Leap Day Relay Update

I love Jeremy's fun idea for a co-ed Leap Day Relay this week, but let's face it: the ratio of men to women on Wednesdays nights is at least 20 to 1, and we're not likely to be able to field many teams!  So here's the plan: if you can put together a team, then great, put down a relay time.   But if you don't have a team, don't let that stop you from coming up and skiing -- we'll do a regular 5k skating race also.

Once again, I expect to be working late, so if anyone can pick up the sign-in sheet for me, that would be so helpful.  Hope to see all of you at least once before the season is over!

Feb 23, Classic

Thank goodness for Sharon -- she and her friends made it up to Cabin Creek on Wednesday night when almost no one else did (is everyone at the Birkie?), and she sends us this report.  Thanks, Sharon!

Rick, Eric, and I skated through fast, but sometimes 'suctiony', and thick, heavy snow on a night with grauple (those little pellets of supercooled water-covered snowflake balls) falling heavily all evening. 

In contrast to last week's hordes of headlampers, this was an unusual almost eerie evening with our group of three running into only one other skier one time on The Road, and only two others leaving the mushy parking lot when we arrived ~6:15 pm.  The Cabin did not radiate its customary warm glow, and appeared mostly dark with only a dim light visible from the sledding hill.  We did not venture up this dark lonely night to officially record our names under the 'Just Skiing' headlampers heading.   

Out on the Road, ~8:15 pm, we were startled by a loud booming thunder -- I was very happy to be with Rick and Eric, and not in the deep dark bowels of the Berg loop by myself, at this time!  Turned out to be avy control work near Gold Creek, and temporarily blocked eastbound traffic.  

An atypical headlamp evening, but still an excellent workout and fun mid-week outing skating on this snow and grauple-filled night, and with a new headlamper, Eric Roose!  

Just Skiin'

Rick Eineigl
Eric Roose
Sharon Chen

A Little Help

Looks like a lovely night for headlamp skiing!  I'm chained to my desk and won't be able to make it again tonight, so if anyone could pick up the results and send them to me, you would be my BFF!

Feb 15, Skating

This week I owe thanks to Peter Boveng, for picking up the race results and sending me an awesome report on race conditions, which I present here in its entirety:

Icy.  Stars.

Masters 5k Skating

Brad Bauer, 38, 11:36 (fresh off his big win at Langlauf last weekend; read all about it here: http://www.xcskigirl04.blogspot.com/2012/02/bauer-power-at-langlauf.html)
Jon Fewster, 41, 12:25
Peter Boveng, 53, 13:05
Jonathan Loeffler, 25, 13:16
Richard McClung, 46, 13:53
Brent Turner, 57, 13:57
Jordan Goldwag, 30, 14:08
Jim Cahill, 49, 14:19
Rob Lehtinen, 31, 14:56
Jim Wood, 29, 15:08
Jeff McGrew, 52, 15:17
Spider Burbank, 57, 15:31
Max Limb, 66, 15:34
Egor Klevak, 27, 15:43
Eric Kamila, 38, 16:20
Sam McVeed, 25, 17:35
Jeff Clark, 58, 17:40
Dale Bohm, 53, 17:57
Jason Cross, 40, 18:17
Peter Turcan, 54, 19:02
Ian Whyte, 49, 19:50
Heidi Wood, 26, 19:50
Joy Cordell, 56, 21:26
Scott Sell, 55, 22:01

Juniors 2.5k Skating

Jordan Guzak, 17, 7:20
Oliver Isik, 16, 7:59
Finley Teutin, 15, 8:10
Dylan Forbes, 17, 8:21
Duncan McFadden, 16, 8:50
Brayden Buchanan, 12, 12:00 (West Ellensburg ski team)
Isaac Korry, 11, 13:00 (West E'burg)
Ingemar Sonnerup, 12, 14:00 (West E'burg)

Just Skiin'

Jason Paur and five Bush School kids
Carrie Hennen
Ellen Welcker
Rick Eineigl
Sharon Chen
Diana Yuen
Brian Palm

Feb 8, Classic

Many thanks to Brian for this report and for picking up the results for me, while I slaved away over a hot computer.

Variable snow night.  Zeros started out good, got slippery as the tracks were skied in.  Had to know where to ski on the ups later in the evening.  Klister was also problematic as the snow change as it cooled…a bit of spitting snow/rain around 5:30, but all in all a nice evening!

Masters, Classic, 5k

Brad Bauer, 14:55
Brian Dumais, 15:50
Chris Fast, 17:01
Gareth Hardwick, 17:13
Jon Fewster, 17:30 (check out his Konig Ludwig Lauf report at http://www.xcskigirl04.blogspot.com/2012/02/konig-ludwig-lauf-jons-report.html!)
Richard McClung, 18:17
Robert Hardwick, 19:21
Max Limb, 20:06
Jim Cahill, 20:32
Dale Bohm, 21:00
Elise Stacy, 21:34
Jeff Clark, 21:58
Ian Whyte, 26:50
John Stacy, 27:32

Just Skiin'

Jason Paur
Three Bush Kids
Jon Loeffler
Eric Kamila
Sharon Chen
Dan Gilchrist
Karel Bauer
John Garibaldi

Next week: skating!

Feb 8, Preview

Conditions report from Jon, who is there right now:

Right at freezing, alternating snow and drizzle, ~1" new over groomed, tracks skied in. Should be a good day for zero's. Ozzie skied earlier with 50 over klister, but suggests klister now.  Should be fast and fun!

Feb 1, Skating

What a lovely night to be out on the trails!  And having not been there yet this winter, I was blown away by the amount of snowfall we've had.  The temperature hovered around freezing and the parking lot was slushy, but the snow was firm and fast and deep, a coy moon flirted behind the clouds, and snow dust tickled our faces.  I noticed we're getting some nice variety, too, with paddlers and bike racers as well as skiers enjoying the mid-week blast of fresh air and endorphins.  If you're been thinking about coming, stop thinking and get up here -- winter will be over way too soon!

Masters, 5k Skate

Brad Bauer, 38, 12:15
Peter Boveng, 53, 13:54
Doug Reed, 44, 14:10
Christopher Fast, 45, 14:34
Jeremy Littell, 38, 15:04
Jim Cahill, 49, 15:59
Rob Lehtinen, 31, 16:22
Jim Wood, 29, 16:48
Egor Klevak, 27, 18:00
Jeff Clark, 58, 18:46
Rolf 2, 46, 19:00
correction: Will Greene, 16, 19:16 (Seattle Academy)
Jason Cross, 40, 20:35
Jim Slyfield, 54, 20:37
Peter Turcan, 54, 20:55
Elise Stacey. J2, 21:10
John Garibaldi, 53, 21:25
Karel Bauer, 51, 21:25
Ian Whyte, 49, 21:30
Heidi Wood, 26, 22:03
Joy Cordell, 56, 22:12
Scott Sell, 55, 24:12

Juniors, 2.5k Skate

Oliver Isik, 8:53 (Bush School)
Finley Tevlin, 9:06 (Bush School)
Griffin Hurlbut, 10:05 (Bush School)
Jillian Gerke, 10:35 (Bush School)
Sean Brown, 15, 10:46 (Seattle Academy)
Isabel Jamerson, 11:24 (Bush School)
Anika Bull, J3, 11:30
Amelia Keyser-Gibson, 11:40 (Bush School)
Ingemar Sonnerup, 12, 13:25
Claire Fahlman, 13:30 (Bush School)
Theo Ramels, 11, 14:15
Isaac Korry, 11, 16:00
Sam Greene, 13, 16:13 (Seattle Academy)

Just Skiin'

Doug Holtan
Steve Bull
Jason Paur
Jon Loeffler
Michelle Ma
Brian Palm
Debbie Kolp (so happy to be just skiin' again!)

Next week: classic.  Good luck to everyone going to the Bavarian Cup, the Spokane JOQ, and the Konig Ludwig Lauf!

Jan 25, Update

I found the sign-in sheet, and people were skiing after all!  I heard that quite a bit of snow fell after Robert had groomed, so most people decided to bag the relay and just ski.  Herewith, the results:

Mini-Relay

Jeff Clark and Max Limb

Just Skiin'

Sharon Chen
Rick Eineigl
Bill Lawrence
David Thurman
Anne Johansen
Nils Melbourne
Magnus Melbourne
Tim Melbourne
Sven Koehler
Ian Whyte
Christopher "Sometimes" Fast
Jason Paur and nine Bush School kids