January/February Check-In

Hello all! Thought we would give you a life update on the past couple of weeks since the Jackson Skimo Races. Life is so good; God is so good! Our jobs are going well and we are excited about some upcoming trips. Cue the foreshadowing music...

Since the beginning of January, we have been skiing a bunch on the weekends, though the snow this season has been dismal since December. I wish those folks in Boston would share some of their wealth. It sure doesn't appear on the news as if they want it. Teton Pass just west of Jackson has afforded plenty of adventure with Kyler and various ski buddies. There still seems as though there are unlimited new places to explore, and lots of quickly-becoming-favorites. It's fun to start to know the area enough to pick where we want to go based on conditions. 

Alli competed in a women's hockey tournament at the end of the month. She practices weekly with a team and then plays on some weekends through the season. Guess what! Their team won their class and Alli scored a goal! She seems to pick up a new technique (or 3) every week and we expect great things out of her in the next tournament in March. 

We both traveled to Bozeman the next weekend and competed in the Skimo race at Bridger Bowl. I competed in the race division among the other lycra wearers and did pretty well. Initially, I had big visions of podium finishes but settled for a battle with another racer for 6th place. There are a lot of things to learn, particularly about race strategy and skin choice, but my fitness can improve as well. It's fun to look ahead to the next season and how I can grow as a racer. The conditions were horrendous: icy, no new snow, slick skin tracks... And Alli completed the Recreation division in top form. Bless her heart, she has done this race twice and pushed through after being sick for both. I can't wait to do this again and see what she can do fully healthy.

And the big highlight recently is finally becoming fully-fledged ski patrollers at Snow King Ski Area. Look it up: the ski area is really cool, rising directly from the edge of town. And the runs are steep and north facing, so if the snow is good, skiing can be great. We volunteer to cover a lot of races for local junior racers and Olympic hopefuls alike. It was a lot of work to gain the medical training and learn the on-hill skills necessary to respond to injured skiers. To be honest, there was a little bit of selfishness in this whole thing: we wanted to gain the skills to help each other if misfortune crosses our trail or if we came upon someone injured. 

I will leave you with these final pictures of skiing in the Teton Pass backcountry. Get out there and get yourself some adventure! 

Wyo Rando Roundup 2015

I'm told that I am crazy by those who don't understand. You see, Alli and I like to ski up mountains...for fun. Yup, crazy. But the best part is coming back down...

In our first year here in stunningly beautiful Jackson, Wyoming, I decided to pick up my Skimo game. Skimo is the cool way to refer to ski mountaineering racing. Definitely use the shortened term if you want to impress your friends. I've done a few races in the past, some which may even be mentioned on this blog, but I've been so out of touch with this site recently that I can't remember.

Anyway, elevating my Skimo pursuits meant purchasing some specialized equipment, which is heavily discussed elsewhere in the blog-o-sphere. Who doesn't like upgrading their gear? In general, my new equipment is designed to be light (small, skinny skis and light boots), fast (stylish lycra racing suit), and efficient (skimo pack). You'll see them in the pics below.

My first race as a lycra-suit-wearing individual was a weekend series located in the Teton area dubbed the Wyoming Randonee Roundup on January 10-11, 2015. This event has three events at each of the local ski areas: Grand Targhee, Snow King, and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. The GT race was held on Saturday morning followed by a "sprint style" race at Snow King that night. Then the burly JHMR race began early Sunday morning. I had a fairly good performance for my first race. I found out that my training has gone really well this season and identified some good areas to focus on for the next race. Fueling was a particular struggle and will need to be fine-tuned in the future. GUs are just really hard to choke down at the transition stations.

Hope you enjoy the pictures! I was really lucky to have a support/fan club/photographer follow me around that weekend (I love you Alli!).

Halfway through the first climb up Grand Targhee.

Ripping skins at the top. 

Skinning above the beautiful Snake River Valley on the second climb of the JHMR race. Smiles!

Ripping skins at the top of Rendezvous Peak (aka the top of the JHMR Tram) the highest point of the race right before an amazing ski down.

At the finish line. 3 hours and 33 minutes

Tired boy hanging out in the events tent after it was all over. 

Saturday Telemark Race

Whitefish Mountain Resort played host to a US Telemark Ski Association sanctioned race on February 26th and opened it up to racers of all levels by including Citizen and Novice categories. It was going to be a Sprint Classic race which entailed giant slalom turns through gates down through Ptarmigan Bowl on Big Mountain as well as a jump (more of a bump on the run, kind of disappointing) and a skate finish. You were docked points if you didn’t have a perfect tele-turn through each gate, if you didn’t go 30 feet on the jump, or if you didn’t land in a telemark stance when landing the jump. Sound exciting? We thought so. Psyched from our fun on Thursday nights, Dad and I decided to participate.

Dad poling for all he's worth to the finish line.

Two cold, tired, and hungry racers. Why did I get lucky number 13?

Depending on how you look at it, that particular Saturday wasn’t a very good day for a ski race. It was freezing, the wind was blowing, and visibility was very poor. On the other hand, the snow conditions were good (read not icy) albeit slow because of the low temperatures. And nobody came out and did the race: if I remember correctly there were only 16 total participants, male and female, elite racers and novices alike. This itself worked in our favor. I finished first in the Citizen class and Dad finished third! Plus there was plenty of door prizes and schwag to go around. Needless to say, we made out like bandits…

I’ve probably said this before, but I love the atmosphere of a race. Regardless of how you expect to finish compared to everyone else it’s a blast. All you can do is go out there and give’er your all, sell out, and see where you end up. Rubbing elbows with pros at any level is super cool and everyone is always so encouraging. I love the feeling of wrapping up a race and wanting more, stoked about training hard or practicing your skills to become better at your sport.

Final Telemark Race League Night

Team Poutine and X-tra Gravy wrapped up our Thursday Night Telemark Race season last Thursday in fine fashion. The league was a lot of fun and it was something I looked forward to every week for the past month and a half. We had a great group of people to hang out with, make knee-bending turns beside, and laugh at the same sarcastic jokes. It was probably a good thing that we were all there to have a great time and not too focused about breaking any speed records. Don’t get me wrong: we have some very fast people on our teams. However, the race leagues are notoriously a “circus,” not getting the correct times, confusing people, and not starting/ending on time and this year was no exception.

Members of Team Poutine and X-tra Gravy basking in the glow of cajun cheese curds and sausage gravy topping fries in all their golden glory.

The final race is a solo event (not head-to-head) and is similar to the Sprint Classic event held last Saturday. But in honor of the last race, everyone comes decked-out in costume, attempting to win the team contest. So we raced last week with people in tuxes, Trekkies, aliens, and of course Kokopouteles! That’s right: our two teams were Kokopelli-Poutine-Telemarkers. Remember that poutine is fries covered in gravy and cheese curds (Yum!). We didn’t get on the podium of the costume contest but should have won the Most Obnoxious award. Several of us had whistles, others had vuvuselas from the soccer Sorld Cup in South Africa, and one guy even brought a make-shift digeridoo. And we used them all in excess. Dodging gates went well and the after-party was a lot of fun: hanging out, eating poutine, and winning race schwag. 

More team members sporting costumes and enjoying the fellowship inducing Poutine.

All in all a great experience for me. I feel like I’ve become a better telemark skier from running icy, rutted out courses through colored gates. I had a great time hanging out with my Dad and his social circle on Thursday nights, making cool connections and building fun relationships. And what’s becoming apparent to me is that’s what life is all about.

Me, obviously enjoying myself. Notice the detail and artistic work of my costume: the dashing kokopelli telemarker, fries on the helmet, whistle around the neck, and flute hanging from my chin strap.

2011 Whitefish Whiteout

The group of racers from church (l to r): Colter, Warren, Randy, Zachariah, Eric, and Chris

So I've been doing a bit of racing this ski season.  I've waited for years now going to school away from the mountains in Texas while I live vicariously through my dad as he talks me through the glorious details of downhill gate-dodging and mountaineering slogs.  Now I'm back to take full advantage of everything the mountains have to offer.

Racers on first climb up Tony Matt.  Dad's the first skier
on the left.

At the summit transition.  What a gorgeous day!

The 4th Annual Whitefish Whiteout Ski Mountaineering race kicked off last Saturday morning with blue skies, sunshine, and fresh snow.  Between the two categories (Race: climbing about 4000', and Rec: climbing about 2000') there were over 60 competitors.  It's really good to see people willing to get out and be active.  Dad and I competed in the Race category and had a blast chasing the "men and women in lycra" up the mountain and skiing untracked powder on the way down.  The course encompassed a wide range of ski mountaineering skills: climbing with skins on your skis, transitioning from skinning to skiing/skiing to skinning, descending some of the most challenging terrain of the resort, and even boot-packing up a couloir (North Bowl Chute).  Hearing cheers and encouragement from the "sidelines" from ticket wielding skiers and snowboarders was pretty cool and when I had the energy I gratefully flashed a smile and amped up the pace.  We still have a long way to go though here in the States.  Fans of ski mountaineering in Europe border on the fanatic, just like they do with most sports (soccer, cycling...).

Trying my best at a sprint to the Finish Line.

For results (other than tired legs, rosy cheeks from the exertion and the sun, and a perma-smile), I finished 12th overall with a time of 2:32.24, which was also good enough to beat out the rest of the telemarking field for 1st in my category.  Dad did really well too, finishing 18th overall and 4th in the telemark division with a time of 2:47.32.  A hug at the finish line was a cherry on top of an already great race.

Gotta love the After-Race Hug!

Telemark Race League

Ever hear of Poutine?  Don't fret too much, unless you're a ski bum galavanting across Canada or a French Canadian you have no reason to have ever experienced the stuff.  Anyway, it's a mixture of potato fries, cheese curds, and gravy. Odd combination I know, but combined with an atmosphere of a great day of shredding the slopes, it can't be beat.

At Big Mountain, they hold a Thursday night race league for us free heeled and free thinking telemarkers.  We ride the race t-bar up to the top and drop our knees down through the gates head to head with a racer of similar speed.  Afterwards we have a big party, complete with prizes, awards, and home-made poutine.  We have two teams comprised of teachers and friends of teachers and sons of teachers, one called "Team Poutine" captained by Tyler Poutine, the father of the poutine revival at Big Mountain, and "X-ta Gravy" headed by my dad.  Due to the nature of the night time racing, future pictures will mostly be comprised of the after party, but hopefully I'll be able to capture some of the gate-dodging action.

As much as displaying the times for the public, I am recording my times for the racing in order to track improvement as I hopefully improve as the season continues.  The first race day, 2 weeks ago, we only took one run through the course and I logged a time of 31.48 seconds.  This week, I sped up a little with two runs of 31. 07 and 31.22.  If I can find a way to shave off half to a whole second off my time, I could start making the podium... Here's to lofty goals, eh?

2010 Glacier Challenge

Participants in the Glacier Challenge (in our crew, from left to right): Warren Lane, Zachariah Deister, Erik Schliebe, Colter Lane, Chris Deister, Neil Schliebe, and Zach Perrin.

Congratulations to "Family Friendly," a team of some guys from church, and Zach Perrin for an awesome completion of this year's Glacier Challenge. The team took 9th out of 35 teams and Zach finished 13th out of 21 solo racers (not bad for a 15 year old doing it for the first time. Hard core!)

More information about the race and results from this year and previous years are posted at http://www.theglacierchallenge.com/results.html.

Red Dirt Adventure Challenge 2010

Last Saturday the ACU Outdoor Club hosted its 5th Annual Red Dirt Adventure Challenge and Lake Abilene in the Abilene State Park. Months of preparation, hours of effort, and gobs of time paid off as the event went off without a hitch. In years past we've had course problems up the wazzoo: racers not following the marked course, not going to all the checkpoints, high winds, cold temperatures, high or low water levels... This year's curveball: rain and mud! It rained pretty hard the day before the race and a pre-Race Day ride made us conclude that much of the proposed course was impossible to ride or run. However, we didn't get rained on heavily on Race Day, just had to swim through a misty drizzle all day long.

I have to give a big thanks to all the volunteers for making this event possible. We had an amazing planning/organizational team that was willing to put in a lot of time and effort. Thanks to my good friend Laura for the phenomenal pictures. Enjoy the colorful montage:

Me manning the Biking Challenge Checkpoint: the Chocolate River. I'm standing in front of my "Flying Diamond" lean-to (Thanks Dad!) set up in case of heavy rain.

Group photos of the volunteers and helpers after the race was complete. What an awesome crew!

Asa and I handing out the "Special Award" at the Awards Ceremony. Robert had raced almost the whole course with a flat tire... What a machine. By the way, the awards ceremony was a ton of fun: we had a lot of prizes to give away and it was easy to get really enthusiastic about it all.

Carrying a heavy load wrapping up the race. I rode my bike back from the checkpoint out in the "boonies" and picked up the course markers along the way. One racer asked me how I got stuck with the "short end of the stick" and had to be out by myself at the check point. I told him that I had volunteered for it because I feel like I probably have a higher propensity to suffer than most!

Ready, set, GO!

A number of International Students raced this year and even had some supporters come out as a cheering squad.

Even with the rain, mud, and fatigue everyone was having a great time. Mark's (on the left) bike even broke because of the mud...