Northstar inaugural snowshoe race - a rarefied field

A line no more clearly drawn than in the parking lot of Northstar (and apologies to Red Bull worshipers, fist-bumpers, snowboarding dads and ex-frat guys from San Mateo) where the all-to-necessary world of the Tahoe visitor and the extreme drinker meets that of Sierra locals only looking for a place to race.

Fain's 90-minute ascent started on a bus full of folks clad head-to-toe in bought-and-paid-for schwag: an action sports marketers' dream (here's my Monster sticker; here's my Dragon googles; here's my Rome snowboard; here's my Rockstar beanie; here's my Burton everything else) ...A guy in full-body Atlas Snow Shoe racing jumper stands out mightily and smiles to himself the whole of the ride as he gazes out at the rest of the world — and knows, perhaps, too well — that on the same mountain, on the same day — he'll do something the others shall never attempt.

Quiet contemplation turns to contempt as the shutte ride begets a lift ticket line growing long with weekend smokers and pushy/worried moms. Next up: the line to the gondola — even longer with tweens letting iPods spill prefab ear rot into their craniums. It's been an hour now since boarding the shuttle ...an hour trapped next to the big-box crowd — still nary a start line in sight.

...Gondola doors swing open mid-mountain — snowshoers this way, rest of the world the other.

One mountain and nothing in common except how they got there.

"So are we going to race now, or what?" Fain asked; and again, nods yes from the faithful over his shoulder.

Saturday's race, the first in Northstar's '08-'09 snowshoe series, featured a 5k and 10k. The 10k was two loops of a hilly, mostly single-track and none-too-packed-down course: The start heads from the nordic center due south. Racers traverse a pair of alpine ski runs and continue on three groomed nordic straightaways before plunging through the trees to the race's start/finish.

After completing his second lap and taking 20 seconds to rest his hands on his knees, sucking down air trying to get the heartrate to quell, Fain — who finished second — just behind Raitter and less than a minute in front of McMahan, looked up and somehow the memory of his 90-minute struggle to get to the race was supplanted by the euphoria of 59 minutes in solitude.

"Oh yeah — short distance; but good race," he said.

"Short?" chirped Folsom's Jamie FInk, who checked out (and won) the 5k as part of her winter training for June's Western State's 100 ultrarun. "Oh my God. For a 'short' race, it was the hardest thing I've ever done."

Racer Jim Telling relocated to the basin from Beaver Creek, Colo. in June. A masters-level snowshoer, Telling "jumped at the chance" to join the series.

"This race is something I've looked forward to since the fall," he said. "And — let me be clear — it did not disappoint."

It was Telling's comment that made Julie Young, director of Northstar's cross country telemark and snowshoe center (yeah, it's a long job title), smile post-race Saturday as she laid out a spread of tomato soup, Costco brownie bites, gingerbread men and orange slices.

"This is the first (snowshoe) race we've done," she said. "And to hear someone like Jim say it was done the right way — that's a good feeling.

"It's Beaver Creek's series we modeled this after. Hopefully, this will continue to grow."

Fifteen participants lined up for the year's inaugural race, and the women's field was equally stacked with endurance athletes of note: Sarah McMahan (Ross' wife), Sarah Raitter (Bill's wife) and Emma Garrard — locals who made up the top four along with Dolores Bergmann, a self-described "marathoner" from Lassen, who turned in an impressive 1:13:25 10k — good for second place among women.

"I can't tell you how happy I am that we got this caliber of athlete to come out and show support today," Young said. "But, we don't want people to be intimidated by this group; this is an activity anyone can do."

"Snowshoeing, cross-country skiing — you can come out and try it for the fist time; and snowshoeing is especially not as technical as (skiing). It's just a good way to get out."

Telling said he "was there" at the first Beaver Creek race in '93 and that too started with a handful of people who parted ways with the ski/snowboard shuttle proletariat.

"Now it's hundreds — sometimes upwards of a thousand," he said. "And here I am, back at the start of something again.

"It's a good feeling."
 
5k

Top two men:
Gary Erickson
Andrew Pridgen

Top woman:
Jamie Fink

10k

Top three men:
Bill Raitter
Peter Fain
Ross McMahan

Sarah Raitter
Dolores Bergmann
Sarah McMahan

Next race: 11:30 a.m. Saturday Jan. 11
Click here for a full race schedule