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.