming down at full speed during the race, he or she will be on the fastest tenable line.

GIANT SLALOM

Of the alpine racing disciplines, giant slalom (or GS as it is usually called) most closely resembles the skiing we mere mortals do. It is also the size of turn most commonly set for NASTAR and other recreational race courses. Speeds in World Cup GS races reach up to around 45 miles per hour.

SLALOM

Slalom requires the racer to make the smallest, quickest turns of any discipline. The racers systematically knock down the poles as they pass, hitting them with their shins, knees, hands, chest, or whatever happens to cross the path of the gate at the time. The poles are hinged at the snow line, and have internal springs that set them upright after the racer has passed. Racers wear special padding and hard plastic shields to take the impact of the pole.

COMBINED

The combined event is a horse of a different color: It is a paper race. The results are determined by adding the racers’ times in a downhill and slalom. In most cases, these are complete downhill and slalom races in their own rights that take place on the same weekend at the same ski area. Results are determined and awards given out for the individual races, as well as the combined. In the Olympics and World Championships, the combined events have their own separate downhill and slalom races on which they are based.

-The Essential Guide to Skiing, 2004