Woody Allen Was Right

Grand Targhee hosted what it billed as a Freeride event today. It was actually a shorter version of yesterday’s randonee race, with a course that didn’t require racers to use climbing skins, randonee bindings or telemark bindings, so people lacking these could participate and sample the thrills of randonee style racing. Last year about twenty people took part in this race. This year only two showed up. Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was this afternoon’s TV football schedule. Maybe everyone interested raced yesterday. Who knows? Those who stayed home made a mistake. How many times do you get to race and ski powder offering up real face shots all at the same time? This was at Grand Targhee after all!

Graciously, Andy Williams, Targhee’s special events coordinator decide to hold the race anyway. All both participants had to do to place was just finish the course without getting lost in the fog! And Targhee’s fog was flexing its muscles today. On the “chair scale” it was rated a zero chair fog at times today.

With only two racers in the field, had I been on anything other than my supper heavy powder skis, I might have jumped in to claim a guaranteed third place. As it was, my son Evan was one of the two racers, so our family was very ably represented. The other racer was Chris Roy, who deserves lots of credit for getting out of bed when so many others didn’t.Targhee had half a foot of fresh snow, so a short race left plenty of time for lots of good turns afterward.

The race could have been a neck and neck affair, but Evan jumped to an early lead at the start using a hippety-hoppety herringbone technique to get first position for the boot pack up Mary’s Nipple. He never relinquished the lead and won by a comfortable margin.

Andy Williams pulled out the awards podium and gave both competitors cool prizes- AT bindings and quality sunglasses, proving what Woody Allen said years ago, “Eighty percent of success is just showing up.”

Hopefully next year tons of people will heed Woody’s advice. I may even bring the right gear just in case they don’t.

Tags: Grand Targhee, powder, randonee racing, United States Ski Mountaineering Association, USSMA
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