The United States Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) it the national governing body for amateur ski racing in the United States. The USSA sanctions, insures and regulates all the competitions in which we compete. It also manages the computer classification system which ranks all J2 and older All competitors on the national point list. New Hampshire Alpine Racing Association is a voluntary corporation formed to organize all NH ski racing programs. NH is part of the Eastern Division of USSA.

See the NHARA Handbook for details on programs for each age group. New for this year:

This winter, our Buddy Werner League athletes will have division qualifiers at Ragged (GS – 1/29),  Pats Peak (SL 2/5) and Gunstock. (GS -2/26). The BWL State Finals will be held at Gunstock on March 3-4,  the weekend before the Championships. Again this year the top five athletes of each gender and age group will be able to race the following weekend in the Championships at  Cranmore (3/10-11).  As in the past, only J5's 9 and 10 years old and J4's will be allowed to race in the end of year BWL events. USSA now recognizes J6's as an official class for 8 year olds and younger. While the 8 year olds will be classified as J6, PPST will continue to have 8 year olds train with our J5's.

For J4's, the Future Stars race at the end of the year, will now be the official Eastern J4 Championships. The first day of the event will still be an informal day of training in random groups and the second and third days will be slalom and giant slalom races. The top two results will be counted to select for the Can-Am race to follow in April.

For J3's, as last year, the quota will be again be 5 per gender for those qualifying from the J3 State Finals to the J3 Eastern Championships. For J3 races, after the divisional qualifiers have been completed, second run orders will flip the top 30 racers. PPST J3's will qualify for Regionals at Pats on 1/8 and Crotched on 1/22. Sunapee will once again host the SG races for both State and Regional groups. J3 State Championships  will also be at Sunapee this year (3/3-4).

For the J1/2 group, once again there will be no Macomber Cup qualifying races in December, which means more time for quality training over the Christmas Camp. The first two Tecnica Cups will act as qualifiers for the remainder of the Macomber Cup races. See the NHARA Guide for details.

ATHLETE ABILITIES: We accept athletes with intermediate to expert skiing skills who ski with poles, are able to load lifts without assistance, and are able to negotiate most, if not all, ski resort terrain in New Hampshire.

EARLY SEASON TRAINING: During the early season and before Pats Peak is open for the season, we will meet at another area starting on the day after Thanksgiving. Traditionally we have met at Waterville. We get group rates so it is important to be on time for these sessions to get the discounted ticket. This is when we concentrate on directed freeskiing and fundamentals. We strongly advise attending the early sessions.

TRAINING AT THE PEAK: Usually the Peak opens in early December. All athletes will meet inside the ATC at 9:00 sharp. We have a quick meeting every morning to let everyone know what the plans are for the day, and for upcoming travel. Training is done at 2:30. Athletes are encouraged to freeski longer although the ATC will be locked up so athletes need to take their things down to the base lodge.

NIGHT TRAINING takes place during January and February; Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays from 5:30-7:00. We do not have a formal meeting that night. Athletes need to go out on their own and do a proper warmup before inspecting the course.

ON RACE DAYS: If it is a race day, plan to meet at 8 AM at the registration place. Once the athletes have bibs and tickets we will head out to the hill. We will not wait for late racers. We try to be the first ones on the lift. It is better to be early and relaxed rather than late and scrambling!

PPST CALENDAR: The PPST Google calendar has been posted to the website. While there are many more opportunities to race than are on our calendar, PPST coaches will only attend races on our calendar.