The day after at Targhee

It seems that the body has built in ways of saying enough is enough. It also seems more times then not life happens and we have to over ride this natural feed back system. Sunday morning at Grand Targhee was one of those days.




















Crested Butte Photography
Off the start the incline was quite respectable and the pace well.. reasonable. "The wall" looming in the distance had every one conserving and bracing for the lactic acid storm ahead.

Over the top we skied a nice pitch transitioned and then climbed a much lower angle track all the way to a boot pack that took us to the peak. Sun ablazing a pack of about 4 stood on top ripping skins getting ready to descend into the cat skiing terrain. Brendon French and my self were the first out of the gates and we had a beautiful fall line of un-tracked powered. Yo-yo'ing off each other we made good time at the expense of allot of leg burn.

Starting up the last assent we were able to fuel up and start out just ahead of a very strong chase pack lead by Bryan Wickenhauser. As we headed up the chase pack was rotating, Luke Nelson and Travis Scheefer popped out for a final attack. Luckily we were able to fend them off just enough and for the last few hundred meters the skin track turned into a groomer and I was able to put in a bit of a kick to top out first.

With a quick shout from the volunteer I headed down towards a gate and skiing fall line I found myself in a couloir missing the traverse to the center of the bowl. Taking a bit of air off a small rib I ended up with tips below the surface leading to a tomahawk and a very half ass recovery. From there I traversed to the center of the bowl where there was tracks that would allow me to gain speed for the flat section ahead. At this point although taking the longer on course route both Travis and Brendon were only seconds behind. Luckily there was enough wax on the skis and I was just able to maintain a 3 second lead across the finish.



























Great Rando form..
After the race it dawned on us that Ian needed to get to work and we were 14 hours of driving away. Making a quick exit we hopped back into the Jetta and James powered through getting us home safe and sound. Big thanks to the organizers for putting on two great events and to Nate and Kristeen for taking the Canadians into there beautiful house for the weekend!

Crested Butte Photography

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