Last week we were ice skating; this week we were water skiing. Cabin Creek has something for everyone, including monsoon-like conditions for the drive up and back, with 35-degree temps, heavy heavy rain blowing sideways, and standing lakes of water on the freeway. But still the parking lot was full of cars and buses, and the trails were full of headlamps glowing warmly through the rain. Jon brought his gigantor bag of prototype boots, and lots of people had a chance to test them and give him comments.
Conditions varied widely over the course of the evening: Rune was probably the first racer there, at 3:00, and reported heavy rain, no grooming, and wax frustration, as nothing, not even silver klister, gave him grip. I was probably the last racer to start, at 7:00, and I found heavy rain but great grooming on firm, wet snow, and no-wax skis were just the ticket. In between, people found a little bit of everything, and everyone who showed up deserves a two-minute credit on their next marathon!
Just for fun, here are the conditions in other areas we care about: Winthrop, 33 and mixed rain/snow; Silver Star, 0C and snowing; Cable, Wisconsin, 26 and foggy; Whistler, 36 and raining; Craftsbury, Vermont, 26 and cloudy; Anchorage, 20 and snowing; and Martin reporting from Umeå, 4.50 pm: -16C, clear sky (well, pitch dark, of course).
Here are the masters' results. A large and enthusiastic group of high school skiers showed up also for the first of a three-race series, so I'll post those results as soon as I get them.
Good luck to everyone going to Winthrop for the SuperTour!
Masters 5k
Rune Harkestad, 45, 14:02
Brad Bauer, 36 (happy birthday!), 14:41
Brent Turner, 55, 16:40
Brian Dumais, 52, 16:43
Jon Fewster, 39, 16:43
Chris Clark, 27, 18:09
Robert Hardwick, 51, 18:10
Kyle Nagle, 18:25
Brian Palm, 50, 18:42
Rolf Sunnerup, 44, 18:52
Nikolay Nachev, 19:49
Chris Fast, 43, 19:55
Paul Karas, 66, 20:26
Greg Jacobson, age?, 20:32
Max Limb, 64, 21:30
Eric Kamila, 36, 23:47
Dale Bohm, 51, 23:50
Jeff Clark, 56, 25:00
Ann Grodnik, 34, 25:34
Jessica Kleiss, 32, 26:23
Jim Slyfield, 52, 26:25
Debbie Kolp, 56, 26:30
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Debbie, any chance we can convince the groomer to come in the early afternoon so that the snow is set before the early birds (skiers and racers alike) hit the snow?
ReplyDeleteI want to mention the effort of Cindy from "Team in Training" last night. Cindy is learning to x-c ski this year and she's training to compete in Tour of Anchorage this March. Not many beginners would brave the rain to ski 10Km in the dark (she has a puny headlamp so even with it, she's skiing in the dark). Well done, Cindy!
Hi Maria --
ReplyDeleteI understand from Per that Robert intends to groom earlier in the afternoon on Wednesdays, but had a schedule conflict this week. Next week should be back to normal.
Yay, Cindy!
I want to thank the groomer for coming when he did. I'm sorry for the skiers who ski earlier, but the majority of people who ski on Wednesdays, ski in the dark. Often, CC's conditions change and it is terribly frustrating to show up on Wednesday night, only to find that the groomer came and the weather came after him.
ReplyDeleteBrad
Brad, I agree with you entirely that the groomer shouldn't come too early and risk having the weather change. But having him come after dark (which happened last week) while several of us are on the course is not ideal.
ReplyDeleteHaving the groomer come late in the afternoon (as Debbie says he plans) is perfect. Thanks Debbie for confirming that!
There was a pretty big break in the results at around 18:00. While of course skill, training and good looks are almost all of it, I suspect the under 18 club knows a thing or two about waxing and rilling for said conditions. Any of these lucky few willing to share a trick or two? This goes beyond the red-green-blue model, and it seems we'll be seeing a lot of sopping wet snow this year. thanks!
ReplyDeleteHey Anon - I have zero of the three attributes you mention, and thus did not make the club. My skis felt very fast in the glop though so I'll spill: did nothing special on the glide wax side, but pressed in a very coarse rill - 2mm, followed by 0.75mm. kickwax was red klister (rex). great kick, good glide.
ReplyDelete