Driving Directions
Race Rules: read & heed!
Email List: join for race updates
USSMA License Apply [url pending]: mandatory for full competitive course
Registration [url pending]: morning-of race also available, at add'l cost
Schedule: (location = main lodge upstairs, unless otherwise specified)
9:00 = Registration & bib pick-up opens.
9:30 = Registration & bib pick-up closes; pre-race briefing begins.
9:55 = Meet outside in front of lodge, boots & skis on, ready to skin.
10:00 = Start!
2:30 = Results, with prizes for the full course's top finishers.
INFORMATION BELOW IS FOR THE 2017 RACE:
The 2018 course layout will incorporate the resort's planned expansion to the Northeast face of the mountain. Check back for updates around December 2017.
(2017 winning time = 2:04 by Ed Warren)
Shorter Recreational Course = up to ~3,700' vertical depending on # of skin laps (no booting) chosen (up to 3 full, 2 partial).
Detailed descriptions follow below (text, trails, table, topo).
You don't need all those details, but you do need the following (plus lungs, legs, gear):
- Not be color blind = follow ~450 ISMF color-coded wands: green skinning, yellow booting (skis affixed to pack, *not* held in hands), red skiing (skins stowed in clothing or pack, *not* held in hands), and blue-on-white transition symbols (i.e., for skinning, skiing, and booting).
- Use your brain = remember the first portion's sequence (i.e., #1-6 below) on full skintrack ascent > partial descent > partial ascent (skin > boot > skin).
- Math skills = count to 3, for repetitions of the above ascent sequence, after which you ski to a different base (i.e., #7 below).
- Math skills = yet again count to 3, for repetitions of the UMass etc. descent ... after which you can *finally* finish!
- Mass start (skins on) up "Condo Slope" > Deer Run > LEFT onto Roy's Way (closed, but skinnable) > merge onto Chute (open- Caution!) > sharp LEFT (more Caution!) onto Mohawk > LEFT into woods > cross power lines > bike trail > work roads > TRANSITION just below top of Triple chair: ski underneath Triple to Flying Cloud.
- BELOW lift tower #7 (almost at intersection halfway down), TRANSITION to skin into woods on skier’s RIGHT / skinner's LEFT.
- TRANSITION to booting (once snow ends and steep pitch begins).
- TRANSITION to skinning (once snow resumes and pitch lessens).
- Emerging from woods onto a flat section at the top of Jug trail, TRANSITION to skiing to rejoin prior descent on Flying Cloud, continuing straight across first intersection but then branching RIGHT onto Deer Run to merge into lower Big Chief.
- Almost at the base area, cut RIGHT, and just before a maintenance building, TRANSITION to skinning to rejoin initial ascent up Deer Run.
- After completing THREE ascent circuits of full skintrack followed by skin>boot>skin mini-lap, this time do NOT ski down Flying Cloud but instead traverse (skier's left) on Lookout > Riva Ridge to cross perpendicularly underneath both Triple & Summit Quad to pick up another set of red-flagged wands to UMass > War Dance > Little Mohawk > Exhibition.
- BELOW Wilderness Peak Quad tower #2, TRANSITION to skin up Exhibition: follow lift the ENTIRE WAY.
- At Wilderness Peak Quad unload zone, TRANSITION to ski down Sundance > Deer Run.
- Just before junction with UMass, TRANSITION to boot up woods.
- At UMass top, TRANSITION to repeat your prior descent, then repeat the entire circuit one more time, so that you will have skied UMass etc THREE times.
