It was, as far as ski mountaineering competitions go, almost a utopia.
Morning temperatures at the start line were cool, but not cold. Blue skies gifted inspirational views. And fresh powder made the downhill legs of the race delightfully enjoyable.
And for Canmore’s Michelle Katchur Roberts, winning the woman’s category of the Ken Jones Classic Ski Mountaineering Race at Lake Louise ski resort on March 21 was just fresh powder on the mountain slope.
“We weren’t freezing in our minimal spandex at the race start and the snow was shockingly great,” Katchur Roberts said. “The course was amazing with some cool boot-packs and fun descents. And I believe ski patrol sent us through the best snow on the hill.”
The final competition of the season on the Canadian calendar, she enjoyed the race, despite suffering from painful stomach cramps on the first climb.
“I kept on grinding and eventually worked through the pain,” she said. “The female field wasn’t very deep to begin with, and a fellow competitor dropped out, so I quickly moved myself into first place part way up the first climb.”
Creating a gap between herself and her closest competitors, she eventually caught up to, and passed, several male competitors. At the final transition, where the racers, equipped with daypacks filled with mandatory avalanche safety equipment, stop briefly to strip the climbing skins off their skis for the run down, Katchur Roberts was delighted to discover a fresh powder descent.
Her third time competing in the KJC - named in honour of the first Canadian-born certified mountain guide - Katchur Roberts, 31, said she was thrilled to win the women’s elite category, which involved four ascents and descents with a combined vertical of about 1,500 metres, in 2:40:50, nearly 10 minutes ahead of second place Martha Burley.
“It felt great to win,” Katchur Roberts said. “I had a rough season with a lot of mishaps that sent me into a negative mental cycle. It felt like I had overcome a long and tiresome season and finished with a bang.”
Travis Brown won the men’s elite in 2:14:16, ahead of Peter Knight and Adam Campbell. Canmore’s Steve Sellers finished fourth in 2:26:01, with Scott Semple 90 seconds behind him. The female enduro category was won by Caroline Reid, the men’s by Leif Godberson, while the junior categories were won by Kevin Hinni, and Canmore’s Anna Sellers, 15, (Steve’s daughter), who was alone in her field.
For Katchur Roberts, having recently competed in the skimo world championships in Verbier, Switzerland did provide an advantage.
“I planned on going out hard and maintaining a hard and fast pace,” she said. “The course consisted of four ascents, the first and the last being the longest, at 600 and 450 metres. I knew the shorter climbs in the middle would give me recovery time. I had just come back from Europe and completing two longer races, so with 1,000 metres less climbing I knew I could maintain a faster and stronger pace than previous years.”
With five events – sprint, relay, vertical, individual and team events - the Verbier races proved a valuable experience, she said.
“I had never competed in a sprint race before and there I was at world championships racing against the world’s best during my first try,” she said. “Skimo in Europe is an entirely different world. We simply do not have the same breadth of races, knowledge, support or experience.”
Some of her competitors had raced skimo since they were eight years old, albeit on less challenging courses. Sports shops were spilling out with 10 different specialized racing skis, climbing skins, special poles, skin suits and skimo-specific backpacks. North American racers must order theirs from Europe.
“During the world championship events the streets and sidelines are crowded with spectators cheering and yelling,” Katchur Roberts said. “There’s even helicopter video footage. I had to step up my game, and learn how to do it quickly.”
She began to realize how much she was absorbing, learning and benefitting from the exposure.
“At times it didn’t seem like I was learning much, but I now recognize how much I put myself through mentally,” she said. “I had some ups and downs; poor race strategy and gear failures. One world cup race in Italy I ripped a contact and raced half blind. But I kept getting back up, brushing myself off, and trying again and again and again.”
By the end of her season however, Katchur Roberts was pleased to have improved her technique and her cadence, and to have grown in her strategizing and pre-race planning.
“The more I race, the more I learn how much of an endurance athlete I am,” she said. “I’d like the chance to see how I rank among the world’s best at longer distances.”
Her hopes for the future include some of Europe’s grand course races - skimo competitions comprised of multi-day stage races over long distances.
Her more immediate goals, however, include working to improve her downhill skiing on skinny skimo skis, racing more team events – a new experience this year – and competing in some 50- to 60-kilometre running races through summer.
