Fernie Lizard Skinner

The target on my back was even bigger coming into this race. Warm temperatures and precipitation left icy and crusty conditions on the lower half of the mountain. The groomer skiing was icy and any lower mountain ungroomed skiing was sure to be challenging.

My typical race start is impulsive. The holeshot is there for the taking. This time, I relaxed and slipped into the 2nd row...before attacking on the inside of the first corner! My gap was formed and with some great kicking and gliding I maintained my lead through the flats and the slippery steeps of the first climb. Skinning technique was important as the slopes got steeper!

Travis and Ben caught be on the descent and the battle was on! Travis got away on the 2nd descent and put in a gap I could not close on the 3rd climb. The final descent was below the rain line and the skiing was icy and crusty. I was happy to get to the groomed trail at the bottom after getting rattled around. He put even more time into me and I came across the line in 2nd.

The Guide's Hut put on a good race and were open to feeback on the course. Hopefully the resort gives the sport and the organizer the respect we deserve and let us race to the top! The whole resort under the shadow of a large corniced headwall presenting challenges for avalanche control.

I am happy with how the first part of the season is gone, I feel like the fitness is there, and I can focus on working on my descending.

Whitefish Whiteout

Brimming with confidence and coming off of a chill week after the Castle Mountain Skimo, I was pumped to tackle the Whitefish Whiteout. I’ve never really put together a good race in Whitefish, so with my new found speed, I was looking to put an end to that streak.

After a great sleep at the Duck Inn, I hit the start line with just a couple short warmup laps. But off the gun, the legs were ready to go and I took off with my usual fast start. Typically, I am reeled in shortly after and I settle in for a battle. But nobody came. I measured my progress with frequent glances behind. Were they letting me fry out here on my own? I put my head down as to not encourage my chasers further and hit the summit in 27minutes after opening up at the very top.

After regrouped with Travis, Ben, and Mike, we skied the rest of the course together, enjoying the fresh snow on the descents. I managed to slizzer my way out of most of the trailbreaking duties on the bootpacks. On the final two climbs, Travis and Ben suffered from skin failures, and it was just me and Mike on the final cattrack drag race to the end. I attacked early on and held on to take the win!

New course was fun and included some skiing beyond the boundaries of the resort. The skiing was awesome and I came home with some great prizes from the sponsors and the resort.

Castle Mountain: Guess who's back!

Sprint Action. Photo from Mark, the organizer of the Fernie Lizard Skinner race  on January 23, 2016

After racing well at the Vert 180 and putting in some good training at camp and over the Christmas break, I was looking forward to Castle. Brent, the organizer, even decided to throw in Canada’s first ever sprint race to kick off the weekend. 

The course was shorter than what I had raced, a vertical of only 40m, which happens to be in the same ballpark as Edmonton Ski Club. Dave and Brent had managed to chisel through the groomed run to create the transition areas, but the skintracks were not as hacked in so skinning technique would be important. 

I was paired up with Nick and Matt for the first heat. Nick crashed right off the start and I got my skis tangled up, but I managed to chase down Matt to win the heat. In the next heat, I was paired with Travis and Ben. Not wanting to get caught up in traffic, I attacked after the 3^rd switchback and rocked the bootpack hard. Then I had trouble stepping into my skis, even blowing a ski and watched myself slide back into last. I was having fun and wanted to see if I could put down a dialed run, Nick too was looking for redemption and we were able to gather another two for a “B” final of 4 racers. I was able to match Nick up the bootpack, but again I had issues stepping in. I need to be more patient.

The sprint was lots of fun and having two races over the weekend really made it worthwhile for those travelling from further away.

Kylee had rented out a condo for a bunch of us skimo types to stay in. This was awesome, we all got to hang out together, eat good food, and go to bed uninterrupted by hostel shenanigans. Great idea!

The next morning was the main event and the legs were well loosened up from the sprint race. The resort was getting blasted with winds so skiing was smooth. I took off hard off the start and only Nick and Eric were able to get ahead of me. I watched Nick keep attacking Eric, not convinced that the pace was high enough as “Peter was still there”. When the course veered off the cattrack and onto the switchbacks, I focussed on skiing smoothly, nailing my kick turns and keeping Eric in sight. 

The bootpack was a good time. I only had the faint bootprints of Nick and Eric to follow, which were getting covered up by the wind. A couple of spicy downclimbs with exposure below, but I was able to find my way around a crux feature that was a hot topic of post-race discussion. 

Down the descent and up the steep cat skiing road. Still in 3^rd place, I might just pull this off. And despite my frequent looking back acting like a magnet to Travis and Ben chasing behind me, I did pull it off. My best race since moving back from Canmore. Yup, pretty awesome to be working full time, pulling in real dollars, training in the river valley and being competitive with my past life living the dream in Canmore with only a part time job.

Ski Mountaineering Competition Canada camp

Well, we missed the boat on Asulkan this year, but the Alpine Club of Canada generously provided us space at Bow Hut for a couple of days of eat-ski-sleep-repeat. The glacier toe made for some easy laps and we were able to mostly able get to the fresh snow before the wind got to it.

Bow Hut. With shit barrel capacity for 30 people!

heading up for a frigid Mt. Gordon lap. Some crevasse weaving on the icefield.

Martha finding great snow down to the hut. She and Michelle cooked some delicious food!

Adam as well.

Rocky down low, but good snow higher up where it is sheltered from the wind.

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!