Goodbye, Headlamp Season 2014!

It figures that, with the crazy weather we've had this winter, the last headlamp race of the year would feature gusty pouring rain for the drive up to the pass and 40 degrees and torrential rain and thunder at Cabin Creek at 5:00.  By race time at 6:30, however, the weather had mellowed to a lovely soft gray evening with heavy heavy wet snow and the teensiest hint of the fragrance of spring, and the end-of-season relay was on!

Mr Helly Hansen, Brent Turner, picked out two-person teams from the skiers gathered in the stadium area, trying to mix up fast and slow, classic and skating, men and women.  It wasn't easy; as has been the case all winter, the participants skewed heavily toward strong fast men, and handsome, too.  Didn't matter; we formed up teams the best we could and toed the line for six sprint laps: speedster Brad Bauer linked with two second-grade girls, speedsters Kent Murdoch and Rune Harkestad teamed with two slowpoke classic skiers, father/daughter Jeff and Uhuru Hashimoto, father/son Ian and Kaiam Whyte, husband/wife JeffnJoy, last-minute ringer team Russell Stevenson and John Outterson, and lots more.  It was the biggest turnout we've had all year, drawn by the prospect of one last night of headlamp(less) skiing and a party and prizes in the cabin after.

Racing (and I think there were more who didn't put down their names)

Russell Stevenson/John Outterson
Bruce Christopherson/Dale Bohm
John Loeffler/Carmie
Sharon Chen/Jon Fewster
Kent Murdoch/Eric
Brad Bauer/Alma Fast/Mimi Koehler
Christopher Fast/Sven Koehler
Brent Turner/Adrian
Rune Harkestad/Debbie Kolp
Ian Whyte/Kaiam Whyte
Robert Hardwick/Jeff McGrew
Jeff Clark/Joy Cordell
Jeff Hashimoto/Uhuru Hashimoto
Max Sevareid/someone else

Many thanks to Jon, who brought a quiver of new Madshus skis for people to test-drive, and to Brent, who brought enough Helly Hansen goodies in his big duffle bag that every single person went home with something new and fun.  It was a great evening in the cabin, with stories told of the winter just past and biking and running and roller skiing plans hatched for the summer to come.

And that's it for another fabulous year of headlamp racing!  I'll miss you all, but watch for next year's schedule posted here in December, and please make plans to come to our trail work parties in the fall.  Until then, train hard, be safe, have fun!  See you outside, somewhere ...

End-of-Season Relay--What's That All About?

Grooming ends at Cabin Creek, and indeed all the Snoqualmie Summit snow-parks, this weekend, and that means this Wednesday is the last headlamp race of the season.  So sad!  But let's finish it off with a bang -- the traditional end-of-season relay and party, with prizes!

Here's how it works.  All season you've been able to just show up and race whenever you want to, but not this week -- it's a mass start at 6:30, so plan to be in the stadium area around 6:15 to get organized.  Mr Helly Hansen, Brent Turner, will select two-person teams, mixing up slow skiers and fast skiers and young and old and classic and skating.  (Don't fret if you're a fast skier; all the age-group winners have already been determined, so you won't lose any points by being paired with a slow-poke.)  Each team will have one classic skier and one skate skier, and each team member will ski three sprint laps, alternating with their teammate, for a total of six laps per team.

The sprint course starts on the road, turns right on Amabilis Road and then right again onto the Berg loop (so we're skiing the Berg in reverse -- fun!), around the PK loop in reverse, and then back to the road to tag your teammate.  Doing the course backwards turns it into a whole new day, and since there aren't likely to be any non-racers about, we don't have to worry about smacking into anyone.

After the relay and any cool-down laps you want to ski, we'll head up to the cabin for dinner (bring your own), announcements of age-group winners, and prizes from our fabulous sponsor, Helly Hansen.  And that will be it for another year.  This is a super fun evening and you definitely won't want to miss it, because it's going to be a long nine months until we headlamp race again.  See you there!

March 19, Classic

No word on conditions, but here are the results:

5k classic

Christopher Fast, 47, 18:41
Jeff Clark, 60, 21:00
Jim Slyfield, 56, 21:14
Sharon Chen, 49, 26:29
Pat Kaald, 76, 39:00

Just Skiin'

Peter Turcan
Ozzie Nordheim
Gunnar Unneland
Per Johnsen
Paul Kaald
Bert Larsson
Susie Larsson
Jon Fewster
Russell Stevenson
Rebecca Queitszch

Heads up for next week: the end of season relay and party!  The relay starts at 6:30; more details will be coming in a couple of days.  See you there!

March 12, Skate

Hey, the gang is coming back!  It looks like a good turnout this week, so let's keep coming -- two more weeks until the end-of-season relay and party.  Good skiing to be had!

Big thanks to Chris Fast for sending me this report and the results:

Beautiful evening on the trails!  The air was warm and the snow alternated between soft/slowish and firm/fast.  We did a long warm-up lap in the warm glow of the setting sun and managed to finish my two timed laps of Berg before needing to pull out the headlamp.  Fifteem minutes into our post-race ski part way up Amabilis, we realized that we didn't need the headlamps because the moon was rising above the trees.  The lamps were necessary for the descent, however.

Btw, Jeff and Uhuru were there too (not on the results sheet).  They were "just skiing" all the way up Amabilis.

5k Skate
Rune Harkestad, 49, 14:31
Egor Klevak, 29, 17:14
Sven Koehler, 43, 17:38
Christopher Fast, 47, 17:53 (classic)
Jeff McGrew, 54, 18:32
Jeff Clark, 60, 19:03
Peter Turcan, 56, 19:57
Sharon Chen, 49, 21:44
Dale Bohm, 55, 23:00

Just skin'
Pat Kaald
Paul Kaald
Brad Bauer
Loren Hanson
Mark Hanson
Doug Mercer
Rolf Sonnerup
John Outterson
Amelia Keyser-Gibson
Stephen Gibson
Oliver
Bush Kids

Gentle Reminder About Tomorrow

Don't forget -- the end-of-season relay and party are postponed until the last Wednesday of the month, so keep skiing!

March 5, Classic ... Again

We have results!  Sharon found the sign-in sheet at the cabin, so now we know who was there on that rainy rainy Wednesday.   Yay, Jordan!

Jordan Goldfarb, 21:59

Just skiin'

Sharon Chen
Ian Whyte
Pat Kaald
Paul Kaald

Anyone else?  Don't forget: the headlamp season is extending through the end of March, and this Wednesday looks dry and clear, with daylight!  See you there?

March 5, Classic

Nick the groomer's report from Wednesday morning:

I've seen three seasons in the last hour, one of them winter. 

I heard through the Facebook grapevine that the grooming was fantastic and the skiing was actually pretty good during the day.  Did anyone make it up there last night who wants to send me a report?

The slush and rain are making it hard to be in love with skiing right now, but we're optimistically keeping the headlamp racing season open until the end of March and this Sunday is the 50k Slushfest, I mean Ozbaldy, at Cabin Creek.  Come on up and show this crazy mixed-up winter that you are still the boss!

February 26, Skating

I missed out on headlamp skiing AGAIN, but that's okay; Chris Fast sent us this report.

"The weather was perfect and the snow was pretty darned fast."

And these results:

Brad Bauer  12:39
Jon Fewster  14:13
Chris Fast  15.12
John Outterson  15.43
Jeff Clark  18:00
Ryan Jones-Casey  19:00
Dan Moore  20:20
Sharon Chen  21:48
Dale Bohm  22:01
Greg Jacobson  23:00
Ian Whyte, creating his own loop on the road+Viking+Ozbaldy, 45:50

Plus lots of people just skin'.

And here's the great news -- with all the snow we finally got, no one wants to stop headlamp skiing, so Brent is extending the race season to the end of March!  Check out the new schedule on the left, and keep charging your headlamp.  See you next Wednesday!