The Grand Traverse Race Report

Who wants to ski from Crested Butte to Aspen, starting at midnight?

I'm not entirely sure what drove us to sign up for this race.  It seemed like the thing to do around here, and a good goal to keep in shape during the winter.  I love the idea of a traverse, and anything that takes me from point A to point B seems pretty cool.  I asked around for a partner, and Christie was keen.

We have spent the winter training for this event, learning about skimo racing, buying a lot of gear, trying to learn as much as we could about the course, and learning how to support each other.  It's taken a huge toll on our schedules and our families.  We have been terrified of it from the beginning, as it's a very hard core event.  Skiing in the dark, skiing icy steep descents, going 40 miles, being in remote locations without options to easily stop, and battling the elements are all tough parts of this race for us.

Our goals for the race were:
1) stay safe
2) raise money for Living Journeys, a local non-profit supporting people with cancer.  We have raised over $2100 so far!
3) get to Aspen
4) finish in 16 hours or less

The hardest part of 'getting to Aspen' was likely going to be 'getting to the top of Star Pass before the cutoff times', because we are not fast.  So the race against the cutoffs and the clock created a certain stress that is not in line with 'having fun' and 'enjoying the process'.

3 weeks before the race start, Jason broke his leg.  It's a bad break, and he needs lots of support.  For a few days, I quit the race, thinking I wouldn't be able to do it and be there for my family.  But the thought of quitting made me sob with disappointment for me and my partner.  So I was very grateful when Jason and his mother Susan encouraged me to continue on and take the start line.  I think that really helped me realize how badly I wanted to get there.

Race Report

Part 1: The start, up Mt. Crested Butte ski resort, and down off the resort into the East River Valley.
The mass start was crowded and we just went with the flow up the mountain.  We couldn't go any faster because there were skiers everywhere!  At the top of the climb (the 5 way), we had planned to rip our skins and skate, but there wasn't room to skate because of the crowd.  After a few more minutes of skiing, things opened up and we had room to take off our climbing skins and skate, which was much faster, and we passed lots of folks.
Scary Part #1: Descending off the resort and on Indian Trail
Skiing fast downhill in the dark is not in my comfort zone.  We had practiced this part, knowing it would be scary for us.  The on-resort groomed part was ok, but then it becme steeper and snow conditions got worse.  It was hard to see what was ahead with only a headlamp on, and there were lots of other skiers to avoid.
Thing we did well: made a plan to wait for each other before crossing the bridge in case we became separated, which we did, and we found each other again easily.  High-fived each other for making it down scary part #1.

Part 2: East River Valley
We thought this part would be a long traverse with skins on or possibly some skating sections.  We also had heard there were 3-4 gullies, one of which would be a true creek crossing that might get our feet wet, so we had trash bags ready.

It turns out there was a lot of climbing and descending.  I do not know where these huge hills came from, as I'm quite certain this area seems flat when I look at it!  We transitioned several times, boot packed twice, descended some gnarly icy slopes, but did not get wet feet.  One of the boot packs was straight up 30 feet, and we secured our skis to our pack while we waited in line to climb up.  We were glad that worked out because we had never practiced any boot packing or securing our skis to the back of our packs before.

Near the end of this section, when we were wondering how much longer it would be, Christie made me panic: She said, "I'm worried about our time and the cutoffs", even though we had been 5 miles in an hour, and were on good pace, we had to speed up.  The stress continued...

Part 3: Brush Creek to Death Pass
We finally got out of East River Valley and turned on to familiar terrain, starting a long, gradual climb to Friends Hut.  The conditions were perfect and we were getting good glide out of our skins, feeling strong and feeling fast.  But anxiety was all around because two things were coming up: a creek crossing and Death Pass.

Turns out the creek crossing was no big deal for us.  It was bottle-necked up with loads of skiers, so we had to wait our turn, but found an existing snow bridge up river a little that was still in tact, so we crossed easily.

Scary Part #2: Death Pass
We had crossed this once or twice this winter, but avalanche-prone conditions meant we didn't get to practice it very much.  It's a narrow track on a steep slope, with possible avalanche conditions overhead and then a steep slope down to a rocky creek bed below.  There wasn't really any snow left overhead, so avalanches were not a concern.  But there also wasn't much snow underneath our feet.  By the time we got there, there was quite a line of people carrying skis and walking through on their ski boots, because the trail underfoot was some snow and some mud.  We had hoped to keep our skis on, but the boot walking made it really difficult to ski as the snow was rutted out with boot prints.  Also, one part was pretty muddy.

To be honest, I wasn't particularly scared and found this spot about as scary as many of the other descends in the dark.

We still high-fived each other after passing scary part #2, and then went in search of a place to get off trail and empty our full bladders, because we had basically been in a busy line up on a narrow track with no extra room for a few hours.

Part 4: To Friends Hut
We had to be at Friends Hut, at mile 16.5, by 7:00am or we would be turned around.  We knew that we could do this with time to spare, but weren't sure how much the creek crossings and extra transitions and crowded trails would slow us down.

After we crossed Death Pass, we started a long, gradual climb that dragged on and on.  We knew the trail well, having practiced it for training this winter.  We fell several times, and were still making pretty good time.  Christie had a good fall that also took me out, which was comical.  But then I started to slow down.  I just felt like Christie was going so fast, and it was getting harder to keep up.  Nothing in my body was sore, and I was breathing pretty well, but I didn't have much energy.  I tried to eat and drink (some slush in our water but not totally frozen), but I didn't want to eat at all.

At about 4am, I felt really sleepy.  My eyes felt heavy and I started getting down in my head.  Christie towed me on the tow line, which made me keep up with her pace.  But the terrain was not easy to use a tow: there were downed trees and little dips here and there.  With about 1.5 miles left before Friends Hut, and my eyes fighting to close, I had a bad fall up a tiny bumb and smashed my face/chin into the ice.  It woke me up, but getting myself untangled from Christie's tow line and getting back up to get out of people's way was stressful and energy consuming.

We pulled over about .75 miles away from Friends Hut as my skins were starting to slip on some steeper terrain, and I was getting cold.  We decided to prepare for the upcoming bigger climb by putting on our thicker skins, puffy coats, eating a snack, and bigger gloves.  It felt like we were moving very slowly for this transition, and by the time we started skiing again, my fingers were all numb.

We made it to Friends Hut just after 6am, and were given smiles and encouragement and a cup of warm water, which was awesome.

Christie asked me if I wanted to call it a day and turn back, and I said no.  I knew I was slowing us down and that I was moving slowly.  I wondered if I was feeling the altitude.  I knew our next big climb would be slow, but I also knew we could do it, so we pushed on.

Part 5: Climb up to Star Pass
We had to get to the top of Star Pass by 8:00am, or we would be turned around.  This was the huge make-or-break thing of this course for us.  If we made it to the top of Star Pass before 8am, we could keep going forward and on to Aspen.  If not, we would turn around and head back to Crested Butte.  Our big goal was to get to Aspen, even if it took a really long time, and even if we didn't get an official finish if we were too slow.  So we really wanted to make that cut off.

Seeing the headlamps climb up the icy slope was very cool.  And even though sunrise wasn't until 7:30am, the stars started fading and sky started brightening at about 6:20am.  It was gorgeous.  Watching the sky transform from stars and crescent moon to dawn and then pink sunrise with mountains all around would have been pretty magical, had we not been suffering and stressing about the time.

I actually think we climbed quite well, and I rallied ok to climb with a descent pace.  I needed a few breathing breaks, but had a better attitude and started to wake up more.  We had to boot pack again because the skin track disappeared and turned into boot prints and went straight up at the top, so we spent some time carefully stowing our skis and started up.  It was steep, icy and still quite dark, so we wanted to make sure we didn't accidentally drop a ski and watch it slide down the edge and end our event.

At the top of the boot pack, with the steep climb over, we turned left and still had to walk along a ridge climbing more gradually for a while.  This took some more energy, even with lovely scenery, and we were still keeping an eye on the clock.

At the top, we transitioned to ski and traversed across / slightly down to the check point on the far side of Star Pass.  We high fived the course marshal, and celebrated making the checkpoint.  It wasn't even that cold or windy, compared to some years when I'm sure it's just awful.  We had done it!  We had actually made it to the top of Star Pass before the cut off and we were on our way to Aspen!

Part 6: Top of Star Pass to Gio's Bonfire
Scary Part #3 Descending from Star Pass

Thankfully, we didn't have to do scary part#3 in the dark.  We had heard the descent was icy, steep and long and there were lots of rumors about how hard this descent was or wasn't, depending on who you talked to.  The hardest part turned out to be the entrance, or 'drop in' to a traverse.  It reminded me of skiing Whale's Tale at Breckenridge resort, with a committed skin track going sideways but down, making you get some speed, while you tried not to look down and right to the drop below that you don't want to slide down.

We did fine with this and then started a fatigued descent down some powdery, some icy snow, picking our way down turn by turn.  We were cold, hungry, tired, and heavy.  We were thrilled that we had achieved our major goal: we were going to Aspen!  But also then there was this fatigue of knowing we still had 20 miles to go.

The sun was coming up and the snow and scenery around was lovely, but we were still cold.  We arrived at Gio's bonfire, where we tried to eat and warm up a bit, but decided to push on after a few minutes because we were only getting colder, not any warmer.

There was some major relief and excitement in knowing we had survived the night/dark, we had made it through all 3 scary parts of the course, and we were going to Aspen.

Part 7: Gio's Bonfire to Taylor Pass
We really didn't know much about the terrain on the second half of the course.  We had skied most parts of the first half during training, but couldn't access the second half to train on it and couldn't find out much about it except from rumor.  No elevation profile or true course map was available prior to the race.  So we put on our skinny skins (faster skins) and hoped we weren't in for a big climb.

I had assumed that, because we didn't have a lot of extra time on our first two cut offs, and because we were so tired, that we were not going to be able to make the next cutoff (at Barnard Hut), and that we wouldn't be able to get an official finish.  I wasn't too disappointed in this thought, because we still would ski to Aspen mountain, and the pressure of having to rush was over.

We started skiing up out of the valley, hoping the sun would hit us soon as we were cold.  A beautiful section with fresh untouched snow all around, remote bowls and a forested track.  We climbed gradually and passed people pulling over to shed layers.  After a little while longer, when the sun hit us, it was very powerful to feel the sun's rays and get the reassurance that being cold was over.  We shed some layers and continued the gradual climb up.

At some point I started doing the math and realized we still had about 6 hours before the Barnard Hut cutoff, and checked with Christie on the mileage.  It turns out we had plenty of time and still had a very good chance of making it to a real finish.  How exciting!

At some point another racer said he thought we were entering Taylor Basin, and we'd have 1.5 miles to go before climbing up to Taylor Pass.  But after about 0.5 miles, in an open basin area, was a check point.  The course marshals there said it was 6.5 miles to Barnard Hut, which I thought sounded amazing and reassuring.  I was surprised we were already at Taylor Pass, and going to start the Hippo Humps.  I was also curious if my GPS was failing me, because I didn't think Taylor Pass was until later in the mileage.  But I was feeling much faster and stronger than the night before, and was pretty happy with us.  Christie actually seemed more fatigued than me, which had rarely happened before!

Of course there was another real checkpoint a little later, and we had misunderstood.  1.5 miles of this basin lead to the actual Taylor Pass course marshals, who told us we had 5 more miles to get to the Barnard Hut, but also we could see the daunting steep climb up to Taylor Pass ahead.

Most people around us were very frustrated with this climb, as were we.  It was wind scoured and our skins slipped in the real skin track, so I kept leaving the track to find raw snow that held better without slipping.  It seemed to take forever, and we were sure we lost a lot of time, and I slowed way down again as we climbed up.  Again, it seemed like altitude was getting me when we went above 11,000ft or so.  But we got there, and then we got to take off our skins and ski down some really lovely powder.  My pizza wedge killed it.

Part 8: The hippo humps from Taylor to Barnard
We had heard that there were 3 humps in between Taylor and Barnard.  We knew that Barnard was less than 5 miles away, and things felt pretty good.  We had heard that the leaders would likely skate up the climbs and ski down, without any skins.  We had planned to keep skins on throughout, assuming we would skin up and then just ski slowly and cautiously down on our skins.

Turns out this was one huge hippo!

The 'bumps' would be called mountains in many other states, and I couldn't imagine skating up these climbs at all.  We had on our fat skins for the climbs, and then transitioned to ski down as the descents were real skiing.  (By that I mean I had a wicked pizza wedge because making turns was really hard on my tired legs!)

The part of the course seemed to go on forever.  I was sure now my GPS was broken because we would ski for a while, and then it would only show that I'd gained 0.3 miles.

But eventually we made it to the last hump and were told Barnard Hut was less than a mile away.  We skied down the last hump and skated into the aid station around noon, 2 hours before the cutoff!  One of Christie's very best friends was volunteering there, and we enjoyed lots of encouragement from friends.  They also had raman noodle soup and electrolyte drink, making it the only true 'aid station' on the course in my opinion.  There was a mandatory 10 min wait at this station, so we sat and drank and got re-organized.  Those noodles were awesome!

Standing up, however, brought on foot pain for me, for the first time on course.  This was somewhat of a miracle because I had battled blisters all season and thought my feet would be the hardest part of the event.  My left big toe was very sore, and I wasn't keen to weight my foot in some certain ways as I went.  But onward we went!

Part 9: Barnard to Aspen Mountain along Richmond Ridge
If you've heard people talk about this course, you've heard people complain about Richmond Ridge.  It's a slow, prolonged, painful 7.2 miles with gradual elevation gain and few views.  It's mostly on double track road that somehow just goes on and on and on.

We tried to celebrate every 0.5 miles, and we were going very, very slowly with frequent breaks.  We had until 4pm to make it to the Aspen Mountain Gondola, so we were quite confident we were going to finish the race.  But the gondola just wouldn't appear!

There were lots of other racers around: some smiling and laughing, some downright angry.  Many people seemed very exhausted and ready to be done - including us!  We were very, very tired and keen to see the end.

Eventually, after many false summits and sneaky corners, we saw a ski patrol guy on a sled who told us we could take off our skins and ski down to the gondola from a tree just in front of us.  We cheered, high-fived, and started our descent.

Part 10: Descending down Aspen Mountain to the Finish
I'm not sure how many miles it was to descend down this 3000 feet, but I'm really happy with how it went.  I thought my legs would be so trashed that I might have to bum scoot down.  Seriously, I was ready to be the lame skier who couldn't finish on my feet!  It turns out I could ski ok still, even if I stopped several times and skied quite conservatively through the mashed potato Spring conditions.  I had to stop myself from crying several times, because I was so amazed and so proud that we were actually going to finish.

I thought of Jason, lying at home with a broken leg, and I'd start crying.  I'd think of friends with cancer, family and friends we've lost to cancer, and how they inspired us to take on this challenge.  I thought of my little girls, at home, cheering me on and helping me get to the finish.

We skied down the last face together, into the finishing shoot, arms raised with pride.  Friends greeted us and I cried, and I hugged my partner and thanked her for getting me to that finish line.  We hugged Glo, with her pink wig and smiles, and we actually had finished the Grand Traverse Ski Race from Crested Butte to Aspen.

Finishing time: 15 hours, 4 minutes.

Since finishing, people have asked me if it was fun and if I'd do it again.  No and no.  It wasn't fun.  It was a challenge and I'm so, so proud of myself and of my partner for our accomplishment.  For me, the goal was to ski from CB to Aspen and that goal is complete.  I see no need to do it again and I couldn't imagine putting my family through that training again for something I don't entirely love.  I will cheer on others, or volunteer next time, but I'm done with this one.  I've got other goals to pursue next time.  But for the immediate future, I've got to get back to my family, and help my husband heal.