Hiking nugs

Might as well use this SLR that's been collecting dust (on the sensor too :( ) for the last 8 years

High Rockies trail

Canmore has some more cruisy cross country. The high rockies trail has two distinct flavours: Big ring doubletrack and perhaps Matt Hadley's magnum opus:

 Undulating flow. The climbs are never long, yet the descents stretch on with very little braking required. The trail is also wide enough to make passing easier on this 2-way trail.

 Welcome to the nug zone. The trail works it's way through a boulder field on its southern end. But no worries, the trail tread is still buttery smooth.

A pretty solid ride from Canmore and back. That's for sure!

Kootenay Sufferfest Galena Ghost Ride

I put this on my top 5 races list for this year, and I may have inadvertently convinced a couple of people to sign up, there was no backing out now. Not even a suspect weather forecast?

The final running of the 100km point to point mountain bike race. Quite the endeavor for the organizers, especially mixed in with a long weekend of running and cycling races. I was eager to return after having to miss out on the 2015 edition due to injury, but nervous staring down the barrel of 100km and 3000m of climbing off road.

Galena trail is a good trail for all abilities

A great race. I was able to beat my time from 2014. I had forgotten how hard the beginning of the race is through the True Blue area. The final descent down the Alamo trail is a big one, a real brake burner!

lots of great riding to break up the long drive

Golden 24

Another year, another weekend getting roped into doing a 24 hour race. Some friends in Golden were desperate for another rider to join their 4 person team. I know that a 5 person team presents enough suffering as it is and it would be even harder with one less team member, though I did ride for almost 6hrs on that 5 person team. The trails in Golden beckoned and even the initial forecast didn't look so bad with just a slight bit of rain to "keep the dust down", I reasoned.

I'd ridden a loop like that in the Mountain Shadows area before, so I wasn't too worried about pre-riding the course as I would probably get in more riding than I wanted over the course of the weekend.

First lap, off the tag, our leader had a wonderful lap and I tagged off in 2nd, not too far behind the leader (Leighton). I set out hammering up the new Schaecher trail climb (that will eventually go up Mt. 7) and along the extremely flowy trail above the gravel pit and rodeo grounds. Seriously awesome trailbuilding going on in Golden! Chipping away at his lead, I caught the leader at the top of a downhill and went ahead, but crashed over the bars right after with him right on my wheel. Stunned, but no dripping blood, bike seemed ok but the bars were twisted. Strava says I spent over 1.5minutes collecting myself and getting my bike going haha! I got back into the groove for the rest of the fun lap, and still managed to throw down a good time before tagging off to Pierre.

Back in my tent, I could hear rain drops starting to fall. For our team's 2nd go through the rotation, we were going to do 2 laps at a time to give each other more rest between laps. The course was littered with rocks that would be slick in the rain, but I focused on riding smooth and nailed the section that brought me down on lap 1. Soaked after one "hot" lap and another good lap on a course that was deteriorating, I headed to sleep.

Up in the middle of the night for 2 night laps. The rain was still going strong. Not something I was looking forward to, but I just wanted to get it over with. Lots of anticipation. Then the tag comes. The climbs were slick and the trail was one slick puddle. All I could think of was the grit getting blasted into the bearings of my bike, and my brake pads that were already low on life. The kilometers slowly ticked by. It was amazing how some technical sections would sneak up to me in the dark and I managed to ride without much fuss. Nearing the end of the lap, I thought, "what the heck, what's another lap?" and my final lap ticked by. Time to crawl back into the tent to get some sleep.

We had the race locked up, and er fortunately our laps were taking longer than 1hr now, so there wasn't time for everyone to get in one last lap. I politely declined and hopped in the car and drove home from another crazy weekend of mountain bike racing.

The root and rock laden course is punishing in the dry and in the wet, quite a contrast from the speedway that is the Canmore course.

Columbia in a day

After day tripping Mt. Joffre and the Wapta traverse, a day trip of Mt. Columbia seemed like the next logical challenge, and something that has been in the back of my mind since first skiing the Wapta in 2013. For a successful attempt, weather, glacier conditions, and a good team all need to come together. Upon hearing that the Athabasca glacier was in good condition and a good weather window aligning was aligning with the weekend, it didn't take much to assemble a team. Given the choice, I would prefer doing these types of trips with a strong team, not only for the bragging rights of throwing down a fast time, but also to limit the amount of time spent in ski boots.

So the plan was hatched, with a little logistical challenges as my gear was all in Canmore, but I wanted to drive directly to the icefields from Edmonton. I arrived late in the night, slept in the car and met up with the rest of the gang in the morning. Fortunately all of my required gear made it to the trailhead and we all took our time packing up to get ready to go.

The six of us set off at around 2:30 with headlamps, stumbling up the trail to the toe of the glacier. Shoes were traded for ski boots and we continued stumbling up the stream crossings and lower part of the glacier. Once we hit a previously established track, I was surprised how efficiently we climbed up and around the icefalls that are usually quite a formidable crux of the day.

Once on the icefield, we were able to follow a track to the base of the face set by parties camped on the glacier. We caught them on the face, and then me and Travis got some pretty good summit fever, pushing up to the summit with parched lungs.

Cresting a roll on the neve and the objective appears in the distance

The trench in the middle of the approach was freezing cold. It was nice to get back into the sun. I led the entire approach to the base of the face, it was nice being able to set a good pace!

Lots of 11,000ers were visible on this perfect day. Here the Lyells look mythical draped in glacier.

Looking back from the base of the face, time to start the steep climb!

More "mythical" 11,000ers, the Twins, Stuttfields and Kitchener.

Clemenceau

Travis and I drilled it to the summit, so we were there to encourage the rest of the group to top it out!

Not the greatest ski conditions off the summit, but time to finish off the day moving across the flatter neve. 

We missed seeing all of the blocks of ice as we skied up the Athabasca glacier under the small beams of our headlamps.

Total time was 11:38. A beautiful day to be in the mountains. The skimo race gear enabled us to move efficiently across the glaciers, yet still perform well on the steep descent off Columbia's east face. The next day, "the Berner" smashed our time going under 10hrs! Potentially some unfinished business on this one, now I know how many nutella bagels I really need.

Ken Jones Classic 2016

The Ken Jones Classic was the final race of the SMCC calendar and also served as the Canadian National Championships. With the death of the Dogtooth Dash, the Ken Jones Classic now stands with just Castle Mountain as a top Canadian course. The field  that assembled at mid mountain early on Saturday was one of the strongest to take on the course. Sure it was lacking certain racers of a bygone era hailing from Valemount and Revelstoke.

Strung out off the start. Interestingly enough, two skiers in the bottom of the picture would work their way up into the top 10.

I got my typical holeshot start and skied out front for what felt like an eternity, but in reality it was not even to the first switchback of the groomed ascent. Eric and Nick were battling all year from Canada Cups to World Cups. When Nick got on the front, all I could do was try and see how long I could hold on. My shins protested, but I hoped  the pain would go away, unlike last year. I settled into 4th behind Rob Krar.

The descents were skiing well, and the skintracks were well set. I was more relaxed on the 2nd climb, and could even watch the battle unfolding behind me. Ben was ripping the descents, and blew by me a couple of times in some tight sections. The 3rd climb consisted solely of a bootpack up into the ER5 zone, which has not opened for a couple of years.

Chasing Rob on the large bootpack of the 3rd climb.

The 4th and final climb up to the top of Elevator shaft from Temple Lodge is always hard. It is long and it comes late in the race. It is never really steep or technical, but it is important to keep the pace high on the flatter sections. Here I slowly faded behind Ben and Rob and ended up in 5th after skating the long skiout trail to the finish. I was hoping for a little more fight on the last climb, but I was pleased that of the 4 climbs in the race, I buried myself deeply on 3 of them. As the 3rd fastest Canadian citizen, I even got a chance at podium glory.

I'm impressed with the progress that I've made this season. Even though I've been doing this sport for a couple of years, and training for even more, there are still ways to markedly improve! Frequent readers will recall that last year I was a little worried about the large group of enthusiasts nipping at my heels; this year I was pleased to be racing for spots ahead of me.

Results 

Growth of the Skimo Canada National Team

Ski mountaineering racing in Canada has traditionally been a regional affair. While Whistler once held the most prestigious race in Canada, 8 years have passed since races were held on the final portion of the Spearhead Traverse. The Ski Mountaineering Competition Canada (SMCC) calendar is now with the exception of a race at Whitewater, entirely in the rockies. Thus the “national team” members are all based in Alberta and BC. I believe if you were based in Kimberley or Cranbrook, the entire calendar including Whitefish would be within a 4 hour drive. That’s not to say that people on the coast aren’t trying, it’s just that the resorts around there aren’t cooperating! And our officials are based in Calgary. The sport is very slowly gaining momentum with more people showing up in suits and light gear, and at the sharp end of the pack, more people training specifically and race times are getting faster.

2010

2013

2015

Numbers on the national team aren’t increasing with the growth of the sport. For the 2010 and 2011 world championships, Canada sent a full, 8 person men's team and had to turn away interested racers. Down to 5 men in 2013. In 2015, only 3 Canadian men (and 1 Junior, Oliver Bibby, who stepped up for the Teams and Relay races) made the trip to worlds. Similar numbers to the 4 who went in 2008! Low numbers mean that we’ve been avoiding the politics that come with team selection and have been able to focus on being fast in February, rather than being fast in January just to make that team. The womens team has been steady at 3 members...

Racing is emerging out east having grown beyond the NE Rando Race series with the Skimo East series. These guys race a lot and yeah, they allow snowshoes and runners, but they make do with what they have. George Visser and Lyne Bessette, both former elite bike racers look to be logging the victories over there.

Meanwhile, the growth of Ski-mo in the United States has also brought in interested Canadian citizens living in the US. Canadians Rob Krar finished 3rd (2nd in the sprint) at the recent Wasatch Powderkeg North American Championships, while Tosch Roy finished 8th (5th in the sprint).

It will be interesting to see how these “out of series” racers stack up against the SMCC national team members if they are interested in 2017 World Championships. With no direct comparison, it could be difficult to select a team. Will there be a showdown at the 2016 Ken Jones Classic in a couple of weeks?