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Jon Brown

Skimo News Jan 13-15: 2nd USA Team Qualifier, Mountain Attack, Upcoming Races and World Cups…

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Last weekend was very busy for racing in Colorado while Canada took a break. In Europe, 18th edition of Mountain Attack in Austria served its traditional 3000m around Saalbach. Our previous skimo news can be found here.
We attend some of the Colorado races and went through the multi-day marathon outdoor gear show in Salt Lake City – we will be writting about the new gear starting this weekend! Overall, we drove over 5000km in 9 days and ate way too much “gas station food” 😉

Close to 130 athletes lined up for individual race at Sunlight Mountain, Colorado.
Close to 130 athletes lined up for individual race at Sunlight Mountain, Colorado.

USA Race News

The Heathen Challenge – USA Team Qualifier – Jan 14-15

The first qualification race from a month ago was still very alive in some athletes minds as they failed to secure their spots for their desired disciplines on the USA Team that will represent at the upcoming World Championships. Tom Goth and Max Taam were the two big names that had something to prove at Sunlight mountain last weekend.
Saturday’s night Sprint Race:
After a smart qualification and semi-final rounds, Max Taam was leaving the very top transition in the sprint finals about 6-7 seconds behind Eric Carter, who looked in control. While Eric was trying to avoid any crashes Max went full gas, passed him 2 gates from the finish line and won. Third and fourth went to Rory Kelly and Scott Archer respectively, who also secured their spots for the sprint race at Worlds (top 4 qualified).
In the women’s race, Jessie Young went mostly unchallenged and won while the battle behind her was more competitive. In the finals, Najeeby Quinn took close second in front of Nikki Larochelle. Fourth and final spot on the sprint team went to Michela Adrian.
Of note, were the men’s and women’s junior and youth racers. All were racing strong and were pulling off smooth transitions every time they came by me – I was a referee at the very top sprint transition. Quinn Simmons won the finals and can be a medal hopeful in Europe!
» Sprint race results – scroll through photo results on Facebook
Sunday’s Individual Race:
Sunday’s race was a qualifier for the fourth and final spot on the individual team, and was also a qualifier for the teams race spots – top 8 would secure those.
Tom Goth showed tremendous desire to secure the final spot on the individual race team after coming short a month ago. He took it out from the line and followed John Gaston (who already qualified) as long as he could to finish second in the race. John won once again and continues to dominate the North American skimo racing scene in big style. Third went to Max Taam who was trying hard to catch Goth but failed by about one minute.

From left: Quinn Simmons (15) and Scott Simmons (45) are going to represent US at Worlds. Jon Brown, right off them, is also going to Worlds after qualifying for teams race.
From left: Father and son, Quinn Simmons (15) and Scott Simmons (45), are going to represent US at 2017 Worlds. Jon Brown, right off them, is also going to Worlds after qualifying for the teams race.
In the women’s race, Jessie Young repeated her great performance from the day before and went on to win over Janelle Smiley. Nikki Larochelle raced well too to round out the podium in front of Lindsay Plant. Just like in the men’s race, the top 8 secured their teams race spots but we are yet to see which women will choose to travel to Europe at the end.
Junior boy’s podium went to Quinn Simmons, Henry Boyd, Henry Hanes. The girls race was won by Morgan Fortin.
» Individual race results

The Grand Mesa Grind at Powderhorn – Jan 14

Athletes that weren’t much interested in the sprint at Sunlight went to race an individual race at Powderhorn.
The podiums went to Jon Brown, Ram Mikulas (new USSMA president) and Matthias Messner in men’s category. Women’s went to Janelle Smiley and Amber Leach.
» Grand Mesa results

International Race News

18th edition of Mountain Attack in Austria delivered some very fast times over its massive 3000m course (10,000 ft). Although the race route is entirely in a ski resort athletes complete the course during evening/night hours with headlamps.
The talented Anton Palzer (GER) went on to win in 2h 21min! He was followed home by Christian Hoffmann (AUT) and Tadei Pivk (ITA). Jennifer Fiechter (SWI) won the women’s marathon course in 3h 3min in front of Italian Team members Katia Tomatis and Martina Valmassoi.
» Results for 2017 Mountain Attack

Upcoming Races

World Cups:
After sharing a long drive back to Canada from Colorado, I wished “Good Luck” to Eric Carter who jumped on the plane to Europe to race in Andorra WC (Jan 21-22) and Cambre d’Aze WC in France (Jan 28).
USA and Canada:
Check out our full calendar but the highlight events for next 2 weeks are here:
Jan 20-23 – Griggs Skimo Camp, CO
Jan 21 – Fernie Skimo Race, BC
Jan 21 – Berkshire East, MA
Jan 21 – La course du Festival, QC
Jan 28 – CROWBAR SkiMo race, UT
Jan 29 – Skin to Win Race At Bridger Bowl, MT
Feb 3-5 – US Nationals, NM
Feb 4-5 – Panorama Steep Dreams Skimo Race, BC

Dec 1-7 News Shorts: US Skimo Team qualifiers, Vert180 in Canada, Bernier's big November, Jornet readying for Aconcagua

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With a new season under way, we are going to continue the weekly roundups that you got used to last winter but we are going away from the “Skimo Racing Roundup” name and will be calling it “News Shorts” as there are often other ski mountaineering related items worth including besides just skimo racing. We believe you will enjoy this format even more!

US Skimo Team qualifiers: Gaston continues winning

One of several huge snowcats used to shuttle racers to and from the Irwin Lodge race venue.
One of several huge snowcats used to shuttle racers to and from the Irwin Lodge race venue.
Skimo World Championships take place every second year and this means the US skimo athletes continue to train harder than ever before. To qualify, and to have a choice at which events each athlete wants to race at the 2015 Skimo Worlds in Verbier (Feb 6-12), he or she first needs to prove the speed. The first two qualifying races took place last weekend (Dec 6-7) in Crested Butte, Colorado. Saturday’s individual race, at Irwin Guides, is known for great backcountry terrain and skiing. The Irwin race is a unique experience for skimo racers with the entire event taking place in the backcountry. Racers are required to take a 45-minute snowmobile or snowcat ride to the venue deep in the Elk Mountains.
Utah vs. Colorado after the vertical event.
Utah vs. Colorado after the vertical event.
Scott Simons (2nd place), a father of two and always improving, took off strong from the start and charged around the first lap at a blistering pace along with Marshall Thompson (3rd place). The two reached the first descent together with John Gaston close behind. Gaston, showing his perennial strength at descending, closed the gap and by the third lap, had a manageable lead on the two to win the race. Max Taam raced hard from 10th position to 4th by the finish and Jason Dorais battled illness to finish a strong 5th.
In the women’s race, Lindsay Plant (2014 NA Teams Race Champion with Janelle Smiley) stayed in the lead throughout the race with seemingly little competition. Sari Anderson and Jessie Young (new to the skimo circuit but quickly improving) equalled each other on the first climb. Anderson dropped out of the race and Young chased hard forcing Plant to increase her pace to maintain her lead. Nikki LaRochelle finished in third.
For more Irwin photos by Crested Butte Photography see a link further below.
For more Irwin photos by Crested Butte Photography see a link further below.
Lindsay Plant shortly after crossing the line in first at the Crested Butte vertical race.
Lindsay Plant shortly after crossing the line in first at the Crested Butte vertical race.
Sunday was a vertical race (also a team qualifier) hosted at the CB resort. The results changed a bit but not dramatically. Gaston dominated the men’s field again with Marshall Thompson taking a close 2nd. Local star, Brian Smith charged from behind, sitting at the back of the pack early in the climb and moving up to 3rd by the finish. The women’s race went again decisively to Lindsay Plant who was followed by Nikki LaRochelle and McKenna Douglas.
SkinTrack’s Eric Carter, who is trying to qualify for the US Worlds Team, placed 9th on Saturday and 5th on Sunday. Eric was happy with the results despite seeing room for improvement. His altitude acclimatization program seemed to work (he lives at 14 m in Squamish, Canada) and all the hard dry land training is paying off.
» Weekend results from both races – https://www.facebook.com/USSkimo/posts/795269280519181
» Great weekend race photos can be found here.
» Qualifying criteria and process can be found on USSMA website here.

Vert180 opens season in Canada

In Canada, the Vert180 in Calgary opened the skimo racing season with its unusual format once again. The winner of the men’s category, trail runner and skimo racer Travis Brown, climbed a little less than 3000 m in 180 minutes of racing. Second and third went to Peter Knight and Ryan Burlingame respectively. The women’s category win went to Kylee Toth, who is coming back strongly after having two kids in the last several years! Michelle Roberts and Marg Fedyna finished second and third.
» Vert180 results are here.

Melanie Bernier’s big November

Melanie Bernier is the only Canadian, and only the second North American, to place on a skimo World Cup podium and as part of her preparations for the World Championship season she went on to do a massive month of training. She  accumulated over 70,000 vertical meters during November in the mountains around Revelstoke and in Rogers Pass. Once again, Melanie will travel to Europe for an extensive period of time this winter and we can’t wait to see what exciting performances she will be up to this season.

Kilian Jornet ready for Aconcagua speed attempt

If you haven’t caught the news yet then next couple of weeks will  bring another speed record attempt by Kilian Jornet. Like Melanie, he also did lot’s of training in November and, only few days ago, left France for South America. None of such records are guaranteed but if the weather on Aconcagua is at least somewhat cooperative, then Jornet should be able to set the bar very high for anyone that will come after him.

Wolf Creek skimo race on Nov 22

The first race on the USSMA calendar went down two weeks ago at the Wolf Creek ski area in Colorado. Men’s category top 3 were: Scott Simmons, Jon Brown, Pete Swenson. In women’s race category, the win went to Lindsay Plant, followed by Sarah Stubbe and Christena Ward.
» Full results are here.

Teaser video for 2015 Ski Mountaineering World Championships in Verbier

Training and gear for Gore-Tex Grand Traverse: Interview with Jon Brown

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Once known as the Elk Mountains Grand Traverse, I learned about this race in 2003 and wanted to attend it ever since. With other commitments lined up I will have to postpone it once again but since some of you are going, here, I want to provide you of what to expect and how to go about preparing for it.
grand-traverse-logoAt midnight on Friday March 28th, 2014 a head-lamped horde will set out from Crested Butte, CO for the town of Aspen, CO. Skiing 40 miles through the backcountry at night, teams of two racers carry the equipment needed to navigate a largely unmarked course past two checkpoints before finishing down Aspen Mountain in the sunlight. This annual ritual of athleticism and backcountry hardiness now called the Gore-Tex Grand Traverse is among the longest and most challenging skimo races in North America.
Modeled after European-style traverse races and based on old mail routes between Crested Butte and Aspen, the Grand Traverse gains only seven-thousand vertical feet over its length, offering instead the more variable challenges of a true backcountry experience: the unmarked course has offered temperatures well-below zero, variable snow conditions, open river crossings, and snowless hillsides in years past.
The Grand Traverse has traditionally been a race won by nordic skiers with metal-edged touring skis until in recent years advances in alpine touring race equipment have put randonnee skiers on the podium, with only the strongest nordic teams remaining among the top-ten finishers.

Interview – training and gear

In the following interview, Patrick Fink interviews Team Crested Butte member Jon Brown who answers questions about the training and gear that contribute to a successful and competitive Grand Traverse.
Jon has raced ten of the last twelve Grand Traverses, winning the race in 2006 with his partner Brian Smith. He talks about the strategy he uses to prepare for a race with so much time on the flats, the lightest possible kit for the traverse, and the “positive attitude and sense of adventure” needed to make the race into an “amazing experience”. His extensive experience with the traverse shows through, offering nuggets of hard-won wisdom for first-timers and veterans alike.
Continue to the interview and enjoy, it’s a nice read:
» http://mountainlessons.com/skiing/elkmountainsgrandtraverse-qa-with-jonbrown