Feb. 18. Monika Johnson Randonee Race - Alpental

No excuses.  No trips, nothing better to do.  In the past few years, I have always seemed to be out of town for the Alpental Randonee race.  This year, I found myself without any excuse, and was forced to lay down my 45 dollar entry for two hours of suffering.  This was definitely the largest turnout for the randonee race, with over 150 competitors racing, in rec.(one lap), race(2 laps), and a one lap split snowboard division.  Frank had petitioned for an over 70 category, but had to settle with beating down the fifty and over crowd.   With something like twenty inches of new snow conditions were great.  The one racer from Jackson Hole was even heard to be complaining about having to break trail through fresh snow.

First transition from skinning to a short boot section.

Booting up the Fan

Tom Davies on the attack

Holly stretches it out, on her way to the rec. women's win.

There is a reason to go out fast  - the crowd.

Kevin applies skins for the second lap.

Actually the conditions were excellent if you could see.  Seth Davis finally beat the Traslin brothers from Canada.  Nice to see a local on top of the podium.  Brandon kept up with the top dogs and finished 7th.  I suffered along and managed a respectable 15th place.  Crispin had to do an equipment swap at his van after the first lap.  First his skins had no stick, then his binding started to pull out.   Looks like the Tua skis with the rainey superloops are headed for the dumpster.  Luckily, he had his "heavy" setup in the van.  It is amazing to see the progression of ski gear.  I raced on my Fat BD Justice skis, and appreciated the 110 waist on the downhill.

Holly nailed first place in women's rec.  Looks like she will be in for two laps next year.  Greg Ireton smoked the rec category in his dynafit titan boots and his DP lotus 120 powder skis.  He had the fastest first lap of both rec. and race categories.  Thanks to cruising the downhill on his powder skis.

Tom (4th) and Frank (10th) were solid in the fifty plus category.  Thanks to Martin and Ben, from Pro-ski, for setting the race course, and Outdoor Research for being the title sponsor.