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Report: Over 130 lined up for Alpental's Vertfest Randonnee Rally

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vertfest-logoLast Saturday, after couple of years absence, I lined up for the Monika Johnson Memorial Rally at the Subaru Vertfest at Alpental, WA. I have always kept an eye on the ever swelling numbers that took to the start line there but when you have over 130 keeners ready to roll it almost feels like a Euro race.
Nick, Kate and I arrived at the parking lot a bit after 9 for a 10am start which didn’t leave much time for registration, mandatory toilet stop, and a proper warm up. This delay could be blamed on the US customs that decided to pull us aside at 6am! (We started the drive at 4am.)
But all went uphill from there, literally.

How it all went down

The two climbs (for a total of about 1340m) at Alpental are quite steep which either asks for lots of upper body strength or great technique. And what goes up steep usually comes down steep as well.
Right from the gun, the US National Skimo Team member, Marshall Thompson from Crested Butte, lit up his jets and took off in first position. Eric Carter and Nick Elson were left chasing but were never too far behind. I was somewhere around 10th place the first 15min and then moved up to 7th by the end of the climb. Being out of the ski game for almost two months at the beginning of the season didn’t leave me with good enough high intensity abilities and so I had to wait and see whether the engine can find its rhythm.

Mid-way through the first climb - lot's of snow coming down at this point. Photo by Ian Koppe Photography.
Mid-way through the first climb – lot’s of snow coming down at this point. Photo by Ian Koppe Photography.
Marshall was marching ahead ever so slightly increasing his lead on Eric and Nick, with Max King (a superb US trail runner) doing his first ever skimo race, and a local Brandon Kern chasing about 6 minutes further by the top of first.
As usual, whenever I remember to be at Alpental race, it started to snow heavily during that first lap and so the first downhill was a mix of great skiing, moguls, and very limited vision for those that forgot their goggles in the car like me.
At the bottom transition I caught up to Brandon and we had a brief friendly chat. Then as I was putting skins on, the always supportive Martin Volken came to ask how did I like the course so far. Being a fan of technical as oppose to “groomer drag racing” I was getting my day worth for sure.
Once on the second climb, Marshall managed to increase his lead to about 2-3min over Nick who had a bit of a gap on Eric. Max King was running away with 4th and Brandon had about 40 seconds on me. But with each step and each switchback I started to feel my way back into racing. It felt hard but very pure.
A variety of gear but in general much lighter than few years ago. Photo from Vertfest Facebook gallery.
A variety of gear but in general much lighter than few years ago. Photo from Vertfest Facebook gallery.
The race for the top 3 got a bit compromised as the top check-point crew mysteriously sent Marshall and Nick down the wrong way – down the skin track we were just going up. However, they soon realized the mistake and sent Eric correctly so there was a bit of a mishap at the finish but all got solved at the end.
Between Max, Brandon and me the battle heated when Brandon passed Max and shortly after I did the same, and then went right after Brandon. By the top transition we were all together. I lead the descent about half way down where Max passed me and I didn’t have the desire to chase him with my ankle still recovering. Brandon fell a bit behind but held on to 6th by big margin and within a minute behind us.
From what I have seen, everyone really enjoyed the day as big snow flakes hitting our faces were signalling the return/beginning of the winter on the Pacific North West. And once again Alpental’s Vertfest delivered!

Results

Top 5 men race category:

  1. Marshall Thompson – 1:19.57
  2. Nick Elson – 1:21.24
  3. Eric Carter – 1:21.29
  4. Max King – 1:32.31
  5. Stano Faban – 1:32.48

Top 5 women race category:

  1. Holly Davis – 1:54.54
  2. Heather Kern – 2:00.03
  3. Kristine Kleedehn – 2:00.31
  4. Katarina Kuba – 2:00.46
  5. Olivia Race – 2:02.09

For full results visit this page – http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-6549?lc=en

Vertfest 2014 is here: Alpental, Mt. Bachelor, Powder Keg

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vertfest-logoVertfest in Alpental, WA has become Pacific’s North West iconic event and it’s not stopping there. This year, another two venues will host this backcountry ski festival – Mt. Bachelor, and Brighton ski area as part of the 3-day Powder Keg Ski Mountaneering Race.
Among many other festivities and clinics over the two days at Alpental this year’s Vertfest the skimo race – known as Monika Johnson Memorial Rally – is scheduled for Saturday.
One of Sunday’s clinics, with the name of “Speed Up”, will be taught by my SkinTrack colleague Eric Carter so make sure to sign up or just stop by to say hello.
Back in 2003 (or 2004) Alpental Randonnee Rally, not a Vertfest back then, was my first North American skimo race and I kept returning regularly, however, I have not raced there in about four years now. Maybe it’s time to go back again 😉

Quick facts about the race

  • Saturday, February 15th
  • 8 am: Racer Check-in / Day-of Registration
  • 9 am: Racer Meeting, Avalanche beacon check
  • 10 am: RACE START
  • Elite race category will tackle two climbs for a combined of about 4100 feet
  • Rec category will do one lap for a total of 2250 feet
  • There will also be Heavy Mettle (200+ lb *gear not included) and Split-board categories, both doing 1 lap
  • Bring your beacon, shovel and probe

Details and Online registration

For regular updates make sure to follow Vertfest Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/vertfest) and to register visit www.vertfest.com.

Course map

And here is a planned course for the 2014 race:

  • red means ascent
  • blue means descent

vertfest-alpental-2014-course

Alpental VertFest 2012 skimo race report

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This is a very nicely written personal race report from only a junior racer Katarina Kuba – she regularly races the Canadian series and decided to check out Alpental this year.
Before you dive in I want to say that Alpental’s skimo race is a great one to attend. It was my first race in North America and I visited couple of times but couldn’t make the schedule work in the past few. Since then it grew into a festival style event with demos and clinics. The attendance swell to 160 last Saturday!
Full results: 2012 VertFest results

Alpental skimo race: Katarina’s experience

The Outdoor Research VertFest skimo race held at Alpental, Washington last Saturday drew in about 160 people! With snow at our face we lined up in rows of four, and began the untracked ascent with roughly half a meter of fresh snow for a few hundred meters.
I started off in the second row, unfortunately after a few glides my ski fell off leaving me to be the leftover of the herd. Then I managed to put myself somewhere in the middle of the crowd where I remained too comfortably for the entire duration of the ascent.
Soon after the frantic start run the race merged to a single track which I found to be too soon, not allowing the crowd to spread out gradually. We would actually stop as people worked at their switchbacks and transitions.
Footholds for the boot pack’s held well and I did not find any trouble with it, except for the fear that skis carried on the shoulders of some skiers would fall on me. There were double tracks at times to pass but not enough if you are within the crowd for you would have to merge back in again.
The downhill was better, not nearly as crowded but a bit tricky. Wind blew the snow off the moguls exposing ice on one side and leaving a meter of snow on other, but mostly great conditions. On the descent, the flagging was clear enough and the cheery volunteers were directing us on the hard turns.
The race was great overall but I need much more deep snow skiing practice and aggressiveness to budge through the crowd 😉
It was a great experience and I enjoyed this race a lot. Now, I want to come back with a lesson learned – You gotta give it all you got at the start to not be able to pose for pictures.
Photos are published with a permission from Martin Carnogursky, a junior skimo racer himself.

At the start. Can you count 320 legs? 😉
Merging into the track after the frantic run off the start.