Weekend Throwdown at the U.S. Skimo National Championship and the Grand Targhee Skimo Classic

First place (at both races) Reiner Thoni with last place (at both races) Layne Caldwell.

What a weekend.

A few revelations:

• I'm not a good skier. The descents at Jackson Hole were steep, bumped, and a little icy--I lost TONS of time skiing too conservatively. I may have some Jackson ski nightmares for a while and I think I could have gone much better and faster on a snowboard. (I used to board for 15 years)Who seeks out skiing bumps on race skis? Apparently all the fast guys in front of me. Skiing hero snow (light pow) makes anyone feel like a great skier. Big moguls on flimsy race gear can magnify holes in skiing ability big time. The descents at Targhee were much easier due to the new snow and more groomers.
• Some real training would probably make a big difference. My "training" has consisted about 15-20 days on skis, with running some small hills on days when skiing was not possible. Or sleeping in because I'm sort of lazy sometimes.
  
• I am a weekend warrior. Skiing 1 (maybe 2 times) a week is not a recipe for getting to be a faster skier. However, I have several priorities in life that are way higher than skiing, so I'm generally okay with that.
  
• I was the only racer in the race division at Targhee that did not have a spandex skin suit. This year's field did NOT have any weekend warriors. Only guys with Trab world cups, Gignoux or some other carbon boot offering.
  
• A friend who raced Targhee this year had a ~27 minute improvement on his time from last year. His gear last year was similar to mine this year. He's also trained really hard this year, but it gives me some hope that I can get faster if I want to with a little more structure and effort to train.
• Canadians are awesome. Yes, I'm making a stereotype. After the Jackson race, we stayed at a friend's house in Wilson and the Canadian national team was also staying there. They were a bunch of great guys and I loved hearing the eh, hockey references (We've pulled the goalie), converting Farenheit and inches to Celcius and cm, etc.
• It was cold on the summits. Saturday at the top of Corbetts a volunteer was checking racers for frostbite and told me that I to get something over my ears immediately. Luckily I had a headband in my pack. Anyway, my ears have both been kind of sore and swollen from the cold. I think frostbite was not far off. At Targhee, the weather was much better, but still pretty cold on top of peaked mtn. (5F then add in a good wind chill. Brrr!)
  

I've tried to (gulp) swallow my pride and be okay that I finished last in two races this weekend. Hey, finishing last is a hard job but somebody has to do it. This weekend it was me. Twice. :)
Totals for the weekend:
Jax (Nationals) - 7,800 vertical ascent and descent, 4:16. Last place, race division.
Targhee - 5,300 vertical ascent and descent, 2:26. Last place, race division.

The moral victory of the weekend was my 34 minute improvement over last year's Grand Targhee Ski Mountaineering Classic thanks to my better gear. I should also point out that I had tired legs/body from Jax the day before so on a fresh day maybe I'm 45 minutes faster than 2010. Gear makes a huge difference. Andy and I figured I'm about 1-2 lbs. per foot heavier than almost all other racers. (My 2011 time in the 2010 race would have been 5th or 6th from last--Not great, but at least not DFL.)


These two bulls were tangling in our hosts' driveway.


Ian commented that this was a little "dog" moose. Moose are super sized in Canada I guess.