A weekend at A(l)titude

The Original King of Bridger

In a last minute shuffle I was able to finagle a coworker into helping me get the day off to scurry down to Bozeman for a fun filled weekend of visiting the sister, reacquianting with some good friends, a Skimo race, and always the nostalgic feeling of visiting the town where I received a couple of degrees that have since lost their value and serve me no purpose.  On the way down I picked up Brian Story, a legend and pioneer amongst Montana Backcountry skiers.  If you haven’t checked out his blog, follow this link to get inspired!

Friday night I was treated to an incredibly delicious “Paleo” dinner prepared by the lovely Josephine Marie (sister) and the company of Red Bull sponsored athlete (self acclaimed) Mike Bestwick.  It was my first experience of not only going back for thirds on a kale dish, but also the finest zucchini pasta this side of the Missouri.  On the way back to Alan and Lizzy’s domicile, the snow was pounding down somethin’ fierce and thoughts towards “Why am I going to race on skinny skis on a powder day???” danced through my head.  Fortunately, like last year, the race was postponed from the fresh dumpage and we were left to go touring with the Curry’s and Dr. Hoffman in some epicly low angle trees in the north Bridgers.  Driving past Bridger Bowl Saturday morning reaffirmed yet one more reason why there’s no better place to live than the Flathead and not much better of a place to ski than Whitefish Mountain Resort.  There were cars parked out ON THE HIGHWAY, and more approaching.  I think I would rather line up for first dibs at Elmo on a Black Friday at WalMart than stand in those lines!!!  Thankfully all we had to deal with was some cold smoke that would occasionally try and sneak it’s way into the crevices of your jacket and neck gator.  With exception of Brian, the majority of the “comp” for tomorrow’s race were skiing bc together and we figured since we were all on the same page, we might as well imbibe in a few tasty recovery beverages and “Curry” fries.  Like a couple of raging college undergrads, two beers and a 7:30 p.m. bedtime spelled a refreshing Sunday morning waking to clear skies and a day’s worth of anticipation for the big race.

WARNING***- RACE REPORT TO FOLLOW! CLOSE TAB AND SAVE YOURSELF THE BOREDOM!!!

With an eerily similar cast of Montana competitor (normally in spandex on bikes not skis), I figured I’d throw the cards out on the table and just set a very uncomfortable pace for the first 2500′ to the top of Hidden and see who was excited to play.  Alan the Engine Adams, Brian Story, John Curry, and Dave Hoffman were all giving good chase and keeping me honest.  As I skinned along the ridge north, it was kinda fun to daydream of all the times I bootpacked up this ridge to the top of Hidden, slammed a PBR, and scraped my 191 telemark skis with chilli bindings down it’s steep and rocky features (Holy Cow I’m getting old!!!).  Transitioning to a rip-roaring descent to the Apron, I was hollering and leaping from powder pillow to powder pillow on the little carbon wunderboards realizing the sooner I got this race over, the sooner I’d be able to come back up with some real stix and surf as opposed to sink.  The skin tracks back up the ridge were unrelenting in their steepness as they always are.  But, realizing we were all in the same boat and it was better than breaking trail, I just adjusted speed and stride and enjoyed the rare occurrence of leading a race with a slightly comfortable cushion.  The cold temps and cold smoke threatened to fail skins (and succeeded on more than a few racers) but I continued to have a really clean race and continued to whoop and holler down every descent as it truly was awesome powder skiing.  The final ascent of the ridge towards Saddle led to a nice 1800′ fall line to the most miserable uphill finish where I felt more like a little kid trying to keep up with mom while herringboning up a cat track.  It was a sweet sensation finally winning this race after a few years of bad luck, and even sweeter when I collected the prize check.  Pretty sure Bridger Bowl has a better payout than almost any skimo race in the west!  Brian Story cruised in for a solid second place finish while John Curry rounded out the podium after having a good battle with Brian just as they did last year.  Amazingly there was ONE woman elite competitor (and I’m not sure what her name was but maybe Michelle Catcher-Roberts?)  Nikki Kimball was surprisingly absent, kind of a sad turnout really, and lot’s of money and prizes that had to be raffled away.

On the way home Brian and I practiced our patience while trying to tune the Superbowl into AM radio with little to no success, so I made a quick stop into Doc Rob’s house for the most incredible center of the universe class reunion I’ve seen since Rolling Thunder.  One minute and thirty seconds of play was enough to show me that the Seahawks did their thing and the good people of Seattle and all the fans get to unite in excitement for a picture perfect finish to an entertaining season (I tried my best to learn to like football this season, I think I might’ve watched one game uninterrupted this fall/winter).  I figure if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.  Not that I think football is the greatest thing in the world, but it’s certainly not the scourge of society like some people like to give it a rap for.  It just happens to be the sport our nation is most passionate about.  In Belgium it’s cyclocross.  In Peru it’s Soccer (sorry, “futbol”).  I don’t think one’s better than the other, they’re both great, both corrupt, both entertaining.  I just like the idea of people uniting and getting excited about something even if it’s outcome has no real outcome that will effect change.  I could however do without the endless Facebook posts concerning the game 😉

Video from Last Weeks Skimo Race Whitefish Whiteout

Short Intro Video of Skin 2 Win, then some gaping

Thanks for checking in!  Holler if you’ve got any questions, comments, or critiques.