canis lupis comp

sunday was the canis lupis at the canyons, an annual natural halpipe banked slalom contest. it's pretty burly this time of the year - big, icy rollers nestled between a 3 foot-wide gully. 10-15 foot banked walls. absolutely gnar course. i couldn't have been more stoked to try my hand at this speed race.

a few practice runs on saturday and things felt alright. by the second run through, the course started to feel a little familiar and a little less intimidating. met a few people who would be running the course...definitely felt like a backyard BBQ - just a casual grand ol' time at your home.

i saw whitney at registration the next morning. her nerves were pretty far shot. too bad she skipped out on breakfast at powder daze - the first chair crepe with peanut butter, nutella and bananas was a good start to the day. after a few freeride runs, i headed over to the canis lupis to get a few practice runs in before the comp.

it wasn't until my last warm up run that i realized i probably did too many. legs a little tired, adrenaline kind of gone...pretty much nothing left for the race. time soon found me standing at the top of the course waiting to drop in. the first turn pretty much indicated my run was fucked. almost missed the first gate, somehow missed the last gate, and in between the start and finish, i bailed twice - once landing on my head; the other a nasty landing on my hip.

it was the last fall that took me out of the race. gripping my left hip in pain, i finished out the race with tears swelling in my eyes. with a grand time of 177 seconds, my name graced the list of worst times out of all 75 competitors. turning away help from ski patrol, i stuck around to watch a few more people finish the race, coming in with times like 89, 93, or 100 seconds. even whitney pulled off 105 seconds. maybe that crepe didn't hit the spot like i thought.

once i finally rallied back to the base, ski patrol tried to help me out at the clinic, but out of state insurance wasn't accepted, so i hitched a ride back to my car from the nice patroller who obviously felt a little bad for my situation.

in so much pain, it took about 10 minutes to get from my car to my room, and it wasn't until 8 hours later that i could make my way to the clinic to get my leg x-rayed and checked out. fortunately, no broken bones, and the bruise is only now starting to show up 3 days after the crash. photos to come as the bruise comes to surface...