3.25.2010

White Mountains 100mile Race!

The view from Windy Gap cabin check point 3 (cp3). Jason, Ben and I arrived just in time to get out the food, complete our duties and call in the checkpoint open on the sat phone. Shortly after, race leaders Jeff and Pete, arrived at cp3( 62 miles into the 100mile race). The racers just descended the continental divide and miles of ice lakes and overflow. Later in the night the racers bindings were stuck to their skis and Ben was running out with hot water to unfreeze them. It was such a fun crazy adventure. I loved seeing all my good friends do the race and the new friends I met on the trail.

Ben and I making our first Sat phone call into headquarters. Later on we had to stand in the middle of the overflow river to make the call without being dropped, but it all worked out.

Jeff and Pete the first two bikers into the checkpoint. Jeff ended up winning the race and Pete was second.
Pete rides off toward Borealis cabin.

Mike Kramer the first skier coming into the checkpoint.

Another biker, Mike Kramer, Brad and then Heather came through! She past them all to get third overall in the race and had one heck of a ride. After Heather the checkpoint was a madhouse for the rest of the night and I have no more pics of racers coming in.


Shook and Robin having some meatball soup. They had no idea they had on matching leg warmer and shirt combo's. Robin is from Anchorage, what are the odds?


Our awesome race directors Ed and Ann who both had countless sleepless nights of work before the race and still skied 100miles starting long after the racers left. It was great to hang with them at Windy Gap.

By 3am every spot in the cabin was full and Ben tried to snooze under the table, Amy was on the other side. We had 11 people sleep for an hour or two and 2 people outside in a tent. The slushy overflow and ice lakes was making for a cold ski with below zero temps and high wind. The course was still in super fast shape and everyone finished by the next day, 24 hours earlier than expected!

The sketchiest walk to an outhouse in all of the white mountains. The overflow surrounds the cabin and some of the snow is misleading, we had two people fall into the slushy overflow up to their knees in this area.



Even with the overflow ice, I love this cabin. It is my favorite in the White Mountains. It is the farthest out cabin and with amazing views and challenging terrain. The racers we so impressive that they had no major problems with the trail.

Our snow machines were so overloaded with gear on the way out, we had couple of spills. These are just the gas cans on the back.
This is one short section of angled overflow and Ben's machine slid off the trail towards the tree. IWe had no major mishaps on the way out. This is on the trail from Wolf Run Cabin to Windy Gap Cabin.

A packed house last night at the award ceremony at the community center next to Ivory Jack's. Ann and Ed gave out fun awards to volunteers and racers. I received a check point award for monitoring those meatballs to the very last one! I did not have much time to take pictures and there are many more and great pics at www.whitemountains100.org. Thanks to Ed and Ann for putting on a great event.This is Dan Young's photo that I just love of Robin crossing the ice lakes, what a ski when this is the trail! My pics do not do justice to the scenery check out more @ to the race picasa album.

2 comments:

Dr. Cookie said...

The meatball rationer! Some racers in town tried to blame their bonk on not enough meatballs -- and I reminded them that they were warned multiple times that they would only have one serving! You obviously had the best food because no one seemed to comlain about not getting enough anywhere else. love the photo of me and Shook -- I guess we are cats of the same stripe!

Jill Homer said...

Definitely the best food. Thanks for being such great hosts! Fairbanksians are the best!

- Jill (the token Juneau cyclist)