Nickel Plate Loppet
Posted by bckcrainbow on February 13, 2012
Katja, John and I travelled to the South Okanagan for the Nickel Plate Loppet, a 30 km classic ski race on Apex Mountain. To get straight to the point…this event was excellent! The course was a good mix of flat and rolling terrain with some moderate hills and a couple short steeper hills, of which we completed 2 laps. The venue has a nice lodge complete with a wood stove and the après race consisted of chilli and a seemingly endless selection of baked goods supplied by the Nickel Plate Nordic Center members. As for the race, well all 3 of us had performances we were very happy with. The flat and rolling terrain provided ample opportunity for double poling…which I took full advantage of. All the practice I’d done really paid off as my double poling allowed me to finish ahead of many skiers with much better diagonal striding technique than mine. On pretty much all the climbs I herringboned outside the tracks…didn’t seem to have much grip and my technique was pretty weak. But any time I lost on the climbs and technical descents I was able to more than make up for on the flats…was so cool to be able to double pole to catch and ski away from other racers. On the 2nd lap I had caught a few skiers during the 15-20 km portion of the course, despite crashing on the flattest section of the course…(is important to plant the pole outside the ski, not inside)…with 1 of the guys passing me again on the switchback descent down Cannonball. He stretched his lead up Eagles Nest but I kept him within sight. Then as the trail levelled out I caught him as we rounded the meadow at the 25 km mark and just kept on going, really pouring on some powerful double poling before the trail tilted down. Turned out I managed to stay ahead of him through the last 5 km, a fact that I’m sure contributed to my satisfied grin at the finish line. That and seeing JG at the finish line having finished 45 seconds ahead of me with both of us finishing in under 2 hours (1:57:08 and 1:57:53), the magic time that as we chatted earlier at the starting line seemed out of our reach but something we’d be stoked to achieve. Katja finished in 2:40, well under the 3 hours she thought it would take her and she had some good racing with other skiers, managing to finish just ahead of the gal she’d been swapping places with throughout much of the race.
We visited our buddy Keith in Peachland Saturday evening, catching up over beers and enjoying a fine meal at a great local restaurant called Gasthaus on the Lake. The place was packed but they managed to find us a table despite not having a reservation…great food, highly recommend it. I never get tired of the view from Keith’s place…the lake and the snow covered hills…and the family of quail darting around the bushes. Thanks again for putting us up for the night Keith…keep paddling, we’ll be back in the summer!
Sunday JG and I skied again while Katja had a snooze and took a walk. We skated this time as we now are turning our attention to final preparation for the upcoming P’ayak Loppet at Callaghan. And we found the hills…they are on the trail called Panorama Ridge…and they have some serious hills! After a long winding descent we must’ve spent the next 30-40 minutes climbing, taking many breaks along the way to catch our breath. All I could think after finally making it to the top was how thankful this trail was NOT part of the loppet course!
The drive home went smoothly…arrived at the curling rink 25 minutes before our match. Once again we were tied going into the last end and Dad again made his last shot to give us a 7-6 win…doesn’t matter that we were leading 6-2 at one point! J
