This past Saturday was the first event of the Canadian Calendar for Ski Mountaineering. We traveled to Canada Olympic Park (COP) in Calgary for a 3 hours vertical race. We all knew that the race would be as hard as we wanted it to be and we knew it would be a great way to kick off the season and also work on transitions… since in fact we had to do quite a few of them!
The race had different format, Solo, Team of 2 and Team of Four. Close to 100 racers took part in the event which was amazing and unexpected considering it was the first edition of the Vert 180.
The course was pretty simple, with a start/ finish line just outside the Cafeteria. Then of course we had to climb to the top the hill, take our skis off for a short bootpack and then straight line the “Alpine Pitch” to do it again and again and again….
I was a really fun event because it felt like we were all skiing together. People were shearing each other, kids, parents, friends teamed up for the event. It was really different then our typical Ski Mo Race. It was also kind of nice to be doing a ski race under the spotlight and looking at the city! Event if COP is not the highest mountain out there, trust me, it was still a challenge getting to the top of it, specially close to the 3 hours mark!
The whole Canadian team did very well!
Here are some of the results:
Reiner Thoni, Solo Category: 1st with 18 laps
Andrew McNab, Solo Category: 2nd with 18 laps as well
Alex Wigley, Solo Category: 3rd with 15 laps
Julie, Billie, Lindsey and Dusan, Team of 4 Category: 1st with 18 laps
Ian Gale & Steve Sellers, Team of 2 Category: 1st with the record amount of lap of the evening!!! 20 Laps! Great job guys!
On my side, I burned 17 laps in the Solo Category and finished 1st woman.
Congratulations to all the racers, it was a really challenging race at many levels!
After a nice meal and some time to come down from such energy output, we crawled into bed to get some rest before driving back to BC for a nice ski off Video Peak @ Rogers Pass on our way home! Next stop will be Golden Alpine Holiday next weekend with the Selkirk Classic Ski Mountaineering Race!!! Something to look forward to as well!
For Full Results of the Vert 180 Check Out:
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