Saturday outing to Leadville

We've come to consensus. There will never again be a trip to Denver without a stop at the French bakery in Edwards. Chocolate croissants, curry soup, apple tarts... oh my! What a great way to celebrate our first race of the season.

Despite the snow falling at our departure, the sun was brilliantly shinning over the race course at Ski Cooper. The 2.5 k loop course was excellently situated for cheering on the CRMS skiers as the tackled the technically challenging course. Unfortunately no one had their camera to document the cosmic wipe-outs and moderate trail-side puking involved. Overall, a great success.

The results from the 5k race at Tennessee Pass can be found through the "important links" to the right.

First race of the season this weekend

The CRMS team is heading to Tennessee pass tomorrow for our first CHSSA race! It's going to be downright balmy at 23 F. Results and photos to be posted soon!

Results from the 2009 Red Hill Time Trial

2009 Results:

Luke Falcone, Telemark 17:30 (Crushing the men's record by 2:30 min!!!)
Max Stevens, Alpine Coach, 18:16
Gus Griffin, Nordic 18:30
Peter Madigan, Telemark 21:09
Ludwig Ragnarsson 21:52
Joy 22:53
Charlie Boyne, Telemark 23:08
Sam Kaufman, Nordic 23:28
Grady Lenkin, Telemark 23:44
Aisha Weinhold, Telemark 23:51
acqueline Larouche, Alpine 24:00
Lina Sutro 24:33
Meghan Detering, Telemark Coach 25:57
Florentina Arthuber, Alpine 26:00
Kelsey Freeman, Telemark 26:05
JJ Whorley, Telemark 27:07
Sam Bell, Alpine 27:34
Peyton Heitzman, Telemark 30:11
Catherine Masters, Alpine 31:07
Emily Bartlomiejczuk, Nordic 31:22
Lilly Reed, Alpine 31:22
Mima Strong, Nordic 31:46
Maggie Devany, Nordic 31:46
Aubrey Mason, Alpine 34:06
Tamsin Pargiter, Nordic 34:18
Michaela Craig, Nordic 34:20
Julia Williams, Alpine 35:04
Coleman Spence, Nordic 36:42

Pre-season Escapades

After a off-season of paddling, cliff scaling and ice-cream indulgence the CRMS Nordic Ski Team got down to business this fall. We've been pounding dirt on Dry Park road and working the abs and triceps hard! Also very newsworthy are the great times our team members clocked on the Third Annual Bust a Lung Red Hill Run. (Results to be posted soon)

After returning from a great Thanksgiving camp at Grand Mesa we've been determined to keep the skis gliding. The early snows bestowed us with enough of the white stuff to get a good .5 k loop going at the Aspen golf course. On a typical day we prefer to skate in a counter clockwise direction...

Here's a couple of photos from our most recent afternoon on skate skis and the very entertaining game of tunnel tag.

Crested Butte #4: Post-Race

After the race, it was time to fuel up on free chili (NOT the free beer that they offered), and then head home. The drive went by in record time, even though some of us had differing opinions of what music should be played. A great weekend!

Crested Butte #3: Racin'

Racing. It's always a good thing. Especially when the course winds between the alleys and buildings of a nice, quaint mountain town. Note that Elliot is in hot pursuit of none other than BATWOMAN!

Crested Butte #2: To the races!

The morning came in beautiful fashion: blue skis, a polar bear skiing the 3K, and the excitement of the mass start.

Crested Butte #1

...Prowling the streets of Crested Butte the night before the race.

The life of a traveling nordic skier is a good one: new towns, new sunsets, making fun of the folks in fur coats. Nice!

Crested Butte Alley Loop - 10K Version

This past weekend, the CRMS Nordic Squad traveled to Crested Butte for the always-enjoyable-and-always-good-people-watching Alley Loop races. We all competed in the 10K version...and let it be known that for most of the team, this was the first experience putting the toes to the start line for some real racing! There were plenty of good costumes, some fantastic weather, some hairy speed-driving, and (most importantly) some great racing from the kids! Nice job, skiers.

Pictures to come...stay tuned.

Owl Creek Chase

On Saturday, we went upvalley to watch Owl Creek Chase, part of the Aspen Nordic Festival. For our new skiers, this was a great chance to see some high-caliber racers doing their thing. It was a beautiful Colorado day. Exciting racing, good snow, smiles all around.

The top men's Elite class finishers. 

Sam and Hannes showing their joy at seeing these races.

Mima, Tamsin, and Maggie soaking up the sun's rays (and watching the races between snowball fights.)

Tromping.

Last week, the esteemed Elliot Norquist took the team on a tour through the Marion Gulch and Aspen Gulch areas behind Spring Gulch. We followed a trail broken in by Elliot and Will Perry, who lives on his ranch just down the road. We parked at the snowmobilers parking lot at Marion and waxed up our classic skis with a bit of special violet (on the sticky side, so as to get good grip tromping through the woods). Though the way was windy and meanandered, we ended up all in one piece on the Finlandia trail. From there, we skied south on Finlandia and had an epic downhill session on Big Dipper. Snow, skis, smiles.


Waxing up at the TH. Sam (on the left) decided that he should go against convention and use his skate skis for a classic tour. Whatever.

Tromping through the woods. At this point is was unclear where we were headed, but smiles still prevailed.

At the old coke ovens (mining history, anybody?) below Aspen Gulch.


Mima beaming with Sopris shining. Elliot, on the right: our trusty guide.

Thanks everybody!

Nordic Season 2008-2009! A new year.

Welcome to the new season, dearest friends of the nordic persuasion. I apologize for not getting the blog rolling sooner, but there have been:
1. Camera troubles (and nobody likes a blog without pictures)
2. Too many good skiing days and not enough good blogging days
3. A busy [and awesome] year so far

Well, it's begun. Two returning skiers and a healthy batch of newbies make up our team this year. We are on a path of exploration, on a journey of seeking out the best nordic ski racing has to offer. Spring gulch is skiing as well as I have ever seen it, the sun is shining, and our skis are in good shape.

Except for a few broken poles (thanks, Tamsin) and a broken binding or two, we are running at 100%. Stay tuned.
-Hannes