Sugarloafers will get a chance to watch our best alpine ski racers in action this week when the Loaf plays host to the National Alpine Championships.

Most of the top skiers will be on hand, including World Cup DH champion Lindsey Vonn. Other top contenders on the U.S. Team will be Ted Ligety, Marco Sullivan, and Jimmy Cochran. Some will miss the event due to injury. According to team spokesman Tom Kelly, Steve Nyman, Erik Fisher, Caroline Lalive, Scott McCartney, Sarah Schleper and Jeremy Transue are out with injuries. Julia Mancuso is testing skis in Europe and won’t arrive until Saturday.

One World Cup skier is expected to skip the Nationals. At last word Bode Miller was not coming.

The action will get underway with downhill training Wednesday and Thursday, followed by an FIS downhill Friday. The U.S. championship races start Saturday with the downhill, followed by the super-G on Sunday, slalom Monday, men’s giant slalom Tuesday and the women’s giant slalom Wednesday.

The U.S. team members will be joined by some Maine skiers. Both CVA and Gould will have grads and some current students racing.

Auburn’s Bump Heldman is a member of the U.S. development team, who competed in the World Junior alpines in February. This will be in his third nationals.

Sam Sweetser, a CVA grad on the Park City ski team, is a speed event specialist, who recently won a NorAm giant slalom. This will be the Cumberland native’s sixth appearance in the nationals.

A few more skiers could qualify through the NCAA championships and the NorAm finals this weekend. There could also be a few local racers who will get the chance to forerun some of the races, always a valuable experience for up-and-coming racers.

The national championships are an opportunity for young racers to show their stuff against World Cup racers. A strong showing could earn some of them a shot at the World Cup circuit next year.

All of the racing will be on Narrow Gauge, which is one of only two trails in the East approved for World Cup downhill, which is why Sugarloaf was picked for the championships.

While it’s an honor for any resort to be chosen, it’s a major commitment. To get an idea of the extent of that commitment I talked with Sugarloaf president John Diller, Rich Wilkinson, vice president of mountain operations, and competition director Jim McCormack. Diller pointed out that preparations started at the beginning of the season by making extra snow on Narrow Gauge and other trails off the Super Quad.

Wilkinson said that groomers have been working on the trail all season with an extra 40-50 hours of snowmaking. With the event at hand, a pair of snowcats will be assigned to the trail each night.

There will be hundreds of volunteers on hand. It takes 40-50 course workers to maintain the track through the eight days of training and racing. The fencing will take 15 people four days, during which they will put up 4-5 miles of safety fencing. The $30,000 course setup expense will be reimbursed by the U.S. Ski Team.

The Sugarloaf Ski Club plays a key role in rounding up and organizing volunteers. There will be volunteers from the racing community around the country.

There will be gate keepers, officials, starters, timers and more. Behind the scenes, volunteers will handle registration, the banquet and awards ceremonies. CVA will also furnish manpower.

Two or three utility cats will be dedicated from 4 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. to haul crews and equipment.

“It takes the whole resort and community; without them we would be dead in the water,” said McCormack. “The race community appreciates that Sugarloaf can do it.”

How much that community appreciates Sugarloaf, was echoed by U.S. Ski Team CEO Bill Marolt, when he indicated two years ago that he was always happy to return the championships to Sugarloaf.