The Bogburn Happens!

Thanks in part to one of the better (and only?) timed snowstorms and to Bob Haydock's hard work, the Bogburn race that had been postponed from early January was held.  Friday night about 4-5 inches of lovely new snow fell on Bob's hilltop ski course carved mostly with his own hands.  While the race was small in comparison to usual, all who showed up were impressed by the fantastic skiing.  Waxing was a bit weird as the snow that fell had been wet, with sleet mixed in, and was glazing in places in the intermittent sun.  The wind, which howled all day, kept the temps right about 28-30 all day and when you got into the forest it was pretty warm skiing.  The day started with the BKSL races as the kids ventured out on 3 different courses.  Then came the women on the 7km loop. 

The men then took off on their 2 lap, 13 km race.  While I was tired from a week at CSU Jr ski camp at Bretton Woods, I decided I had to toe the line given the fabulous conditions on one of my favorite ski courses.  I went with an interesting wax job that worked beautifully in the lightly glazing snow which stayed mostly powdery in the shade without being slow or icing up.  I used soft skies with one layer of old Star Silver, a magic wax back in the day, covered with a couple layers of Toko Red topped with Toko Blue to speed things up.  I had great kick which was needed since I was somewhat drained and had pretty fast skis.  Taking off, I managed to catch a few masters while getting passed by younger guys.  I fell once on the famed Chicane 180 degree turn just because I was tired, but got up and vowed to master it on lap two.  As I finished out the loop I started feeling better and better, a nice sign for lap two!

Coming around for the lap I was so focused on the Chicane that I didn't even notice that the Chicane loop was not part of the second lap and that we were to skip that part of the course and take the BKSL cutoff instead.  I got an inkling of that as I came down the hill and at the junction of the two trails, skier 44 come in from the side (I was number 27).  Wow, I thought, that kid has cut the course, I'll have to report that.  But in the back of my mind I suspected he was right and I was wrong.  When we caught #36 I knew I'd screwed up.  Doh!  I mean really, I've skied every Bogburn that's been held, know all the old trails, change the arrows for the BKSL races and know every bump on those trails and I messed up.  Duh! I passed a couple of masters for the second time and wearily dragged myself up the last couple hills to the finish.  While I'd skied about 1 km farther on one of the hardest hills of the course and lost several places (maybe 4+ minutes??) I had had a good time on the famed Bogburn course in beautiful fresh powder snow.  Of course, I felt like a fool too!  However, maybe I got the best deal because I'd gotten a chance to ski longer in great conditions and yes, I did get around the Chicane on lap two without falling!  A short warmdown with Doug Armstrong and I was cooked pretty well for the day.   Other CSUers, including Andy Milne, John Sakalowski, Jody Newton and Larry and Sarah Mae Berman were a whole lot smarter than me and raced well and I think all winning their respective age groups.  Andy - 46:58, John - 48:20, Jamie - 54:40, Larry - 1:19:30.  Jody - 34:37, Sara Mae - 57:13.

Results are HERE

Here are a few BKSL photos I took to see what you all missed:



Race Director and trail designer Bob Haydock



Wow, it looks like winter should look!

Ford Sayre BKSL kids everywhere! And, they really ski well!