Monday, April 7, 2014

Racing is like Bison Hunting


This race season was a good one! I’m very proud of Colin and Myself for pulling off another year as Yukon Elite Squad.
Yukon Elite Squad sporting Air North hats 

I was able to stay atop the mound of hard work I piled up this past summer and slid off only a few times with a cold, or bad skis. I won’t babble about every race I did this year, rather look at what went well.

I was 21st at the U23 World Championships. I hadn’t set a goal for myself. A race is a race and I try as hard as I can no matter if it’s a NorAm or a race at U23s. I’m often unsatisfied with a result, but at least I’m always satisfied that I did the best I could. I’m Excited to see where doing my best will put me next year at U23s.
U23s, Val Di Fiemme

It’s hard to make a breakthrough internationally. There are three races at U23s. Can’t sprint? Course doesn’t favor you? Slow skis? Sickness? It’s easy for your three chances to disappear, that’s why I’ll always snap at an opportunity to race overseas. I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to do some more races in Europe on the Scando Tour. I raced well in Latvian Nationals right before the Scandinavian cup races. Unfortunately I succumbed to the sickness that had already plagued half our team and the rest of the trip was a bit of a write-off. I didn’t get to race the World Cup in Lahti.
3rd place in Latvia

I was bummed out but now I had Nationals to look forward to. Not racing Lahti gave me an extra week to regroup before jumping back into race mode. For Colin, myself, and the whole Yukon, It was a record book Nationals. I came home with two bronze and one silver medal. I’ll try and work on my sprint finish a bit more this year to turn a couple of those into gold. It was awesome to see the younger Yukon skiers win medals at their first ever nationals.
Yukon Elite Squad 3rd and 4th in the 10km Classic

Thanks to Alain for giving us the fastest skis all week!

I’m asking myself a lot of questions now that the season is over. What could I have done better? Am I going to make the National Team? If so, will I be allowed to stay in Yukon? If not, what will I do?

I went Bison hunting to clear my mind with my good friend Jonathan Kerr, my old (and sometimes present) ski coach. We put on a lot of miles in two days in search of the elusive bison but came home only with a sun burn and tired legs. Jonathan had to go to work the next day but I wasn’t going to let the bison win.

It was the last day of the bison-hunting season. I backed into a snow bank and drove the sled into my pickup, drove two hours up the Klondike Highway, and took off up a creek bed. I might as well have been on a crevasse filled glacier as the creek had frozen overflow everywhere and water running underneath ice caverns that would collapse as you drove over them. I wasn’t too keen on having to abandon my borrowed skidoo in knee-deep ice water so I took off on foot. After only a couple of hours, I’d spotted five bison on a far off hill about 5 km away. It was early in the day but I knew that I’d be pressed for time if I ended up getting one. I didn’t have any overnight gear. It took about another two hours to travel that 5 km through deep snow and bush. I studied the bison for a few minutes to decide how to go after them. They were way up on an open hill. There was no cover from below so I decided to sneak around the back of the hill and get above them. It turns out while I was sneaking around back, they were moving up the hill too. I poked my head over the hill and found myself 30m from a 1300lb animal. I slammed a bullet in the chamber and had my crosshairs on him. There were a few spindly little poplar trees between us, which made me hesitate whether or not it was an ethical shot. The bison however did not hesitate to run away. I chased the heard of bison for a half marathon through the forest before I finally had to accept the outcome. The walk back to my skidoo felt like a decade. I hung my head, frustrated, dehydrated, hungry, soaking wet, and very sore. It’s lucky for the bison, and probably my well being that the hunting season is now over. I was unsatisfied with the result, but satisfied that I did the best I could. 

Sorry for the lack of hunting pictures. Here is a hand loaded 225gr Nosler Accubond Bullet, very capable of shooting through some poplar twigs.