lunedì 15 febbraio 2010

Schialp 2010

This year my sporting club decided to inaugurate a new sports section under the title of Sky-Alp. This sport is essentially the conversion of ski-mountaineering into a race with a number of climbs and descents in rapid succession. What better way could there be to inaugurate this new section than by organising a race. The venue was to be Schia (a local ski resort) the date was decided for Friday 5th February and since the idea was to have a night-race it was timed for 7.30 in the evening.
Naturally I decided to participate. In the days leading up to Friday it was already obvious that the weather was not going to be on our side. As I waited for some of my companions outside a shopping center on Friday evening, watching the frozen rain land on the asphalt, I was seriously questioning my desire to participate. It rained and snowed for the whole trip and the last steep kilometers up to the resort with snow lying on the road werea little hairy. As we arrived in the car park I was surprised to see a lot of people, much more than I was expecting considering the conditions. We had just half an hour to change into our ski boots, apply the climbing skins to our skis and walk over to the starting area. It was continuing to snow but instead of flakes we were being set upon by small balls of ice.
The Starting grid.
We all lined up in the starting grid and after a quick explanation of the course we were launched on our way by the starter.
Alex the organiser and starter.

I quickly settled into a good rythm – not too fast and not too slow. I let a number of people pass me and just stayed with my rythm. The visibility was ok for the first ten minutes but as we got higher it worsened and also my transparent glasses started misting up. Sooner than I realised we were passing the arrival of the ski lift and then up onto the ridge – less than twenty minutes which I was pleased about. The first part of the ridge was flat with some small descents but after about five minutes it started climbing again. I was in the company of a few other skiers and kept their pace. Finally we could see the fire torches marking the highest point and a minute later we had arrived. I released my skis, stripped the skins of the soles, folded them and put them in my back pockets. I closed my boots, inserted the rear support lock, clipped back into the skis and moved off down the path towards the piste. The first part of this descent was along a snow covered forestry path surrounded by trees. After thirty seconds of descent however we had to turn sharply right and begin the real descent. My headlamp which is great for night time running is not good for skiing at night – note to self, buy a new bigger headlamp for skiing. Luckily I had two other skiers in front of me and I was able to follow their curves down the mountain. Within a few minutes we could see the fire torches marking the end of the descent and a few seconds later we stopped in front of a mountain hut. Release the skis, prop them upright, quickly dry the soles, apply the skins, open up my boots, put the skis back on and I am ready to go. I had some other skiers some way up in front of me and I moved off in that direction. The path quickly became steep, quite a bit steeper than our first ascent. However I again settled into a steady rythm and began gaining some ground on those in front. The last part of the ascent was decidely steep and I can imagine that those with less than perfect technique may have suffered quite a bit. I caught the person just in front of me and we arrived together at the changing area lit up again by fire torches. I repeated the process of before, noticing however that the person who I had just caught was much quicker in those operations. He moved off down the piste into the darkness and I followed 30 seconds later – enough to not be able to see him. The descent was fairly straightforward and so I didn’t worry too much about any curves and just let the skis race down the slope.
The Finish Line.
As I entered into the last part of the descent around a large corner the slope in front of me was lit up so I was crouched down into a race position and let it rip. Just ten seconds later I crossed the finish line as everybody waved me into the correct area and encouraged me to slow down. A huge braking movement and I had arrived. 63’ 20”, 25th out of 42.
Happy to have finished.
I fely pretty good about that until they told me that the first guy had arrived in 36’ and the first girl in 42’. My friend Katia, 3rd woman and also happy to have finished.

The evening finished with a huge pasta party in the local mountain hut. A fitting end to a great evening.

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