Ski to the Clouds

The Ski to the Clouds is a 10k race up the Mt. Washington Auto Road - 4k on the Great Glen trail system and then 6k of climbing, ending about halfway up the mountain. Kind of like the Stowe Derby in reverse. I've been wanting to do this race for a while now, and last weekend I didn't have a good excuse not to, so I did. Sadly, I couldn't persuade any of our skiers to join me (in part because half of them had done a 50k the day before), so I was the lone Bowdoin representative. With this weight on my shoulders, I found myself shuffling in the icy start tracks on a beautiful Sunday morning, wondering why I'd chosen this as my first and only race of the season. Fortunately, the gun went off shortly thereafter, and things came into focus in a hurry. After a frantic start, I was able to work my way onto the tail end of the lead pack of 10 or 12 guys. The next 4k was some of the most fun I've ever had in a ski race - winding trails with lots of ups and downs and tight corners. So much fun to be skiing this kind of course on fast snow in a pack. The group included a number of elite skiers, so I figured I was in a fool's paradise. Turned out I was right - when we hit the Auto Road it was an absolute jailbreak. The fast guys raged to the front and disappeared - I couldn't believe how quickly they were gone. I eased back and tried to focus on skiing efficiently, figuring I'd pick off the folks who started the climb too hard. This worked, sort of - I passed a few people, but got passed by a few others who hadn't been able to stick with the pack down below. I settled into a pace that felt right, which was good, since I think I only have one gear after a season of minimal training - and the kilometers went by with surprising ease. Toward the end of the race I noticed a guy creeping up on me - I couldn't up my pace without flailing and wasting lots of energy, so I just tried to keep my technique together and hope that relaxed skiing would be enough to hold him off. It was, and I ended up crossing the line in 10th, a little over 7 minutes behind the winners. Nothing too amazing, but I'm content. It was a fun race, and I'll definitely do it again if the schedule allows next year. Thanks to Ryan and Danielle Triffitt '97 for moral support and getting my dry clothes to the finish!

Here's a photo lifted from the Great Glen website. This is the lead pack just after starting the climb - I'm the one at the back getting dropped. I swear that my technique is better than it looks here, but perhaps my skiers would beg to differ...