The vehicles in the parking lot at Prospect Mountain Nordic in Woodford VT were conspicuously sparse prior to Sunday’s Switchback Singletrack 3.3mi snowshoe race – of course, the morning snow storm (with a forecast of heavier snow in the afternoon) may have had something to do with that. 15 stalwart lunatics snowshoe racers braved the elements to run, stumble, and stagger through ever deepening snow as they climbed through the woods and then climbed even more before making a rapid descent back to the start area. The descent was made a bit more challenging by being mostly into the wind, which whipped icy snow pellets at everyone to add to their overall experience. While RD Tim Van Orden started the race, part of the way through the course he took a shortcut to the finish so that he could be sure of getting correct times for the front runners, since he was also timing the race. This left the lead to Jeremy Drowne for the men and Jamie Woolsey for the women, on a course that was likely the most difficult encountered so far in the 2016-17 series.
Race results can be found here.
Tim originally indicated that this might be the course for the Northeast Championships in March, but today he also talked about having separate 4k and 6k segments – so we’ll have to wait and see what he comes up with for March 12. One thing we can count on is that it will provide plenty of challenge to both the front runners and those at the back of the pack.