n a heartbreak of a finish, Canmore’s Michelle Katchur Roberts was edged out on the last few metres of the course to take third place just nine second behind U.S. racer Michela Adrian at the 2015 Dogtooth Dash Canadian Ski Mountaineering Championships, which took place Jan. 24 at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, B.C.
But in the end, Katchur Roberts said, skimo racing is about so much more than just fitness, and having her skis fall off her pack not once, but twice during the competition – the second time at the very top of the last bootpack before the sprint to the finish – certainly cost her.
“These mishaps are a testament of your sportsmanship and your disposition,” Katchur Roberts said. “You can choose to be pissed off and mopey, or you can learn from your ‘hardships’ and become a better racer and person from it.”
While the event – KRMR’s seventh annual DTD – ran on a course that wasn’t as technical as last year’s, the competition, she said, was a lot tougher.
“It was really exciting to be in such tight positions with the other females the entire race,” said Katchur Roberts, 31, who completed the 1,570-vertical-metre Elite course, involving four climbs and four descents, in 2:18:05.
Calgary’s Kylee Toth won the women’s elite race in 2:13:54, while Germany’s Philipp Schaedler won the men’s elite competition in 1:39:08. Nick Elson from Squamish, B.C. took the men’s Canadian champion title, finishing in 1:40:01, followed by Ben Parson in 1:48:04.
Masters category – and highly competitive - Canmore racer Steve Sellers placed seventh in the men’s elite field of 25 racers with a time of 2:03:09.
A total of 56 competitors from as far as Edmonton, Squamish and Nelson, B.C., Whitefish, Mont., and Germany made the field large and diverse, with ages ranging from 16 to several 50-somethings, including 16 women, twice the average number.
Course director Stano Faban faced the challenge of last-minute changes after a snowstorm dumped more than 20 centimetres of fresh snow on the mountain. In the end, the elite course consisted of two laps of the enduro course.
“Avalanche control on the originally planned course was not going to be finished until mid-day – too late to race and hence the double pass on the high-quality northwest loop,” said David Dornian, national director of Ski Mountaineering Competition Canada. “The course was good. It still had plenty of what a good skimo race should have. That’s the beauty of KHMR terrain - tons of options.”
For the competitors, the course provided all the necessary challenges.
“The modified course was less technical, but equally as long and interesting,” said Toth, a former speed skater and 30-year-old mother of two toddlers who trains by skiing around the family acreage outside Calgary while her boys are asleep.
“The first lap was tough as I had some issues with my skins and hadn’t been training at that altitude for a bit, but on the second lap, I found my stride and managed to put some time between myself and second,” Toth said.
Training for a sport that involves boot-packing up steep snow slopes and along rocky ridges, racing downhill on lightweight skinny skis and stripping off and reapplying climbing skins in meticulously timed seconds requires flexibility, said Katchur Roberts.
Her routine has incorporated delivering backpacks loaded with food to backcountry huts as a porter, combined with lots of mountain running, skate skiing at the Canmore Nordic Centre and weight training at Elevation Place.
“I adore the multifaceted aspect of skimo,” Katchur Roberts said. “To be at the top, an athlete can’t simply be a good skier or in good physical condition. Skimo incorporates physical endurance, technical transitions and skinning, along with difficult descents on skinny skis.
“I also appreciate the ability to push myself quickly through amazing terrain without worrying about avalanche safety - the directors and ski patrol take care of that aspect. To be able to bootpack and run across ridges with my heart racing and then having to push myself down a black diamond chute without a rest puts a big smile on my face.”
Now in her third year of competing in skimo, Katchur Roberts will join fellow Canadian national team members Toth, Melanie Bernier, Katarina Kuba, Martha Burley (fourth at the DTD), Travis Brown, Nick Elson, Peter Knight and junior racer Oliver Bibby to compete at the 2015 ISMF World Championships in Verbier, Switzerland, Feb. 5-12.
“The idea of racing against 400 athletes with crowds of people on the sidelines is going to be an exciting new experience for me,” Katchur Roberts said. “And I’m thrilled to be able to race against so many other high-end females.”
Elson, 30, said he’s looking forward to competing at worlds too, and to the iconic four-day Pierra Menta stage race afterward, “possibly the most famous skimo race in the world.”
And while some competitors adapt their activities to improve their skimo racing ability, Elson, a skilled technical climber, enjoys a somewhat opposite perspective.
“I like to take the skills and fitness acquired from skimo racing and apply it to more adventurous objectives in the mountains,” Elson said.
