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Jeremy Rietmann

Race report: 2013 Irwin/La Sportiva Skimo Race

December 9, 2013 By Stano Faban 2 Comments

The following race report was sent in by Jeremy Rietmann – steadily improving Colorado skimo racer – who has shared his racing adventures with Skintrack readers before. Thank you!

Enter Jeremy

So far for the 2013 season, the Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup (COSMIC) races have been all about the one thing all of us love – Powder! The December 7th Irwin/La Sportiva Skimo Race provided a nice follow-up to the fantastic early season conditions enjoyed by racers two weeks ago at Wolf Creek.

Pre-race meeting room was packed with some big guns. (Photo credit Jeremy Rietmann).
Pre-race meeting room was packed with some big guns. (Photo credit Jeremy Rietmann).
Irwin provides a truly unique race experience on the COSMIC circuit with its backcountry setting, fairly complicated access logistics (made smooth by the great Irwin crew), late start time – and this year – great snow conditions. With nearly a foot of new snow, Irwin no doubt provided the highest concentration of smiles and spandex in Colorado on Saturday.

The race

Saturday’s race was a prime example of the huge growth in both interest and talent in the US skimo world. 70 racers toed the line between all race divisions this year – a nearly 30% increase in participation from the 54 racers that joined in the fun the last time this race was held in 2011.
Irwin attracted top talent on both the women’s and men’s sides with Stevie Kremer, Sari Anderson and McKenna Douglas taking the 1-2-3 podium spots for the women, and Stevie Kremer besting her 2011 winning finishing time by 5 minutes and 19 seconds with a finishing time of 2:20:48.
On the men’s side, heavy (light?) hitters like John Gaston, Tom Goth, Max Taam, Brian Smith and Marshall Thompson battled it out up-front with John Gaston taking the win in 1:58:39. This bested Marshall Thompson’s winning time in 2011 by nearly 7 minutes. Brian Smith and Tom Goth took the 2nd and 3rd podium spots for the men, fighting it out until the end and finishing with only 5 seconds between them.
John Gaston once again rocketed away on the downhills and he and Max Taam just couldn’t stop racing as they both found their way back to Aspen later that day to participate in the Summit for Life/Chris Klug Foundation uphill benefit race – which John also won.
Top talent aside, Team Crested Butte’s recent speaking tour in the Front Range (Boulder area) appeared to pay promotional dividends with a number of first timers taking on a new adventure and toeing the line to enjoy a new experience. For any of you out there for which Irwin was your first skimo race – Welcome!
In the rec race, Matt Clark of Gunnison took home the win with Amelia Poppe of Crested Butte finishing in the top spot for the women.
Full results
» Here’s a PDF with the 2013 Irwin Skimo Race results.

Left - Ram and Danny enjoying the cat ride. Right - racers hurrying to get ready for the start. (Photos by Jeremy Rietmann.)
Left – Ram and Danny enjoying the cat ride. Right – racers hurrying to get ready for the start. (Photos by Jeremy Rietmann.)

A number of highlights and some wisdom

  • Being towed to the race for nearly an hour behind a snowmobile in frigid temps may not sound like that bad of an idea (…yes it does) until you’re standing at the starting line with shot hip flexors, noodles for arms and lungs full of 4-stroke engine exhaust. My advice, take the cat-ride, it’ll be the cheapest cat-skiing you’ll do all year.
  • Irwin is one of the best opportunities on the COSMIC circuit to socialize and get to know your fellow racers. A couple of hours chatting in a 4mph snowcat is a quick way to get to know people better and the group-think associated with needing to pee is hilarious. If Crested Butte local Allen Hadley is in your snowcat – the stories will be wild and plentiful – and the extra entertainment is free of charge. Add it all up and the additional transport fee to the race start is worth it.
  • Don’t go out too hard – 5000 feet of climbing is just enough to make the last 4-500 feet fairly painful if you didn’t dial in the output perfectly on take off. If your working heart rate is on a continual downward slide throughout the race, try starting a little slower next time. “End of the Race You” will thank “Beginning of the Race You” for the adjustment.
  • Positive mental dialogue is always a good thing to cultivate during a hard race. But, if you don’t have it during the race, just keep on plugging. You’ll likely do just fine and probably better than you expect.
  • As goofy as skin suits are, they are incredibly functional and make racing much more logistically enjoyable. Heat regulation and skin, food and beacon storage are all vastly improved when wearing a suit. Just pretend you’re a young Elvis or Catwoman and get on with it.

A special thanks to race director Bryan Wickenhauser and the good folks at Irwin for making this race possible. Next up on the COSMIC circuit: Frisco Randocross on December 31st – New Year’s Eve! www.cosmicski.com
Jeremy Rietmann – @JeremyRietmann

Filed Under: Reports & Results Tagged With: COSMIC, Irwin Skimo Race, Jeremy Rietmann, La Sportiva

The 2013 Power of Four skimo race: One man’s three year evolution towards a unified team spirit

March 6, 2013 By Stano Faban 2 Comments

In this well written essay one of our fellow skimo racers, Jeremy Rietmann, shares his candid story of personal evolution that was forced upon him by a “simple” challenge of teams racing.
It’s always moving when people are willing to share their lessons, and especially so when they let us peek into their minds as deeply as Jeremy does here. Stick to the end and it will surely help you reflect on your own racing ups-and-downs.
jeremy-rietmann-300pxIn its inaugural year, Lou Dawson asked if Aspen’s Power of Four was the greatest ski mountaineering race in North America.  Dawson was hyping his local hill, but three years and 75+ racing miles later, I say it is.
There are other North American races with more memorable technical elements, more off-piste terrain or offer better pure skiing. Nevertheless, the mental journey that one must navigate to successfully complete this race is more fascinating to me than the physical undertaking itself.
In the Power of Four, mastering your own mental landscape is the true test.  It’s the ‘Fourth Power’ that makes or breaks you when faced with the three major external challenges this race presents.

Race facts: The three challenges

First is the obvious physical hardship. Nearly 12,000ft of climbing over 25ish miles as fast as you can go is difficult. Pete Swenson found Karl Meltzer’s evil Speedgoat 50k race recipe and winterized it.
The second factor is that it’s March, high in the Colorado Rockies.  The ascent of Highland Peak, topping out at 12,382 feet, can be bitterly cold, yet the snow-reflected high-altitude sun could quickly have you overheating. You have to dedicate additional energy to self-care or simply Mother Nature will have her way with you.
And, it can never be forgotten that this is a skimo teams race! This means you get to go on a delightful journey of low-electrolyte self-discovery with another person doing the same. It’s best to realize this before toeing the starting line.
Each of these challenges build upon each other and can easily overwhelm an underprepared mind.

2011: Poor attention to details

In 2011, I came into the race not fully certain of what I’d gotten myself into. But, I had recently toured the 40+ miles from Eagle to Aspen in a quick overnight with a couple of friends, had a good build-up of training and was reasonably confident in my ability to finish.
I paired up with my regular climbing partner, Doug, and we set out not sure what to expect, but knowing we were in for an experience.
What occurred was an unfortunate – unbalanced pairing of expert mental toughness, internal mastery and proper self-care (on Doug’s part) versus my mental weakness, negative mental dialogue and inattention to the details (water and caloric intake in cold conditions) as minutes turned to hours and hours became several.
Unsurprisingly, I bonked hard mid-way up Midnight Mine road, and lacking a tow rope Doug pulled ahead to let me slog along in my own misery.  Only later did I realize he did me a favor by sparing me his own rage and frustration at my poor attention to nutrition.
Running low on fumes and good sense as we approached the Sundeck I decided this would be a good time to rant that it was not helpful that he had pulled ahead and “left me behind.” But Doug, as the true friend and real climber man-beast of the two of us, ignored my nonsense and we skied down to a respectable finish.
I crossed the line, but he allowed us the finish by dragging me along on his invisible tow rope made mainly of my own desperation in trying to catch up with him to give him a piece of my mind.

2012: Inside ego struggles

In 2012, after a better build-up of training, experimenting, and much more experience with long-endurance racing, I teamed up with another longtime college friend, John.
We went to have fun, work hard and finish strong.  But we were mismatched in a few aspects.
He was training around 25 hours per week (for off-road triathlons) and his general aerobic fitness was superior to what I could attain on my measly 5-10 hours per week.  Yet I knew my specific ski fitness was solid, giving me an advantage on the long down-hills. I also had better transition technique and had the advantage of having completed the race before. Added together, perhaps it could be a good combination after all.
We raced well up and down Snowmass and Buttermilk, but as we roped together with me on tow at the base of Aspen Highlands (as we had planned prior to the start of the race) my ego got the best of me.
My internal dialogue became more deluded with each step upward.  It created an internal conversation wholly toxic to our goals that day. My muddled mind argued: “Why are you struggling? I am the one who has been rando racing all season. I know the technique! I know the lingo!”
Useless.  All of it.
Then came the Congo Trail.  If there’s one thing I am very good at, it’s what I call ‘survival skiing’ – shitty, fast, narrow, scary, tree skiing.  And the Congo Trail is the definition of it.
I dipped in first and my earlier frustrations and inadequacies fueled me all the way to the bottom.  I didn’t look back.
I transitioned at the base of Midnight Mine road and waited. For 10 minutes.  Finally, John arrived upset and thoroughly pissed.  And I was happy to reciprocate.
John had been waiting for me at a road crossing just upwards from me. He didn’t know where I was and was concerned I may have wrecked somewhere uphill from him.  He also didn’t know the course as well, and didn’t know that the true base of the descent was straight across the road from where he was waiting for me.
Also, this is probably a good time to mention that John, my partner, is totally deaf.
It’s a pretty common theme in the Deaf Community that nothing frustrates a deaf guy more than being left out of a conversation or feeling out of the loop. Saying, “never mind” to waive-off the inconvenience of having to explain a super minor thing you have said to someone else in front of a deaf person is the height of rudeness.
So, as one might imagine, leaving your deaf partner behind on a fairly unknown race course was about a million times more inconsiderate.  Oops.
We had a healthy round of shouting, raging and f-bombs, all silently read on my lips by him mind you. And I did include the appropriate body language and facial expressions to be sure he knew where I was coming from.  He let me have it too.
We kept on moving and arguing until we exhausted ourselves, and then didn’t communicate for about 20 minutes.  Eventually I tamed my ego and went back on tow and with each step upwards we climbed back into reality, made peace, and found our way to the finish line.  One hour faster than the previous year with Doug.
Happy to have finished, but with far too much mental strain than was ever necessary.  I resolved to never let that happen again.

2013: Unified team and deeper lessons

In 2013, John and I again teamed up for the Power of Four.  We both had a desire to improve our time from 2012 and I think we both secretly wanted proper redemption for ourselves by tackling this race as a whole and unified team.

John and Jeremy racing the 2013 Power of Four. Together.
John and Jeremy racing the 2013 Power of Four. Together. Photo by Dick Jackson Photography.
I worked long and hard in the year between the two races to find and experience my mental state as it manifested itself during long, grueling endurance efforts.  I grew to be adept at finding it, viewing it within myself and not judging it.  I learned from it and eventually changed it.
2013 was a thrilling race. John knows I need reminded to eat and drink.  I know it too and have become much better at reminding myself.  So he cued it up when relevant, and I did the same.  There was no judgment, no ego, we just knew we needed to look out for each other to make a strong finish possible.
This year we climbed Aspen Highlands separately and didn’t pull out the tow rope.  We simply kept track of each other, reminded ourselves to fuel up regularly and planned ahead.  I carried less water than John and ran out at the top of the Deep Termity lift.  I knew this would lead to cramping and a potential bonk if I didn’t come up with a solution.
Knowing that I would transition faster than John, we agreed that I would ski down as fast as possible, skin to the entrance to the Congo Trail at the final aid station, and do everything in my power to rehydrate and refuel for the long brutal slog up Midnight Mine road.
It was a smart tactical decision. I got a good 10-12 minute lead on John, which gave me plenty of time to fuel up. When he arrived, I waited while he gathered up everything he needed to refuel and prepare for the remainder of the race.
Then, we skied down the Congo Trail – this time together.  John had only been on skis four times this season prior to the race, so the Congo completely destroyed his legs.  The endless wedging-in-the-back-seat isometric contraction sucked the life out of him.
As we started up the road, he began sweating profusely, wondering aloud what the symptoms of heat stroke were and I looked back and saw the panicked look of ‘bonk’ in his eyes.  But, this time we worked together rather than against each other and our minds stayed peaceful and calm.
He asked for the tow rope and we put one foot in front of the other at the same clip without pause all the way to the sundeck.
We even passed a couple of teams and crushed their spirits late in the race. We also finished yet another hour faster than the year before.  It was a beautiful thing.  A positive, powerful mental landscape makes everything in life better.

Struggles keep me coming back

This is what makes the Power of Four the best skimo race in North America.  It’s a monstrous undertaking that breaks a person down to the basics – keeping your mind calm, keeping your ego in check, empathizing with and recognizing the suffering of others, and recognizing your own weaknesses.
I got what I came for.  Overcoming difficult things pushes us to confront and accept even greater challenges in the future. It allows us the opportunity to become more than we once were.
This race, and all the training and hardship necessary to make it possible, has made me a better person.  And that’s what we should all be striving for.

Filed Under: People (Interviews), Reports & Results Tagged With: Jeremy Rietmann

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SkinTrack.com, created by Stano Faban, was born out of passion for ski mountaineering and ski touring. Over the years, it has become one of the most popular ski mountaineering blogs in North America.

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