The 10th annual US Ski Mountaineering Championships at Jackson, WY went down yesterday. It was attended by a good crew from the Wasatch -- the 2 Dorais bros, Casey, Lars, Joey, Bart, and me -- and about 75 others from various places. If the mark of a national championship course is rough and tough, the Jackson course more than fit the bill. At the end of the day, my altimeter said I had gained 7900 vertical feet and I'm still traumatized to the point that talking about the ski descents requires kleenex. Suffice it to say they were steep, icy, and for the most part in large, tall bump fields. At a couple points in the race, I had to side step up a large bump so that I could get my bearings and collect myself. :) And now that I think about it, some of the climbs were pretty heinous too -- steep, icy, and bumpy. All of this made for a challenging and "fun" course. Kudos to the race organizers for pulling together a great race in tough conditions.
The race was won in the Women's division by Mona Merrill followed by Amy Fulwyler. I think Mona clocked in at about 3 hrs and 13 minutes.
In the Men's division, Pete Swenson showed everyone who was boss and finished in under 2:30! I think the Men's results went something like this:
1. Pete Swenson
2. Brandon French
3. Cary Smith
4. Jared Inouye
5. Jason McGowin
6. Zahan Billamoria
7. Jan from Slovakia
8. Chris Kroger
9. Bart Gillespie
10. Andy Dorais
These are unofficial results and are somewhat off the top of my head. I'll update when they post the results, and hopefully with some pictures.
I was happy with the way my race went. I think I finished at about 2:48. Brandon and Cary were always just ahead and provided a good carrot effect. Too bad I wasn't able to actually eat the carrot though . . . And the Wasatch was well represented with 3 in the top ten.
Oh yeah, and perhaps the biggest coup of the day came when Bart won the grand prize in the post-race raffle: a pair of Hagan Carbon skis.
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