Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

The thread earlier this winter on the Brooks Range Alaska Winter Classic (very cool to see the trip report and photos, thanks @captainswallowtail !) has got me wondering... what other races/events are out there that are somewhere on the XCD spectrum?

I only know a couple in Vermont:

Stowe Derby (more pure D followed by pure XC I believe)
Camel's Hump challenge (proper xcd, rolling lasso shaped circumnavigation of a mountain)

So what else is out there???

I've had similar thoughts a lot while touring this winter. I'd love to see a race similar to a cross country mountain bike race.

Mostly ungroomed snow, lots of short-medium climbs (able to be fishscaled) and some gnarly off-piste/mogul-y/gladed downhills that require somewhat burly gear and a strong skiing ability. Frequent enough transitions that skins and AT bindings wouldn't be worth it, all freeheel all the time would be fastest if you have the downhill chops. Gnarly enough that you'd explode any ski lighter than a Madshus Annum or Voile Objective BC. Duration in the 1-2 hour range, like a half marathon run.

I'd organize it if the proper terrain around here had a more reliable snowpack. Does anything like this exist elsewhere?

wow, blast from the past. I raced the Stowe Derby every year in high school. managed to win it one year. the key was to be in front on the descent. funny though, every year some people used traditional alpine gear( not AT gear)...watching them try to skate or shuffle through 10k of flats was torture.

my 2 cents on new competitions: if you want a lot of participation, you must make the course accessible to all skill levels, or at least have a short course. many, many, many people who might like to race will be intimated by expert-only descents and they won't sign up. for XCD, you want nordic skiers, AT skiers, resort AT, skimo, etc. if you make too specific, you will miss the large middle section of interested people.

the closest race I know would be something like the Grand Traverse: Olympic Nordic skiers have skated it on XC race gear...but most Elites are on skimo gear, the masses are on lighter touring gear....and heavy metal brings up the rear

I've thought before that some kind of long point-to-point across a national forest or wilderness area that started and ended at different trailheads and left trail decisions to the racers, but didn't have much in the way of dangerous avy terrain to worry about would work great for something like this.

bauerb wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 19, 2023 12:21 pm

my 2 cents on new competitions: if you want a lot of participation, you must make the course accessible to all skill levels, or at least have a short course. many, many, many people who might like to race will be intimated by expert-only descents and they won't sign up. for XCD, you want nordic skiers, AT skiers, resort AT, skimo, etc. if you make too specific, you will miss the large middle section of interested people.

the closest race I know would be something like the Grand Traverse: Olympic Nordic skiers have skated it on XC race gear...but most Elites are on skimo gear, the masses are on lighter touring gear....and heavy metal brings up the rear

I hear ya about the downside of making it too gnarly. Sometimes in mountain bike races, there will be and alternate route around steep/dangerous sections that is mellower but also a good deal slower. So less serious folks can still partake, but if you want to win, you need to charge the gnar.

I'd want to take the wilderness/adventure aspect out of it. No avy/survival gear. Just carry what you need to ski your fastest. It could even consist of multiple laps of a shorter course.

started this thread at the end of last season to see what's out there, bumping it now to see if anyone knows of any ski race/events that are xcd focussed.

last season it seemed like the answer was "not really, I guess we'll have to make our own." so maybe we will. but are there any other examples of this style of race out there?

Have had my eye on this: https://www.thedrift100.com/

option to ski, run, or bike

The Camel’s Hump Challenge sounds pretty cool. Perhaps a bit less knarley then what BTS is suggesting, but definitely xcd (Nordic Backcountry Gear)
Here is the link:
https://act.alz.org/site/TR/ActiveEvent ... r_id=17396