Spring Break

After the JH rando race Tanae, Brynlee, Pedro and I headed up to Tanae's parents cabin to relax for the rest of the weekend. I was pretty tired from the race but was still able to carry Bryn, and pull a sled with food and things the little over a mile to the cabin.It was a wonderful way to kick off spring break. The rest of the week was filled with epic powder days and lots of good running. I topped off the weekend by ski patrolling the closing weekend at Pebble Creek. I was delighted that Tanae and Bryn came up Saturday afternoon and we were able to take Brynlee on her first official run and chair ride.

(Insert proud dad grin here). She is still pretty young to ski on her own (almost 2) but she had fun and I was ecstatic.

It snowed super hard all day Sunday bringing Pebble's season to a glorious powder filled conclusion. Now it is time to get serious about getting the mileage up and really focusing on running.

Ski Mountaineering US Championships Jackson Hole

Saturday I toed up to the starting line at the 9th US Ski Mountaineering Championships at Jackson Hole, as I looked around all I could think is this is going to hurt. A few weeks prior to the race an announcement showed up on the USSMA homepage; it was a very detailed explanation about how the US Ski Mountaineering Team will be selected for the 2010 World Championships in Andorra. It continued to explain that the top two finishers at the 2009 US championships would automatically be given the first two spots for the team.... As I was waiting for gear check early on Saturday morning I overheard a very well known racer say to another "this may be the deepest field of US rando racers I have ever seen gathered at one race".

Now gathered at the starting line it became clear that there were a lot of guys that really wanted to represent the US next year, more than half of the Race class had on race suits and full meal deal race gear. Granted I had on a second hand race suit and pretty light rando gear, but so many of these guys had on new race suits ( or at least they looked new) and the lightest gear made. Once the start happened it was off to the races, the lead pack went off running, and unlike at other races that I have been to they/we kept running, as a matter of fact we ran until I thought my lungs were going to blow right out of my chest, and as soon as I thought I would pop completely everyone seemed to drop down a gear, allowing me to keep hanging on. I continued to red line, which felt good in a painful masochistic kind of way. Although the lead pack started to drop me there were a couple of other stragglers as well. We hit the top of the first climb just shortly after the leaders which made me feel very good at least to this point.

I passed one person on the first descent, but he quickly passed me after the transition up the second climb. This second climb, for me was once again the low point in the race. I ended up alone not right behind anyone or right ahead of anyone for that matter. This always seems like a difficult place to be, I imagine that the guys ahead of me are suffering just like I am and hopefully the people behind me are suffering more, but you don't know because it's just you. The next descent went smooth and I paid careful attention not too miss the corner like I did last year. The first boot was up next and as I transitioned I looked up to see the ten or so racers that were ahead of me... all of them. This was an awesome feeling for me, I wasn't as far off as I thought, this put some extra uupmh in my steps as I hurried to gain ground on them. I closed in on Zahan, and Scott (I think it was Scott) but lost them as I struggled in the transition and across the up and downs of the traverse across Pepi's bench. I floundered quite a bit during this part and lost the ground that I had made up. On the boot up Corbet's I put me had down, got cozy in the pain cave and pushed to gain what I had lost, upon topping out I threw down the quickest transition of my life and decided to lay it all out there on the big descent. On tired legs I pushed as fast as I could to gain or at least see somebody ahead of me , near the bottom of the Hobacks I passed one person, but as I started to skate up the last slight uphill under the Union Pacific chair I realized that laying it all out there had blown me up sufficiently to have no juice for the skate and the racer I passed repassed me just before the crest over the top, he gained a few seconds on me that I would not regain.

I finished in 12th (I think) and I was totally stoked on my race. Everything went well, I ate well, I drank well, and enjoyed my time pushing deep into the cave. I don't think I could have done any better given the small amount of specific training that I have done this year. To top it off my time was 5 minutes faster than last week at the 'Keg with an additional 1200' vertical. Now as I kick off spring break is when the running training is about to get serious, that I am plan on skiing every day during this next week... Hooray for spring break!!!

Wasatch Powderkeg

The 'Keg this year was a super great event. I am especially appreciative of the people that picked it up when the corporate sponsors BD and patagonia dropped it. This race is much longer than Pebble's (about 9 miles and 5800' of ascent/descent). I particulalry enjoyed the fact that I was able to wear the race suit that I bought from Zahan in the fall, without feeling totally out of place. The race itself went pretty well for me, from the start I tried to go off fast and stay with the guys I knew would be on the podium. I did pretty good for a while but with the changes to the course this year there was a lot of pretty flat secitions during the first climb that forced you to keep the speed up really high. I don't really train on the flatter terrain so the lead pack slowly kept pulling away from me. I did find myself battling back and forth with Bart Gallespie as I tried to not lose too much ground on the leaders. I had a really fast transition and slid ahead of a racer before traversing into the gunsight notch. Bart started the descent before me, but I turned on a little bit of the aggro downhill and got to the transition a little ahead of him. My transition went quick and I tried to push to gain a little on him before the booter, I hit the booter and quickly quivered the skis and started hammering, Bart was not too far off. At the top of the boot section I caught site of the two racers ahead of me and I felt like I might be able to catch them if I pushed. I took off pretty near redline and was gaining on them pretty quickly until I blew a skin. Crap! I fiddled with it for a second and got it to kind of stick, I did my best to limp along to the top of Patsy Marley transition. The ground that I had gained was quickly lost with the skin bobble but I am an optimist so I set off in in a fury to try to catch them in the next transition. At the transition I pulled out one spare skin and kept on the other faster dynafit speedskin (kind of a mismatch but it made for the quickest transition since Bart pulled in as I was pulling out). I started catching lots of the rec class racers on the 3rd climb and it was good to be able to use them as something to chase to keep the speed up, although I did not see the race class guys that were ahead of me at all.

Part of the way up the climb I passed my friend Ryan who gave me a pat on the back and said that they weren't too far off and he thought I could catch them, it was enough to fire me back up so I shifted gears and pushed on. By this point in the race I was starting to suffer a little because I was pushing pretty hard, but more so because my water bottle froze on the first climb and I was starting to dry up. Just before I got to the top of the climb I caught a glimpse of Brian Harder who was ahead of me, but he was already on his descent so I knew he had 3 or 4 minutes on me. Regardless I pushed on through the transition and threw down some of the ugliest survival skiing through the death ice/crust/ cookies that I have ever done. At the last up transition I threw on my other back up skin so I would be appropriatly matched for the ascent and started to push through the hardest part of the race for me. Not more than a minute or two into the climb I saw Ben ski by on his way to win the race division. The last transition went well, the skiing was once again super ugly (mostly because of the conditions) and I passed a bunch more rec racers on the descent and on the cat track out to the finish. Overall I finished 5th which is 4 place better than last year. I am very happy with my results and I am getting super stoked for the US championships at Jackson Hole this weekend. Best of all I met a lot of really great people and had a wonderful time at Alta. On a side note felow Pocatello rando racer Kris Walker threw down an awesome performance and placed 3rd in the women's race class... Way to go Kris!!

The rando race season is on

The last two weekends I have been able to compete in 2 ski mountaineering races; last weekend the Pebble Creek Rando Rally and yesterday the Wasatch Powderkeg. If you aren't sure what randonee (ski mountaineering) races are, they are the purest form of endurance suffering there is. They involve using you skis with climbing skins on them to climb up a mountain then skiing back down said mountain, and then repeat. Depending on the race you may repeat multiple times and maybe even strap your skis to a pack and bootpack up... awesome.

The Pebble Creek race is always a big one for me because it is on my home turf and I am somewhat protective of it, so when a bunch of guys (all of whom looked very fit and had the gear to prove that they were serious) showed up I was a little disheartened. I was glad to see some familiar faces like Zahan Billimoria, but at the same time I was certain that it was going to be a much faster race than I had anticipated. The

course at pebble is very steep, involves two climbs and is relatively short compared to other races. Most of the serious racers aren't really accustomed to the steep climbs so I knew I had that advantage. Right from the beginning we went out very fast and I was able to hold onto the lead until we hit the cat track were Zahan and Scott pulled ahead of me, the rest of the first climb I was redlined trying to make up the ground I had lost. The first transition went very well and the ski was quick. At the bottom once again I had problems getting one of my boot s into hike mode and Troy Barry from Driggs caught up to me as I struggled. The first half of the second climb is very steep, and I knew I had the advantage here because I regularly do interval workouts on the slope, I gained ground on Z and Scott Coldiron steadily and caught Scott right at the top. I could tell he was struggling and pushed as hard as I could to get the leg up, shortly after I passed him I couldn't hear anymore but didn't dare look back. Nearer the top of the second climb I sneaked a peak and saw Troy about 100 yards back but no Scott. I regained focus pushed hard to the top, quick transitioned and pulled into the finish just over a minute behind Z, Troy finished just 3 minutes later. Race stats 2200' of climbing and descent my time 39:56.

Yesterday was the Powderkeg... more on that later today