Jan 25, the Relay That Wasn't?

What happened to the relay?  Evidently, without Brian and Brent to take control, we fall apart.  Kudoes to Sharon and her friends anyway, for heading up there and trying to relay race, and many thanks to Sharon for another excellent report.  If anyone else made it up there, let me know and I'll add you to the list.

Bill, Rick, David, and I drove out to Cabin Creek with huge snowflakes flying towards our car, engulfing us like we were inside some mesmerizing video game. The parking lot was a thick mashup of snow-slush. Long easy glides on trails in some areas, and intermittent unexpected mid-glide suctioning in other areas. A lot of heavy thick snow on the trails -- much had fallen since the morning's grooming. The section of the Berg course near the Cabin and paralleling the Road looked ungroomed, and was difficult to maneuver in, let alone ski in, with all that fresh heavy thick and untracked snow.


Our two teams -- Rick & David, and Bill & Sharon -- were all psyched for the relay, strategizing ways to beat each other, on the car ride up. However, we did not see anyone near the sledding hill, where I thought the relay might start, at 6:30. We ended up just skiing the Road and the Berg a couple of times on this beautiful snowy eve. In the cabin, we found a sheet and recorded our names under 'Just Skiing'. Rick wanted to put down 'Fast' for his team's time, and Bill wanted to put down 'Faster' for our relay team's time. No relay, but a fantastic workout on a warm evening, and another fun and exhilarating mid-week break in the snow.

Just Skiin'
 
Rick Eineigl
Bill Lawrence
David Thurman
Sharon Chen
 
Next week: skating.  See you there!

Headlamp Skiing, Locavore Edition

Why fight your way up to Snoqualmie Pass when we have multiple inches of beautiful soft powder right here in downtown Seattle?  I heard about headlamp skiers at Green Lake, Woodland Park, Seward Park, Kubota Garden, and even Sunset View Park in Ballard.  Here is a Green Lake report from Max Sevareid:

Greenlake was good skate and classic skiing last night.  Around 8PM, there were 3-4 skaters plus a few classic skiers.  While a little icy and choppy, the ground was groomed by foot traffic on the inside loop of greenlake.  It is likely still pretty good this morning.

And a shout-out to the downhill skiers on Dravus:

http://vimeo.com/35396468

Next week, we'll hope for more drivable conditions at the pass for the first relay of the season.  The relay starts at 6:30, one skater, one classic, three sprint laps for each.  It's fun!

Let It Snow

From the KOMO website this afternoon:

Avalanche Danger Extreme in Cascades


The Cascades are forecast to get anywhere from 18-36 inches of new snow Wednesday into Wednesday night. Avalanche warnings are up and conditions couldn't be more extreme. Expect frequent and lengthy delays trying to get over the passes for avalanche control.

I'm still not able to ski (can you spell "bummer"?), and my usual helpers are out of town this week.  If anyone can pick up the results on Wednesday night and send them to me, I'll post them to the blog and keep everyone updated.

Thanks, and have fun up there!

Jan 11, Classic

In a word, icy.  So icy, in fact, that Robert couldn't even set a track on the upper part of the Berg loop, so the first part of the race was re-routed to the road.  Here is a report from the always-poetic Sharon Chen: 

We arrived at the Cabin Creek parking lot under a crisp, cool, Big Dipper star studded evening sky, and lumpy ice sheet underfoot. I shuffled slowly across the slick surface with skis in one hand, poles in the other, for stabilization.  Surprisingly, lots of skiers out this icy night -- high school groups, Lycra People, Snow Dancers, and a brief appearance from a Na'vi [that was Sharon, backlit by someone else's powerful headlamp!].  The Road was icy, and loud (ice), and cold (low 20s probably).

Our faithful Wednesday crew spent a good part of the day chopping up the ice around the cabin and clearing down trees away from the path to the outhouses.  Thanks, Wednesday guys -- what would we do without you!

Good news: all the forecasters are starting to feel pretty confident about the potential for Snowmageddon this weekend, which would make Sunday's Gunnar Hagen its usual interesting challenging event.  Scrape off the klister and get ready to race, and don't forget to pre-register!

Classic, 5k, two laps

Evan Turner, 19, 13:37
Brian Dumais, 54, 14:45
Peter Boveng, 53, 14:58
Brent Turner, 57, 15:36 (I always like to see these 50-something guys at the top of the list; you guys rock!)
Alex Horner-Devine, 39, 16:15
Nikolay Nachev, 34, 16:25
Jeremy Littell, 38, 17:14
Jim Cahill, 49, 18:03
Max Limb, 66, 18:13
Gunde Svensson, 16, 20:22
Rob Lehtinen, 31, 21:00
Mona Deprey, 45, 21:10
Dale Bohm, 53, 22:00
Jeff Clark, 58, 26:00
Robin Pederson, 58, 29:21
Joy Cordell, 56, 30:02
Ellen Welcker, 34, 30:55
Carrie Hennen, 36, 31:28
Ashley Svensson, 8, 40:00 (you go, girl!)

Nonconformists

Ian Whyte, 49, one lap, 13:30
Max Sevareid, 38, skating, 17:28

Just Skiin'

Sharon Chen, 47
Rick Eineigl, 53
Jason Paur, Jon Loeffler, and 17 Bush School skiers

Next week, skating.

Jan 4, Skating

Many thanks to Peter for sending me the race report, and kudos to all of you for scoffing at the monsoonish weather forecast and heading up there!

Temp ~40F, light to moderate rain, wet snow (DUH).

And more detail from Sharon (thanks, Sharon!):

Snow was surprisingly quite skiable and not too mushy or wet, though perhaps slightly heavy.  

The drive up to the Pass was pouring rain, changed to lighter rain on the east side of the Pass, then changed again to a continuous 'dry' rain (unnoticeable when you're having fun) at Cabin Creek.  Parking lot was a landscape of interconnected mini-puddles with a tiny patch of ice just outside Diana's door.  Dry rain, good snow, no winds, a little bit of parking lot swimming -- all made for a fantastic evening!

Skate, 5k, two laps

Brad Bauer, 37, 13:39 (clearly roller skiing with 75 pounds of twins is not slowing you down!)
Peter Boveng, 53, 14:28
Scott Shinneman, 34, 15:43
Jeremy Littell, 38, 16:16
Christopher Fast, 45, 16:23
Alex Horner-Devine, 39, 16:55
Owen Burbank, 22, 18:30
Spider Burbank, 57, 19:19
Peter Turcan, 54, 23:45

Nonconformists (2.5k, one lap)

Sharon Chen, 47, 15:12
Rick Eineigl, 53, 15:12
Diana Yuen, 29, 15:12

Juniors

Jason Paur and 14 Bush School kids

Next week: classic -- a chance to get some specific training in before the Gunnar Hagen.  And don't forget to do your favorite snow dance!

Headlamp Racing Starts This Wednesday!

Check list: skis, boots, poles, HEADLAMP, watch, dry clothes, dinner.  Links to Robert's grooming Tweets, Chris's pass condition reports, and the WOW weather forecast are shown over on the left.

I'm going to have to miss the first several weeks of racing, so I'll be counting on you, faithful skiers, to keep me posted on race results and condition reports for the blog.

Special bonus: we are working on being able to offer headlamp race series t-shirts, in roller ski-ready, brightly colored technical fabric, courtesy of our sponsor Helly Hansen.  More details to come!