|
PRESS RELEASE
Team Lake Placid wins team title at Tuckerman Inferno Pentathlon/
Lubin, Marquez win solo honors in five-part race
By Tom Eastman
The Conway Daily Sun
April 19, 2011
MOUNT WASHINGTON - On the 72nd anniversary to the day of when then 19-year-old Austrian ski sensation Toni Matt made his legendary schuss of the Tuckerman Ravine headwall in the 1939 American Inferno, Mount Washington lived up to its usual tricks Saturday by forcing course setters to choose a new route for the ski and final leg of the five-part Friends of Tuckerman Ravine Tuckerman Inferno Pentathlon.
Due to icy conditions in the ravine, the new route for the ski run was changed Friday from Left Gully to the more sun-exposed Hillman's Highway, located just outside of the ravine's bowl.
With slick and hard-packed, icy boilerplate still on the higher elevations on race day, course officials and the U.S. Forest Service snow rangers Saturday morning opted to hold the race down from the halfway point of Hillman's, from an area known as the "Christmas Tree," where 31 giant slamon gates were set. It then continued on the wooded and ungated Sherburne Trail all the way to the finish at Pinkham Notch.
It made for fun, old-fashioned skiing excitement for competitors and spectators alike - and also for ski history lovers.
"With the possible exception of a few informal Harvard-Dartmouth slaloms that I am not sure about, I believe that made Saturday's race the first timed event on Mount Washington to start above treeline and end at Pinkham since the 1952 so-called 'Bobcat Inferno,' which was called that because it was shorted from a true top-to-bottom Inferno," said the New England Ski Museum's Jeff Leich, who served as the timer at the base of the ski leg for the Tuckerman pentathlon, located just behind the Appalachian Mountain Club's Joe Dodge Lodge.
Leich is working on an updated version of his book, "Over the Headwall," which tells the story of skiing in Tuckerman Ravine, a spring ritual that dates back to the 1930s, with former Olympic skiers John Carleton and Charley Proctor the first go over the notoriously steep headwall on April 11, 1931.
Ted Sutton of Lincoln, chief of course, and an FIS delegate with decades of experience in presenting races, was tired but pleased with how the day's revised race went.
" We were able to run an exciting race where there were no injuries and everyone got down safely while having a great time. We're very pleased," said Sutton, a man who was once quoted as saying although he is not religious, "If Mount Washington is my religion, then Tuckerman Ravine is my altar."
***
Those gathered at Wildcat Mountain base lodge for the end-of-race awards banquet would share the mustachioed Sutton's assessment of why they put themselves through such a physically-challenging ordeal every year.
The demanding five-part race consisted of an 8.3-mile run at 7 a.m. from Story Land over Glen Ledge and out on Route 302 to Attitash's Thorne Pond.
Racers put in there for the a 6-mile kayak race down the fast-running Saco River, followed by an 18-mile bike race north through Pinkham Notch,
They then headed up the Blanchard Loop Trail to the Tuckerman Trail and on to Hillman's for the hike up and ski down Hillman's and then the Sherburne.
"I'm a big guy with big lungs, versus a little guy with big lungs. The way I can compete with those fast guys is through endurance," said solo TuckerMan winner Ken Lubin of Milbury, Mass., at Saturday's awards bash at the base lodge.
A second home owner in the valley, Lubin, 37, said he has been skiing Tuckerman since he was 7 with his late Vietnam vet father.
Of the race's five parts, he said by far the toughest was the kayak portion on the fast-running Saco.
Lubin didn't swamp his kayak (at least not this year) in the river's cold waters, but 25 fellow competitors did - which had to be a new record in the event's 11-year history.
"The river was high so I couldn't hit anything. When it's low, I'm not that good on the technical stuff. But yeah, quite a few people went over but not me this year," said Lubin, who has been a runnerup and in the top 5 of the solo TuckerMan class several times. "I started ski racing in the 1990s. I'm a road cyclist and former semi-pro mountain biker. Then I started doing this stuff. I love the mountain, and the valley, being up here every weekend."
He saluted the choice of Hillman's for the ski leg.
"I loved it - I knew I could outski most of the guys, because, as I said, I was a ski racer growing up and I'm still a ski racer. Most of the guys' set-ups [equipment] weren't very good, whereas my skis were very sharp edged. What I normally do all winter is I get up at 5 and hike up to the [U.S. Forest Service's hut at Hermit Lake], then I ski down the Sherburne. I did that Saturday or Sunday all winter. It's a great way to stay in shape, and I know that trail like the back of my hand. I've skied it with rocks on it and powder on it, and everything in between," said Lubin, who said conditions on race day were "typical Sherburne" with lots of snow and rolls.
Lubin won his first solo TuckerMan competition in 4 hours, 11 minutes and 21.90 seconds with times of 55:56.10 in the run, 49:33.02 in the kayak, 1:06:15.45 on the bike, 55:45.47 on the hike, 23:51.86 on the GS and 9:08.99 in the Sherburne ski run. He was followed by James Kovacs of Monument, Colo., in 4:14:19.71, and John Flanagan of Bar Harbor, Maine, who was third in 4:15:28.59.
Fastest ski leg of the day for the hike at the bottom of the GS, and then the runs down the course and the Sherburne was put in by Jonathon Parsons of the 14th-place overall Mother Tuckers in 18 minutes, 7.44 seconds. A Gould Academy graduate who is now racing in Colorado in college, he was the sole skier to wear a speed suit. "I do think it made me faster, I really do," he said at Wildcat's awards party.
The solo TuckerMan field was wide open this year, as two-time defending champion Pete Ostroski, 22, of Intervale and an All-American at Plymouth State University, injured his ACL this winter and is recuperating.
Proving that parents Ann and Phil "raised him right," Ostroski nonetheless helped racers with the transition through the woods to the base of Hillman's - for which he was recognized with a round of applause at Saturday night's awards banquet.
Also not entered due to injuries this year was five-time solo champ Dave Lamb of Jackson.
Local competitor Steve Piotrow of Jackson was fourth in the solo class in 4:19:21.10. A top cyclist, Piotrow was hampered in the ski run.
Daniela Marquez of Somerville, Mass., won the solo women's TuckerWomen class in 5:26:00.08. Sarah Katz of Richmond, Vt., was second in 6:56:50.70.
Winning their second overall team title in the Tuckerman Inferno was Team Lake Placid, who are led by former Olympic kayaker Charlie Cowan, who blasted down the kayak run in a top time of 39 minutes, 14.97 seconds.
The team's top overall time was 3 hours, 29 minutes and 52.83 seconds.
In addition to Cowan, the team consists of runner Marc Galvin (fourth in the run in 52:06.64); Cowan's son Sam, who was third in the bike race in 1:00:50.85); hiker Jeff Erenstone, who was tops in the hike in 36 minutes, 53.99 seconds; and Emilie Drinkwater, who was 15th in the ski run with a time of 9:00.02.
The team was fourth its first year in 2008, won it in 2009; and placed second to the local team, Keep It Classy Tilton, in 2010. Keep It Classy didn't compete this year.
Placing second in the team Tuckerman Inferno class was Team AXA of Chester, Mass., in 3:32:59.17, followed in third by the Iron Rangers of Waterville, Maine, in 3:48:01.13.
In the all-women's team Tuckerman Inferno division, Team Wildthings of North Conway repeated as champions in 4:22:32.30. The team consists of Kelsey Allen, Sarah Heidenis, Meredith Piotrow, Fabienne Pattison and Suzie Carrier.
They were followed in second in 4:27:39.51 by the Valley Girls, a fellow Mount Washington Valley team, consisting of Cathy Livingston, Amanda Wirling, Lynn Lyman, Sarah Learn and Carrie McLane.
Placing third in 4:55:49.98 in the all-women's team class were the Holy Hellraisers of Portsmouth, captained by Emily Patterson.
Top pairing in the six-team Inferno Dynamic Duo category was Water Acquity of Charlton, Mass., in 4:09:25.03. The team consists of Dave Mingori and Mark Trahan.
Placing second in 4:49:12.20 in the Dynamic Duo was Live Free or Die, consisting of John Hamblett of Elliot, Maine, and Jason Shulman of Rye, while Cold Zero (Micum Davis of Portsmouth, N.H., and Gail Savreau of Charlestown, Mass.), was third in 5:10:36.79.
***
WILDCAT WILDFIRE RESULTS
In the concurrent Wildcat Wildfire Pentathlon, held an hour later on a similar but somewhat easier course, the West County Old Stars of Charlemont, Mass., were tops in the team category in 3:18:11, followed by the Ski Dads of Medford, Mass., in 3:33:37. Placing third was King's Point of Massachussetts in 4:51:55.
John McCarthy of Ludlow, Mass., won the solo Wildcat WildMan title in 3:25:55, followed by Dan Poirier of Quebec, Canada, in 3:45.00. Placing third was Geoff Heigh of Danvers, Mass., in 4:15:52.27.
Top solo WildWoman was Audra Lisselle of Salem, Mass., in 5:14:33.
In the dynamic duo Wildcat Wildfire, the Memorial Hospital's Valerie Rothen and Tamara Wood was tops in 3:49:13, followed by Waters Synapt of Ashland, Mass., in 4:24:13 in second and Waters H. Class of Kingston, Mass., in third in 4:26:54.
Tops in the Wildcat all-women class was Team Shake and Bake of Medway, Mass., in 3:53:47, followed by Team Waters XERO of Wellesley, Mass., in 4:36:41.
The Wildcat Wildfire consisted of a 6-mile run, 6-mile kayak, 16-mile bike, 2-mile hike/snowshoe halfway up the Polecat Trail and the Tomcat Trail at Wildcat, followed by a 1.5-mile ungated downhill ski race on the Lynx Trail.
Worthy of winning the most ill-fated performance of the day in the Wildfire was John Hiden of Massacchusetts. He got swamped in the kayak (without a wetsuit, no less) and was disqualified when he temporaily lost his boat. He then suffered a flat on the cycle ride up Pinkham Notch, and, disqualified from that portion of the race, accepted a ride from a passerby to Wildcat. He ran up the Polecat, only to discover that his ski boots were frozen. "I ripped out the liners and skied down the Lynx Trail in just the shells," said a smiling Hiden at the awards bash, vowing to return next year - with better luck.
ABOUT FRIENDS OF TUCKERMAN
The race is always presented Patriots Day Weekend by Friends of Tuckerman Ravine, a locally-based, member-supported, non-profit organization that seeks to preserve and protect the unique alpine and sub-alpine eastern slopes of Mount Washington and to work in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to sustain the traditional uses of the distinctive natural area.
Since its inception, the organization has helped create a potable water supply at Hermit Lake shelter, aided the USFS' communications system, resupplied first aid caches in Tuckerman Ravine, helped fund the erection of a foot bridge at the base of the mountain for skier and hiker traffic and recently helped replace three avalanche condition slat boards for Huntington and Tuckerman ravines.
The group also presents trail maintenance work days every fall.
For more information and results, log on to www.friendsoftuckerman.org ; check FOTR on Facebook or on Twitter @tuckermanravine; or call 367-4417 or e-mail to
info@friendsoftuckerman.org .
|
