I had a chance to catch up with my friend and ski mountaineering teammate Lyndsay Meyer for Epic TV earlier this week–she interviewed me from France via Skype. Pretty cool!
Media Coverage
Last May I spent a few days in New York City talking to Outside TV about the role of athletes in product development. The Polartec segment starts at 2’45″ in the video below. Also included is Peter Whittaker for Eddie Bauer First Ascent and Jeff Lenosky for Teva.
Also, psyched to be a part of the 2012 Sportiva ski mountaineering team:
(Boulder, Colo.) –La Sportiva North America introduces its ski mountaineering team for 2011-2012.
On the women’s side, the team includes last year’s Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup (COSMIC) series winner Sari Anderson, 2011 national ski mountaineering champion Janelle Smiley and IFMGA guide Olivia Race. The men’s team features some of the top skimo racers in the country including Adrian Ballanger, Keith Garvey, Jared Inouye, Chris Kroger, Luke Nelson, John Race, and Jason McGowin.
“I’m excited and honored to be a part of the La Sportiva ski mountaineering team,” states Sari Anderson .“My set up of Stratos boots, RSR skis and bindings is incredibly light and performed without fail last season.” Read more here.
And for next season:
(Boulder, Colo.) –La Sportiva North America, makers of the world’s finest mountain products, announces today that it will debut a full line of technical ski mountaineering apparel at the 2012 OR Winter Market, SIA Snowshow, and ISPO Munich tradeshows.
“The culture of ski mountaineering is thriving in Europe and shows signs of significant growth in North America,” states Jonathan Lantz, president of La Sportiva North America. “Our team of designers in the Dolomites used feedback from some of the world’s best ski mountaineers to design apparel that is fast, light and highly efficient. For randonee racing, backcountry touring, and alpine climbing, the La Sportiva apparel line sets a new bar for performance and innovation.” Read more here.
I really dislike listening to and especially watching myself on TV so let me know if I’ve messed up too badly somewhere.
Back in February of this year, I flew to Los Angeles for a photo shoot when I was selected as a “fittest real athlete” by Outside Magazine. During the shoot, I sat down with Outside TV for a little interview. I just found the episode online – my segment starts at the 17:20 mark. The host messes up my name and my boxing is laughable…enjoy.
The Buzz from Outside Television Productions on Vimeo.
Coloradans are notorious for being schizophrenic about their sports in the spring, and I guess I’m no exception. This month I completed my own version of a triathlon – racing on skis, trails and then my mountain bike. Three weeks ago, I finished on the podium at the Five Peaks SkiMo race, winning the coed division. Two weeks ago I placed 2nd in the Desert Rats 25 mile trail race. This past weekend, at the urging of my coach, I signed up last minute for the VooDoo Fire 70-mile mountain bike race in Pueblo. Of course, Ian immediately saw an opportunity for me to podium in three different sports in three consecutive weekends. I wasn’t so sure since I had only been on my mountain bike once this year.blank
Axel getting his mommy fix before the start
I dragged the whole family to Pueblo and even subjected our friend Scott to the five-plus hour drive with screaming kids and all. Excited to be out of the car, Scott and I enjoyed a quick recon on part of the course on Friday afternoon while Ian pulled the kids through Lake Pueblo State Park in the Chariot.
The race started early on Saturday morning with a neutral start, a short paved climb and then on to the singletrack. We were fairly backed up for the first 16 miles or so because the course was 90% singletrack. Once things opened up a little, I was feeling good and riding well. I came through the first lap about 12 minutes behind the lead men and at the neutral feed zone Ian handed off food and water, while Juniper rang her cowbell and Axel bounced in excitement. I had no idea where the next woman was so I continued to push the pace.
Scott game face
I passed lots of guys on the side of the trail with flats and mechanicals, so I tried to race smart and only passed where I could see I wouldn’t hit a cactus or pick up a bunch of goatheads. When I came back through the finish area to start my third lap, Ian Squirt lubed my chain and let me know I had at least 20 minutes on second place. I continued to ride hard as I felt great and knew there was still a lot of potential for flats. Plus this was a “let’s see where we’re at and what we need to work on for Leadville” race, so the only way to do that was to race against myself.
Sari game face - the SmartWool arm warmers are great, BTW
With just a few miles left, I saw our friend Scott a hundred meters in front of me. As I got closer, hoping to beat him to the line, he realized it was me and threw the throttle down to hold me off by 4 seconds. We finished in 5 hours 14 minutes, Scott in 14th and me in 16th overall. A great day of racing for both of us.
Full results here.
A quick note on gear. I wore the Osprey Verve hydration pack with Nuun tablets in the bladder and I was really happy with my decision for this race. The singletrack was really winding and there were not a lot of opportunities to grab a water bottle . The Osprey pack was light , convenient and kept me hydrated for the whole race. I dumped Honey Stinger chews into my jersey pocket so I could eat quickly and easily as well. All in all, it was a great system for a longer race but I will probably use it in shorter races as well.
And totally off subject, the Outside Magazine piece is now online if you missed it on the newsstand. Check it out here.
Headed out for lap #3
Post finish smiles
