Xterra Winter

I've done the off-road triathlon a couple of times up at Snowbasin and it is awesome. The winter race, while not as popular attendance-wise as the summer race, is really cool. I signed up a few weeks ago for the randonee/ski mountaineering race and thought it would be fun to do. I knew I would be out of my league, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyways. I signed up for the lesser race--the 8k (for mere mortals). It was so hard! I've done some tours before, but nothing like that. I'm not an mtb racer or anything, but that was a painful endeavor. It had a total elevation gain of 2200' up some really steep angled slopes. (>40 degrees?)

It was a revelation to me how fast some of those guys are. Also, how much of a difference equipment can make. My skis/boots/bindings must have weighed 8 or 9 lbs. more than most of the people who were in the race. Lifting those extra 8 or 9 lbs. on every stride got pretty tiring. I also got beat to the finish line by the top four finishers in the 12k race, but let's not talk about that.

For anyone that's interested, I'll lend you my stuff if you want to try the powderkeg next week so you can see what the sport is all about.

Sadie helping me get my stuff ready for the race.

Raegan lending a hand.

I was so glad when I hit the finishing line.


I think I almost made the top two guys crash when they passed me on the downhill as I was trying to hit the gates. (The finish for both races was the same.) Not cool. I'm glad they didn't hunt me down and have their goons beat me up afterwards.


Jami did the 10k snowshoe race and did awesome. She had not-so-excellent snowshoes, but she ran pretty well in them nonetheless.