The Foggy Wet Hoppet

The start of the 09 Kangaroo Hoppet!

After a week of stormy weather the day of the race came. I awoke to rain at our house in Bright. I packed my gear organised the crew and drove up through the fog and the rain to Windy Corner at Falls Creek. After little debate and silent looks at each other in the car that this was going to be a nasty day on the skis we headed into the day shelter to get organised. Everyone else had the same idea as there was not an inch of available space to get ready.

I spoke to a few people who all has the same view that it was going to be a interesting race because of the weather. The race jury decided to shorten the event due to the weather and the risk to competitors. The marathon had been shortened to 25km which in the end suited me. Some competitors were disappointed as they had flown half way around the world for this but hey the thought of freezing to death out there in extreme weather was not a inspiring thought.

I headed out for the warm up and to test the skis waxed by Paul Murray (Winter Olympian and nice bloke) for me. They would do the job nicely. The issue was that nothing much was going to get the skis going fast in these conditions as the snow was extra slow due to the rain damage.

So it was time to line up and get going. I lined up in the third group on the start grid!

Game face on and ready to go!

Crack that whip and slide them skis! GO GO GO!

After sorting myself out on the start line the count down started and the GO. The start of a event like this is a little wild as everyone tries to get a good start but as the trail narrows all hell brakes loose. Saw some great falls in the first 1.5km's but I managed to keep clear. The fog had rolled in and you could only see 40 - 50 ms in front and at times it was like being in a bathroom after a hot shower - in Sun Valley it was complete white everywhere you looked.

After getting some clear snow I got into a rhythm and worked with a couple of guys and was feeling good. At the turn around point at Washbed Creek we headed in to the Two Pauls trail which was sloppy and churned up, I lost the game plan here with a massive fall on a descent, just missing some rocks. Once on the snow surface I got so wet, not great in driving winds. I found out I was in the impact area as a fellow racer just missed me, time to bail and quickly.

After negotiating the nice 40 + degree slope of the Lower Dam wall trail it was though the start finish for the second lap. This lap went by without issue apart from the hail and rain in the last kms, I managed to dump the couple of guys I was with and came down the finish chute alone.

I rolled in 148th out of 300 odd racers.... not to bad but clearly I need to work harder and earlier for next year. I am hoping that this result will keep me in the top 20 of the Aussie Ski Chase series as prior to the Hoppet I was 11th overall.

Time to hang up the skis for the year and get the bikes back out. I hear the gym calling me and also the roller skis to improve on my technique. So plans are a foot for the race next year already!

Congrats to Ben Sim for his win in the mens as this boy makes it look so easy on skis... hopefully he makes the 2010 Vancouver Olympics team as he is on fire at the moment. He edged out some very good overseas skiers. KT Calder from NZ won the womens (former Aussie!) so congrats to her as well.

On other news the Big Mak/ Felt Epix plans are coming together and the route will be sorted this week over a few beers.... looking forward to this little adventure as it finishes somewhere sweet!

I did get another ride in at Bright and found some more sweet trail above the town that kept me interested. I was having having a ball riding in the pine forest on tacky clay and pine needles.... bloody unreal fun!

Anyway stuff to do peoples so..... get out there and enjoy it

Happy trails!

Oh and I found this with the start of the race which shows how bad fog was but hey its XC skiing at its best!