20 degrees and 8" of new snow for the start of COSMIC's Heathen Challenge. A large field lined up at the start. The race began with a short, steep climb up a groomer. Brian Smith, Marshall Thomspson and myself lead the charge. As we came into the low-angle skintrack Jon Brown and John Gaston joined us. The five of us stayed together until the top of Williams Peak. Max Taam, Colin Cares and Bryan Wickenhauser joined us at the transition. An exciting descent followed with 8 of us charging it. I managed to yardsale in the soft snow and fell to the back of the group. We continued on the 2nd climb as a group of 8. As we descended the "Heathen", I managed to pass Gaston and Taam who were digging themselves out after crashing. My lead was short and sweet as Gaston skied into the transiton zone just ahead of me. On the third climb I began to experience skin trouble. I eventually committed to stopping and switching out my skins. This dropped me into 7th place which is where I eventually finished (after a second stop to switch skins). The best part of the day was "Battleskiing"* with the CB boys after the race.
(*Bryan Smiths term for "skiing as fast as possible with a group")
Great to have Miles Venzara, Nick Gould and Brendan Trimboli along to represent Durango!
As we "Battleskied" we answered lots of questions about our Scarpa Alien's and SkiTrab Aero World Cup skis. The narrow skis and fluorescent yellow boots attract a lot of attention. This set-up handled everything the Heathen Challenge involved.
