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.

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

Pretty awesome I'm in the same issue as Colbert!

I’ve been called a lot of names over the years but “mutant” is a new one.  I’m not exactly sure it’s a compliment, but I think I’m ok with it.

Back in February, I got a small taste of what it must be like to be a model when I flew to Los Angeles for less than 24 hours for a photo shoot. It was a surreal experience that involved art directors, a photographer with multiple assistants, wardrobe experts, prop guys, a make-up artist and a location scout. And to top it off, a bunch of young, good-looking NFL hopefuls were training at the gym where we were doing the shoot.

Everything started about a month before when my great friend Elinor Fish mentioned casually on a training run that she had nominated me for an annual story in Outside profiling America’s “fittest real athletes.” I didn’t think much of it at the time and filed it in the back of my brain behind family, training and work. A few weeks later I got a call from a writer at Outside fact checking to see if I truly didn’t make a salary racing. (I wish!) It wasn’t until the folks at Outside booked my flight to LA that I finally realized I was actually going to be in the magazine, one of my all-time favorite reads.

I have no idea how many people were nominated, but I was selected along with four guys as ‘The Mutants Next Door’ – real people with families and jobs racing at the elite level and (trying to) make it all work – Neal Gorman, Alex Grant, Matt Liebsch and Kevin Taddonio.  Neal is an ultrarunner who holds the record for the Grand Slam (Western States, Vermont 100, Leadville 100 and the Wasatch Front).  Alex is a mountain biker who placed second at La Ruta de Conquistadors and held his own against the top pros at the Leadville 100. Matt is a Nordic skier who has won the American Birkebeiner. Lastly, Kevin is a triathlete who was the top American amateur at Kona. They were all really nice guys.

The photo shoot took place at training facility called Velocity where a bunch of huge guys were running with weighted sleds behind them preparing for the NFL Scouting Combine. They thought it was pretty funny watching five skinny outdoor athletes jump on trampolines, stand on balance balls and hang from the rings in fancy clothes while wardrobe assistants constantly fussed over us and the photographer snapped away. Over the course of about eight hours, they had me put on at least 10 different outfits including some really nice dresses I unfortunately didn’t get to keep.

All in all, it was pretty wild experience, but everyone was incredibly nice and I’m truly honored to be included in this group of amazing “real” athletes. And, while I might be a bit biased, this is a great issue of Outside. There’s a cool story on the Army’s high tech human performance lab, a wild account of three alpinists surviving a massive avalanche while climbing Gasherbrum V, and of course, Colbert’s essay is hysterical. Make sure to grab a copy!

Link to the blog post by Heidi. I think it’s well worth the read.

Ten world-class athletes will consult on performance fabric development.

07.30.2009 – Polartec, LLC, the developer, manufacturer and marketer of Polartec® performance fabrics, announces the creation of a new athlete advisory board. The diverse, international group of world-class climbers, skiers, alpinists, cyclists, adventure racers and multi-sport athletes will test product year round and meet regularly with Polartec’s development team to provide feedback and discuss performance fabric technology.

“We’re incredibly excited to have such an amazing group of athletes on our team,” states Nate Simmons, global director of marketing for Polartec®. “Polartec extensively tests new fabrics both in the lab and the field and our advisory board will take real-world testing to a new level. We have a long list of new developments that they will be evaluating for consumer launches in 2011 and beyond.”

The new Polartec® Athlete Advisory Board consists of:
• Sari Anderson (30, Glenwood Springs, CO) is a national XC mountain bike champion, a world champion adventure racer and a top randonnée ski racer.
• Antoine Barthelemy (54 of Annecy, France) is an accomplished alpinist and ski mountaineer.
• Bill Belcourt (45, Salt Lake City, UT) is a crusty alpinist and champion paraglider pilot.
• Janet Bergman (29, Madison, NH) is an accomplished all-around climber and consultant to outdoor nonprofit organizations.
• Gord Betenia (47, Vancouver, BC) is a talented ice climber, mountaineer and gear flogger.
• Kelly Cordes (40, Estes Park, CO) is a renowned alpinist, climber, writer and self-proclaimed dirtbag.
• Nick Devore (24, Aspen, CO) is a telemark freeskiing world champion and ski mountaineer.
• Doug Heinrich (47, Salt Lake City, UT, is a world-class all-around climber and multi-sport athlete.
• Mike Kloser (49, Vail, CO) is a world champion mountain biker, adventure racer and legendary multi-sport athlete.
• Laurent Valette (39, Rotherens, France) is an accomplished ultra runner and adventure racer.

I’m really excited about this opportunity!

Released through PitchEngine.com

In the meantime, I will try to get the article scanned and up here.  Good thing computer skills are not mandatory in my races.

Okay, thank you to Jessica Downing at Backbone Media for scanning the article.  Here it is.

We don’t know yet if  Sari and Mona will go back to race PM next year, but for anyone who wants to experience the zenith of rando ski racing, this is the place and the race.  We highly recommend it!

Check out the list of women I’ll be speaking with:

Lynn Hill:  World Cup climber, made the first free ascent of the Nose of El Capitan and mother.

Irene Beardsley:  Started Stanford Alpine Club, first ascent of Irene’s Arete in 1957, mother and grandmother.

Amanda Boxtel:  Founder of Challenge Aspen and learning to walk again through stem cell transplants.

Kelly Perkins:  Heart transplant recipient and mountain climber including Kilimanjaro.

Tara Sheahan: Former US Cross Country Ski Team member, Oneness Blessing giver and mother.

Also, check out this video for more information.  Hope you can make it next Sunday!