GMCF athlete Jeff Soucy recently competed in the Ascend to Victory Skimo Race with the National Guard Association of Vermont, in Bolton Valley, VT. A deep field of 47 people competed over the 5.3 mile course, featuring 2200 vertical feet. He took home 3rd place in the splitboard category, finishing the challenging event in 1 hr 57 minutes!
He had this to say about his experience:
The day before the race it was in the 40’s then rained a bit then turned to a dusting of snow. Everything froze! It was 14 degrees out with wind gusts to 10mph. Needless to say it was cold!
In the event, you have to skin up the mountain (specialized skis or snowboard designed to all you to go up hill, then transition to go downhill) then ski down and then skin back up and eventually ski down from the highest point of the mountain to the finish.
For me, I used a split board which is a snowboard that splits into skis for the uphill portions and can be combined back into a snowboard for the downhill event.
My equipment is 9 years old. Nothing new and light as the new stuff available. I had equipment malfunctions and still pressed on throughout the event. I never surrendered to the cold and never gave in to fatigue.During the event I had to rappel down an small steep/cliff to the next trail, sprint 100 meters adjacent to a cliff, hike up with just my boots, poles in one hand and board in the other (bootpack) up a 45-degree and steeper incline to the top and ski down. For your imagination like traversing a frozen tundra in single digits, wind blowing snow off the ground while running a marathon through it.
Congratulations Jeff on your impressive accomplishment!
