Author: brackec

Come out and join The Sport Loft, Alta, Dynafit, Hoggle Zoo, the Snow Leopard Trust, and some of the local skimo racers as we climb vert to raise money for the Snow Leopard Trust.  For each vertical foot climbed, Dynafit will be contributing to the Snow Leopard Trust.  North America in the past has not had a great turn out for these events while Europe will have an event with 650,000′ climbed.  Join us at Alta on 18 January to see how close to 650K we can climb.

For details and to register see The Sport Loft Snow Leopard site.

As part of the Utah Ski Mountaineering Mission we are dedicated to providing educational opportunities and increasing skimo participation in under represented groups (mostly youth and women).  A group of our local skimo women is starting a series of women’s only skimo evenings.

Here are the details.

WHEN: Thursday the 9^th of January, 6:30pm. (Depending on interest will be a weekly or bi-weekly meet up)

WHERE: Brighton Ski Resort.  Meet at the sign near the base of Milly- and we will go over to Great Western as a group at 6:30pm. Please park by the Brighton church (just before Milly as you drive round the circle). If you want to car pool – meet at the Big Cottonwood Park and ride at the base of the canyon at 6pm. 

WHO: This is for any women of all abilities on all uphill gear interested in learning about Ski Mountaineering racing for fun and fitness.

These informal meet ups, guided by women who have different experience in the sport, will show you the safest and preferred routes to travel up hill at Brighton, what to avoid and other things to be aware of.

It’s a great way to work on your fitness at the same time as being out in the mountains learning new skills and meeting other women. Some women may also want to train for the Wasatch citizen series, the Wasatch PowderKeg or other events. If there is an interest we will arrange some clinics on Ski Mo technique.

WHAT TO BRING: Helmet and headlamp and whatever backcountry/ski mo equipment you have (tele, split board, AT set up with skins.). Obviously warm clothes. You DO NOT need shovel, beacon or probe (we will be in bounds)

Hope to see you there and for those that are interested we can grab a drink at Molly Greens or Silver Fork lodge after the uphill. I think we will be out on the hill until about 8pm, but you can turn around and be done whenever you need.

Pass this invite along to others who may be interested

We have posted the recap and photos of Tuesday’s race on the Utah Ski Mountaineering web site – http://utahskimo.org/2014/01/wasatch-citizen-skimo-series-race-4-recap/

Thanks everyone for coming out for another great night of racing.  Tom’s course was a hit.  It was a challenging skin track giving people a chance to work on both their switchback and booting skills.

Congrats to the winners of the red velvet cake (Eve and Andy) as well as all of the raffle award winners.

The races continue to get larger and larger and more fun.  We want to thank everyone for their support of Utah Ski Mountaineering and the Citizen Series.

Thanks to Eric Dacus and Tom Goth for being the evening photographers and to Tom Goth, Nick Francis, and Chad Brackelsberg for setting the course.

A few house keeping items

• There will be a women’s only (for women, led by women) skimo get-together on Thursday, January 9.  We will post more details later today on this, so check back shortly for updates.
• The next race is Tuesday, January at 7PM at Wolf Mountain.  Please go up and help support the group as they get a series going in Ogden.
• There will be a race on Tuesday, January 21 at 2PM as part of the Outdoor Retailer Show.  This race will be at the MoonBeam base of Solitude Resort.  This race is a USSMA fundraiser to help cover costs for the 2015 World Skimo Championships.  Please arrive and plan to be signed in by 1:30 as the race will start promptly at 2.
• If you have  friends or family coming up to watch the race, please make sure they also wear a headlamp or reflective cloths.  It is hard for racers to see people standing at the side of the course.
• Brett Peterson had a pack at the base of GW that got picked up.  It was a red Vaude pack with Dakine gloves, OR cap, and a water bottle in it.  If anyone picked up this pack, please contact Brett at bapeterson@imflash.com.
• If you want email notification of upcoming races and events, please use the subscribe button on the left.

As always, thanks to all of our great sponsors.  Backcountry.com, Voile, The Sport Loft, Skimo.co, and all of the others listed on our sponsor page.  The growth of skimo racing in Utah would not be possible without your support.

Happy New Year.  The Citizen Series continues on Tuesday, January 7.  Please part by the church at Brighton.  Make sure you sign the weekly sign-in sheet.  We will then all leave the base of Great Western together.

So that the night doesn’t get too late, please arrive early as we will be starting the race at 7PM.

As always, a helmet and headlamp are required.  For This week’s race, if you are on race gear, a pack will also be required.

See you all tomorrow.

Happy New Year.  The Citizen Series continues on Tuesday, January 7.  Please part by the church at Brighton.  Make sure you sign the weekly sign-in sheet.  We will then all leave the base of Great Western together.

So that the night doesn’t get too late, please arrive early as we will be starting the race at 7PM.

As always, a helmet and headlamp are required.  For This week’s race, if you are on race gear, a pack will also be required.

See you all tomorrow.

Over the next several weeks, we will be transitioning the content of the Citizen Series site over to the new Utahskimo.org site.  Please go to that site to sign up for the notifications for races and new content.

In the mean time, the recap from Tuesday’s race and photos has been posted at the site at http://utahskimo.org/2013/12/wasatch-skimo-citizen-series-3-recap/

Hi everyone! This email is a friendly reminder about the race tomorrow. The race will start tomorrow at 7pm. We will be under the Great Western lift tomorrow evening. If you know anyone that is coming for the first time, encourage them to go to utahskimo.org, print and sign the waiver and bring it with them to help our registration process. And to show up by 6:45 so we can get them squared away.

We need to have everyone sign in so we know who is there. We’ll have a clipboard by the race start with a paper to print and sign your name. As always, a helmet and head lamp are mandatory gear.

There are several great giveaways tomorrow, so stick around after the race at Molly Green’s.

A couple housekeeping items:

1)Skinning and skiing at Brighton is a luxury, not a right–they are awesome to let us recreate there when the snowpack is thin and dangerous everywhere else. Brighton could tell us to leave at anytime, so with than in mind, let’s please adhere to their uphill policy:

http://wasatchpowderkeg.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Brighton-Training-Policy-Map.jpg

The map is pretty self-explanatory but note that we cannot skin up “Scout” nor ski down “Thor” and “Scout” before they open. They’d like to keep the fresh corduroy for their paying customers. If you want to skin & ski there before 9am, You can do it on the Milly side up to the dam or under Great Western lift. If Ski Patrol asks you to not skin/ski somewhere, please listen to them, they have the final say–don’t ruin the arrangement for everyone else! If it has snowed overnight, please check in with Patrol before you go anywhere. They could be doing avy control and we don’t want to be in their way. The patrol shack is about 100 yards up the hill from Molly’s.

2) Park by the church just north of the Milly Chalet. Don’t park in front of the Chalet or in their general parking area. Brighton would like to save the best parking for paying customers.

If you have any questions about this please feel free to email or ask about it tomorrow after the race while we’re at Molly’s where Andy or Jason can give a more detailed explanation.

See you Tuesday!

For last year’s first Tuesday night race we were treated to rain creating a layer in our snow that plagued us for a long time. This year we were treated to cold temperatures and ~18″ of fresh snow on top of our thin and highly faceted snow pack.

We had another great turnout with 60-65 people braving the poor road conditions and eventually arriving at Brighton.  Thank you everyone who showed up.  We apologize for the late start.  Between road conditions and tough conditions of putting in the course we just couldn’t get things ready by 7. It was great to see a few new faces as well as some costumes out there (I’ll get costume photos next time).

We had a great course with good skiing conditions.  Thanks to Eric, Nick, Jeremy, Gemma, and Chad for the hard work of breaking trail and setting the course.

The lycra division did 3 partial laps on Milly and the sane division did 2.  Tom  barely kept ahead of Jason for the Men’s Lycra win.  Gemma continues her reign as top Wasatch Female.  The Sane Division was lead by Andy Paradis and Emily Sullivan.  It’s time for both of them to done some Lycra. 

MollyGreen’s had planned to stay open for us, but that also go foiled by the weather.  Not to miss out on the post-race social aspect, about 25 racers gathered at Porcupine after the race for awards, raffle, food, and drinks.  The Porcupine staff was thrilled to have us and invited us back anytime (despite the 5 gallons of snow melt that we drug in with us).

Here is a full gallery of photos from the race.

The next race is scheduled for Tuesday, December 17 at 7PM.  We will post race details 1-2 days prior to the race.

For future races, please keep the following in mind

• Park in 1 or 2 rows by the church.  Please do not part east of the propane tank/trees at the corner of Milly Chalet
• Please arrive at least 20 minutes early so that you can get signed in. You do not need a waiver each week, you just need to sign the nightly sign-in sheet.  We want to start at 7 so that we can be done by 8 and all go to Molly Green’s to socialize.
• Please try to carpool as much as possible.

Tuesday (12/3) evening will continue the Citizen SkiMo Series at Brighton with race 2 at 7pm. We will be racing over on the Milly side to mix things up. Please meet at the base of Milly lift and be ready to ski by 6:45pm.  Similar to Thursday, we will all then skin up to the start together. Race will start at 7pm.

Remember that a headlamp and helmet are mandatory

Bring a friend and come on up for some fun in the dark. Molly greens will be staying open late (special just for the skimo racers) so plan on staying for some great  prizes and food.

The races are getting larger and larger so please try to carpool up to Brighton and make sure to park by the church on the Milly side, not in front of the Milly Chalet.

Everyone is invited regardless of gear, fitness, or skill level.  Every race we have a wide variety of gear from full carbon to full iron.

We will also be accepting new Utah Ski Mountaineering memberships to help support the Citizen Series races.  We have so far raised enough to cover ~70% of our race expenses so thank you to everyone who has joined.  With the dark, cold, and snowy conditions planned for Tuesday night, we would prefer if people sign up for membership online before the race at the UtahSkiMo.orgwebsite or at the awards at Molly Green’s after the race.  Any people that are new to the Citizen Series this race, please print and bring the signed waiver to the race.  Having these items done ahead of time will help us get everybody signed in faster, protect our liability, and get you up the hill to warm up for the race.  Everybody attending a race needs to sign the two page waiver once for the season and then sign in on the rosters for every race so we know who is accounted for.

See everyone Tuesday evening!!!