Again thanks to Garrett, our group leader, and his pull as a former US Olympic team member and all-around good guy, we get to ski the World Cup sprint course before the racers to forerun the course. A small group from our group has volunteered.
It’s another beautiful morning, with the sun shinning and temperatures around 0 or so (32 degrees F).
We got bibs that said Vorläufer and forerun both the women’s course and the men’s course. The women’s course was shorter and much less steep. The men’s course was not only longer but it had a hill in it that even one of the men fell on. It wasn’t that it was steep (it was); it was that it was piled about six inches high with loose corn snow (it’s warm here). You had to step through it and step high enough to clear what was there.
As “volunteers” we got a free lunch, which was fine. I waxed about Aspen since people were interested and one of our guides and her son are planning a trip to Vail.
Our passes were amazing and we had access to all the usual off-limits parts of the course. Since so many in the group know the athletes personally, there were a lot of hugs and enthusiastic encouragement (screaming) to be sure. Here’s a short clip showing some action.
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After lunch we went back for more forefunning and were told our services were no longer needed. I was pretty moist from forerunning three times already so went back to the hotel and changed into dry clothes and went back out. I watched a bunch of heats and the finals. One of the American women, Sofia Caldwell, was considered the co-winner in the women’s race and Simi Hamilton from Aspen was in the men’s finals (fifth place). Great results for the Americans!
Anyway, spending the entire day in the sun was getting to me so I went back to my room for break. More racing and skiing tomorrow.
Originally, tomorrow we were to ski the 3.7K loop that is used a number of times for the longer races (10K and 15K). We were politely invited not to forerun that race because they have too many forerunners and logistics made it difficult. We do keep our badges so we can get anywhere on the course, including very select areas!