wyoming round-up 2015

This past weekend I competed in the Wyoming Round-Up skimo race. What is skimo? It’s short for ski mountaineering racing, formerly known as randonee racing. How the hell it became skimo? I have no idea. It’s a horrible name and has nothing to do with ski mountaineering as I know it. Even though the races take place in bounds, or in controlled areas, they make you carry avalanche beacons, probe poles, and plastic shovels that your kids would break in a sand pit?! Whatever. The idea is to skin and boot up mountains as fast as possible in the lightest gear known to man, transition quickly, and race downhill in gear that is different and challenging, but quite incredible when you consider how light and small it is. I’ve just recently started skiing the Wasatch Speed Project from Voile and they have really nailed the shape on these skis. They have enough tip rocker to keep the ski from diving. They are a bit soft at high speeds for a big guy like me, but I’m having a lot of fun on them. 

I’m in it for the fitness and conditioning that I can use in the real mountains. I’ll be honest though, I have grown to enjoy the training, competition, refining, and racing aspects.

The Wyoming Round-Up consists of 3 races in two days; Saturday morning at Targhee, followed by a sprint at Snow King that night, then a final race Sunday at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Day 1- Grand Targhee 5,000 feet

Warming up the legs and the Garmin. I question if spandex actually makes you fast, but I will confirm that cramming into it makes you FEEL fast.

Since October I’ve been running or have been in the gym almost every day working on volume, intervals, tempo workouts, and active recovery. When we finally got snow in Dec, I took my training outside and hit 30,000 ft of climbing per week. I’ve never put that much time into conditioning and after a weeks taper/rest I was excited to see how it would pay off.

The race started fast with everybody sprinting to establish a good position before hitting the single track skinner. Maybe I didn’t warm up enough, or hadn’t rested well the week prior (skiing twin peaks on Wed may have been bad), but I couldn’t get the legs to wake up. The hope was to be in 10th or 15th, but I was 20th or so after the initial dash.

The single track makes it hard to pass, but I jumped to the side and picked up a few more spots. Then I found my unhappy place, just below blowing up, and put my head down and climbed. My legs slowly came around and I felt good.

The first climb was almost 2,000 ft with some switchbacks and some steep groomers mixed in.

The skiing was some of the worst re-frozen mank I’ve ever had the displeasure of scratching down. Being 190+ lbs on skinny short skis doesn’t make for stable skiing. I jumped in the backseat and held on for dear life. This made my quads unhappy and they cramped a little on the booter that followed.  They came back to life, however, as we made our second climb. I passed a few more folks and was excited to be sandwiched between speedy Wasatch locals Chad Brackelsberg and Tom Diegel. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long. On our 2nd to last decent I hit some breakable crust and went down hard, right onto my face. My head punched through the snow and I got cut up a little. I tried not to bleed all over myself during the transition and several folks passed me by. I did see another racer or two plunge in and eat shit near where I did as I pulled into the final long climb. I was really disappointed to loose a few minutes and those 6 or 7 spots. My legs were close to cramping up and I was worried about the two races still to come. I tried to take a few spots back, but failed. The final decent was deep snow, then tucking down a groomer. I finished in 25th place in 1hr and 46min. The placing wasn’t what I had hoped, but I did knock over 15 minutes off my time from last year.

Jason Dorais and Tom Goth took first and second. They had cooled down, eaten, showered and napped by the time I finished. Great to see all of their training hours and incredible hard work paying off. People just think they are fast and maybe physiologically they do have some mutant inside, but they spend a ton of thought, time, and effort sharpening their skills.

Morale and energy were low, but I licked my wounds and cleaned off my face. Lucky for me, my wonderful woman,  Shannan, had signed on for support crew and she did a great job massaging legs and ego back into racing shape. She  also captured all these blog images while she skied around Targhee for her first time.

We loaded up and drove down to Victor for lunch. Then over the pass to Jackson where we rested and dried out gear at our friend Dede’s house.

Day 1- Snow King 500 foot sprint

Lots of stretching and warming up before the sprint and my legs were feeling sluggish, but not as tight. I’ve never done a sprint before and my transitions are a little sloppy. To be honest, I was just worried about the huge race at Jackson Hole the next day. My goal was to try, but not blow it up and hurt myself too much. I don’t know why the fuck I’m smiling?!

The sprint format was to let one racer go at a time spread out by 30 seconds. Top twelve would move onto a final where they would compete together. The course was a short uphill on a groomed run, then switchbacks, a short booter, back to 3 or 4 switchbacks, transition to ski, descend though some gates, and a short uphill skate to cross the finish line. This makes for a really fun spectator sport.

The really cool thing about this sport is the community! It’s competitive, but really fun. Everybody knows everybody and all are supportive, not cutthroat. There was a great example when Andy Dorais broke a binding and everybody insisted he get another chance to race, since he was trying to make the World Cup Team. He did go again and ended up beating everybody by a huge margin and making the team!! I never saw final results for this race, which was probably a good thing. I was slow and my transitions sucked, but my legs felt better and I was excited for the big dog the next morning.

Day 2- Jackson Hole Resort 8,000 feet

We ate and rested well that night. The next morning was beautiful and warm and I felt pretty good. All lined up and ready for another sprint start. This one started fast as well, but it’s much longer and no need to jocky for position. I started slowly, sped up to about 10th place, and then steadily fell back to around 20th.

After the first steep climb, my legs came to life and I actually started racing. I passed some folks and was able to really pin it. I felt good so I kept pushing. This was the internal gear I’ve wanted, the speed I’ve never had before. I pulled in behind Chad again, and Nick Francis, both guys who have blown me away in previous races. At the top of the first 3K ft climb I felt great. Then I had one of the worst transitions possible. My water bottle fell out and rolled off down the mountain. I lunged after it and missed. My boot wouldn’t latch into ski mode, so I had to roll up the stirrup on my suit and re-attach it. The gloves I had removed were damp and wouldn’t slide back on! This doesn’t sound like much, but combined with some poor skiing it was enough for 5 or 6 folks to pass me by the bottom of the first descent. Ugh!

Meanwhile, out front, the podium battle was being waged by Jason Dorais, Scott Simmons, Max Taam, and Tom Goth.

The frustration went away as I blew back by 6 or 7 folks on the next climb and never saw them again. However, I may have put out too much energy on that and I felt flat the rest of the race. The missing fluids at this crucial point didn’t help either I suppose. I was able to keep going, but not with any race intensity.

What a fun game, both physical and mentally engaged! One of the things I really enjoy about competing against myself, or others, is the the mental game. Pushing through all the negative and even positive thoughts to stay present and honest in the moment. The mind churns out excuses, outcomes, stories so fast that they appear as reality. If you keep challenging and swimming through them, you might get to find who you are on the other side.

So nice to be at the top of the tram and meet my lovely support crew who dosed me up with me with some sport legs and replacement fluids!

The long ski down was really fun, but hurt the legs. On the final climb I tried to put a move on the guy in front of me, but to no avail. There were a few folks behind me that were a little concerning, but I held them off on the climb and opened it up on the final ski into the finish.

I ended up in 22nd place at 3hrs and 1min, which is more than a half hour better than my previous time from two years ago!!  Again, not a victory in placement, but a huge win for fitness! Overall results below.

Skimo has seen some recent growth and I expect it will continue despite it being a very expensive, niche sport. It’s exciting to see the gear advances that are already trickling down from the racing technology and I hope this will continue. For those interested, there are many fun local races such as the Wasatch Citizen Series. These are great chances to run uphill in any gear and get fit for the backcountry.

On the drive home Shannan and I spent an inordinate amount of time discussing and dissecting the races, my training, etc. I hate to admit it, but I’m hooked. I know I’ll never be a real contender for the podium (unless they add a clydesdale category). For me, it will continue to be part hobby, part training tool that I really enjoy.  Conditioning, as far as I can tell, is a rabbit hole that just draws you in further, the deeper you go. And the deeper you go, you see and understand that there is no end and it will take you as far as you are willing. Each step I’ve taken has just shown me that I haven’t really gone very far at all.   Already looking forward to the Powder Keg in March!

For now, I’m really glad the race weekend is over and I’m looking forward to getting into some adventures, just as soon as my legs recover.