Remembering a true shoe'r - Denis

When I first met Denis Fontaine I must admit I didn't know what to think. We had just started holding weekly, night time snowshoe training runs on Grouse Mountain. I was charged with organizing each nights route and structure for the different fitness groups. The goal was to have fun, get in a great workout with friends and make sure everyone was accounted for at the end of the night. This is where Denis came in...his best buddy Dave Howells had brought him up as I had roped Dave into helping me keep things organized and safe. Denis was loud, full of energy and keen to bag the Peak every night out. The Peak was usually reserved for the faster group and for the nice nights when we weren't socked in. Every night I gave out the route and details of the session to the group which was now beginning to swell in size. Each night that I said we wouldn't be going up to the Peak I would hear a big groan followed by something that sounded vaguely french and derogitory in nature, and it came from Denis. He wanted to make the most of each night out and wasn't going to settle for less. I would later realize that this stemmed from an overwhelming desire to explore, challenge and inevitably to be one with nature, his physical self and his spiritual self. I was drawn in over the years to not only respect his passion for what he was doing but to realize how fortunate I was to be doing similiar things and crossing paths with him while I did them.

I pass on condolences to Cheryl and his family from all of us at Team SnowRunning.com

Cypress Mountain - Yeti Series Final

For more races then I can remember we have had pleasant weather conditions for the Yeti series. That didn’t seem to make the rain any more welcome the morning of March 17th when we laced up to battle for the Overall Series championships and the places of the day.

The usual contenders lined up to start with a few newer faces and some notable absentees. Most of the overall titles where pretty well sorted assuming the leaders had their usual good finishes, but the Men’s B category had a 5 or 6 way tie for second going into the final race and for those racers that were there it was truly Sh(n)owTime.

Given the rather dismal conditions it didn’t seem surprising that the lead men got off to a rather slow start with a group of almost 10 reaching the upper most part of the course together. It turned out that defending Yeti Champ and usual fast starter Andrew Clarke (Team SnowRunning.com) was having a below par day and everyone else was unsure of how to lead a Yeti event. Eventually a group of three runners got off the front and started to establish a gap. The conditions were reasonably firm on the climbs and downright slip-sloppity on the descents making some of the tight twisty stuff almost dangerous.

Going into the second lap Colin Dignum took control at the front and used his almost inhuman climbing ability to get away from Justin Mark (Team SnowRunning.com). Justin gamely fought to stay in contact but wisely settled in for a second place finish that would assure him of second overall in the series. Behind them a real battle was shaping up with Shawn Stephens-Whale (Team Yeti), Andrew Clarke, Dave Cressman (Team SnowRunning.com) and Nate Wood (Team Yeti) all looking for the last step on the podium and also third overall in the series between Cressman and Wood. Wood was overtaken just after the first descent and Clarke and Cressman worked together to catch the youngster Stephens-Whale with about 1 km to go. Clarke told Cressman to put the hammer down and he did managing to hold on for third overall and third in the Series. The other two sprinted in to the line and the “Kid” snuck by Clarke on the inside to take fourth.

After the most successful season in Yeti’s history there is no doubt that the sport is in great shape and the fact that the elite racers were clearly outnumbered by the Fun and Fitness crowd means we are all just having way more fun.

Thanks to all the Yeti staff and most importantly the Volunteers!

Shoe'n in the Dark - Seymour Night race

Well, The Yeti has hit a new high with it's first ever night race. This event was a last minute replacement for the cancelled Whistler event and to paraphrase most of the partcicpants "Thank God the Whistler race was cancelled because this event was awesome fun!".
The snow had been falling for a while and the event had to be delayed for a half hour to allow for the traffic conjestion on the road. The course was a 3km loop instead of the traditional 5km loop and this made for some interesting late race lapping issues. Essentially we ran downhill from the start on a broad groomed trail and then entered tight, twisty singletrack that looped around the lower portion of Mt Seymour until we found ourselves climbing back up the groomed runs to the line. Three times up the final climb prooved to be the biggest challenge of the race, but also keeping it smooth on the soft singletrack sections helped keep the speed up.
A fast crowd showed up for this one and unlike the previous Mt Seymour race our whole SnowRunning.com team was present and looking for a win. This prooved to be the tightest and most competitive race yet with the top athletes only seconds apart from each other. Andrew Clarke looked to have a lock on first going into the final lap, but being the first runner had its problems getting by the lapped traffic and he soon found young Shaun Stephens-Whale on his tail. This junior elite runner took advantage of the situation and attacked Andrew juat before the final climb. Andrew held tough but couldn't bring back the youngster and finished second at 9 seconds back. Justin Mark won a battle with Team Yeti runner Ryan Ervin for fourth and Dave Cressman lost a race long battle with Olympian and Team Yeti member Andreas Hestler with "Dre" getting away on the final climb to the finish. Dom Repta came in close behind for eighth place and the girls of Team SnowRunning.com dominated again with Carey Sather taking the strong win and Krista Royle coming in just behind her for second.
Needless to say that with these strong performances Team SnowRunning.com easily won the team competition again.
The Night race was a huge success and loads of fun. Thanks to Marc Campbell and his team for another outstanding event and to Dave Howels for a wicked fun course.
See you all at Cypress on March 17th!
Dave out.

SnowRunning.com Loses for the first time!

For the first time since it's inception two years ago Team SnowRunning.com failed to win the Team competition in the Yeti #2 held on Mt. Seymour today. The loss came by default and not a lack of performance on behalf of the members that raced. Andrew Clarke won the Men's race and Krista Royle won the Women's while Dave Cressman had a great day to finish second to Andrew, but alas these were the only team members racing and rules require a minimum of 5 athletes to count for the team competition. So hats off to Club Smart Ass who deserved the win with their great team spirit and performances.

The 6 race wins in a row were bound to come to an end for Team SnowRunning.com, but it was unfortunate that the loss came due to some extenuating circumstances and illness and not from straight out racing. The news came from the Ferry at Departure Bay that Cary and Justin had missed the 7am Ferry and would miss the race, bummer as Cary has won 90% of the races she has entered and would have been a great help in the team competition. Justin is building his fitness and surely would have been on the podium today. Dom has been ill for the past week and couldn't risk getting worse with his Western States preperations underway. So we had 3 and with 3 we did the best we could with first and second in the Mens and first in the Womens races.

The Seymour course is clearly the longest and probably the toughest of the Yeti routes with loads of climbing and usually interesting snow conditions. Today was no exception...the weather was almost perfect with near 0 degree temperatures and no precipitation. The course was fast with no new snow to speak of and a well used trail system packing it out. Besides the sugary corn on some well groomed and used areas most of the course offered good footing and made the run a little easier.

This looked to be the largest event in the Yeti's history with over 150 snowrunners in the 2 events and a few new faces to boot. As usual Andrew wnet hard from the gun and a few boys took the bait and tried to follow can you say "Mistake". They all realized before th 3km mark that they had made a fatal error in pacing. Dave and perenial strongman Rob Lang ended up locked in a battle for second about 3 minutes behind Andrew and it was only settled on the final descent to the line with Dave taking a 50 metre advantage over Rob at the finish. Krista had a easier time of things and was never challanged for the lead and was happy to celebrate her first Snowshoe victory.

All in all it was a great day and the only blemish was that we missed our friends Carey and Justin at the line with us.

Yeti #1 - Mt Washington January 20/07

The first Yeti snowshoe race of the 2007 turned out to be a beauty. Kicking the season off on Vancouver Island, the Yeti #1 returned to the slopes of Mt. Washington. Racers gathered in the newly constructed Nordic lodge, for registration. It promised to be a amazing day as the sun lit up the beautiful alpine landscape highlighting the slopes of Mt. Albert Edward, one of Strathcona Park’s crown jewels. The 5km loop, would be challenging as the powder conditions guaranteed a strenuous workout.

Team Snowrunning.com stayed the previous night in Nanaimo, and was treated to a salmon feast expertly prepared by the team’s chef and rookie tryout member Peter Sinclair. The first race of the season is always like Christmas as the Atlas SL – Direct Mount Snowshoes and Adidas “SUPER KICK ASS” jerseys were distributed. This year the team decided to go with a more subtle blue after rocking out last year’s series in a distinctive euro yellow, black, red and white BUFF motif. Following an intense strategy meeting, the team relaxed to a viewing of “Jack Ass 2”.

With the entire team registered for the race: Dom Repta, Dave Cressman, Carey Sather, Andrew Clarke, Justin Mark, new members Krista Royle and Peter Sinclair anxiously hit the course for a thorough warm-up. The first race of the season is often the most nerve wracking as many athletes question their fitness and second guess their training or wish they had done more. Compounding our nervousness was the incredible and unexpected turnout of over 150 racers including former Olympians Andreas Hestler and Kiara Bisaro.

All doubts and questions were to be quickly answered as a mob of anxious snow runners lined up at the start line, even local media with their shouldered cameras were on hand to document this great event and the development of North America’s fastest growing winter sport. The race started quickly, Andrew Clarke the reigning Yeti Champion set a blistering pace alongside two of Vancouver Island’s faster road runners: Stefan Jacobson (Team Frontrunners) and Neil Holm (Team Extreme). After dominating the team category in 2006, Team Snowrunning.com was committed once again to claiming the overall Team Award at Mt. Washington. This was not to be an easy task as Team Yeti, Team Frontrunners, and Team Extreme had all entered strong teams. The race began to take shape by the end of the second lap, experience overcame enthusiasm as many strong, but inexperienced snow runners fell back in the tiresome singletrack section. Clarke was holding strong in 3rd place starting his second lap, as Justin Mark, Dom Repta followed in a pack of four which consisted of Olympian and mountain bike great Andreas Hestler and Yeti stalwart Nate Wood. Dave Cressman and Peter Sinclair were also having strong races although Pete a former track and field protégé was suffering the effects of “I’ve never run in snowshoes before.”

Meanwhile Carey Sather and Krista Royle were battling hard in the women’s 10km category. Although not intending to run this year following the tragic stillbirth loss of her daughter Denali in December, Carey always the fighter was having perhaps the race of her life. Competing head to head with Olypian Mountain Biker Kiara Bisaro, Carey proved to be in much better shape than any imagined and led the women through the first 5km.
Holding his position and finishing just under 57 minutes Andrew Clarke demonstrated that he was already in mid-season form. Dom Repta had easily his best ever snow shoe race finishing at one hour and followed closely by Justin Mark. The rookie Peter Sinclair and Dave Cressman finished minutes after, both having strong outings. The team gathered anxiously at the finish line to witness the result of the women’s race and cheered Carey to a second place finish right behind Kiara. Always the competitor Sather was frustrated at herself for not winning. Newcomer to the team Krista Royle demonstrated that she’s a natural to the sport finishing in 4th place among the women.

The day turned out to be a great success as Team Snowrunning.com continued its undefeated streak claiming yet another Team victory, with an average time of just over 1 hour. The team is looking forward to the next race in the series to be held at Mt. Seymour.