Esplanade Epic

What an outstanding event.

This past weekend, Golden Alpine Holidays hosted one of the most impressive race experiences possible.  The event took place in their vast ski-touring tenure in the Northern Selkirk mountains.  GAH has a series of three huts (used to be four before the Sentry lodge burned down this fall) that were used as finish lines and accommodation for racers at the end of their leg.

The race took a little extra time to get started since the guides needed to be out on course and assess all the potential hazards for the day.  Of specific concern was the likelihood of slides on south aspects due to rapid solar warming.  The last leg of the race was canceled and instead the racers in the elite division would do two laps in the Sunrise Lodge tenure before traversing up and over to the Meadow Lodge and finish line.

The race went very smoothly and the usual suspects were out in front after making up their gaps from the 2-min staggered starts.  On the men’s side Brandon French and Reiner Thoni spent the afternoon in a speed-tour mode while the rest of us tried to keep up.  On the women’s side  it was Melanie Bernier who kept her top-form and took top honors ahead of Julie Matteau.

After a some time to re-hydrate and get some food, the crew of elite racers still needed to get over to the Vista hut for the night.  There was talk of bringing in a helicopter to move everyone over, but as the temperature cooled in the late day, the guides opted to have us complete the traverse and ski up and over to our intended finish.  A couple of hours later, we were greeted by a great crew over at Vista and had a wonderful night filled with good food, good drink and good people.

We woke to coffee and “egg/ham flowers” before some folks got in a quick ski before the scheduled 10 am heli flight out.  An extra special thanks to all the volunteers and guides whose hard work and big smiles made this event so very memorable.

Check out Ian’s report over at Golden Skimo