New Year's Eve race cancelled

Not enough snow for this race unfortunately, looks like snow levels will be dropping later this week!  Hopefully we will see enough snow to get the season under way shortly.  Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve Race Cancelled

Due to limited snowpack the race on Christmas Eve is cancelled.  Hopefully we get some snow in the next week for the New Years Eve race, check back in.

2013-2014 Skimo Season!

Well it's winter time again, and hopefully the start of another great ski season.  It's also the start of another season of skimo racing.  This season will hopefully be a little more organized and hopefully a little more well attended then last year.  The season kicks off with the Hyak Christmas Eve Race, a week later come on out get a early start on your New Year's resolution with the Silver Peak race.  Then starting in January we will have a weeknight series race (specific night of week TBD) which will continue until Vertfest the second week of February.  Check back in for more details about the races, until then get those skis waxed and maybe get a trail run or two in!

 2011 Hyak Randonee Race

Vertfest Alpental Report

Race day greeted everyone with mild temps and drizzle.  Despite the rain, the skiing and skinning was good.  No Traslin brothers this year, guess they were sick, Heather didn't participate as she was sick as well.  Luckily (?) I just caught her bug the day before so I felt crappy but not bad enough to miss out on some suffering.  With Seth and Holly sick it seemed to be the common theme of the day for a lot of people.  Despite the Traslin brothers no show, Jason Dorais (they miss spelled his name) simply destroyed the competition putting down pretty impressive times at what was probably a comfortable pace for him.  Jason is the current Grand Teton ski speed record holder among many other accomplishments, pretty talented dude, and pretty humbling watching him just amble off into the distance.  The second place dude was a twenty something fast guy from Canada.  Another fast guy was the BD rep Alan, who Seth knew from bike racing, he was with Seth and I the whole race, and looks to be even faster once he gets more efficient.  Alan actually was ahead of me towards the end of the second lap but got off course a bit thinking the Snake Dance gate was a turnaround.  This was an opportunity I monopolized on, although I think that I could have caught him on the downhill anyways.  All in all it was a great day, making the podium was cool.

And we're off (photo courtesy Francine Curd)

Race #4 Report

Well, 7pm rolled around last Friday for race #4 of the series, and just Seth and I were standing in the parking lot, ready to stretch the legs for some friendly competition.  Lowell's Loop was the course of choice for the evening.  We were greeted with clear skies and actually quite nice groomed packed powder which made the suffering more enjoyable.  Seth and I enjoyed talking gear (both of us soon to be piloting new lighter skis soon) and about the upcoming Vertfest this weekend before we settled into fast mode.  When the night was done Seth, the always fast downhill skier, edged me out by seconds for the win, we both finished in 1 hour 17 min besting our previous FKT by a minute.

Seth

Summit Series Race #3

Seth and I were the only shows for the 3rd race of the series.  The course was an interesting change, Seth and I enjoyed a clear night with not too cold temps, good conditions for racing.  As per usual we traded leads numerous times and pushed each other pretty good I think, good times!

Seth with his two-bite brownie award 

Course for Saturday 2/2/2013

 

The course this week will start just above ski patrol, ascend traversing under Reggies and Easy Street lifts to gain Silver Nugget, follow to the top of the Central Express, descend the upper traverse to triple 60.  Descend Triple 60 straight until just prior to base, then traverse skiers left under Gallery lift and Holiday lift, Transition below Holiday.  Ascend climbers right of Holiday terrain park until the base of Parachute, look for bootpack far right side of Parachute, ascend this until you gain the entrance to the downhill crossover from West, travel uphill on the crossover to West, see below for further.

Once at west take a immediate left onto short bootpack to the top of the wildside lift, then descend Thunderbird to base of EasyRider lift.  Next ascend the middle trough between the Thunderbird area and the Dodge Ridge lift, staying to the climbers left mostly to avoid downhill traffic.  Then descend back to Easy Rider base.  Ascend directly under easy rider (lift should not be running) then ascend up to gain cat track, turn left, follow cat track through two switch backs to gain the crossover trail, ascend the downhill crossover from Central, all the way to the top of the Triple 60 chair.  Descend the upper traverse to Alpine, descend Alpine until just prior to base of central express, carefully cross under lift skiers right to transition just skiers right of Central Express lift base.  Skate or skin to the finish (same as start).  Have fun, be safe, wear your headlamp on the ascents.

Vertfest Mt Bachelor Report

So I decided to drive down to Bend in a quick turn-and-burn (leaving at 3am) to participate in the Vertfest race.  Crazy, I know, but, actually, I had a great time.  I got down there with an hour to spare, and got to see the Mt. Bachelor ski area for the first time. 

The race went pretty good. I didn't have time to look at the course at all, and this would prove to cost me the race.  Normally, I am not the fastest guy at a race, so I don't have to worry too much about getting lost.  Well, this time when the gun went off, I sprinted the first 200 feet or so and only had one guy in race garb fairly close.  By the time I got to the first transition I had probably a good 15 second head start on the second place guy.  So, on the first descent, I was skiing along, and skiing along, and then I started to wonder if I had missed the transition.  I slowed to look for markers and the second place guy went whizzing by, dang it!  I quickly gathered myself and sped to the transition, arriving 30 seconds or so behind. With a fast transition and some quick skinning, I regained the lead and led the second ascent.  On the next up-to-down transition, I had a bad transition, and Jason (the other race dude) had a good transition, so I fell behind a good bit.  The last uphill I managed to get close to Jason, but I just didn't quite reach him for the next to last transition. Again, a bad transition for me and a good transition for Jason equaled a second place finish for me.  A win would have been nice, but, that is also what I really like about Skimo racing, always looking for ways to improve and become more efficient.  I walked away with a nice pair of skis for my efforts, and raced home to make it to bed by 9:30.

photo: Tapper Photography

1st Summit Series Race

Well, the first official race of the Summit Series took place on the 11th, participants included myself and Lowell!  Lowell and I did a variation of Lowell's loop that he does frequently.  This is a great circuit as it has a little of everything to keep things interesting.  We pushed the pace, and tried not to run into the hordes that were out riding lifts.  Since it was just Lowell and I, Lowell was awarded a chocolate cake for the 50 and over category win, and I kept the other cake for the 50 and under category.  Hopefully the next race on the 25th will have a better turnout.

Lowell getting ready

Lowell finishing the long booter

Course Update for this Friday's race

A couple changes to the course; the first descent that starts on Triple 60 will not traverse across Gallery or Holiday runs, the ski area does not want people traversing / racing across beginner runs.  Instead the descent will travel to the bottom of the T60 chair, and go around the bottom of the Holiday Lift, then transition to the up.  The second change is the second descent down alpine, again the ski area does not want us traversing under the terrain park, so this descent will travel straight down alpine and loop around the bottom of Central Express.  I think this will be interesting as the finish will be uphill and over from here, so people will have to decide to skin up or skate to the finish, a good lung burning finish.

First event of the series

This friday will be the inaugural race of the series, come check it out.  We'll have the pleasure of suffering on Lowell's race course, check out his great description here.  Hope to see you out there!