March 10th, 2008
Sorry if I haven’t written in a while - New Hampton just had finals week, so my life has been a hectic series of review sessions, exams, grading, and comment writing. And for those curious about the resolution of my last post, I did indeed get a paper which rambled on for two pages of Star Wars rehash with about two lines of relevant math, and let’s just say he didn’t exactly get an A for his effort.
With school over for a couple of weeks, I had the opportunity to race in the reincarnation of a wonderful ski race, the Ski to the Clouds. I believe this was started sometime in the 1990s when someone decided that if they run and bike up Mount Washington (often braving dangerous weather in the middle of summer) why not have a ski race up it. So, for a few years, they did. And then they didn’t for a while, as organizational efforts were shifted to the Great Glen to Bretton Woods Adventure. When the latter event (an epic, but wonderful race) folded due to the headaches involved in putting it on, the Ski to the Clouds was reborn.
Unfortunately, you can’t ski all the way up Mount Washington. Or rather, you can’t get anyone to insure a race where people ski all the way up. So the race goes as high as it is safe to ski; on a good day, that would be about halfway up, for a total climb of 2200 feet. On Sunday, with recent rain leaving wind-scoured ice everywhere and 30+ mile per hour winds at the base, the climb was cut to only four kilometers and 1500 vertical feet.
The race starts with a four kilometer loop on the Great Glen trail system, presumably to sort people out a bit before the real race begins. The begining of the trail was partially destroyed in the rainstorm, so about 70 meters in there was a sharp, narrow s-turn. I’ve never been a good starter, so I was in about fifth place heading out onto the early loop. The skier right in front of me tripped himself and crashed hard, but none of us were caught up in the fall. I passed one other skier early and settled into third place. The pace was moderate but with the narrow trail and frequent turns and terrain changes it was difficult to pass.
With less than a kilometer to go before we started the climb I made my move, taking over the lead. I picked up the pace a bit, but not enough to shake the seven or eight skiers behind me. Once the hill was in sight, I picked it up a bit more. The pictures on the website show the lead I suddenly start to open up. I attacked the bottom of the hill, hard but not too fast, for a minute or two, then looked around. I was alone.
I had actually been hoping Eli Enman would show up; we have battled our way through a number of Eastern races over the last couple of years and I thought this would be a good day to get the better of him. But without him there, I now realized, there was no real competition. I kept pushing, not wanting to be complacent, or to disappoint the surprising number of spectators on the trail.
Racing uphill is actually easier than you might think. Unlike a race in mixed terrain, there is no recovery, which means that you simply can’t bury yourself; if you do, you simply stop moving until you recover. So while it was not pleasant to climb the hill, it was less challenging than I expected. Indeed, the finish line appeared in front of me unexpectedly, and I was done. It was actually much less windy at the top of the course than at the bottom. I changed clothes, had a snack, and enjoyed the real prize you get for skiing this race: 1500 vertical feet of thrilling downhill skiing!
