Race Evaluation
EMPO Ski-O Garnet Hill: Red
randallxski
| 1. | +00:05 | Hesitated at the first intersection to ensure I was in the right place. | |||||
| 2. | +00:10 | Paused briefly at the first intersection, not totally sure of where I was going. The trail was a bit challenging. | |||||
| 3. | +00:20 | Straight shot to the next control. The bridges and branches were a challenge. One ski got caught in a branch, and I had to back up to free it. Passed Phil H-T along the way to this control. | |||||
| 4. | +00:30 | Continued on to trail junction and head for the road. Stayed on the left side of the road and double poled rather than jumping onto the trail to the right side. The road was okay, but the trail probably would have been faster. Passed the control and hit the beach. Headed back and saw the slight trail into the control. | |||||
| 5. | Passed Pierre going the other way before the first road crossing. Stayed on the solid trails up past the ski shop and over to the next control. | ||||||
| 6. | +00:10 | Kept going straight when leaving the previous control. Not sure it was the best choice since it looks like going back would have eliminated additional climbing. | |||||
| 7. | Headed west to the creek, popped the skis off, crossed the creek and ran up the field all the way to the control. | ||||||
| 8. | Kept the skis off and headed back down to where I had left the trail. As I ran back down the field, I noticed that Pierre chose to stay on the trail. No problems getting the skis back on. Passed the previous control and stayed on the main trail to the right until the dotted trail came back in. Took the left and found the control. | ||||||
| 9. | +00:45 | The creek crossing here was a challenge. Popped the skis off and stepped down onto a ledge, but couldn't find a good way back up the other side, with was about a 4 foot incline. Grabbed a small tree to hoist myself up, but slipped into the creek and banged my right knee hard on a rock. About this time, Pierre was there with me. Once I got up the bank, my right pole was wedged between the tree and the creek bottom. Almost fell in again trying to free my pole. I kept the skis off and limped up the trail to the next control. No significant problems getting the skis back on. | |||||
| 10. | +00:30 | Put the skis back on and continued up the dotted line trail to the dashed line and headed east, double poling most of the way with an skate stride once in a while. For some reason, I had trouble locating my position on the map to pick the rest of my route and had to keep looking. Paused briefly at the first intersection to ensure I was on the right track. After that I continued double poling straight across the intersection to the next trail junction. (It's likely that skating on the lower trail to the south would have been a better option since the dotted trail was mostly double poling.) Headed up the hill, having set in my mind that I would keep going straight up the hill to the top, then take the right turn. At the intersection, I was a bit tired and saw the flat trail to the right and took it. Looking back, it was slightly longer, and had additional climbing. I took a right at the Y and saw the control. According to Pierre, he made up several hundred yards and beat me to the next control by taking the route I had initially planned to take. | |||||
| 11. | I thought long and hard about this next leg. I came very close to running the road. It would be interesting to do this course over again and see how long it takes to run the road rather than climb the dreaded Duffany's trail. I'm not sure how clearly the trail from the road is marked, but I think it would have been an acceptable gamble. Instead, I headed west, took a left (south) at the T and headed down the hill to the dotted line trail. Again, skating the the lower trail probably would have been faster, especially since it's quite flat. As I was contemplating my route choice after leaving the last control, I allowed Pierre to build up a lead. I kept him in sight across the dotted line trail. As soon as I hit the bottom of the climb, I popped the skis off and tried to maintain a slow jog. Pierre kept his skis on the entire way up the ungroomed mess of a trail, and I steadily gained ground on him. I caught him by the time we got to the control. | ||||||
| 12. | I headed back east to the Duffany's uphill slog, still carrying my skis. Once I got the to top of the hill, I tried to get my skis on, but there was debris lodged in my right ski boot. I tried to clean it out with my pole handle, but there was still crud stuck under the bar on my boot. I found a twig and cleared it out. At that point I was thankful I still use my Salomon 9.1 skate boots rather than the newer Salomon boots that have 2 bars! Pierre took the trail west, then north, then east to the control. We're not sure who got there first. | ||||||
| 13. | +00:30 | Continued west on the solid trail, across the intersection, then right at the next intersection. At the trail splits, I stayed left both times. Taking a right at the first split would have been a better route due to less climbing. I had a hard time keeping track of where I was on the map from here to the end. It seemed like the map was very congested and confusing. I saw a side trail to the left, well before I should have been looking for it, and headed about 15 feet in before it hit me that I wasn't even close to where I needed to go. Caught up with Phil H-T at the control. | |||||
| 14. | +00:10 | Again struggled with locating where I was on the map and skied slowly and almost stopped at the first and second intersections as I made my way to the control. | |||||
| F. | Finally got my bearings and headed home. |
Total Time Lost - 00:03:10