Line of the Week: Mt. Chester Couloir

Chester Lake, a good place to stretch the legs, get comfortable with your gear and ... oh my what's that? Follow the trail up to the lake then work your way up the fan to the line. The line has many features, mini cornices, chokes, and multiple options in some points. Because of the multiple features, snow can vary from powder to windslab to ice so be prepared for a bit of everything.



Top elevation: 2950m
Total vertical: 1050m
Line length: 700m
Round Trip Distance: 9km

A couple of similar, but shorter lines further up the valley from Chester Lake provide alternatives if there is a group going up the main couloir. As these lines are similar, they do not really provide a great alternative if you are not certain about conditions. Do a couple of mellow tree laps and call it a day.

Hillmap route




Other Lines of the Week .
Other Kananaskis lines.  

Line of the Week: Grand Daddy Couloir

With a prominent rock pinnacle at the base, this line is instantly recognized in any Instagram post. Its popularity (high probability of a group being above you. Don't climb under other groups. Go find another line) and a large cornice at the top are the two main hazards.

Parking: Mosquito Creek Hostel Trailhead on Icefields Parkway XXkm North of Lake Louise
Elevation Gain: 800m
Line length: 200m
Approximate round trip distance: 8.5km
Top elevation: 2650m
Aspect: NE! Watch out for the cornice!

Cross the river, work your way up through the trees. Ski up the fan to the base of the line. Bootpack up the line. Depending on the snow depth, it might be wise not to push all of the way to the cornice but to the base of a big rock. Enjoy!

Hillmap map


Not feeling it? West Nile zone offering tight tree skiing is below this line.

Other lines of the Week
Icefields Parkway

Line of the week: Introduction

Going to get the ball rolling on a little online guidebook of some steeper ski lines in the Canadian Rockies. Stuff that isn't in Selected Alpine, 11,000ers, Ski Trails, or Summits and Icefields.

So you've got a season or two or touring under your belt. Maybe you've skied Surprise Pass or Hero Knob and are wondering where do you go from here? The Rockies are a young, steep and imposing mountain range, but the crumbly rock has revealed many weaknesses that are able to hold snow. The cold, fickle Rockies snowpack takes time to stabilize. Great, aesthetic ski lines await, they just require patience to tame them properly.

Regions:
Highway 40 (Highwood)
Smith-Dorrien (Highway 742)
Trans-Canada Highway
Highway 93S
Icefields Parkway (Highway 93N)

Safety and Etiquette:
It goes without saying that serious lines should be saved for times of good stability. In general a clear, calm day is best, but be weary of the effect that the sun and temperature can have on the line. Start early to avoid a strong midday sun shining on unstable snow or cornices that funnels into your line. Cornices drop like bombs onto the start zones at the top of lines. Deep persistent slabs might not be able to form on steeper features, but can exist on fans, aprons, and at the top of the line if the slope angle slackens.

Sluffing: New snow, wind, sun exposure, and temperature (whether high temperatures or cold weather faceting) all increase the risk of a sluff washing you off the line.

Never climb underneath another group. Go find another line. You are at risk of the group above you sending sluffs, dropped gear, or falling on you. You are also forcing the group above to wait at the top for you to top out. They don't want to be stuck up there. They might want to ski another line after, they might want to get off the line before the weather changes, they might need to get home by a certain time. Just don't. Careful when you are climbing a line that can be accessed from the top via another route. A group topping out this way might send sluff or a cornice down.

Aside from having the experience to judge if the snow is safe to ski, it is important to have the fitness, technique, and knowledge of your gear to move as fast as possible on these lines to minimize your exposure to objective hazards such as sluffing, cornice, or rock falls. Dial in those skin to bootpack and bootpack to ski transitions so that you aren't waiting around in the bowling alley for too long. As these lines are in the alpine, the fitness to climb 1000m+ with some bootpack is a pre-requisite. Work your way up.

Have confidence in your skills to ski the line. It's not hard to climb up something that you might not have the guts to ski down. You should feel comfortable skiing ANYTHING at the ski hill before stepping onto one of these lines.

Carry the right gear. Ice axe and crampons if there's a chance of hard snow. Helmet provides some protection against stuff above you.

GPS: I carry a simple GPS to track my day, but these lines are typically "if you can see it, you can ski it" sort of deal.

Disclaimer: I am not a guide and I am not liable for the accuracy of the information I have provided. Ski and climb these lines at your own risk. If in doubt, hire a guide!

Gifts for the ski mountaineering racer in your family

What to get that ski mountaineering racer in your family? The one who has to explain his sport to anyone who cares to listen. Salespeople at your typical ski shop might not be aware of the unique demands of the sport, so I have provided a list of some items I think will be welcome for most racers. Or you could ring the credit card through skimo.co . 

Black Diamond Gold Label Glue $10-$12 : Great for everything from touching up the glue on tailless race skins all the way up to a full reglue. It's such good glue that it's banned for sale in Europe due to the solvents it contains! Don't let the salesperson talk you into the "glue renew sheets" or any other glue, there is no alternative!

Skintrack.com Literature $25-$50: Rumour has it that Kilian Jornet once bought the Manual for Ski Mountaineering Racing so even the most seasoned racer can pick up a couple of pointers. Newly released is the 12 week training plan.

Socks! $20 and up: Always a welcome gift to replace crusty and worn out old ones. Thinner side is preferred, and make sure to get the right size. Merino wool is nice. Dissent Labs is the only option if your giftee is trying to fit in with the Whistler crew. 

Race Nutrition $20 and up: Endurance athletes will do anything for cheap race fuel, even going so far as to represent obscure start-up nutrition companies for a discount. Save them the hassle and buy them a box of Gu/Hammer/Powerbar gels and/or drink mix.

GPS/Heart rate watch: Not so much for keeping from getting lost but for tracking training and realizing how vastly inferior they are to Kilian Jornet and Anton Palzer who are racking up 4000m vertical days. There's a good deal on the Garmin Forerunner 920XT from Amazon right now.

Missing Items from the pack $50-$200: Okay, so they've got the skis/boots/bindings, the pack, what about:

• Helmet: Dual climb and ski certified helmet required for ISMF international races starting this season.
• Gloves: Any glove may do, but the CAMP Comp G Wind gloves seems to keep my hands at the right temperature and comes with a pullover wind cover. Designed for skimo, so they will keep your hands kinda dry, and not leave fabric on the skins.
• CAMP crest shovel: Not an avalanche shovel, but meets the minimum requirements for being left in the pack during races.
• Windbreaker top and bottom. Top of the line, extremely lightweight jackets and pants weigh about 125grams each, though something more reasonable within 50grams is acceptable for an item that lives in the race pack. Nice for warming up in as well.

Avalanche Centre donation $?: The guys going out everyday to gather information to keep your loved one safe. More applicable for those not in the Rocky Mountain Parks (those bulletins are provided by Parks Canada/Alberta).

Canadian Avalanche Foundation

Good skiing in the Lake Louise area

Only posting this for the comment from @utahskimo #gopro #somewherealberta #kcountry #banff #agd #skimo #skitour #hitsfromthebong #exploreab #myjasper #yolo #swag #mahalo #pitted #blessed #neverstopexploring #champagneshowers #vape #basic #gingerspice #thighgap

A video posted by @peteyknight5 on Nov 26, 2016 at 5:37pm PST

We were able to find good skiing in the Lake Louise area over the weekend. From the sounds of it, Kananaskis was mostly wind blasted, while starting elevations in Kootenay and Yoho are too low for the current state of the snowpack. The parkway is quite the haul, so we settled on Surprise Pass after hearing good things from the day before. Although we punched our skintrack up the north side, we were still the second group to ski, and then were able to put in another couple of laps while watching people ski one, then head home. Great day out.

Calgarian: "Edmonton eh? That's quite the drive" Craig: "well quite the drive for you guys for just one run" #shade #squad #mahalo #gopro #kananskis #bnp #banff #myjasper #skimo #hitsfromthebong #yeg #yegfitness

A photo posted by @peteyknight5 on Nov 27, 2016 at 4:05pm PST

We liked Lake Louise so much, we returned again, but with little overnight snow, we avoided yesterday's tracked out area and checked out the Lake Louise ski area backcountry. While the ski-out trail was definitely thin, it provided good access to the turns, and the exit wasn't bad. We managed a couple of short laps.

Skimo Camp

The team had an awesome early season training camp at the Asulkan cabin. As the popularity of backcountry skiing has exploded, especially at Rogers Pass, availability of the cabin was limited so we gambled on an early November date.

It's been an interesting season. Snow is piling in up high, but as it has been unseasonably warm, the snowlines are still quite high. So lower elevation trailheads require access on foot and bushwacking before getting to some good skiing.

Travis, Michelle, Matt, and Lori arrived a day early and set forth on the task of breaking trail up to the cabin through isothermal snow. With cell service at the cabin, they were able to update us on conditions and it wasn't sounding too great. Hmm, maybe I should be road biking in Edmonton?

I arrived the next day with Kylee and Mark and although the approach on foot and ski up a barely covered and sometimes steep summer trail was not ideal, I appreciated the deep trailbreaking done the previous day. I also noticed that there was at least a supportive crust forming on the snow that would make the exit a little more pleasant.

Alright, time for the main day. Game on. Travis et al had done some good exploring while we were skiing to the cabin and found an interesting way to access Sapphire Col hut via a couloir south of Leda peak. We went back the next day. Spindrift poured down the couloir and when we did top out, it was windy, cold, and visibility was not great. So we headed back down the couloir.

In the afternoon, we skied towards the base of Youngs peak, then lapped the Asulkan glacier some more in the whiteout. The smooth, windblasted surface provided consistent skiing even if the visibility was not there. It was nice to be able to crank out some easy vertical.

We were greeted on our exit day with some fresh snow, but no visibility, so we just skied out. Skiing was interesting while occassionally punching through the fresh powder and the crust under the weight of the big packs. Ultimately the exit on the summer trail down through the mousetrap proved to not be much of an issue and I was able to schuss most of the way down the trail until finally giving in and taking my skis off on an uphill before the bridge. A Teton style boot exit was all that remained to cap off the training camp.

I'm happy to get some good turns and training in so early in the season, especially when conditions were not sounding so great. Thanks to the Alpine Club for use of the hut.

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?

Speed Traverse: Kicking Horse Pass to Lake Louise

Last spring, I convinced Travis, Adam, and Mark to take a look at a ski tour that I've been thinking about for a while. Kicking Horse Pass to Lake Louise via Opabin and Wenkchemna passes. 

After blasting our way up to Lake O'hara to warm up, we skinned up towards the Opabin glacier, admiring the large face of Mt. Hungabee and a neat looking line off Mt. Yukness. The Opabin glacier was interesting with a cornice running down the middle and we were able to avoid what looked like crevasses.

Looking towards Opabin Pass

 Topping out the col, we dropped into the Prospector valley, steeper up top, giving way to a lower angle traverse before transitioning above the Eagles Eyrie rock feature. The slope up to Wenkchemna pass was consistent and definitely avalanche terrain. It would have presented a nice ski descent with some powdery snow on top of a crust that was making skinning difficult. We stepped off the deep slidepath and booted up over the windswept col.

Wenkchemna Pass

The descent down to Moraine Lake was mellow, right from the cross loaded gullies at the top. There is the option of adding additional challenge to the day by climbing over Wastach Pass and descending Paradise Valley. With the sun beating down on the south slopes of Wastach Pass, we decided to just ski out via Moraine Lake road. The slope really mellowed out as we approached Moraine Lake and it was important to work the terrain features and the still supportive crust to minimize polling and skating. Moraine Lake presented us with some skating through moistening snow. All that was left was a slow slog out along Moraine Lake road. 

The snow was slow and moist, quite a departure from the fast trackset that is found here in the winter. We skated, then switched to polling to give the feet a short respite from the pain. Tired, blistered, and thirsty, we rolled into the Moraine Lake road parking lot after 7.5hrs, ready to pillage the gas station in Lake Louise.

41km, 1650m+/1540m-, with both cols around 2600m.
garmin file here

Casual skiing.

There was a period in my skiing where I was trying to push my limits, skiing stuff like Mt. Smuts, Narao Couloir, etc...After reverting back to weekend warrior status, I'm finding I'm not getting comfortable enough with the snowpack or my skiing abilities to push things even further. Instead, I've been enjoying skiing stuff in great conditions with my friends, working my way through the guidebook classics, exploring new terrain or rallying things on the ski-mo skis.

Or instead of pushing the slope angles, pushing to the next slope.

Revisiting my favourite run, the excitement and uncertainty of that first run long gone.

Crushing vert with friends instead of puckering up. Skimo racing is the perfect diversion before avalanche conditions improve in the spring.

ROAM Randonee

Once again I made the long trek from Edmonton for the Coldsmoke Festival and the ROAM Randonee race at Whitewater. Rain turned to snow on the drive up and over Kootenay pass for a short ski, then back to rain on the descent into Nelson for the pre-race meeting.

In typical interior fashion, temperatures cooled the course was blanketed in 20cms of snow on race day. The starting groomer climb had at least 10cms on it since being groomed, so I made sure to put a couple of tracks in during my warmup to keep things from bottlenecking off the start.

I got pinched in off the start and settled in, then attacked once there was space. Eric was the only one to follow me and we skied into the fresh bootpack with a good gap. Oh boy, my first major turn trailbreaking in a  race. We were soon joined by Ben and Travis and then another group of 3 and skied down the 1st descent as a group of 7.

Me and Eric took turns trailbreaking on the 2rd climb, pulling aside as skins failed. Although I blew my skins right before the groomer section, I was able to chase back on, while admiring the job Eric was doing up front, creating a gap while breaking trail! Fortunately the bookpack up to the ridge had been set. Without fresh snow to slow us down, the pace lifted.

Ben and Eric got a gap on the descent, leaving me and Travis chasing on the 3rd and final climb as they broke trail. It was not until Ben was breaking trail up the bootpack that we caught them. After the bootpack, I took my turn trailbreaking, using my full width and length skins to plod my way up. As the top of the climb neared, the skintrack flattened and Ben and Eric glided away while I could not answer the attacks. Ben caught Eric on the descent and almost skated to the win, while I ended up in 3rd place.

3rd step on the snowdium

Following the race was the traditional "ski someone else's skis" event (Black Diamond Helios are awesome) and Kootenay Pass cooldown day.

Photos

Ski-Mo Race First Timer Tips

Maybe you’ve seen a race pop up on your local mountain’s events calendar. Maybe you’ve been curious about the sport after reading about it in a Running/Skiing/Outdoors magazine. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of your friends doing it. You’ve finally mustered up the courage and decided to register for a Ski Mountaineering/Rando Race! It’s late on Friday night, here are some tips to survive and thrive in your first race. The races are set up like a typical day of ski touring, only the decision making and avalanche control has been done for you. So use the gear you are comfortable touring with.

-The best way to answer any questions about the difficulty of the course is to ski the course beforehand! Descents are often on double black runs and snow conditions can range from the best skiing on the hill to...the worst skiing on the hill! Course maps are often posted in advance. Study the course map to limit the chances of getting lost! Take note in the racer meeting about how climbs, descents, transitions areas, bootpacks, etc. are marked.

-If you are unsure if you can handle the long course, sign up for the short course. There are lots of great prizes if you end up on the podium anyways.

-Make sure you have the mandatory gear:

Clothing: 3 full arm upper body layers (baselayer, insulating layer and windbreaker). A heavier softshell can probably double as an insulating layer and a windbreaker. 2 lower body layers (baselayer and shell), again a heavier softshell might let you go “commando”. Hat: Buffs are great here! You can store layers in your backpack, but pick stuff that you will be comfortable exerting yourself in! Maybe you can speed up your transitions by not having to layer up for the descent. Light softshells work great for this. Borrowing your friend’s downhill race suit from when he was 12 is not necessary!

My first race. Downhill suit for a 12 year old. Boots with 1 buckle and powerstrap removed. Bike helmet. Sunglasses. Thin Gloves. Thin hat.

Gloves must be worn at all times, so don’t wear a pair that will make you sweat!

Space blanket: Seriously, pick one up at a gas station.

Safety gear: Beacon (must be operating!)/shovel/probe (must be at least 240cm).

Backpack: The backpack needs to be able to carry skis. If you are really keen, there are some tutorials (skintrack.com) on how to add a quick access ski carry system so you don’t even have to take your pack off to put your skis on.

Skins: Make sure the glue on these can handle 4 or 5 laps. Mohair skins are fast, but make sure they are not too narrow for your skis. Sliding backwards wastes energy. Practice taking the skins off without taking the skis off. Don’t worry about being able to put them on without taking your skis off: Nobody does that!

Skis: At least 150cm long for women, at least 160cm long for men. At least 60mm underfoot. Splitboards and telemark are ok as well! The current crop of 85-90mm underfoot skis (Dynafit Cho-Oyo) with carbon weighing 1100g are a great option for touring and racing on the same pair. No, you can’t use your cross country skis.

Some race skis, some normal skis.

Boots: Typical AT/Telemark or Splitboard boot. I would suggest finding a way to simplify boot buckling at transitions. Can you ski down comfortably without having to use powerstraps or extra buckles or tongues? Can you leave some buckles closed on the way up? The current crop of 1000-1200g (Dynafit TLT6) boots are a great option for touring and racing on the same pair.

Helmet: Required for all descents, sometimes required for climbs. Pick a helmet that doesn’t get too hot. Climbing or bike helmets work great. Goggles or sunglasses are required for eye protection. Sunglasses are great for the climbs as long as they don’t fog, goggles are great for the descents.

Hydration/Nutrition: Being out in the cold and racing, it can be tough to remember to eat, but the races can be up to 4 hours so it is important to stay on top of your nutrition. Pick food that does not get rock hard in the cold and is easy to eat. Gels are popular. Camelbak hoses and waterbottle nozzles can freeze. I like to store hydration bladders or soft flasks in my clothing so that they stay warmer.

Techniques: A ski mountaineering race is not too far off a normal day in the backcountry. Focus on dialing in your kickturns. Work on simplifying your transitions. Practice skiing on black and double black runs in a variety of snow conditions.

Alright, now the actual racing! It’s probably not the best idea to line up on the front row as it is easy to get caught up in the commotion with poles and skis flying everywhere. The fast racers might start hard, but try not to get too caught up in the excitement or else you will pay for it later on the last 2 climbs. Pace yourself, remember to eat, drink, have fun, and try not to let tired legs bring you down on the descents. Meet people. I’m sure you’ll have lots to talk about after.

If you enjoyed yourself and would like to pursue the sport more seriously, it’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole of gear and training. Consult Skintrack.com ‘s Ski Mountaineering Manual. Skintrack.com also has a schedule of the races so you can find the next one close by.