Snowshoe Raid ’08

Snowshoe Raid ’08

Horseshoe Resort (X-Country Centre)

3-Hour Snowshoe + Orienteering Race

Saturday February 23rd ’08

www.dontgetlost.ca/raid/snow.htm

Fresh snow, sunshine and perfect temperatures set the stage for the 2nd annual Snowshoe Raid at Horseshoe Resort presented by the good people at Don’t Get Lost.  With a course designed by Team RF’s very own Bob Miller, all of the 60+ teams of 2 anticipated a challenging 3-hour grind through the snow. I know that all of the athletes would agree that Bob and the DGL crew did not disappoint.  After a short pre-race meeting, all teams met at the start area on the grounds of the Horseshoe Resort X-Country Ski course ready to go. With Bob providing the final countdown, the snow began to fly as racers began their attack.

A 4km trek to CP1 spread the teams out and after a quick check of the map, teams took off to seek out the remaining 24 CP’s.  The course itself forced the teams to pick their poison as CP’s were spread throughout the forest on the North and the South side of Horseshoe Valley Road.   My partner and I (one of my Grade 10 students from Aurora High) decided to stay on the South side of the road and pick off CP’s 2, 3, 4  and up then double back to attack the North valley. However, our race took a drastic turn for the worse as my partner’s snowshoe lost a rivet and broke down between CP 2 and 3 forcing him to walk/sink through the deep snow of the forest. As we made our way back to the aid station, the awesome crew at the station saved our hide as they provided us with a lift back to the resort for a quick equipment exchange. After some quick re-mapping of the course we were off to attack the hills and valleys of the North side. Breaking fresh tracks to CP’s 24-21 took a lot of work, however as we trekked deeper into the valley,  we started to meet up with other racers including some of the top teams as well as the rest of our AHS racers battling it out for top spot in the Junior divisions.  CP’s 20, 19 and 18 forced all teams to dig deep as each was located at the top of a snowy ridge and racers encouraged each other to make it up successfully.   With these CP’s in the bag, we decided to try our luck on the North side. Our broken snowshoe and subsequent return to the resort unfortunately cut 45 minutes off of our race time so we only had time to hit one more CP before starting our trek back to the finish. As luck would have it we met up with 2 other AHS teams and we all crossed the finish line within 1 minute of each other, with our team finishing in a time of 2:59 (talk about cutting it close!)  Although our finish was not going to put us anywhere near the top of the results board, we were happy just to have had the chance to finish the race after our “equipment malfunction”. All in all it was a great day of racing and a big high 5 to Bob and the DGL crew for organizing another fantastic event. Bring on Giant’s Rib!!

In addition, I wanted to thank the crew for creating a Junior division this year and recognizing our high school athletes who were a part of this years race.  Teams from AHS swept the division, with the team of Tim Beckner and Mike Tufnell finishing in the top spot. All said, we had 15 high school athletes participate and all were estatic about being a part of such a great event.  Thanks again for all of your support.

 Cheers

Marcus