"SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO NOW?"

Should I stay or should I go now?! I definitely should have stayed. The Wyoming Rando Rally featured 3 races in 2 days and I was finishing up with the toughest of the three, the Jackson Hole race. It features 8000' of vertical climb... that and the weather conditions made it a tough day.

After super suffering the day before in the Grand Targhee race because I went out too fast on the 30 minute wall climb to the top of the mountain (in altitude I wasn’t acclimated to). For the JH race I kept my heart rate 10-12 beats lower on the first climb that was probably as long, though not as insanely steep as the day before. Interestingly, half way up that hill skiers started coming back to me. One by one I passed several skiers. This was a lot more pleasant way to race than suffering a major lactic acid dump at the start, then trying to continue as it slowly-dissipates.

The JH rac^nd bootpack in the race) up the iconic Corbett’s Couloir. At the base of the couloir I was feeling great. "Finally get to stomp up this section that I’ve seen in several Youtube vids." However at this point I was greeted by my good friend Janelle Smiley who commented that my face was real red and needed attention (she later said her second look revealed a lot of frostbite white). I was thinking, "red-ok, white-bad" so I didn’t think that much of it, but I shielded my nose with my mitten covered hand for some of the climb. This section tops off with a super cool ladder up and over the cornice at the top. From this point there was a short 150 meter ski then a 4000' descent, however the wind was so bad it almost was blowing us right off our feet. What I figured out later was that at these temps the wind almost instantly turns exposed skin frozen and into frostbite. Janelle’s volunteer partner at Corbett’s base shared (as we waited in "emerg." for one of my teammates suffering major frostbite on her hands), that 75% of skiers came through with at least some fb on their faces (there was a real exposed section leading up to their Corbett’s base station).

So after fighting hard all race to reel in skiers one by one I was forced (yes, forced) into the ski patrol shack because I had some serious frostbite all over my face. The race director said, "I hate to do this and wouldn’t unless you were really bad... and you are." As I entered the shack I saw a guy in there who had a really frozen white nose. I’d never seen such a badly frostbitten nose. I thought to myself, "He looks awful." I later learned after talking to the same race director in emerg that I was almost certainly a LOT worse.

At this point of the race you’ve got a 4000' descent, then a shorter climb, then final descent. Perfect for recovery and a strong finish. I can’t tell you how hard it was to sit in there trying to warm my face. I thought about how hard I’d worked all morning. I also recounted how many months I was looking forward to this race and how long I’d driven just to be there (13 hours). So way too soon I charged back outside, put my skis on and went on to finish the race. I was probably in there 10-15 minutes.

Looking back on it that was really stupid. My skin had faced some major trauma and now I’m hurtling my carcass down the mountain with my face fully exposed to the cold again (I put my mittens up and shielded it at many points while tucking). So what that I worked hard, fought a good fight, was doing well, etc. It’s just another stupid race. Who cares what the results say (my 10-15 minute warm up cancelled out a good result anyway) or what anyone thinks about me. I’ve got to take care of myself. There will always be other races. Heck, that would have given me a good excuse to come back again next year. Your first priority has to be your health and safety. For the rest of the race I’d dialed in the dress perfectly. I wore an extra wind vest over my race suit. Legs and feet warm thanks to my Craft pro cool long undies (wind panels on all the front). Even carried, then eventually used warm mittens with hand warmers in them (busted them out before the race so they’d be at max hotness). My only mistake was to leave my balaclava in the lodge. If I’d just brought that then everything would’ve been fine.

That gal at the base of Corbett’s remarked that the athletes that had a hood built into their race suits were the only ones w/o frostbite. I’d always thought those things were useless. Not now.

So here I am, 2 days later. My nose is itching like crazy, it’s red and kinda hurts. My cheeks too.

Oh, one other dumb thing. One of my race partners from Canada needed to get home and get some specific health care for frostbite. She had to hold her hands in a perpetually Pentacostal position the entire 14 hour drive home. Needless to say, I did all the driving. We didn’t get in until 6 a.m. the next day. So I lost an entire night of sleep. I haven’t trained since. My body needs to recover. This sounds like something a 20 year old would do. I ought to know I’m not invincible.... especially after my humbling trip into the patrol shack at the mountain top.

Next week...race weekend #2 at Castle mountain. Let’s hope it’s not as eventful.

ROCKIN' OUT

Early season skiing is tough on ski bases. For skimo racing this is the time to get in as much base training and general skiing as possible, yet conditions can be rocky. I recently found myself on an abandoned ski out run at one of my local hills in the Canadian Rocky mountains. This particular very steep and very rocky section lived up to the Rocky Mountain moniker.

In order to get down the very narrow steep section (I wanted to go carefully b/c of all the unseen rocks beneath) I recalled seeing a youtube vid where this guy did a double pole jump turn. I tried it- a little clumsily at first-man did it work! By having both pole arms in front, your weight stays forward, mandatory in steep sections, and with both poles I could jettison myself up and out of the sketchy snow conditions.

I’ve been employing this new discovery on my "Steve0's Stealth run", a little backcountry course I’ve set up behind my house. One downhill section has mandatory jump turns down a mossy (underneath), steep descent between closely spaced trees. It’s worked awesomely.

I’ve also found that the technique is a great confidence builder at the top of a steep coulior. I’ll start w/ double pole jump turns to get going (helping me keep my weight forward), then as confidence builds I may then move into a more standard single pole plant turn.

Happy steep skiing (and hopefully not too rocky!).

　

PS an older pair of rock skis at this time of year are your most important quiver tools. I ski on my old K2 Sahales far more than any other ski Oct-Dec.

Asulkan training camp

Last weekend the Canadian nat’l skimo team ascended up to Asulkan hut in the Rogers Pass area for what has become our annual early winter training camp. With heavily laddened packs it’s about a 2.5 hour ski climbing 1000 vertical meters to the hut. Once there, one can ski so many wonderful lines. We stayed off the glaciers surrounding us though, as the recent storm cycle produced a lot of fractures and long crown lines. Additionally, the snow pack was enough to cover cravasses, but only thinly, so we left the glacier safety gear in the car.

morning beacon check at the hut (above); some nice powder pillows on Moraine Triangle

Really, the point was to rack up some long days, big total verts and slay some pow. We achieved all these objectives.

Canadian super skier Melanie, joined us a couple days into the camp, skiing up with her race gear. The rest of us were on fatter, heavier touring gear. Mel knows what she’s doing and displayed great skill in navigating powder on her short 160cm skinny skis. My USA friend Scott Simmons once shared he only owns 2 pair of race skis, so does all his skiing on the light sticks. It’s probably great training for moving the legs fast, plus Scott, like Mel, can really make those things work in all snow conditions.

After the camp, I needed a day of rest, but jumped back in on Tuesday with some skimo intervals. First race only a week away!

Great Times at Tent Ridge. Short & Fat?

As I awoke and peered out the window it looked as if the weatherman’s prediction of snow, high wind and blizzard conditions was coming true. Being very tempted to pull the plug and turn back into bed I made a call, but to double check the plan. It turned out one of our skiers had a 4 wheel F-150, so knowing we would at least not get stuck we decided to duck back into the mountains and hopefully avoid the storm. Sometimes these storms are on the prairies and don’t seep up into the mountains. That is exactly what happened to us.

Our destination turned out to be Tent Ridge. A first for all of us, but we’d previously scoped it out in the guidebooks. Tent Ridge is known for sliding and this week it stayed true to that depositing a sizable avalanche right down the middle. With this knowledge, and observing the already formed cornices all around (ridge top is quite exposed from every direction and had cornices from every direction), we made for the trees. On either side are nice stands of well spaced larch trees. We made about 6 runs on one side, then bolted for the other.

Unlike the previous week, we didn’t see a single other skier. They were either all slugging it out on Highwood (a.l.a. last week-see previous blog), or hunkered down fearing the weather report. By the end of the day the sun even poked out. So much for the predicted blizzard.

On this day I dug into my quiver and pulled out the 163cm Atomic Kailas skis. Their dimensions are 125-85-100. Short, fat, shapely, kinda like a Maryln Monroe of skis (well at least the shapely part). With the short length they turn so well. The sidecut gives them a nice carve and there’s enough width to float well over pow. I got to wondering if I should have ordered the 167cm Dynafit Huascarans instead of the 178's last year. I’ve often felt a short, fat ski would be a lot of fun. Many of my friends get longer skis so they can "charge hard" they say, but I sure like the turnability of a shorter ski and the reduced weight.


That elusive quiver of one is still out there somewhere, yet to be discovered.

Not a Whole Lotta Love at Highwood

Led Zepplin’s hard driving rock song "Whole lotta love" cranked from the car stereo as we pulled into the unbelievably full Highwood pass parking lot for some early season turns. Usually that last song is the one that sticks in your brain for the day, so I was glad the music matched the stoke my Skimo world’s teams race partner and I were feeling. Unfortunately I was soon to learn that there wasn’t a whole lotta love in the backcountry scene that day.

First off, as we were staging our gear in the parking lot, a very slow moving large pickup truck proceeded to run over one of my skis. I quickly ran over, protesting loudly so the rear wheels wouldn’t find the same target. It was to no avail. The bandits seemed to uncaringly ignore me. I’m so glad K2's light paulonia wood core was up to the task as any foam core certainly would’ve been damaged for sure. I yelled at them, "you guys must be snowboarders. Did you know you just ran over my skis?" They didn’t care, no apology, nothing. Then when they got out I noticed they weren’t using split boards or snowshoes..hello post-holing on the skin track.

The next encounter featured 2 hikers. We saw them leave the parking lot and wondered why they’d travel all the way to the pass to hike in 3-4 feet of snow when the valley trails were still pretty usable. We quickly caught up to them. One glanced back when I was only 4-6' behind him. At that point he squarely positioned himself in the middle of the trail so I couldn’t pass. I didn’t feel like opening my mouth as I wasn’t sure I could resist chewing them out for walking/wrecking the skin track. As I attempted to pass he squeezed over to try to keep me from going around. I went anyway. As I did he sarcastically said, "excuse me". As if that’s what he was expecting me to say. I joined his game and sarcastically accepted his non apology and said, "ok".


Pter at the Pass



The next group was tailed by a snowboarder (he at least had a split-board and wasn’t screwing up the track). I politely asked to pass on the right. He didn’t budge. I patiently skinned behind him for a bit at a 1/4 of the speed I was previously travelling at. A 2^nd time I asked to go around. No budge. Finally with just a bit of space I busted a move and got around him. As we passed his other slightly more cooperative ski mates, they gave me a look that said, "how dare you pass me?".

On the zig-zag uphill to the start of the run we passed a couple other guys. They were obviously a little more experienced and we had a nice chat. As we shared our stories I had the thought that these newbies need to understand the ethics of the bc world a little better. I wondered aloud if they’d even bother to help in a possible rescue scenario...or if they’d even be able to.
                                                               

Once we got away from the masses though we got some great turns in. 10 runs in all. Stellar weather, great company (the more hardy that went a little deeper in the bc were great-even the snowboarders). Great to be in the back country and on the boards again!

Grizzly Ultra 50Km

So how do you define success? For athletes it’s often simply a comparison game. "Did I beat so & so?.. what place did I get? How many came in behind/front of me?" I feel this is setting ones self up for defeat. In 2 day’s ago Grizzly Ultra 50km at Canmore Nordic Centre I came in 28^th out of 400. To some it sounds good, but that’s a lot of people in front of me.

I’ve said before that you simply take what the day gives you. I’ll add to that though, after the day gives what it may, what you do with it, giving back determines whether or not the effort was a successful one.

5 weeks ago I had a similar race, Mt Robson Marathon. Weaker field, yet it’s own unique challenges. From that race I was hoping to go upward still in my fitness. The next weekend I had a pretty good ½ marathon trail race at the Nordic Centre, then the following weekend I tweaked a muscle in my groin/hop flexor area while on a spectacular 4 hour mountain run. That run was the apex of my running season. My fitness was at its zenith as also was my experience in my newly found summer training passion-mountain running. But with that tweaked muscle came a little more rest, a little more prudence, and generally reined in enthusiasm.

Part of the joy of mountain running is an uncluttered joy of exploring. A freedom to hike when the going gets tough and to fly when the downhill beckons. With the injury and my hoped for full recovery for a maximum effort in the Grizz 50km there was less joy and maybe even a little anxiety.

In the race the first half went off great. I learned from previous experience to reign in early enthusiasm and pace myself for the long day. Yet on the final descent into the stadium on loop 2 (of 5), the ½ point, I could start to feel that muscle go. From then on I had to really step gingerly down the descents. Then my other muscles started going as I compensated. I didn’t have major cramping issues as in the Robson race, but they really started hurting.

I held on though, even passing a few people. But the highlight came for me when my 14 year old daughter, who was anchoring her relay team, caught me on the final leg with only a couple km’s to go. She blew by me on a short steep uphill I was walking up, but then I resolved to finish with her, so dug down deep and reeled her back in on the flats. The comeback was short lived though as we then began the final descent into the stadium. That pesky groin injury was just too much even with me applying pressure to it with my hand as I ran. She gapped me be quite a bit feeling pretty smug. I had a lot of joy though seeing her fly so fast!

So was my day a success? I’d say yes. I know I can go faster, but under different circumstances. I raced that day as fast as I could. I maybe should have dropped at the ½ point to eliminate risk of further injury, but I don’t think I made things any worse. Ironically, I won my age group. At Robson I was 10^th male, but only 4^th in age group. In the Grizz the closest in my age group was 40 minutes behind. So certainly you can’t judge success by place. You just never know who’s going to show up. I have no control over that, but I do have control over whether or not all of me shows up on race day. I think I did in this case....bad groin and all. So yes, I took what the day gave me, gave back all I had and walked (actually hobbled) away feeling successful.

BRING ON THE SNOW

I’m ready to be done running. After 5 months, my body has had enough. Maybe my mind a bit too. My pesky metatarsalgia in my toe, which I’ve had on and off for 6 years, is starting to bug me a lot. And 2 weekends ago while running one of my favorite epic runs, my groin started acting up. I’d strained it mildly 2 days before the Robson marathon doing some fast strides with my daughter. It was a little sore during the marathon. But then I raced again the next weekend at the 5 Peaks ½ marathon trail race and it felt just fine. But then it acted up on last weekend’s long run too. I’m good for about 3 hours, then it starts tightening up. I guess most people would say, "3 hours! That’s good enough!!" Except in under 2 weeks I have the 50km Grizzly trail race at the Nordic Centre. If there was no race, I wouldn’t panic, just roller ski mostly with a little bike.

Instead I’m doing a couple long runs a week very easily and roller skiing and some mountain hiking.

Maybe mentally I’m ready to be done too. I got my new ski boots a few weeks ago, got renewed with my Dynafit sponsorship and there’s snow on all the mountain tops around my house.

We do have a long ski season. Starting w/ the summer stored Frozen Thunder xc trail at the Nordic centre in mid October all the way practically til June. That’s a lot of skiing and at this point in my life after 7 months of skiing, I’m ready for summer.

But now I truly am ready for winter. I was really enjoying the high altitude mountain runs, but now there’s starting to be snow up there. Just over a week ago I did the Gordon Pass run. The Tamaraks were in full color and it was a truly magical experience (until my groin started hurting). This past week has been cold. My garden is barely hanging on with some leaf lettuce still to be picked, but tonight the temp’s supposed to be -4C. So I’m going to harvest it all and shut ‘er down.

Bring on the snow!