Homologation

[John_H]

This message thread has been started to assist those clubs, mountains, and/or race organizers wishing to get their race trails homologated. Please post any questions or comments as you work through the process.

The first step in this process should include reading the 2007/8 Competition Guide and Alpine Competition Rules to familiarize yourself with the informational/documentation requirements, process, and costs:
650 Rules about the Homologation of the Courses (pp 112-115)
Homologation and Course Approvals (pp 139-140)

You will find that there is a substantial amount of information that needs to be assembled or developed prior to making contact with the USSA Alpine Courses Working Group.

To get you started, I have attached a document (derived from 650.4) summarizing the informational requirements.

[rbrodbeck]

Excellent job John! This should be very helpful to get people started.

Why should we care about homologation? According to the USSA-eastern office, we are moving very quickly to a situation were all USSA sanctioned races will be required to be competed on a homologated hill. At Tri-State we believe that this initiative is primarily driven by safety and insurance coverage concerns. During this transition phase, the approximate schedule we are working with with regard to what events MUST be on homologated hills is as follows:
J3 championships in 2008
J3 & J4 championships in 2009
All Tri-State J345 races by 2010

The above schedule has been verbally suggested by the USSA-Eastern office.
If you are from a program that hosts races and you would like this to continue (& we hope you do), please take homologation seriously and the best place to start is to read the documents that John Higgins has directed us to: it's what's best for all of our young athletes.

Robb Brodbeck

[John_H]

I have now received several documents from the USSA Courses Committee that are supposed to help guide our homologation efforts. You will notice several things when you review these documents. First, they target FIS homologation. This in itself is not necessarily bad, as much of the required documentation is identical, but the documentation does not appear to be as comprehensive as the current USSA homologation requirements. Second, the sample documents are somewhat dated (9 years old). Lastly, there is much overlap in the provided documents, but each adds some value.

Because the documents were provided to me are hardcopy, I have elected to scan them to pdf format. (Keep in mind that I received photocopied documents that varied in print quality. The pdfs look as good as my originals.) The files total about 30 MB making them too large to post on the Message Board. 30 MB is also an unreasonably large email attachment for most of us. So, email me your U.S. mail address and I will send you a CD containing the files.

[I’m sure that most of you are clever enough to find my email address via the Members icon at the top of this webpage or elsewhere on the Tri-State website.]

[John_H]

Here is an important update from the USSA Regional Clinic at Mt Sunapee on Nov 9:
Ted Sutton (Past Chair, Alpine Courses Working Group) pointed out that the 2009 Alpine Competition Guide (p142) now identifies the following homologated course requirements for GS and SL:

2008-2009 all championship events (as defined by the USSA ACR)
2009-2010 all scored events and all J3 events
2010-2011 all sanctioned events (including masters events)

Here are the relevant changed/new rules:

202.1.2.3
Homologations
DH and SG competitions and all championships GS and SL events that appear in the USSA Calendar may only take place on competition courses homologated by USSA or FIS for those disciplines.

U202.2
A championship GS or SL event is any championship event or any event used for final selection of athletes to regional, national, or international events.

Based on this information, I now recommend:
Any area planning to host a J3 or J4 Tri-State Championship GS or SL event on a non-homologated course request a waiver to the 202.1.2.3 requirement from USSA. I would direct the waiver request(s) to:
Jeff Weiman (jweinman@ussa.org) and Tim Maguire (tmaguire@ussa.org).