Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Ellen Miller's 50th Birthday - Age is a state of Mind

Bright and early this morning (thanks Ellen for letting us sleep in till 6:00am this year), we skinned up to the top of Vail Mountain to celebrate Ellen's birthday. Find out more about this amazing woman and highly regarded athlete by visiting her website











Does Ellen look 50 to you? My guess is closer to 30, but she is proud to be turning 50 years old.


The whole gang.


Vail Ski Patrolman - Billy Mattison


Mike and Emily Kloser





Blondie
Ellen and Blondie competed in the Trans-Alp running race last year


How many people skin 3,000 vertical feet to celebrate their 50th B-Day? Ellen would say more should.

Marie-Christine, Blondie, Ellen and Cosmo
Dawes Wilson
Neil Henzler removing his skins.

Kerry White and Marie-Christine


Ellen and Adam


Eeva visiting from Alaska


It was a beautiful morning.










Sunday, February 22, 2009

Suffering at 10,000 feet



Nothing makes you feel sorry for yourself faster than competing in a cross country ski race that starts, finishes and actually never dips below 10,000 feet in elevation. Today Kerry and I competed in the Leadville Loppet 44km x-c ski race. The race is held on the Mineral Belt Trail in Leadville, Colorado. Kerry skied the 44km classic ( makes my lower back hurt just thinking about it) and I skied the 44km Freestyle, known to many as skate skiing. The conditions were ideal with sunny skies, air temperatures in the mid 30's and snow tempurates well below freezing. Normally this race brings on the worst in Colorado weather.


I had the pleasure of skiing all but 1 km with former mountain bike pro and rando race skiing legend Pete Swenson. This is not a race you want to ski by yourself. Lots of wind and fast wide open decents. Having someone to draft makes a hard race just a bit more pleasurable. Neither Pete nor I were interested in pushing the pace probably due to having to use thin, dry Colorado air. The race came down to last 1 km climb to the finish line where Pete decided he had had enough.


The Vail Nordic Ski Team was well represented in the top 10 placings occupying 4 spots on the Men's side and Kerry taking 2nd overall in the Woman's classic. Travis was 3rd, Dawes Wilson 5th, Adam Plummer 9th and myself taking the overall.




Here is Kerry's take:


Today we went to Leadville to compete in the 44km race in the Mineral Belt Trail. The race is a fundraiser to keep the trail maintained.

It was beautiful and sunny very little wind and just a bit too warm for classic skiing. It started okay in the awesome treed runs right by the Colorado Mountain College Campus. They have some great terrain for Nordic skiing. Then you exit the treed nordic area onto the Mineral Belt trail and ski about 25k out an back on some beautiful trail with spectacular views. By this time the sun had been out for a while, the tracks were becoming a little glazed which made for some challenges on what is the right kick wax.

I had 4 layers of Toko red and one of Violet on top. Just after passing the 2nd aid station at about 11km I bonked. The morning had started with a blood sugar of 223 before warming up, then went to 78 10 minutes before the start so I had to eat a bunch of powerbar gel blasts, thought I would be good. However things got worse - I went way too hard at the start, had a huge crash at the bottom of the first descent right out of the start and then tried to catch up to the one other lady I could see classicing ahead of me. I drank gatorade at the first and second feed but then oh boy did I blow up. Had to stop twice to eat some powerbar and more gatorade at the third feed. Finally at about 18km I started feeling like I might survive the rest of the race, as I was passed by Stephen, then Travis, then Dawes and then Adam all on their way back to the finish. I had stopped feeling sorry for myself and finally got my pacing back.

I was doing okay at the 22km turnaround, the tracks were a little slippery but I still had enough wax to kick a bit and double pole on the flats. The mineral belt trail has pretty gentle inclines and declines so you can get by with limited kick. Then at around 15km to go it tops out and you begin the winding ups and downs in the trees back to the finish. The tracks were fast for a bit, then I hit some slush and nearly went head over tail. Laughed at myself and worked through the tree trails to the end with almost no kick but too close to the finish to stop and rewax.

Felt very thirsty at the end and Stephen was waiting to greet me with his camera so he could post me on facebook. He has become a facebook addict now. The feed after this race is always good with lots of homemade soups and chilis, but the prizes and raffle are a time sucker. We laughed a bunch while hoping one of our raffle tickets might come up so we could win a cookie or fanny pack, the best prize was a set of poles but not to be for Vail Nordic today.

Stephen had planned to have me drop him off in Red Cliff so he could skate up Shrine Rd and ski back on the Commando run but decided he had had enough for today - thank goodness as I was cooked and wanted to go home for couch time.









Thursday, February 19, 2009

Training by Headlamp


If you work 40-50 hours a week, often the only way to get any decent amount of training in is to strap on the headlamp and head out after dark. Kerry and I probably log about 50-70% of our training hours after dark in the winter months and that was definitely the case today.


I decided to do a classic ski up to the top of China Bowl on Vail mountain this evening. So I waxed up the classic skis with a nice long thick layer of kick wax and started up the cat-walks out of Gold Peak. I skied Mill Creek road up to the bottom of chair 11 and then threw on a some narrow skins and went straight up the ski runs the rest of the way. When I was young, I xc skied up and down trails a fair amount after dark without any light. Now days, I always bring some sort of head lamp. Once I reach the top of the Ridge, I decided to ski the ridge over to the Lionshead gondola and checkout the action at adventure ridge. Lighting is definitely not a problem there as adventure ridge can be seen from top of any other ridge/peak in the county and is quite the eye sore. From the gondola I skied down Lodge Pole, Ledges and made my way back to Gold Peak. This was definitely the hardest part of the ski but excellent downhill practice. You think you are a good skier, try linking turns down ungroomed blues on 205 racing classic skis and low top racing classic boots.


Kerry did a similar ski tonight up Mill Creek and over to the gondola. She is not a big fan of skiing down in classic equipment so she rides the gondola down. This definitely produces some strange looks from the tourists. Ski up, ride the lift down. Not the way most people operate.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Commando Run






One of our favorite ski tours is the Commando Run. Most guide books have the following to say about the Commando, "The Commando Run from Vail Pass back to Vail Resort is regarded as one of the most challenging and best ski tours in Colorado. The Commando Run is named for the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division soldiers who used to train along this demanding route for high-altitude skiing combat and the commando raids during World War II. Popular today for its outstanding views and quality of snow." We highly recommend this tour for any avid back-country skier.


The Commando Run is a staple of our yearly training plan, and we have use it to train for such events as Elk Mountain Traverse, Coureur des Bois 90 km Ski Race, and simply to maintain endurance. Most winters we complete the tour 3-4 times. The tour typically takes us anywhere from 3-6 hours to complete depending on snow conditions, chosen equipment (anything from heavy metal AT to light weight racing x-c classic equipment), motivation, route decisions and company.


Thursday of last week, I had one of my best outings on the Commando (except for the fact that Kerry was unable to join us). Making the tour enjoyable were long time local/national endurance legends Dawes Wilson, Ellen Miller, Billy Mattison, Mike Kloser (the pace was fast and furious) and Andre Boesel. The trail was skied in, temperatures moderate, zero wind, and a clear sky with a bright moon for visibility. We started at 5:30pm, Dawes kept the pace fast, and we completed the tour by 9:00pm.












Monday, February 16, 2009

Chicago Ridge







Today's Adventure comprised of a skin up to Chicago Ridge, a windblown ridgeline above Ski Cooper just outside of Leadville. There was a cat track all the way up which made for easy skinning, despite the fact that Kerry was bonking right from the get go. Then we did three runs in some pretty nice pow pow, with some windblown sections but overall great skiing.
We then skied down, poached the lift to the top of Cooper and back to the car.
Now we are couch bound and ready to watch another day of Tour of California coverage.