I cannot imagine a better way to experience the European Skimo Racing scene for the first time
Wow, what an experience. I'm sitting in a hotel room in Chamonix about a week after the race. It's pouring rain out, but snowing up high. Plenty of time to reflect especially after my second cup of coffee. There were a lot of things I knew or assumed going into this race. I knew that Skimo is huge in Europe, I knew that the Swiss military helps put on the race, I knew a lot of people participate, I knew the course was long, I knew there was serious terrain on the route, and I knew that Switzerland was beautiful. All of these assumptions were not only confirmed but also totally blown away. The course is stout too, the time cutoffs don't allow for any dallying and the stats are about 33 miles and 14000' of elevation gain.
In the 300 wave our start time was 11:45 (or 23:45 for the Swiss, get used to military time, it's everywhere). The excitement was palpable in the starting queue. After an energetic speech in German we were off and running through the main street of Zermatt, there were partiers lining the course at various bars. Some years folks start in ski boots and run in them to nearby snow. Unfortunately this year the snow was especially thin so we had to run for over 3 miles in shoes and then switch to ski boots. Folks in our heat started out jogging pretty quickly on the flats and downs and settled into a fast walk on the ups. It's a long race and we wanted to be careful of pacing. I can only imagine how quickly the fast teams run.
Much of this race happens in the dark with such an early start time. It was really something else to see so many headlamps in the backcountry. Like a busy morning on a popular Rainier route, but many times more. Since the slower waves start earlier there are always a lot of people ahead and the overtaking basically lasts the whole race (unless you are much faster than us).
Getting to the snow was a welcome relief. Every transition is in a cordoned off area thick with Swiss military who are there to help. There are huge artificial lights too to assist the racers. We left our shoes behind and started skinning. We would need to rope up relatively soon but there was a good section of skinning unroped to start. The rope goes on part way up the Tete Blanche and comes off after some downhill skiing. The initial climb is big, it's about half of the total vert of the race. As our unofficial coach Aaron Ostrovsky, who did the race in 2018 put it: "The race starts with an ascent of Mt. Adams."
Getting to the snow was a welcome relief. Every transition is in a cordoned off area thick with Swiss military who are there to help. There are huge artificial lights too to assist the racers. We left our shoes behind and started skinning. We would need to rope up relatively soon but there was a good section of skinning unroped to start. The rope goes on part way up the Tete Blanche and comes off after some downhill skiing. The initial climb is big, it's about half of the total vert of the race. As our unofficial coach Aaron Ostrovsky, who did the race in 2018 put it: "The race starts with an ascent of Mt. Adams."
At each checkpoint there is a place where the team needs to pass through together. Sometimes it's coming in and other times it's leaving. Everyone's numbers are scanned and they are making sure the team is still together. The checkpoints are really something else. The Swiss military basically sets up mountain camps with large military tents , lights and generators. I think in a lot of ways the race is a logistical exercise for them. Practice moving large amounts of equipment and personnel safely into and out of the mountains. Probably not a bad thing to practice when your country is so mountainous. The Swiss military spend on this race must be massive, I'm guessing in the many millions of Francs. There is no way in hell that the race entry fee even begins to cover the military cost. I think that more than anything it is about national pride in their mountains and in one of their favorite sports.
The ascent of Tete Blanche went well for us. We hit a checkpoint where we had to rope up. We had to quickly pivot from our carabiner attachments to using knots as we had missed that part of the briefing somewhere in the translation. Continuing uphill on rope I was in the middle with Ben and the front and Sam Bringing up the rear. There was some really tricky skinning to be had. Off-camber rock hard spring snow was everywhere. There is also a big pile up of people at some of the more challenging sections. Passing wasn't easy but was doable, it would be very easy to lose a lot of time screwing around in this part. We hadn't practiced skinning with a rope on, but all had done a lot of prior roped glacier travel. It's all pretty straightforward, the key is to communicate well and be careful around switchbacks.
It was also COLD topping out Tete Blanche easily in the teens (F) with a wind chill, maybe colder. We ended up putting on all the clothes we had. There was a transition at the top and we continued skiing on rope with Sam taking the lead now. Fortunately we had practiced this part, it went really well and we started out skiing pow which was fantastic! Skiing a consistent speed and keeping the rope from going under your skis seem to be the key. Also know when to point it as a group. All in all I thought the rope work in the race was really fun and engaging. I was also happy to take the rope off and be done with it. After descending the upper slopes of the Tete Blanche we had a short ascent to the Col de Bertol where we put the rope away. From there we climbed a short section to a ridge and a very crowded transition. Dropping off the transition there was a quick traverse and then carnage! The first thing I saw was a competitor in front of me do a full tumble. We had dropped into breakable crust, still in the dark, with about 100 of our fellow racers on all sides. What an incredible test of ski ability!
The crust eventually turned into hard pack peppered with rocks. To the credit of the military most rocks were marked with flags (*most). We glided out the valley towards Arolla and sadly ran out of snow. Most years this portion is all snow but this was a lean year. We switched to fast walking in our ski boots and worked on getting some food down.
The crust eventually turned into hard pack peppered with rocks. To the credit of the military most rocks were marked with flags (*most). We glided out the valley towards Arolla and sadly ran out of snow. Most years this portion is all snow but this was a lean year. We switched to fast walking in our ski boots and worked on getting some food down.
The Arolla checkpoint was quite large as it was an aid station and also the start of the shorter race. Don't think kushy ultramarathon aid station with everything you could ever desire. Yes they have water, coke, and broth and some hot food, but you really want your own race food unless you plan to race on Swiss army pasta and chocolate. The climb out of Arolla was BRUTAL, the snow was either rock hard refrozen spring snow or it was loose frozen granules on the groomer. It was steep too, and went on for 3000', a real ass kicker. This was a rough climb for all of us.
The skinner eventually turns into a booter to reach the Col de Reidmatten. The Arolla start folks take a different route so don't get mixed up. On the backside of the Col de Redimatten there is a steep gully downclimb with hand lines and lots of loose rocks. Again, it's really amazing they run a race through some of this terrain. I feel like a US race organizer would have a hell of a time getting their insurance to sign off on something like this.
The descent from the Col de Reidmatten to Lac des Dix continued the trend of hard refrozen spring snow and dodging rocks, at least it was fast. At one point the ski run funneled into a steep and narrow chute that had rock hard icy moguls. I'm pretty sure that we were over exposure too! There were some Swiss military folks keeping an eye on things and a little netting at the bottom. Still I'm absolutely amazed that thousands of competitors successfully navigate this section. It really adds to the cache of the race, not only do you need to be able to cover all that ground and climb al the vert, but there is some very technical skinning and skiing too.
We were getting a bit tired and bonky as we reached the traverse next to Lac des Dix. There is a road high above the lake that the route follows. To go fast one needs to skate the whole 2.5 miles, sadly we just didn't have that in us so we skinned. The route turned up towards La Roseblanche about 2/3 of the way up the lake. This would be the last major climb and would certainly hurt. We hit the last aid station before departing the lake and began the long slog to la Rosablanche. The route had quite a bit of booting in it as well.
The booters were really something else. There were flat transition platforms dug at the bottoms then excavated staircases running in paralell with occasional crossovers. All part of the Swiss military effort, That is the reason crampons aren't needed, also with that many people so close together they would probably be very dangerous. Even though they do require the ice axe, ours never left our packs, the booters were all plenty secure. The crossovers could be used to pass, but stepping out of the booter was probably not a good idea for most of the race, when the snow was still hard.
As we approached la Roseblanche we could start to see the light at the end of the pain tunnel. There was still a lot of ground to cover but all the major climbing was behind us. Ben was feeling great, Sam was really feeling the hurt and I was somewhere in the middle. We just tried to keep it moving as best we could. The energy of the rather sizable crowd at the col really helped reinvigorate us for the final push to the finish.
Again we were skiing pow! There is a long traverse with some sidestepping then we dropped through a Col de Momin to descend to Lac du Petit Mont Fort. The Verbier ski area and the final descent were only a 700' climb away. That was one hell of a painful 700' though. The energy of the crowd helped but we (at least Sam and I) were still really hurting.
All that was left was a traversing trip through the Verbier ski area. Sadly there were several portages over dirt to get down to the town, probably at least three. The ski trail drops you at the main gondola station in Verbier, but there is a final .6 mi on streets through the town to the finish. Could we have walked... yes... did we? Hell no! Just in case you weren't wrecked enough already do a nice little run in your ski boots and that'll really round out an already full day.
Our race time was 12:31, nothing to scoff at, but there were a hell of a lot of faster teams, especially on the second running of the race. The finish was a sea of skimo athletes all rehydrating (using various means). We hung around for a little while including picking up our drop bags. Then we had to walk all the way back to our Air B&B which was unfortunately uphill of where the race entered the town. That walk was brutal, I then hopped in the shower and slept for four hours.
We were 41st in the Z1 open division out of 161 complete finishing teams with a time of 12:31:27. Of the 290 teams who started the Classement général (open division) 161 finished (55%) 98 teams were either DSQ or DNF (34%) likely dropping or missing time cutoffs, and 31 teams dropped one teammmate (11%) with the remaining two finishing. Only a 55% chance that the whole team crosses the finish line, gotta love those odds!
We were 41st in the Z1 open division out of 161 complete finishing teams with a time of 12:31:27. Of the 290 teams who started the Classement général (open division) 161 finished (55%) 98 teams were either DSQ or DNF (34%) likely dropping or missing time cutoffs, and 31 teams dropped one teammmate (11%) with the remaining two finishing. Only a 55% chance that the whole team crosses the finish line, gotta love those odds!
My takeaways:
- Matching racing suits aren't required but they are awesome thanks Skimo.co
- The support of the Swiss military is incredible, you have to experience it to understand it
- The race is very long, hard, and at times very technical. Finishing is a solid skimo feat in any amount of time.
- I was amazed by how many teams completed the race, it was really incredible how many talented skimo athletes attend
- the pro teams incredibly very fast, the Z2 winning time this year was 6:35:56 almost a full 6 hours faster than us
- There are a heck of a lot of fast amateurs from all walks of life
- The Swiss use this event as an opportunity to showcase their spectacular mountains and top notch organizational skills
- It's so much fun to be in a place where Skimo is a celebrated part of the culture and to be participating in one of the biggest races anywhere!