A Winner's Perspective - Catamount BC Challenge Race

      I've been looking forward to the Catamount Trail Trapps to Bolton
race for quite some time, pretty much since I crossed the finish line last
year. It's an awesome event; difficult race, unknown conditions and tons of
variables, great prizes, free food, good cause, etc. The race starts with a
couple of k's on the groomed trails at Trapps before dropping down Old
Country Rd into the Nebraska valley. Then after two road sections where you
need to take your skis off and run, you hit the main obstacle on the
course, a long grinding climb up over the ridge, topping out at over 3000
feet. Once you're over the climb, you have to navigate a technical decent
down to the Bolton nordic center.
      In the weeks leading up to the event, I was doing a bunch of testing
and going back and forth between two pairs of skis, one with a metal edge
(for control), and one without (for climbing speed). With the nasty rain,
tiny bit of snow, and cold that we got Friday into Saturday, I was back to
square one with no idea what I'd use. Luckily, I had time on Saturday to go
out and test both the climb (from the Nebraska valley), and the decent into
Bolton. I realized that the decent was going to be nasty no matter what
skis I had, but the climb was going to be next to impossible on fishscales
alone. There just wasn't enough new snow on top of the boilerplate ice, so
the scales had nothing to grab onto. I made a last minute decision to
borrow a pair of kicker skins and use the lighter skis without edges.
      As we lined up to start the race, I sized up the competition (Marc
Gilbertson). He had similar skis, but no skins so I knew he would open a
gap on me while I was putting on the skins, but I hoped I would be able to
make it up on the long climb. Another wild card was Eric Carter from UVM.
He was going to give it a go on waxless race classic skis. He'd definitely
be fast on the groomed part, but I was pretty sure I'd see him suffering on
the climb. Out of the start I settled into 3rd behind Eric and Marc, Eric
was quickly out of site on his fast race skis, and Marc opened a gap on me
pretty quickly too. Jake Hollenbach was cheering at the top of the groomed
trails, and he said Eric was 1 minute ahead and Marc was about 15 seconds
ahead. At the first road crossing, I struggled to get my skis off and by
the time we got to the base of the climb after the second road crossing
Marc was out of site. I put on my skins as fast as possible, but it still
seemed to take forever and I almost got caught by the next racers. Once I
started climbing I was making pretty good time, and sure enough I quickly
caught up to Eric Carter. He must have had no kick at all because he was
trying to run up the trail carrying his skis. A while later I passed Sam
von Trapp who was doing the tour, and he said Marc was 4 minutes (!) ahead.
I thought he was joking. I was sure I was making up ground, but 4 minutes
was a lot. I thought it might be over, but I kept on and with only a few
switch backs remaining before the top, I finally caught and passed Marc. I
tried to get out of site as fast as possible, but I was starting to bonk so
it wasn't easy. Finally I got to the end of the ridge, ripped off the skins
and headed down. The first few turns were tough due to the icy snow and my
shaking legs, but after a few falls I got the hang of it and cruised the
rest of the way down to the Nordic center to take the win.
      I'll let Rose and Helen jump in with their own reports, but I know
they didn't have skins, so they had a tougher time getting up the climb,
but just finishing is a real accomplishment.

Thank You,
Eric Tremble