Southwest B.C. Yours Truly Runs

Malcolm-Knapp UBC Research Forest

Sat, Jan 26th,

 2008 Overcast, 0 C

 Snow covered hilly forest road

It was another snow year at the YT run as most of the course was again snow covered. The 10K loop was still runnable and enticed a few into the five loop format. The 25K loop, however, consisted of a solid 17 kms. of snow covered terrain. Fifteen runners showed up to do their various runs. Some had serious training goals in mind while all enjoyed the chilled air and spectacular scenery of the course highlighted by clear views on the Golden Ears, Edge Peak and Mt. Blanshard. For me this was a great opportunity to do something I've dreamt about doing for a long time – run the 25K loop on snowshoes! Three of us decided to head out early and give it a shot. We'd already been around twice this winter but soft snow conditions turned both outings into long walks of between four and five hours. This day turned out to our advantage as recent cold conditions with no new snowfall for a week made for almost ideal snowshoe running conditions of a firm base with a 5-10 cms. of soft frosted snow on top. We ran the first five kms. to the end of the plowed section and strapped up. It was great to fly over the winter landscape on our magical footwear. Snowshoeing is such a sensory experience with every stride revealing subtitles of balance, touch and sound dictated by the snow underfoot. We made great time and managed to run everything save a very short section of one of the steep hills. After reaching the plowed road with seven kms. to go, where we'd removed our snowshoes the last couple of times, we were fortunate to benefit from last Saturday's snowfall and continue on for another 2+ kms. of very fast conditions with about 10 cms. of fluffy white stuff covering the hard frozen road. Just before rejoining the 10K loop we packed away the snowshoes and ran the last 4.5 kms back down to the parking lot.

 Results:

Name Distance Time

Karl Jensen 50K 5:31:00

Gilles Barbeau 50K 5:31:00

John Machray 40K 4:55:00

Reg Hornsby 25K 3:34:42

Rob Fransen 25K snowshoe 3:13:00

Rob Lang 25K snowshoe 3:13:00

Sally Marcellus (f) 25K snowshoe 3:38:00

Janet Rosenfeld 20K 2:14:00

Ken Greenaway 20K 2:14:00

Mike O'Grady 20K 2:14:00

Wendy Montgomery (f) 20K 2:14:00

Bruce Butler 10K 1:27:00

Mike Mead 10K 1:27:00

Kris Pick (f)  ? ?

John Wilson ? ?