I was more nervous before the Boulder Mountain Tour than for any other Nordic race I’ve entered. I’m intimidated by the 30 person starts at Spam Cups, and my wave would have over a hundred racers, with another hundred starting right before us and another hundred right after. The race is “mostly downhill”, 32 kilometers from Galena Lodge nearly to Ketchum, and descending on Nordic skis is, in my opinion, best done cautiously and without an audience. This would be different.

Looking back over my favorite race experiences, some of the best have been the two person battles.  Often in difficult, selective endurance events you  end up racing alone, as each competitors' differences in fitness and skill level spread out the field.  Sometimes, however, when the combination of fitness and skills align or complement each other you end up with a battle.  And when the battle is for first the result is usually a lot of pain!  Despite the pain, the lasting result is usually a deeper satisfaction (whether you end up on top or not) knowing that you "left it all out there".

Saturday January 26 was the annual Sacagawea Classic ski race at Bohart Ranch.
Bohart Ranch has some of the best classic terrain this side of Norway and the course followed many of the same trails used during the 2002 US National Championships.  Gallatin Alpine Sports / Intrinsik Architecture Nordic racers Tom Owen, Seb White, Ben Alexander, and Pat Becker were there to contest.