Ever wonder what the Elite adventure racers do in Colorado during the winter? As it turns out, they are all Ski mountaineering (randonee) racing. Geared up with some light-ish gear (at least compared to the 1100 gram setups the top guys are using) Brooks headed up to Arapahoe Basin for the Marmot Grind, the last race in the COSMIC (Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup) series for the season. Being my first race, I had sort of rigged up a good setup, and decided to sign up for the pro race division.The race started at 8:30am at the base area of A-basin. 
Start with a 100m run to your skis (already skinned up) then climb up High-noon, across to Chisolm, up wrangler, and then up Grizzly road to the top of the Pali chair. My start included not getting the touring locks set tight enough, and immediately blowing out of both skis upon trying to skin uphill! After watching everyone tear up the hill as I fumbled with my bindings, I finally got going, and set off trying to catch the lead group. The first descent was down Pali run, which was in prime frozen coral bumps condition, down to the base again. Luckily, I was able to capitalize on those years of skiing and pass quite a few people on the way down. After skinning back up at 
the bottom, another ascent, but this time all the way past the top of Pali to the Snow Plume Refuge. Ripped skins on the ridge, took the Zuma Cornice(while trying to get down some gel) dropped the cornice, and skiied down to the bottom of Montezuma Bowl. Skin back up, head up an insanely steep run and across a ridge traverse to the top of North Pole. This is where my inexperience reared its ugly head! I was starting to get tired up the last skin (did I mention it was really steep!) and was having trouble getting my skins to hook-up. I started traversing the hill, while others were able to go straight up. On the ridge, I opted to try to ski down with my boots unbuckled, bindings in tour mode, and skins on! Needless to say, after falling a few times on icy hardpack, I just pulled off the skis and booted it. Much faster! After a ski down the tight couloir I hit the East Wall traverse, strapped my skis to my modified GoLite pack, and boot packed it up Willies Wide. The ski down Willies was 
painful!From the bottom of the wall, across the base and back down to high-noon and the finish! I had a great time. In the mens division, the race was won by Pete Swenson, followed by Mike Kloser and Travis Scheefer in 3rd. The womens race was Monique Merrill, just nipping Sari Anderson at the line, with Jari Kirkland in 3rd. I placed 14th overall in a little under 2h, 30min. Not too shabby for 5300 vertical feet in my first race!
Start with a 100m run to your skis (already skinned up) then climb up High-noon, across to Chisolm, up wrangler, and then up Grizzly road to the top of the Pali chair. My start included not getting the touring locks set tight enough, and immediately blowing out of both skis upon trying to skin uphill! After watching everyone tear up the hill as I fumbled with my bindings, I finally got going, and set off trying to catch the lead group. The first descent was down Pali run, which was in prime frozen coral bumps condition, down to the base again. Luckily, I was able to capitalize on those years of skiing and pass quite a few people on the way down. After skinning back up at 
the bottom, another ascent, but this time all the way past the top of Pali to the Snow Plume Refuge. Ripped skins on the ridge, took the Zuma Cornice(while trying to get down some gel) dropped the cornice, and skiied down to the bottom of Montezuma Bowl. Skin back up, head up an insanely steep run and across a ridge traverse to the top of North Pole. This is where my inexperience reared its ugly head! I was starting to get tired up the last skin (did I mention it was really steep!) and was having trouble getting my skins to hook-up. I started traversing the hill, while others were able to go straight up. On the ridge, I opted to try to ski down with my boots unbuckled, bindings in tour mode, and skins on! Needless to say, after falling a few times on icy hardpack, I just pulled off the skis and booted it. Much faster! After a ski down the tight couloir I hit the East Wall traverse, strapped my skis to my modified GoLite pack, and boot packed it up Willies Wide. The ski down Willies was 
painful!From the bottom of the wall, across the base and back down to high-noon and the finish! I had a great time. In the mens division, the race was won by Pete Swenson, followed by Mike Kloser and Travis Scheefer in 3rd. The womens race was Monique Merrill, just nipping Sari Anderson at the line, with Jari Kirkland in 3rd. I placed 14th overall in a little under 2h, 30min. Not too shabby for 5300 vertical feet in my first race!
Lot of fun (in a painful way). Looking forward to doing the series next year! See you out there!
