Ski North Ultra

I was carpooling to the start of the Black River Trail Classic in 2023 when Allie Rykken first told me about a ski race she was working on organizing on the North Shore. She was working on making connections with the various groups who would need to be involved and there were a few other details to be worked out, such as connector trails that hadn't existed or been groomed for 30+ years, but she sounded pretty optimistic that she could make a go of it. Fast forward a year and the event was not only on the schedule, but was the final race of the Tour De Finn race series that I was planning to target for the season. I took only a few days to deliberate before signing up.

My strategy to train for ski season the past few years is to pile on as many summer and fall miles as possible and slowly bleed away that fitness throughout ski season, since coaching the high school ski team in Northfield takes up quite a lot of my training time and energy during the winter. I was worried this strategy might be inadequate to get me ready for a 100k race in March, so I didn't have any ambitions for the race beyond just finishing. I did the BCFK on classic skis in January and the Birkie Classic in February, so I at least got a couple of long classic efforts in before race day.

After a winter of great snow along the North Shore there was a meltdown in early March and conditions were looking iffy on parts of the race course, and there were a lot of unknowns about the event still with a week to go. The organizers recommended using B skis and did a great job of setting expectations for potential course conditions. I dropped off 2 pairs of skis for Finn Sisu to wax, but then later decided to wax and bring my good race skis as well. Eva and I stopped at the North Country Ski Trails near Silver Bay to ski Friday on our way up, and it was a great reminder of what single track classic skiing is like. The snow there was mostly good, soft but starting to refreeze and get fast. I've had very limited time on natural snow over the past 2 years, so it took a little bit to get used to the flow of the trail. After our ski we headed to bib pickup and then on to the Cascade Lodge where we were staying. Talking to people there who had previewed the race course they warned that it was very icy near the start/finish area.

Skiing the North Country Trails

When I got to the race start the next morning those reports were confirmed. Due to warm preceding week the snow was thin and very icy. I had on Rex N41 covered with Rode B17 for kick and it wasn't doing much in the start area, but my skis felt fast on the ice. There was a spot open on the start line so I took it, even though I didn't really want to be near the front with conditions being what they were. The temp at the start was a chilly 10°F, so I went with a thin base layer under my suit on top and bottom, and lobster mitts to keep my hands warm. The predicted high for the day was in the 30's, so I figured I could drop layers and switch to thinner gloves later in the day.

As the race started I tried to stay as relaxed as I could while also staying out of trouble. There were just over 70 starters, but the trail narrowed quickly and cornering took a lot of room due to the slippery conditions. As we started up the long connector climb to the Bally Creek trails I settled in to the back of a group around in about 10th place, and I was pretty nervous about how the return trip back down would be. It's about 10k of icy narrow trail with no classic tracks, so I was picturing a harrowing descent, and kind of wondering if the Bally Creek trails would be worth traversing these sketchy conditions for.

I started to feel better about things when we got up to the Bally Creek trails and in to some groomed classic tracks. I was with a really fun group including Adam Mahar, Thomas Kendrick, Tyler Gilbert, Louis Sirota, Zach Handler, and a couple others. It was fun to chat and click off a few easy km in a group. Then it started to snow. It was really gorgeous snowglobe style snow that made everything look really wonderful and wintery. The snow started to slow things down, and my skis seemed to be running slightly slower than the guys around me, so I dropped off the back of the pack a bit to keep my effort in check, and so I had a bit of space around me on downhills I still wasn't feeling 100% confident about.

There were a couple of short sections on this part of the trail where you turned off of the groomed trail and just bumped along through the woods on some really rough trails that seemed like they had been only skied in by the skiers ahead. That's where the arrow pointed though, so that's where we went. To me this section best captured the spirit of the event, a healthy mix of gorgeous trails, adventure, and just being out in woods. The snow continued to fall pretty steadily, and now others skis were slowing too, so I caught back in with the group ahead of me for the downhill back towards the start. 

I was efficient at the road crossing, pausing only to take off my skis and shove a cardamom roll in my mouth that I would slowly nibble on for the next down hill. An excellent aid station food, and a certain departure from normal ski race fare. The descent was no totally fine with the new snow reducing speed and adding a lot more control, so I took pretty much everything full speed except a couple of bumpy "mogul" sections. I pulled away from the group and before I knew it I was back to the state park trails and the skis off bridge crossing. The plan was for Eva to meet me there with skis and fuel, so I could just swap things around at a spot when I needed to take my skis of anyway. Since the next section was not very hilly and included some potentially rough state park trails I switched to some old skis with no kick wax and asked Eva to put some fresh kick wax on my other skis and give them back to me at 60k.

Almost 1/3 done, and everything was feeling pretty good. I saw Louis just up ahead so I ran up to catch him and we put our skis on and started out together. The new skis felt decently fast, so I took the lead as we weaved through the park. We hit one intersection with a bunch of arrows and I quickly decided we had to head right to find the connector across the valley before heading out towards the North Shore Mountains Trail. We kept climbing and climbing though, so I stopped at the next intersection that seemed to keep going up and to the North, which seemed wrong. Louis said he suspected we had made a wrong turn, and I agreed. We bombed back down the hill and out onto the two way section of trail. When we reached the 40k marker at 41.4k it gave us an idea of how much we had added on. We caught sight of a group ahead of us and caught and passed them. Then Louis pulled away from me as the terrain was going gradually uphill towards Caribou Road.

As I neared the road crossing I saw Karl Holub on his way back with nobody else in sight. I cheered him on and he called out that the turnaround was poorly marked as we crossed paths. I got to the road crossing a few minutes later, still not having seen any other skiers on their way back. I spotted Zach crossing the road as I was coming up to it. Based on this I assumed I needed to keep going. There were no blue arrows, only 2 red ones, one pointing forward on the trail and the other pointing back, and no volunteers at the road crossing. I ran across the road and up out of the ditch on the other side. My watch was telling me to turn around, and I quickly reached an intersection with no markings in any direction. At this point I went back down the hill ran into a few other skiers who were just arriving at the turnaround. We spent a couple of minutes deliberating if this was the turnaround point, and generally agreed that it was. Then out of nowhere Abe Peterson, who was not in the race, arrived and was able to look up the map on his phone. This confirmed we were supposed to turn around. Abe offered me a bratwurst, but I was feeling antsy, already having spent 7 minutes or so milling around deliberating the course, so I declined and headed back up the trail. 

I pushed the pace a bit on my way back since I felt like I had wasted quite a bit of time deliberating at the turnaround, and quickly put a bit of time into the group I had been with at the turnaround. When I got to the next aid station I mentioned that people had gone out past the turnaround. Eva met me there as well with a change of skis. She had added a layer of Rex 30G to the skis I started the race with so I switched back to those for the remainder of the day. Having kick again and being told I was in 2nd place motivated me to keep the pace up, and I felt like I was moving really well for the next 10k. When I got to the aid station around 60k though I was starting to get hungry. They had quesadillas there so I quickly scarfed one of those down along with a cookie and kept cruising. 

This aid station is right at the base of a climb that lasts over 10k and gains about 1000ft of elevation. It was getting quite hot by this point in the day and that combined with the sun and the effort of climbing really pushed my heart rate and internal temp up. I kept reminding myself that I still had 40k to go and that I needed to chill, but it felt like there was never a place to just relax without stopping. I did stop briefly once to take off my skis and scrape a bit of ice off the bottom. It was only a couple of small chunks, but I could feel them dragging and occasionally stopping my ski. I looked at my watch once when I thought I was getting close to the top, and it only said 64k. I had hoped to be close to 70k already, ugh! This 10k section took me an hour and it was by far the most difficult portion of the race. I started to get hungry again and took a gel, then shortly after ate a granola bar. I kept imagining that there was a group right behind catching up to me so I didn't let myself stop much, even though I justified that it would be totally fine if I dropped from 2nd down to 5th or 6th.

I made it to the aid station just past 70k without anyone going by me, and quickly grabbed some food and got back on my way. Dalton Struck passed me on the way back down the hill. It was pretty warm out by this point in the day, and my skis felt slow for much of the descent, with occasional icing in the kick zone. As I was descending I saw Louis and Brock at different points on their way up, so I knew their detour had cost them a lot of time. 

The descent was good recovery, and I finished the rest of my water, hoping there would be aid at the bottom. It turned out there was not, and race director Allie was at the intersection pointing me back up the hill, so I charged on into the climb feeling tired but ready to face it again. I quickly started to heat up on my way back up the hill towards 90k, and reminding myself of my theme for the day - address issues as they arise, don't just push through - I stopped and took off my race top and baselayer. The bibs were pretty substantial, so I figured that would be enough to keep me warm, and I still had my lobster gloves on from the morning, so my hands weren't in danger of getting cold. I shoved my removed layers down my race tights, the only convenient storage I had available, and almost immediately felt much cooler and at a better equilibrium for the climb. I started to get pretty thirsty and took my last gel liquidy gel just to get some liquid in my mouth, knowing I only had 45 min at most until the aid station.

The rest of the trek up to the aid station was pretty uneventful, and when I got to the aid station up at the Deeryard I was thrilled to see Eva there waiting for me. She dug my extra layers out of my tights and force fed me a granola bar while Kira Stolen filled my water bottle, then I was back out on the trail. Even though I was pretty tired I didn't want to linger at the aid station in case there were others close behind me. My skis felt a bit faster the second time down the long descent, the temps were starting to go down along with the sun and the snow was getting a bit icier. I don't remember much of the final descent except being really tired and excited to reach the finish. The last 1/2 km or so leaves the well groomed Norpine trails and heads back into the state park. There were some pretty significant bumps, and several signs warning skiers to go slow and even recommending taking off skis and walking. I kept my skis on and somehow stayed on my feet through this section, with a liberal amount of snowplowing, and made it across the finish line! There were volunteers there collecting bibs, but they seemed unsure about asking for mine back since I had no shirt on underneath it. Eva was waiting there to take my skis and give me a jacket though, so I quickly did the swap and we waited at the finish to see the top woman finish just a couple minutes behind me, then Tyler and Thomas shortly after that. My finish time was 8 hours and 18 minutes. I told Eva I thought I was in 3rd place, but she told me that some of the skiers who had taken a wrong turn did a modified course to get to their 100k and I was the 6th finisher.

A bumpy finish

We walked down to the post-race food building, all of us racers excited to share stories and compare notes about the course, navigation and getting lost, skis and snow conditions, and there was a lot of excitement about the day! There was also some debate about the results with people skiing different courses and how that should all be accounted for. The post race food was hot and good, and it was fun to hear everyone's hot takes about the race. I was pretty wiped out, so Eva and I headed back to the hotel so I could get in a nap.

I've been excited about this event since I heard of it, and the first edition definitely lived up to expectations! The chance to ski and race on so many new to me trails that really showcased North Shore skiing was amazing. I loved the mix of conditions from the rough trails hacked in to make the race course connect, the beautiful grooming on the Bally Creek and Norpine trails, the random bumpy paths through the woods, the road crossings and aid stations, and the rollercoaster of a finish made this event a great adventure, one of the most unique events I've done on skis.

The Birkie, Sleeping Giant Loppet, and Great Bear Chase

 First, the Birkie in bullet points:

• My goal was to start fast and double pole hard in all the double pole sections. This plan was quickly thwarted as we got a dusting of snow right before the start and everything felt super slow. This was perhaps compounded by my decision to use my almost 20 year old Fischer skis because (1) I thought they kicked better than my new ones and (2) I wasn't certain about the trail conditions.
• Wow, but do I ever have in internal regulator that keeps me at Level 3. It's like I just lock into a pace to take things conservative to High Point and this is no trouble at all.
• Definitely felt the best ever climbing up to High Point.
• Am I EVER going to learn how to stride? Back in December we did a video technique session and made the change that I shouldn't let my ski swing back so far. The result: lots of ski slapping. Back then I thought: I'll work on this rollerskiing. So I just spent my time on skis trying to not kick my skis back so far, get some glide, or else just run. So I ski slapped my way to Hayward.  
• Similarly, am I EVER going to get comfortable skiing downhills and around corners in the tracks? I should arguably practice more. I do practice some. There's some screamers after High Point and I usually get out of the tracks and ski over on the side where it's not tracked. This often is quite fast but this year with that dusting of snow it was pretty darn slow and I likely lost a couple places in this section.
• This was my last year to qualify for an Elite Wave colors bib. After next year I'll always be in purple (or black or whatever the 40 year will be:)
• One of my process goals was to feed better than I ever had before. I got something at all but two of the aid stations and three times I took both a gel and energy drink. I really liked this year's gel. It was so liquid and easy to get down.
• Sometime between Gravel Pit and Mosquito Brook I got tired. Molly passed me, I skied with her, passed her, then she pulled away a bit. But we were catching and passing a few women. Painfully slow. It's hard to describe my fatigue when I'm not in it but just about every muscle in my body is just done. When I passed Molly back up climbing out of Fish Hatchery I said "I'm so tired." But somehow, I think when I get so tired, and everyone is so tired, I can slog on better than the rest. At least I had the lake to look forward to. On that very last big uphill heading up from hwy 77 I just kept the pressure on since I'd just passed a couple women. But man, the classic Birkie is the hardest thing I do every year by a long shot.
• But then we got to the flats before the lake and the lake and I felt really good. I just locked into a steady double pole rhythm. The skaters were still slowly passing me but no one caught me in the classic and I think I reeled in just a tad the couple women in front of me. I felt so strong.
• I finished 18th on my 18th Birkie. Turned 40 two days before the race but won the 35-39 age class (and would have won the 40-44 as well) but that 45-49 age class is stacked! 
• A couple weeks later it finally dawned on me: if the Birkie is the hardest thing I do, maybe I should train more/harder! I haven't been doing the long rollerskis much the past couple years due to a combo of boredom and desire to do other things in my life. And as for this winter, well, likely had it been warmer and had there been more snow I would have done more skiing and less walking. But I don't know if it matters because somehow every year that classic Birkie gets me. 

Starting out in my 18th Birkie. Photo: Jackie Schneider

 

 Sleeping Giant Loppet

    The Sleeping Giant Loppet has been on our bucket list for as long as I can remember (or at least, since I learned about it probably at least two decades ago now). Erik and I have tossed around doing it multiple times but somehow the early morning start coupled with the time change has always made us think twice. But this year we finally committed.  

    And so on the last day of February we were driving north Thunder Bay bound. There was a big snowstorm moving into the area and at least for our driving, we were glad to only have wintry conditions the last hour. Bib pick up was at Kamview Nordic Centre. After grabbing our bibs, we did an easy hour ski on the trails. Or at least as easy as we could go considering they'd just gotten a foot of fresh snow. After the meltdown earlier in the week, we were lucky to have a fresh coat of white stuff. 

    Conditions were slow and our ski pushes churrned up the skate deck. But it was so great to be skiing new trails (for the first time all season) and be skiing in a winter wonderland. The trails were all a maze and we mostly stuck to the lighted loop which had been freshly groomed. 

    The next day was the Sleeping Giant Loppet. Due to the snowstorm, the race was postponed by an hour which meant we could have a leisurely morning before driving out to the park. We had the option of taking a shuttle bus from Thunder Bay but had ultimately decided to go with the freedom of driving ourselves. Temps were cold and it was a shocker to go from running in 50 degree temps four days earlier to zero degrees. But it was sunny and I wore the same clothes as Mora and I was never cold. 

My GPS of the Sleeping Giant Loppet course. It starts out with a clockwise loop around Lake Marie Louise and then does a counter-clockwise loop to the north before finishing along the east side of the lake.

    Even though I'm a classic specialist, I had decided to skate the Sleeping Giant. This was two-fold: I figured I ought to do some skate races and also two years ago my patella-femoral syndrome had really flared after the Birkie making classic skiing really painful. This didn't happen this year and so I was kinda bummed to not be classic skiing, especially with all the new snow. Erik, in contrast, was classic skiing. 

    When I went to line up there was a woman in the front row with a wind breaker tied around her waist next to Caitlin Gregg. There was a spot on the far left and I decided if the chick with her tied-on windbreaker was on the front row, I could be, too. The gun went off and conditions were super slow. The trail was initially mashed potatoes but fortunately this didn't last long (must've been where everyone was warming up). A bunch of women passed me as I settled into my rhythm, most of my skate pushes breaking away. The first four kilometers flew by but I spent most of the first 12 kilometers salty for not doing the classic race and debating whether it was worth it to cut corners or try to find some firmer snow where my skate pushes wouldn't break the snow. 

    After 12 kilometers the trail left the park road and we headed onto a hiking trail with more "flowing" terrain. This was winding with small uphills and downhills, a section where skating is often more fun. I'd been skiing by myself up to this point but now formed a pack with another woman and two guys. Our pack broke up at the aid station and crossing of the main park road. From here we had the biggest hill on course, both climbing and descending. There were some corners and I did a couple short snowplows. Then we headed back out on another road for awhile before another flowing section. I tried to take in a bit of scenery, especially as we crossed some low lands or passed by some creeks. 

    Near the end, the race comes back to the main park road, initially sharing a couple kilometers from near the beginning before heading back to the start/finish. I was getting done by the last five kilometers. I can't say I was anywhere near as fatigued as in the Birkie, I most certainly wasn't, but it wasn't a great skate day and by then it's hard not to want to just get to the finish. This certainly wasn't an A race for me and with the slow conditions it took me 3 hours and 9 minutes. 

Ski Vacation

    On Sunday we returned to Kamview. I was stoked to do so and we had our best ski conditions of the entire trip. I classic skied all the trails I hadn't done on Friday, including the Lookout Trail. We expected that trail to have some big downhills but even though there was some decent vertical, there were no sketchy hills. Most of the course was fairly flat and I decided I liked Kamview a lot. 

Almost all of the trails at Kamview in one shot.

 

    On Monday we drove out to Lappe. In previous years we'd tossed around the idea of doing 24 hours of Lappe, but this never came to fruition. Despite a somewhat confusing trail system, Lappe is intended to be skied as one of four loops: a 14 km expert loop, a 10 km advanced loop, a 5 km intermediate loop, and finally a 1.4 km easy loop. The day was going to get warm and it was already sunny by the time we got to the trail. We headed out on the expert loop which had some gigantic hills and one of the most banked corners I've ever seen. It was definitely expert and I'd say makes Michigan Tech pale in comparison. The snow started transforming before we'd completed the loop and Erik needed a break so I went out to do a very slow 10 km loop on the transformed snow. It had been my intention to follow this up with the 5 km loop and then finally the 1.4 km loop but since the 5 km is the second half of the 10 km loop, I thought better and gave up and just skied the 1.4 km with Erik. 

    That afternoon we found some good terrain to practice our mountaineering skills and use some new gear in anticipation of another attempt on Gannett later this year.

Erik looking out to the Sleeping Giant from a park in Thunder Bay

 

    On Tuesday we took a break from Nordic. I ran in town in the morning and then we went downhill skiing at Loch Lomond. There was some good vertical and the price was right even if the chairlifts were old. Erik was impressed that we could see Isle Royale from the summit. 

    On Wednesday, on our way out of Thunder Bay, we stopped for another classic ski at Kamview. It was snowing again and we slowly trudged along on what was becoming the theme of this trip: lots of new and/or transformed snow. It was snowing too heavy to have a view from the Lookout Trail. 

    We need to go back to Thunder Bay again. It's only a six hour drive and we only skied once at Lappe. Give it a few years, and I'd happily spend a few more days at Kamview. Heck, I even thought about trying to move to Thunder Bay. But the reality is, Kamview was only so good because it was novel, and then it would no longer be novel. I think we'll be back for the Sleeping Giant Loppet- but next time I'll classic ski:) 

    Then we drove back to Minnesota along the North Shore to make our way to the Great Bear Chase, spending the night in Superior where they'd just gotten an ice storm followed by some blowing and drifting snow.

    On Thursday we skied at Wolverine since they'd just gotten a lot of snow. Well, that and we'd brought the sled with and I knew about the old ski jump in-run and figured that would be a good place to go. So we had another slow ski between all the fresh stuff and some transforming snow. Then Erik went sledding while I tried to practice my self-arrest skills with the ice axe (it doesn't work so well in a foot plus of fresh powder).

Erik doing some extreme sledding at Wolverine.

    We spent that night in Houghton and on Friday Erik went downhill skiing at Mount Bohemia while I tried but was rather unsuccessful at finding a nearby walking adventure. Largely there was too much snow and despite all the gear we'd brought with us, we'd failed to bring the old school snowshoes. 

The hike views weren't all bad.

 

Found a waterfall!

    That night we returned to Houghton to join some other Vakava skiers who'd come for the Great Bear Chase.

The Great Bear Chase

    Last year I wanted to do the Great Bear Chase but mother nature had other plans and it was cancelled. We were able to roll over our entry to this year. I returned to classic skiing and so was Erik. After a number of races this season, I had the suspicion that Erik intended to ski behind me for a decent chunk of the race. I'd won the classic race in 2019 and 2020 and had no intention of getting any other place besides first. In warm-up my skis felt slow again which wasn't surprising given the start was around 10 degrees and they'd gotten a bunch of snow three days previous. 

Great Bear Chase course: 2 x 25 km laps

 

    As we stood on the start line the announcers asked us to be kind to the slower skiers we were passing. "You're here to have fun!" the announcer said to which I yelled: "No, we're here to chase the bear!!!" 

Dave in the skate marathon still chasing the bear. He got a grizzly award for being 75. Something we can all aspire to do.

    I started on the front row which wasn't hard to do because the start was super wide but I feel like it establishes the tone. I didn't notice any other women but I could tell I was near the front of the race, if not time-wise, at least place wise as we headed up the first hill. Erik slotted in behind me. We mostly skied outside the tracks which seemed faster and was firmer for the pole plants. The skiathlon started 5 minutes in front of us and we ticked off a number of skiers throughout the race. The lead skate pack, who started 5 minutes behind us, passed us in the snaking hills and the entire first lap felt congested. 

Erik and I skiing together.

    And hard. OK, not that hard. I'd once again settled into a nice rhythm but I wasn't striding much, instead running outside the tracks and my double pole felt slow and not at all strong. Erik got ahead of me in a flatter section towards the end of the first lap, just before we hit the north punchy hill section. But he was never really out of sight, I just couldn't catch him. 

Ben with game face on. He said he enjoyed the classic but not so much the skate.

    Then we were onto the second lap. The tracks felt faster but most of the pole plants punched through a bit. I gained on Erik in the south punchy hills but then he really pulled away from me in the gradual downhill to the low point of the course. Then it was the grinder gradual uphill. I could barely see Erik as I saw him pass #409. Then we were back to the punchy hills on the north side and there was Erik, #409 having left him in the dust. But he never tanked too hard and must've seen me behind him in his bright pink as he kept the pressure on.  I noticed that instead of trying to stride in the tracks, which just seems like so much work, we'd just get out of the tracks and run. And we herring-bone ran when it got too steep. I'd never skied an entire marathon so close to him. It was kinda weird.  

Ian doing the skiathlon.

    I never could catch Erik. I wondered if I would've pulled out another gear had he been a woman. In the end he beat me by 12 seconds. We were on course for 3 hours and 22 minutes, just 8 minutes less than the Birkie. I was happy to call it a season.

    "Did you have fun?" our teammate Adrienne asked Erik and I when she finished. We both were like "No, not really. Racing is hard." And this brief conversation, other than saying earlier that we were here to chase the bear, were my most fun parts of the race.

    I won again and had more competition than previous years with the top four women all Birkie Elite Wave qualifiers from this year. So I'll take that. 

    That night we were treated to some aurora borealis from the deck of the Vakava house.

I'd never seen the northern lights in this "ribbon" pattern before. It almost looked like fire smoke. Of course, it always looks way better in the photos. It looked white to the naked eye. Photo: Ben Mullin

    On Sunday morning, before driving home, we skated at Michigan Tech. This was only my second time skiing the trail system. We had about half an hour of perfect conditions before it started seriously transforming. But there was still some snow in the trees and it was pretty. We skied down to the low-point of the course on the Skidder trail which had some fun turns. When we'd skied here in 2021 we'd skied the Cemetery Loop on very icy conditions. I didn't really want to do that trail again but we did and there is one super steep hill out there that almost got me again. 

Ski at Michigan Tech

 

Finishing up our week of natural snow for the 2024-2025 season. Photo: Laura Cattaneo

     And just like that, my natural snow season is likely over, outside of the Birkie and a couple skis in Bemidji and the Twin Cities, barely a week after it begin.