Crested Butte: Sprint Race

Ouch, that was painful but Short at least.  Two ups, two downs on a 6 minute(avg) course with racers leaving every thirty seconds it was a spectators dream.  Racers buzzed all over the course despite the -19 C temps, fighting for mere seconds battling to keep fingers working.  As expected in a race that short small errors proved fatal, blow a skin and you could lose 20 seconds which could be 4 places.

Partial unofficial results:

1. Manfred Reichegger(ita) 4:48
2. Reiner Thoni(can) 5:09
3. Lorenzo Holzknect (ita) 5:10
4. Andrew Mcnab (can) 5:19
5. Jan Koles (usa) 5:24

Women

1. Melanie Bernier(can) 5.39
2. Janelle Smiley (usa) 5:57
3. Sari Anderson (usa) 6:28

Awesome to see the Canadians sitting on top after today! Other notable Canadian finishers were Julie Matteau in 6th at 7:14, Ian Gale 13th at 5.58 and Steve Sellers 29th at 7:06.

We’re just relaxing now, preping for tomorrow when the real racing will start.  After helping with course set up for the Sundays individual race I know its going to be a burly one!

Crested Butte : Red Lady Mtn

As part of our acclimatization the gang decided to head over to a local ski-touring area called “Red Lady”.  It’s a favorite of CB locals because it’s close and there’s abundant safe tree skiing, and with the difficult avalanche conditions around here right now we were looking for a low consequence spot to go where we could keep the exposure to a minimum.

 

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We slapped our skins on at 2700 meters and started up through the Aspens to a low angle ridge with sparse shrubby spruce that remind me of the south-facing slopes back home in the Purcells.

Crested Butte

Jeff, Jules, Reiner and I have arrived in Crested Butte Colorado. We’ve met up with fellow Canadian Skimo team members and are being graciously hosted in CB by Wick and Sully of team crested butte.

The first order of business was to sleep off the fatigue from travel and check out the town of Created Butte which sits at a lofty 9000 ft above sea level. Then we got to explore the skihill and try to start acclimatizing to the elevation.

The 2012 Dogtooth Dash

The Dogtooth Dash returns for 2012 as the Canadian Championship Race February 11th and 12th. We received great feedback about the course last year and it will remain unchanged(conditions dependant) with the Elite course climbing and descending 6000 ft of vert, the Enduro at 4000 ft and the Sprint at 2000 ft.

Price for this years Dogtooth Dash is 50$ for the main event and 2 days of lift tickets, 35$ for season’s pass holders. Awards and Apres will be at the Peaks Grill Saturday night, which is located at the base of the mountain meaning easier access for family and friends. All you can eat Mexican dinner buffet will start at 6 pm.

The runaway success of last years teams relay will continue on Sunday this year. Based out of the Heaven’s Door Yurt racers are encouraged to team up, dress up and getter done on a short track course. Intended to mimic a full size course but condensed into a 200ft lap, average time per lap was about 10 minutes last year. Multiply that by four and it’s just long enough to feel like you’ve earned your post race BBQ burger and beer.

All racers who pre-register online will recieve a complimentary race cowbell.

We’re in need of alot of volunteers this year so if you or someone you know are interested please drop us a line through the CONTACT US tab at the top of the page

REGISTER ONLINE HERE

The Vert180

Who knew that I’d have to travel to Calgary Olympic Park for a pow day? Certainly not I…

Yet on Saturday night, crazy pain-glutton soloists joined by teams of 2, 3 and 4, looked skyward  to see fat ol’snowflakes falling down on the City of Calgary.  By the time the race was well underway there was a fresh 10cm blanket of fluff covering COP and all 65 strong of us were having our own human powered pow night.