Ken Jones Classic: Canadian Championships

The Canadian circuit this year saw, on the whole, amazing weather conditions for almost the entire circuit - warm, clean, usually some fresh snow.  The Canadian Championships kept up that trend and sent us off in style.  A new course this year included a 300m bootpack as well as some steeper skiing, both improvements on an already spectacular course.

The field was a little stacked this race, with almost the entire Canadian team, a first-show for Rob Krar, and quite a few fast American racers.  For me, and from what I understand for most people, there wasn't too much race-drama:  the order after the first 5 minutes went relatively unchanged the whole race.











Thanks to everybody - the ACC, SMCC, racers, photographers, organizers, track setters... it was a great season.

Lizard Skinner Skimo Race

Drive.  Sit in car waiting for avalanche closure to open.  Forget thermos left in middle of road.  Drive.  Tim Horton's.  Drive.  Arrive in Fernie, ask about conditions.  "It's been raining all day".  Should be interesting.

The warm weather and rain made for a -very- fast start up the cat track.  Some would call it a drag race.  Skin selection for this course was much debated - skinny for the kilometers of almost flat cat track, or wide for the abrubt transition to straight up a steep, extremely icy, run?  I elected to go skinny for the first lap and for the most part, it worked out really well for me.  The very final 20 meters of steep groomer had me struggling with purchase, but this was over with soon enough - although not before Kylee caught me.  

Luckily at around this point we found the freezing level from the previous day's rain, and the skiing was amazing.  It couldn't have worked out better - deep powder for the first steep descent, and then we hit the rain line and the groomers at the same time.  Two laps of this (including a mid-lap skin change to get rid of badly balling skins), back and forth with Kylee (second race in a row), and then the final skin over to the last decent.  This I grant was not quite perfect.  I think the organizers said something along the lines of "please don't die", but with the finish line in sight the ice-moguls-with-branches skiing was bearable.  Almost exactly repeated results from Castle with 9th overall / 6th Canadian.

Castle Mountain Skimo Race

And the season begins... with 12 hours in a car.

I skipped the Castle Mountain race last year because of wow that's a long drive, but with a more flexible work schedule this winter I was able to make it work, and am very glad I did.  Castle Mountain itself is a pretty awesome hill, but this race weekend was scheduled to be the only double in the Canadian circuit - a sprint race on Saturday and the individual on Sunday.

The Sprint Race:

Went really well for me.  Heat #1 had me lined up with national team members Nick and Peter.  This was my first sprint race, and both guys are extremely fast, so I took the outside spot on the start line without much of a plan.  The gun went off and immediately I was in first with a comfortable margin - as Nick and Peter had tangled equipment and Nick was sprawled out on the snow, with Peter delayed.  This was unexpected, but I'll take what I can get.  Peter caught up and got by me at the top of the course but my 2nd was good enough to move on.



Heat #2 was a contest for 2nd between myself and Adam, with Eric disappearing from the start.  We went up the bootpack side by side, Adam got through transition before I did, but a little more luck and some tricks I learned on icy Ontario slalom courses were enough to let me sneak by on the final gate and get across the line first in a dive style finish.  This format is exciting!



The finals were a bit of a blur with 4 racers on course.  It's amazing how much two, 2-minute efforts can take out of your legs, but mine at least were starting to feel the toll.  No big moves or disappointments in this heat, but I managed to stay ahead of Ben Parsons and finished 3rd, for my first skimo podium.  Maybe I'll have to pay this discipline a bit more attention...


The Individual Race:

Wow, what a course.   This race marks the first time ever I have wanted to put a GoPro on my forehead.  A monster first climb, and then a bootpack to write home about.  I apologize in advance for the word I am about to use: but it was epic.



Halfway through the first climb I managed to hook the tip of my skin on a bush mid-kick-turn, and rip the whole skin right off as I extended through.  Impressive, right?  What's more impressive is that I did it twice.  Anyways, after learning bush avoidance skills which I apparently lacked, I caught back up to Kylee by the before mentioned epic bootpack.   We both survived, and spent the remainder of the race in close contact, mostly to my benefit:  at one point Kylee even picked up a pole I had lost in a (legendary?) fall-and-slide on the first descent. Ungratefully, I passed her on the final pitch and finished 10th overall / 9th male / 6th Canadian.

SMCC Bow Hut Training Camp

So, big news: I have managed to squeak onto Canada's National Development team for Ski Mountaineering racing.  I found out when I got invited to their first training camp of the year, held at the Bow Hut on the Wapta Icefields.  More info on the team and the sport in Canada can be found here:  ACC Skimo National Team

This was awesome news for me, and the camp was a great way to kick start a big training block heading into the season.



It was a packed long weekend.  I went in to the hut on Thursday with two others, and on Friday we were able to get in a few laps under Crowfoot mountain (we attempted the summit but were turned back by icy conditions)  Navigation was surprisingly tricky with extremely flat light and a shallow snowpack, but the runs that did exist were really good.  The second time down was even better, with a few tracks to give some depth to the terrain.





Saturday the whole group roped up and bagged Mt Gordon, straightlined it back down and then spent the remainder of the day putting in meters above the hut.  Again, not the prettiest conditions but really fun skiing.









Sunday we left our packs at the hut and skiied down to run a few more laps under Crowfoot before returning to the hut for our gear and making our exit.





Overall I put in about 5,500 meters in 3-1/2 days and had untouched powder for almost all of those meters on the way down.  Not a bad way to spend a few days.  Thanks to the ACC and the national team for the opportunity - I'm very excited.

Now I need to get back to training.

Ken Jones Classic

The last race of the season was a beautiful thing.  In the sense that it went well for me, but also in the literal sense - gorgeous weather, great course layout and even fresh powder on race day.




The start was well populated, with a 4-strong "team Dynafit" the row behind team Canada.




The first climb hurt.  Two weeks before the race I got one good workout in, but the week on the whole was unintentionally easy.  Almost a rest week.  The week before the race I spent in Quebec eating poutine and drinking beer, which is not my usual pre-race nutrition and athletic plan.  This was the first race I have had where I felt better and better as it progressed.




Not bad terrain.




The course layout was really spectacular, especially the first half.  The switchbacks in the open air were a nice change from the woods.




Caroline sandbagged it again, with Lori right behind her.  I came in 18 minutes behind 1st and 11 minutes behind 2nd, which I am happy with.  The other races this year have been "exploding skins" or "skiing off course"... now it is just "get faster".  Which is OK.




Til next season.