2013 Ken Jones Classic

The Ken Jones Classic was the final race of the 2013 Ski Mountaineering Competition Canada Season. After a really hard weekend at Kicking Horse (racing on Saturday and Sunday, banging off a lot of gondola laps on Friday and Sunday), I gave the body a rest with only a couple of days of XC skiing, and a couple of days at Lake Louise checking out the course.

Course: The course involves some of Lake Louise's best descents when considering both steepness and ski quality. As well, I find the length and order of the climbs to be very conductive to racing. The longer first climb separates things, then there are a couple of shorter climbs to jostle around in, and then the long final climb where you need something left in the tank. The descents were all memorable. In Whitehorn II F gully, Eric, Brad, and I were all skiing close together at the same time and sluff balls were pouring down the chute from wall to wall. In Brownshirt main, we were ripping and putting on a descending clinic for those on their second descent. Elevator shaft was skiing great and the slalom through the rock garden was fast, with the final placings on the line!

Off we go!

The treed section at the beginning of the last climb was interesting with some thick forest and lots of traversing outtracks and a meandering skintrack. Our train made a wrong turn, but fortunately we realized our mistake early (no green flags = off course!). A couple of misses on some high speed corners on the descents (they were marked better in previous years), fortunately that didn't change the outcome too much, for us at least!

Engine: I kept my pace steady even though there were times when it felt like I was about to get dropped by Brad and Eric. Although Brad got away near the end, I had enough left in the tank to shed Eric near the top of the last climb, but not enough time or gusto to catch Brad.

Ooops, wrong 'Eric Carter'

Gear: My gear was dialed this year. No skin failures in the cold weather. I used goggles for the first time in a long race because of the cold, and they worked well. My only gear issue would be one that probably plagued many others: my water froze. This could have been combated with a different hydration strategy. Platypus bottle in suit pocket or Camelbak system inside of suit?

Technique: My transitions were good and that kept me in the race, closing the gap before climbs and descents. Very FEW botched kickturns but I would prefer that there be zero botched kickturns. I was able to stay in there on the descents as well.

Okay, so I (R) survived the fast first climb, now time to prepare for another 1.5hrs of battling! photo: Chris Mosely.

TSN Turning Point: After racing together for the entire race, Brad snuck away and put in a sizeable gap on Eric (who got caught in a tree) and I (who was fiddling with water to fuel up before the last climb). When we finally emerged from the trees and Brad was back in sight, I was impressed with the damage he had done! I then turned up the pace to shed Eric, but could not close the gap to Brad. We all made mistakes, Brad was strong.

Behind us, Nick and Stano were duking it out, and I'm sure we'll hear more about that on Skintrack.com. results

I enjoyed a great afternoon filled with lots of Paradise laps. It was a great season. Thanks to my parents, the race organizers and sponsors. I am looking forward to 2014.

With a summer mountain bike season on the horizon, it is time to rest. I am looking forward to the spring skiing season and hopefully I can make some turns in some cool places around here. Ta Ta For Now

More Dogtooth and buildup pictures

Small is the new big. Mini golf lines are great for getting the full couloir experience with less risk. 

This mountain goat was setting a pretty bold uptrack. It had scrambled on top of some cliffs and was seen charging up an avalanche path above a cliff. Bold.

"There is no ice or rock in the guidebook picture"

"The col is often windswept"

A fast ascent in some tricky snow conditions.

 And some more Dogtooth Dash pictures from Martin's roommate Pierre

Sizing up the competition

The start. Brad had a pretty impressive gap by the end of the short run.

The Chinese downhill after the start.

Suffering hard, being heckled by the organizer, Ian Gale.

Finishing. About to remove the mask of pain that has covered my face for the previous 2hrs.

2013 Dogtooth Dash

It was my 4th time doing Canada's premier ski mountaineering event at Kicking Horse, organized by Ian Gale and the events team at the resort. The course is great and the event is well backed by the resort. Gore stepped up with some cash as the title sponsor for the event, dubbed the North American Championships.  Andrew and Reiner are still in Europe, so the race was wide open.

I had a free lift ticket voucher, so I skied the hill on Friday. The freezing levels had risen quite high and things were not looking  too promising, but I quickly realized during the gondola ride up that conditions up high would be game on. I had some of the best runs that I have ever had there and it was hard to resist the urge to keep skiing so I called it quits with an hour until close :) . I was put up in some accommodation that I had won during last summer's Kicking Horse Cup, so a good sleep was a given.

A great view of the top 4 in the race. Photo: Malcolm Taylor

In previous years, I have made use of the included lift ticket and the noon start to burn off a couple of laps in the morning, but this time, I decided to sleep in instead. After a pretty brief warmup, it was time to do battle.

Course: Again, this is the best course in Canada, with lots of transitions, steep skiing, and bootpacks to test your technical skills. The course was modified from two previous years with the last descent changed to the final descent from my first Dash! Leg burner! Otherwise the same 2 non-selective first climbs and the 3rd and 4th, which separate the men from the boys.

Gear: Fresh off my Europe trip, my gear was dialed. Needed the grippy skins for one of the ascents, but I wish I could have spent more time on the faster gliding skins.

Technique: Again, fresh out of Europe, my technique was feeling dialed. My transitions were fast, kickturns were dialed in, and my skiing was feeling the best it has been. Very few mistakes.

Engine: Although I made the mistake of doing some trail breaking to "string out the group" on the first 2 climbs, I was feeling like a hero...until Scott Simmons, up from Colorado sped away on the flat section of the 3rd climb. Eric Carter and I were skiing together all day, pushing the pace hard. He was stronger than me on the day, but I am surprised that I collapsed as bad as I did to lose a minute at the end of the final climb.

TSN Turning Point: The 3rd climb again proved decisive and I was able to settle into my spot ahead of Brad, Ben Parsons from Montana, and Nick.

Suffering hard. Felt like I was lacking in the end battle, but I was spent at the end. Great to hear so many people cheering for me, even my Mom!

I am really happy with my race, especially finishing in 3rd place. It again confirms that I made the right decision Re: what to do with my life this year.

After a great buffet dinner, we prepared to battle in the relay race the next day. It was snowing hard, and I opted to race wearing goggles for once! I teamed up with Martin Lafontaine, and wearing jerseys from the teams of our respective provinces, we became "the Separatists". I love the relay format as it is spectator friendly, easy to set up, and is really beneficial to the athletes from a training and technique perspective. We both threw down some fast laps and just barely lost out on the win to the Skintrack.com team of Stano and Eric.

Malcolm was out taking some amazing pictures.

Back in the routine

Legs are still a little "damp" after a week of hard racing in Europe, but fortunately I have a massage tomorrow.

What have I been up to other than racing (and XC skiing and the Canmore Nordic Centre) since I was at Rogers Pass in January?

Running out of ideas, I revisited an area that I have not been to in 3 years. We had such a good day, we returned a couple of weeks later

It had been a great powder day at Norquay since I had last been out ski touring. A good day out with Ryan  set me up well for a nice hard couple of days the week before heading to Europe.

I always have great days in this area. I came back 2 days later for a 2700m day.

A little further north, ,and another big day on a nice slope.

Finding some good powder even after the weekend crowds had done their thing.

Okay, back from Europe. The legs took a little bit of time to get into it each day.

A fun powder day on the little skis with a couple of skimo ladies. http://margsrace.blogspot.ca/ , http://stixnstonz.wordpress.com/

Craig and Bill had been having a good time while I was still in Europe. We went for a good character builder  doing some exploration.

A nice day to get into a cool line

Self portrait

My secret weather forecast predicted high winds, precipitation, and low visibility, but I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to go touring with Steve S and Mark Smiley. We had to pull off the objective when we encountered the forecasted weather...

...and move on to something else. Steve and I weren't feeling too comfortable with a  bit of slab over facets, so we bailed on that too.

Back to my favourite zone with some fun new ski partners. I love looking around at the scenery and thinking of future ski objectives in the area.

So yeah, hopefully the massage helps me out so I can get ready for...

The Dogtooth Dash!

Europe trip, touristing, getting rad, etc...

Sure, it was all about the racing, but what about the journey?

I had some time to kill in Montreal, so I made use of their $9 bus (return to and from downtown. What a deal! It cost me $65 for a taxi from the deep south of Calgary to the airport!). I can happily say that I did not die while travelling over the crumbling concrete overpasses with exposed rebar and numerous concrete repairs. I wonder where all the transfer payments that Quebec receives are going?!!!

 I only had a faint idea of what I was doing and I wandered around the Old town for a bit. I was soaking in the culture and it kind of felt like I was already acclimatizing for Europe. I wanted to have a famous smoked meat sandwich and I found out that I was on the wrong side of town.

I started walking down Saint Laurant but I got hungrier and Mont (or should I say Hill) Royal was too distracting. I stopped at the next fast food place I saw, then bolted up to the top of the hill. I felt like quite the hero at sea level. A wonderful view of the city!

Pretty much everything I did after arriving in France was dedicated to preparing for the races. We had some time off after the vertical race and went for some exploration further up the valley.

Power day! I'm still kicking myself for not banging off more free lift access laps after my sprint qualification run. Doh!

The mythical Barre d'Ecrins on the centre-right. Classic mountaineering objective later in the season. And a good reason to come back.

With an afternoon start, plans weren't too ambitious (unless you are American. Nice work boys!). We settled on some short, easily accessible couloirs. Mini golf!

We managed to ski two mini couloirs before deciding to call it a day. We skied through the town of Ailefroude, which like the road down the valley, is closed in the winter. When the road opens, mountaineering objectives like the 4000m+ Ecrins massif can be more easily attempted.

 After the races, it was apparent that the bodies were worn down and some rest would be needed. We traveled through Briancon on the way to Pelvoux from Geneva and we were in awe of the old fortifications in the hills around the city. We also wanted to check out rumours of a fabled skimo shop in the city.

This bridge built under Louis XV connects two walled villages. Unfortunately we couldn't get into the higher of the two (on the other side of the bridge) as there was a drawbridge that was out and we didn't feel like rock climbing.  

Beautiful mountains. This is looking towards the Col de Lautaret where our next destination, La Grave is on the other side.

The lower of the 2 fortified areas, and a lovely cell phone tower.

No trip to France would be complete without a shath (or bawer) experience. 

We stuck around in Pelvoux for another day keen to ski some objectives that we didn't have time to do during the races. A couple of groups ascended La Blanche during the week while I was too busy enjoying my lunch.

La Blanche, a nice objective just above the top lift at Pelvoux. A 7euro backcountry lift ticket gave us a 1000m bump. 

We were able to ski right off the top over a steep rollover with chalky snow.

 I honestly did not have much of an idea what I was doing, but we heard that there was a 1000m long couloir dropping for a 1500m descent off the side of the mountain down to Ailefroude. In the above picture taken from the entrance of the couloir, you can see the summit of La Blanche, and the short climb to get to the entrance. Brad was feeling a little sick after given'er all week and elected to sit out.

Couloir Rouya Nord. I think there is also a Rouya Sud couloir that drops in earlier along the ridge. Don't quote me on that though!

Snow was crusty and scraped clean in the upper section before going into a crux barely wide enough for my skis and required calculated turns. The snow improved in the middle as the couloir opened up into a small bowl, and then funneled back into a couloir near the bottom.

A view from the bottom of the line. The couloir twists and turns so you can't see the bottom when you are inside it! We utilized the same valley bottom ski trails that we had been using all week for commuting, training, racing, and getting to lunch to get us back to the hotel. The hotel manager informed us that the region receives ~300 days of sunshine each year and the snowfall before the sprint race may be the last major snowfall of the season.

 The next day, we pulled out of the hotel in Pelvoux and headed for La Grave. I had heard that the Col de Lautaret was worth checking out, and that advice was confirmed when we pulled over the 2000m high pass. The north side of the col had some sunbaked slopes that looked to have some classic objectives, but we set our sights on a cool north facing bowl on the south side of the road.

We enjoyed a couple of laps through some smooth, settled, powder skiing really fast.

Classic high points on the opposite side of the road. That faint snow covered road snaking up the mountains leads to the famous Col de Galibier, a classic climb in many editions of the Tour de France, and also making an appearance in the 2013 Giro d'Italia. Or maybe the other side.

Okay, enough with the rockies style apron skiing. We noticed a short  mini  golf couloir that went up to a bench. I love mini golf and I was pumped up. Time to break out the putters again!

 We made it to La Grave in the evening and were impressed with the shear vertical relief and huge glacial features in the mountains above town. We also noticed that everyone in town was walking around wearing harnesses and carrying skis that would probably be more at home in deep Monashee powder. With the hotel manager's climate fact still in the back of our minds, we couldn't help but chuckle. We were expecting big things from the skiers in La Grave the next day!

Maybe we are terrible at reading maps, but we assumed that there would be more options for touring around the top of the resort. We only bought single ride tickets (well for me and Carla, who are under 25, single and multi ride tickets cost the same, normally they are 10 euro more). We played around on the high glacier just below 3600m (the highest that I have been in my life), and dropped down a south facing slope just for fun. We skinned back up before getting too carried away and I never even noticed the altitude. The full descent leads to a small town way down the valley, where I think you can bus to Les 2 Alpes, take the lifts up to the top and ski back to the top of La Grave.

 The ski stoke was waning (we joked that the birds hovering around were not feasting on the bodies of dead mountaineers, but on the stoke that had vanished) and we were regretting not pounding off a bunch of laps in a ski resort that pretty much consists of 2 Delirium Dives. How to do La Grave right? Buy the full lift ticket, do your research/hire a guide. The whole area is wild, uncontrolled, and filled with unlimited potential. Powder days must come with mixed blessings as soft slabs would be still lurking.

Well we enjoyed our run. Conditions were not too inspiring anyways and you have to be mentally prepared so you don't get in over your head. This picture is in the Lake zone, we skied the looker's left most of the 3 couloirs heading down to the lake. As a bonus, I got to find out how the Manaslus handle ice moguls. They are awesome skis. We definitely didn't see any conditions which warranted Megawatts or S7's.  Definitely want to come back sometime with more mountain and skiing skills ready to bang off multiple lift access laps of complex glacier runs and steep couloirs. 

Yes, there are tracks against the rock wall on the left side of the picture.  More info on the routes here.  Unfortunately, I found that website when I got home!

The hostel in La Grave is a funky place with lots of concert posters, monoskis on the wall and some jam band music playing in the dining area. The "random" in our room wasn't exactly happy to see us when we walked in though...

 Back to the Col de Lautaret to see if we could reignite the stoke from a couple of days ago.

Nobody was really keen to check out the objectives on the warm south slopes. I spotted a cool line from the highway on the drive to the pass on the cool north slopes. Brad was feeling sick again, so he returned to the car. Carla and I continued up the line. We climbed up good bootable snow until the upper couloir became steeper and the snow was  not as consolidated. The descent did not suck. 

Bluebird sky.

The line in the middle of the picture. Hard to spot from this angle. Excellent snow quality in the upper couloir. One of the coolest lines that I have climbed and skied (la Rouya was cool, but I didn't climb it!) because of the multiple features. The couloir is called Couloir N Oriental. More info here and here. (not trying to brag, but I think it's cool how there is limitless info on tonnes of routes...but not in English).  It is ironic how I can complain about not having enough information when the problem is that I am too lazy to sift through the multitude of information!

It was time to head back to Geneva to catch our flights the next morning. Driving back through La Grave, we were gaping at the huge sub alpine couloirs that drain down to the highway past the town. The road to Grenoble was beautiful.

You get what you pay for. 37euros for 3 people for this tiny space pod of a room, and toilets and showers in tiny closets down the room. Really, not that bad.

I can proudly state that I avoided paying to piss the whole time I was in Europe!

We skied some cool stuff, but it felt like we were hindered by tired legs and a lack of information. It is a great experience to ski in France, but it was reading week back home and I missed shredding pow and some fun lines with my brother and my friend. My legs were blown. When I got back home, it took me a couple of days of rest before my legs felt good again.

So I am not sure if I would stay and ski after the races in 2015, but if I did, I would plan some more rest days to be a tourist and create a list of nearby ski touring objectives beforehand. We were a little burned out both mentally and physically.

Anyways, here is my video summary. Still kicking myself for not getting a POV of my skiing and course recon on the sprint day!