It was really fast, and really fun.
That’s how Canmore skimo racer Michelle Katchur Roberts described Canada’s first-ever skimo sprint event which took place at Castle Mountain Resort in the southern Alberta Rockies on Jan. 9. Nearly 40 competitors raced in the second competition of the 2015-16 Canadian ski mountaineering race season.
A member of Canada’s national ski mountaineering team, Katchur Roberts, 32, finished third in the event, and was third again in the individual competition the following day. Knowing the big race was scheduled for the next day, she admitted that at first she wasn’t certain she wanted to expend the energy the sprint would demand, particularly since she didn’t feel the format to be her forté.
She had competed in a sprint race just once before, in Verbier, Switzerland, where she qualified but never made it past the second round. In the end, that previous experience did help prepare her for the Castle Mountain sprint.
“It was so much fun, I’m really glad I did it,” Katchur Roberts said. “It becomes a lot about power, speed, transitions and technique. If you aren’t fast on your transitions, then you don’t stand a chance.”
The sprint race involved skinning up a steep slope just 40 metres in distance, with four switchbacks in the bottom half followed by a bootpack section, then another four switchbacks to the top before a speedy descent through racing gates. Upon reaching the bootpack section racers quickly removed their skis and attached them to their backpacks to run as fast as possible to the beginning of the second switchback section. There they quickly stepped back into their skis to complete the climb to the top of the course, then quickly stripped off their skins for the run down. Then they repeated the course.
Katchur Roberts completed her first lap in three minutes, 20 seconds, the second in 3:11. Revelstoke, B.C.’s Melanie Bernier won the event with times of 2:40 and 2:41, with Calgary’s Kylee Toth-Ohler taking second. The fastest male was U.S. national skimo team member Eric Carter, currently living in Squamish, B.C., who finished the three men’s heats in 2:37, 2:33 and 2:23. Travis Brown and Matt Reid placed second and third for the men, respectively.
Having the race take place right in front of the day lodge made it especially exciting for spectators, Katchur Roberts said.
“It’s fast, and really fun to watch,” she said. “And it’s a really good way to fine tune your skills. We’re hoping to have one in the Bow Valley.”
The following day’s individual competition kicked off with a gruelling 840-metre climb from the base of the mountain right to the ridgetop. If the beefy ascent wasn’t enough, the change in temperature and weather conditions from a balmy -4 C at the valley bottom to screaming winds in the high alpine presented an extra challenge.
“We had 80 kilometre winds, it was knocking me off balance,” she said. “I seriously thought about dropping out a couple of times. It was a body heat zapping cold and I was trying to pay attention to my body. Is it safe for me to be up here? Am I pushing too hard?”
Weighing just 52 kilos, Katchur Roberts said she worried about frostbite, particularly in her fingers, as the wind pushed her around. Focused intently on her every step while keeping her head down in the fierce wind, she looked up only to locate the next route marker. With the route undulating along the ridge, some sections required hands-on scrambling.
“It really put the mountaineering in skimo,” Katchur Roberts said. “Despite how terrible and awful it was though, it was a time to really zone in and pay attention to everything – the terrain, your pacing, your body.
“Overall, the course was pretty incredible. It kept you on the boundary of the resort, away from everything. We were in cat skiing terrain skiing mid-calf untouched powder. It definitely had a wilder west feel to it, more out there. The race felt a lot more real, more in line with mountaineering.”
Katchur Roberts finished third in the women’s category with a time of 2:19:40, behind Bernier’s winning female and seventh overall time of 1:55:16, and Ohler’s 1:59:41.
The men’s winner, Squamish’s Nick Elson, set a new course record in 1:31:46 ahead of Eric Carter and Peter Knight. Canmore’s Scott Semple finished ninth in 1:57:32, and Jeff Perron placed 15th with a time of 2:11:16.
