I first heard of the patrol race our first year in Seattle while researching backcountry skiing. Later that first winter, BCAG held a women’s ski night where professional women in the industry presented and did Q&A. That night, I met a woman who wasn’t a whole lot different from me—similar build and similar age—who said she was participating in the Patrol Race that winter. Immediately, I thought, “if she can, so can I!”
However, after ski huts and COVID no longer interferes with scheduling, I threw my name in the hat for the race, a team race, along with Brooks and neighbor Genevieve. Like many things in lower 48s, because there is so much interest, there is a lottery, and it must have been, as Brooks declares, Lindsey Luck at work because we pulled it!
Once I informed Brooks we were in, he officially started doing his homework. I showed him the map and the routes, and so we set out to attempt the first half and get a sense of the course. But by mile 6, Brooks had officially declared that a ski race with little downhill was non-ideal for his split board setup. He put himself down as “support squad” and the search was on for a replacement team member. Genevieve and I didn’t have to look far: friend Colin was game!
We met the Tuesday night prior to the race and reviewed the course once more, defined roles for QR code scanner and navigator, & discussed gear and meeting time. We were set!
Friday night, Genevieve stayed in the camper with myself and Brooks as we camped up by Hyak for our early 6am start! The 5am alarm clock came too soon. After a quick brekkie and dressing, we navigated ourselves to Snoqualmie Summit to meet up with Colin who drove up that night. Brooks waved us off, planning to meet us at the end as we ascended the ski hill, headlamps fully illuminated.
As we entered the woods, we quickly learned that this was going to be a huge race in parts! We were sliding and falling in parts, but the trail was easy to see and navigation was not nearly the bear Brooks and I had experienced months prior.
At mile 4, I had my first gear issue: my rear skin clip had ripped out of my skin! I had this issue months earlier and purchased a kit to grommet in a new clip—it was this new grommeted clip that tore out! And not only that, but this skin was so wet from the snow, it was acting like a limp noodle. It took some surgical slits, duct tape, and three well-placed voile straps to keep my skin on, and from that point on, my right foot would not do much gliding. Instead, it was glide, step, glide, step, etc.
At mile 10, my second skin’s adherence failed! These were Contour skins! Highly rated and expensive and less than two years old! I’d NEVER had an issue until today…
We had to make it to the final checkpoint by 3pm and it was 2:55! All my downhill skin skiing was slowed tremendously by my skin issues, so Genevieve suggested we rip skins to make it! We flew down the hillside and into the checkpoint just in time! I also realized in that downhill, that my binding had loosened and my ski wouldn’t lock in! It was insane how many gear issues I was having!
We had a few more miles of skiing left and really our 2nd or 3rd decent downhill in all of 20 miles, down into meany lodge run by the Mountaineers. Brooks was there to greet us, share a warm meal, get the snow-machine-tow to the truck, and drive us back to Snoqualmie. He was also the ONLY spectator at the finish! What a guy.
In reflection, this was my longest mileage ever: 20 miles; I had done an 18-mile day on a hunting trip carrying out camp previous to this. This was hard for so many reasons, but also totally doable! Am I glad I did it: Yea! Would I do it again: I’d want a 20-mile route with more downhill. :)
(Full transparency; B just posted his Patrol Race blog post so I figured it was time to take this one out of Draft form, finish, and publish.
