Royal River Valley Rumble

Kurt and Geoff put on a great race. The course featured some steep climbing and I found that I had to spend the flatter sections recovering. Just getting over an illness, but the legs felt good for 7th place.

Got the drone out

Nothing good comes from going east

Head west, young man.

To the west lie the mountains, to the east lies flat plains, ice storms, salted roads, corrupt construction companies, and cities with too many people trying to get to the same place at the same time.

The further west you go into the mountains, the deeper the snowpack. On the east side of the mountains, the wind and the cold leave little quality snow to be skied.

On the west side of the road. glaciers have carved the mountains into bowls that catch the snow. On the opposite side of the road, flat, featureless piles of rock are scoured by prevailing south westerly flows.

The best skiing is often found to the west.

This is the general rules, but as with most rules, there are exceptions. For one, variety and curiosity are forces pushing one to explore unfamiliar areas. And sometimes, it does snow more to the east.

Skiing on the west side of the road the previous day, we struggled through breakable windslab. The next day, we explored east of the road and found soft snow after some tough trailbreaking through facets. 

After skiing what could be the worst snow that I skied all season (sastrugi), we spent the next day on the east side of the road and found untouched snow even a week after the previous snowfall.

Head far enough east and the mountain starts to have features found on the west side of the road. 

Glaciers have left their mark east of the road, but they still struggle to hold snow.

Smoother mountains on the east side of the road allow for skiing on all aspects. Helpful for chasing corn snow as the sun moves across the sky.

It is possible to get surprised by unfamiliar terrain. This run was longer than it looked from the top!

Ken Jones Classic, Devon Blizzard, Sunridge Fatbike Race

I was pretty pumped for the concluding race of the 2015 SMCC season. After arriving home from Europe and getting some good rest, I was able to put together a consistent string of good training starting with a couple of fatbike races. I enjoyed the cyclocross style format which had us completing 4-5 laps for a total race duration of ~50minutes. 

Ripping the berms at the Blizzard bike race in Devon. The volunteers at the Devon Bicycle Association did an excellent job of preparing the course: packing it down, and putting sand on the icy sections

The Sunridge race had a little more elevation change and included more singletrack and I really enjoyed it!

The course at Lake Louise is dialed in and after being cancelled in 2014 due to cold temperatures, I was looking forward to racing there again. Rain falling overnight with the freezing level somewhere around mid mountain meant that we wouldn't have to deal with the cold. 

Lots of race suits out today. There were a bunch of people chomping at my heels on the first 2 climbs.

The race starts early in the morning and I was not disciplined enough to grab an adequate warmup after the race briefing and morning uplift. That said, after a couple of weeks of ski-mo intervals on Edmonton ski club, I felt really good for the first 5 minutes of the race! My shins really started aching as the groomed trail got steeper and I  settled into 3rd place occasionally looking back to see an epic back and forth battle happening behind me. In addition to many faces that are starting to become regulars in the race series, it was impressive to see Jakub Sumbera not far behind, even though he was racing on much heavier touring gear.

Looking ahead to the 2nd climb, I saw just a single set of ski pole marks in the snow. Travis was breaking trail. Extremely impressive. I upped my cadence through the soft track and distanced myself from the chasers. I skied smooth but really suffered when the final climb steepened. This year, I didn't have Eric Carter chasing me down the final descent so I skied more relaxed to the finish.

Race notes:

-Travis did a lot of trailbreaking

-Jakub is pretty fit to be able to hang in there on heavier touring gear

-There is a big chase pack of skiers brewing up behind me. They are already chomping at Steve Sellers' heels. 

-The Zamzow kid puked on the first climb. Now that's dedication!

-Only 7 females total raced. Anna Sellers had an impressive race in the Junior category. Kylee had to abandon the race early on with some lung issues, leaving only Martha and Michelle to contest the elite race.

-Junior Kevin Hinni put down the 3rd fastest rec course time and emerged from the epic back and forth junior battle for the overall. Hope he sticks with it!

Poles for Ski Mountaineering Racing

I don’t come from a ski racing background (cross country or downhill). I didn’t know that you could spend $100 on a small brick of wax that makes ski bases so slippery that skins can’t stick to them. And I certainly didn’t know that you could spend $500 on a pair of poles! Frankly, I didn’t see the point of spending more than $40 on a pair of sticks that get bashed and crashed or lost, stolen, and forgotten. Fancy grips, pole straps, baskets, adjustment systems, and exotic materials promising greater strength, stiffness, and lighter weight don’t really justify the additional cost. I just wish that cheaper poles came with powder baskets, especially since everyone and their dog is now skiing on fat skis and should theoretically be chasing after scarce powder, not bashing gates on groomed runs.

Lately, I’ve been using cheap but flexy $20 Komperdell xc poles for my backcountry skiing. I don’t have much desire to change the length of my pole throughout the day. The skinny xc grips are pretty good for plunging into the snow, and the xc basket and tip provide enough float and don’t get in the way when I’m scratching across an icy sidehill.

But skimo racing is different. The clock is ticking. Each time I lift the ski poles up to plant them again further up the mountain costs me energy. I’m not a double-poling xc skier reaching high and crunching down low demanding ultimate stiffness, but I prefer not to have to think about my poles bowing under my measly single pole plants. So I use my trusty Dynafit SR Race poles. But like any concerning ski mountaineering racer, I’m wondering if they present the best bang for the buck, and what sort of performance advantages I can obtain for minimal costs.

This scale shot had me curious. Here Yannick Ecoeur's Swix Triax 1.0 ($400+) poles are shown to weigh 146g in what I am assuming is a 140cm length. XC poles are often quoted in g/m without grips and baskets, so it is nice to see a real world weight.

Ski mountaineering poles are nothing more than xc poles with larger baskets and straps that are easy to get in and out of (Leki’s shark system is also very popular for ski-mo), possibly with reinforcement. One can buy ski-mo poles off the shelf…er web from Dynafit, Ski Trab, La Sportiva, ATK-Race, Crazy Idea, Gabel, Komperdell, and Leki among others, but I wondered how the value of these compared to much more common xc poles, especially if they were placed on sale!

So I looked into the weights and costs of various ski-mo and xc poles. Many of these weights are claimed, some are verified by others, and some are estimated by comparing a verified or claimed weight of one pole to the unit tube weight (g/cm) of a pole from the same manufacturer. The measured and claimed weights (from skimo.co) were for lengths varying from 125-140cm, so to make for a fairer comparison of weight, I scaled them (g/cm, including grip/basket, although actual g/cm goes down as poles get longer). So after checking Skintrack.com for your optimum pole length, the DyNA will probably be the lightest out of the poles on this list. Lighter than many $300+ xc poles! Those black diamond traverse adjustable poles will be more than twice as heavy. Generic alpine poles (Komperdell Carv Pro) are also  near the top of the list of the worst g/cm.

XC and ski-mo poles ranked in terms of g/cm (less is better), either based on measured or claimed  weights(at 125,130,135,140cm) or estimated  from the claimed g/cm of the pole and adding the basket and grip (usually 60-65g). Interesting how there is a slight jump between the  Komperdell nordic classic and the aluminum Dynafit SR Race in the middle of what is otherwise a smooth distribution.

But what poles give you the best bang for the buck? I then compared the online sale price (retail is for suckers) multiplied by the g/cm. 

XC and ski-mo poles ranked in terms of $*g/cm (lower is better). Many aluminum poles have good $*g/cm as Aluminum is light and cheap! This high end XC poles have high $*g/cm.

Here my $20 Komperdells lead the pack. The Dynafit PDG pole seems to offer competitive value and light weight. My SR Race poles give up ~90grams to Dynafit’s best offering. And if you are interested in buying new poles, note that skimo poles like the Movement X-race carbon, Komperdell Nepal 10, Dynafit PDG Expert, and Gabel Piera Menta carbon give you pretty good bang for the buck, along with being pretty light!

What is the relationship between pole price and unit weight? One would expect that as you spend more and more, you are saving less and less weight. This is an exponential relationship and it is plotted below.

But how does ski pole weight affect exertion and overall race times? What about breakage? I've only seen/heard of carbon poles breaking (PDG, RSR, DyNA, "CT1 are too fragile for skimo").

*Updated 2016 with Black Diamond's poles. Vapor 1 and Helio are extremely competitive weight-wise. Will also add Dynafit Speed Vario and C2 ultralight, 2 adjustable poles that weigh ~180grams! Dynafit PDG pole is now the Dynafit Speed pole

Vertical Race video

Lots of suffering going on

Castle Mountain Skimo

The race season kicked off January 11 with the 3rd edition of the Castle Mountain Skimo Race. I enjoyed the relaxed Sunday start as it meant that I didn't have to take time off work to show up to the race with reasonably fresh/rested legs.

Some poor one-handed pole action through the technical terrian

I helped out with a clinic on the Saturday before the race where we showed attendees the wonders of of kick turns and transitions.

The hill was pretty hurting for snow so the first climb was a heinous battle through the alders. There were also a couple of short descents to dance around fallen logs and alders. I think everyone was pleased once the skintrack rose into more open terrain.

The low snow year also meant that the bootpack, that started with a downhill section was extra spicy with more exposed rocks. The lone star descent was predictable wind pressed snow with an exposed traverse above the bare "midriff" of the run adding some technical nature. Don't fall (or you might break a femur". The 2nd and final climb was familiar from last year's modified course with steep climbs to make sure that you had something left in the tank. The final descent down the cat skiing area would have skied nicely, but our short and skinny race skis could not float very well in the baseless snow.

German Philipp Schädler showed up and sped off from the start with a pace that only Travis Brown could match. Through the alders I found myself in no-man's land just ahead of Oliver Bibby and Steve Sellers but losing ground on Travis. Young Olie caught me on the bootpack  and passed on the descent before crashing. With Steve joining us at the transition for the final climb, I had my work cut out for me, put my head down and set a pace that nobody could match. 3rd place, but a whopping 20 minutes behind Philipp and 10 behind Travis!

Vert 180 and a couple of hut trips

A bit of a slow start to the season for me, but I Travis and I got 'er going with an overnighter over a long weekend.

Jumbo Wild

Great snow with a packrat and some sledders to keep us company.

Vert 180

Even with the lack of skiing, I felt pretty good at the Vert180 and finished 2nd behind Travis. No hip flexor pain, so things are looking good for this season!

Asulkan Camp

With tired legs from racing hard for 3hrs and tired bodies from frantic late night packing, meeting at 9am at the Asulkan parking lot was out of question. We ended up leaving Canmore at 9. The ACC had taken a page out of Alison Redford's playbook and generously block-booked the hut for us so we would have lots of elbow room to eat and sleep as just Michelle, Martha, Steve, Travis and I were attending. 

After a 3hour ski up to the hut, through tracked out snow and watching numerous groups ski down, the sleeping bags and hut booties seemed more inviting than a couple of short laps above the hut in wind affected snow. 

Monday brought a lazy start but with some ambitious goals. None of the weekend groups had skied above the hut and the weather and avalanche conditions were looking good, so we set our sights up to the top of Youngs Peak. Travis punched the track up the steep headwall and we quickly topped out. I was expecting to pound out a couple of laps on the steps of paradise, but soon we were skiing down the other side towards the forever young couloir. which was untouched since the last snowfall. Meanwhile, some German ski mountaineering racers had topped out the couloir from the road so I had some company at the top while I waited my turn. We all made it down safely with varying levels of slough management techniques depending on what order we dropped in.

Typically these camps are a chance to ski lots of vertical, but with tired legs from racing this adventure was an interesting diversion. After a couple of afternoon laps of the triangle moraine, the legs were getting tired, the light was fading and it was time for a classic staple of these SMCC Asulkan ski camps: The bonk-slog up the tree triangle back to the hut at the end of the day.

Shortly after the last stragglers arrived back at the hut, the wind got much stronger and battered the hut all night. The wind sustained through the morning and brought warm temperatures along with it. Freezing levels rose above the hut, motivation levels did the opposite. Trees were uncovered by the wind and their snow was blown into the outhouse thanks to some broken locks. And it was raining. It was time to bail.

The ski down from the hut was interesting as the snow got slower and less supportive as we worked our way down the tree triangle. The snow could be described as elephant snot or fluffy powder depending on whether the person you were talking to was from Fernie. On the way down we encountered what is likely another full house at the Asulkan. Nobody was pumped to hear that it was raining at the hut.

Well at least I got back to Edmonton at a decent hour!