Alaska update - Day 7

The past few days have seen a lot of action up here in Anchorage. Tuesday was a training day, Wednesday was the distance classic races, Thursday was another training day, and today (Friday) will be the classic sprints.

Wednesday was the last of the distance races at US Nationals. The women stated first with a 20k mass start classic right in the middle of a snowstorm. Liz Stephen and Kikkan Randal took the early lead, pulling along a group of 30 (or so) skiers through their tracks. The race started to break up around 10k when Kikkan started to pick up the pace. Only Holly Brooks was able to match her pace as the two of them broke away from the rest of the group. From that point, Kikkan managed to ski away from Holly during the last kilometer and take the win.

The men raced 30k mass start classic, starting shortly after the women had finished. By the half way mark, Kris Freeman and James Southam were alone off the front, going head to head. Sometime during the 3^rd lap, Freeman had to stop and check his blood sugar, thinking he would be able to catch back up to Southam. Over the rest of the race, Southam stayed in the lead, ultimately winning by over a minute. Tad Elliott had another great race, finishing 7^th overall and again the top U23 skier. Way to go Tad!!

The Juniors skied their 5/10k race in the afternoon. By this time the snow storm had slowed, but the trail had already seen 7 laps of racing from both the Women’s and Men’s field. All the new snow had basically filled in the original double tracks on the race course, plus the other racers had already beat the tracks out of both the uphill and downhill. This race was a good test of ski handling. Rocky Mtn had strong performances in these classic races, with Jessica Jortberg placing 4^th among J1s and AliciaRose Pastore was 8^th. In the boy’s race, Mike Vigers had a great race, also placing 4^th among J1 skiers. Spencer Lacy and Sean Woods also skied strong. From RMN, both Jessica Jortberg and Mike Vigers qualified for the J1 Scando Trip.

On Thursday, we had a training day. With the sprints ahead of us, we decided to head out and ski some different ski trails around Kincaid Park. We headed out on the World Cup loop, a trail that winds up and down a ridgeline just above the ocean. To put it in perspective, the World Cup trail made the 5k race course look flat. We were either ripping down steep, fast descents, or climbing up vertical walls. It was a really really fun trail!

Today we are getting ready to head back out to Kincaid for the last race of US Nationals, the classic sprint. Should be super fun and I hope to have some pictures up from that event.

Alaska Update – Day 5

US Nationals Skate distance race. For Durango and RMN, the big news of the day is Tad Elliott’s 2^nd place overall finish, just 24 seconds behind Kris Freeman and another 33 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Way to go Tad!!

Both the men’s and women’s races were very exciting. I was fortunate enough to be out on course giving splits. It was awesome to see Tad come flying by, becoming the race leader by over 20 seconds just 3k into the race (this was first lap and before the A seed group had started). After the “A Seed had skied through, only Freeman was able to reach Tad’s speed. This remained the whole race, with Tad skiing in 2^nd place, just off the back of Freeman. There was also many other great races by RMN skiers. Sylvan Ellefson ended up 21^st overall and 4^th U23. Mike Vigers and Spencer Lacy were 78^th and 82 overall, 6^th and 7^th J1’s. It was great to see such high quality racing.

The women’s race was just as exciting. AliciaRose was 5^th out on course, with her and many other J1’s setting a fast early split times. Following the C and B seeds, Kikkan and the other A seed skiers came through, setting new lead times. At the end of a tough race, Alicia skied to 91^st overall, 13^th J1. Other RMN Juniors were Jessica Jortberg, 70^th overall, 8^th J1; Haley Piske, 93^rd overall, 15^th J1; Michaela Frias, 100^th overall, 19^th J1; Mary Rose, 116^th overall; and Molly Newman, 120^th overall.

Today, we are heading back out to test kick and glide in preparation for Wednesday’s classic race. All photos were taken by Rob Whitney, via Fasterski.com.

Alaska Update – Day 3

Today was the opener for 2010 US National Championships. The women competed in a 1.4km course and the men on a 1.5km course. The women were out of the gate first during the qualifier, with Kikkan Randall putting up a fast time, qualifying over 8 seconds ahead of the rest of the women’s field. DNSC Athlete AliciaRose Pastore had a strong qualifying round, finishing 96^th overall, 18^th J1. She was also the 2^nd junior from RMN.

The women’s rounds went much the same as the qualifying. Kikkan totally dominated each heat, skiing easily to victory in the A Final.

The men’s qualifier was awesome to watch! Former RMN skier (and Middlebury Alum) Simi Hamilton won the qualifier by half a second over Garrott Kuzzy (also a Middlebury Alum). Those two were 5 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. DNSC Alum Tad Elliott skied an awesome qualifier placing 36^th overall and making the U23 sprint heats.

The men’s rounds saw a few crashes, including one in the finish stretch. All the skiers in the top 30 were competitive and no one was able to ski easily into the final. The way the course was set up, starts were very important. If you didn’t come out of the start well, you would have to be content with staying at the back over the top of the big hill. In the final round, Simi got out fast and lead the entire way to the finish, maybe earning himself a spot on the US Olympic Team.

Tad had an awesome U23 A Final, making his move from the middle of the pack on the last small climb, double poling to the inside of the corner at the top of the hill. This set him up for a good position coming into the finish stretch, where he sprinted it out against Dylan McGuffin, winning by a foot throw at the line!!

Full results for the sprints can be found at www.durangonordic.org

I’m looking forward to the 10/15km Freestyle distance race on Monday!

Alaska update - Day 2

Just a quick post today. We previewed the 10k skate course (two laps of a 5k) and tomorrows sprint course this morning. A thick fog has covered the area all day, spitting out a little news snow. On our way around the 5k loop we skied out of the fog and into a little big of a sunrise. All this around 11am.

Pastore and Jortberg towards the top of a climb during the 10k course preview this morning

10:45am sunrise and a corresponding sundog

Cool view of the frosted trees along the race course

The Alaskan Update, Day 1

Between all the turbulence, flying at a low altitude, a stopover for fuels, and sitting next to a lady who was flying up to Alaska in order to marry a guy she hasn’t see in over 30 year, you could say it has already been an interesting trip. Due to the above reasons (well, maybe not the lady), our flight landed 2 hrs later than it was supposed to (touchdown at 3:15am) and we got to our hotel by 4am, Alaska time. Phew what a day! It’s true, travel days are NOT rest days.

The good news is that Alicia and I made it here just fine and so did all of our luggage! We opted to sleep in and ski later in the day. We met at 11:45am to head out and find some breakfast and ended up at Snow City Café. If you are ever in Anchorage, I suggest that you eat at least one breakfast there. Go for the B.O.B. (best of both benedicts), I highly recommend it.

After breakfast, we took the scenic route (err…which way to I go??) to Kincaid Park, finally arriving sometime around 2:30. The skiing was incredible! I had heard a lot of talk about all the shoveling that was being done, but if they did shovel, those guys did a great job. Totally race ski conditions and super fast snow. Kincaid park looks (and skis) totally different when it isn’t 30 below zero. Alicia and I had a nice hour of cruising around the many trails that Kincaid Park has to offer. Our initial goal was to head down by the ocean and ski alongside the beach, but I have some problems with directions (ummm…see above driving reference) and soon we ended up many kilometers from where I was expecting to be. Oh well, at least it was a scenic route!

Our next goal (or at least mine) was to track down a moose. The ski trails were littered with tracks and every corned brought a new hope that we might run into one. Unfortunately each time I thought I saw a moose, it turned out to either be a dark stump, or some guys skiing in a brown jacket. After skiing through tunnels, by the biathlon range, back through some more tunnels, and through the cross country stadium, we ended our ski failing both goals. We didn’t make it down to the water’s edge and we didn’t see a moose. Bummer.

THEN…as we crossed the parking lot towards the bunker, right there in the midst of all the wax trailers and Swix banners, were two moose just chomping away on the tree. Success!!

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