In the past couple of skimo seasons, I have felt strong in vertical races and the first climbs in individual races. An interesting project that I have taken up this summer is to see how well that vertical speed translates over to the steeper trails up to some of the local summits.
The FKT board at skiuphill.ca after my latest exploits
Ha Ling and the Lady Mac Teahouse strava segments were my initial targets. Both are similar in duration and vertical climb and are relatively untechnical (I'm not skilled enough to challenge for a fast time to the summit of Lady Mac). While I was initially just trying to put my name on the top 10 of the respective Strava leaderboards, initial attempts showed that I had the speed to challenge for the digital FKT's. It took a second attempt on each, carrying less stuff for me to take down both segments.
Ha Ling: Strava: 29:50, watch (green gate to summit): 31:53
Lady Mac (teahouse): Strava: 35:49, watch (parking lot to platform): 40:49
I also put in an attempt on the trail under the Sulphur mountain gondola. This trail isn't as steep and my running speed wasn't fast enough to come close to the current FKT.
All in all, something that makes me really look forward to spending time in the mountains and I have my eye on some segments throughout Western Canada
