VertFest 2008

Big thanks go to Kaj Bune, Martin Volken, Ben Haskell and all the sponsors who supported the event. It was a great time.

The race class (two laps) winner was a member of the German national team. 2nd place was a visiting skier from Salt Lake City. 3rd and 4th places were taken by strong skiers from the Vancouver, B.C. area. Seth Davis of Seattle won the "local hero" honors, with a strong 5th place finish in the race class. Monika Johnson was the fastest race class woman, finishing 7th overall.

There were lots of great raffle prizes and our carpool (renamed the swag-mobile) brought home a lion's share. Thanks to Monika, Seth and James for being such great company on Saturday.

Congrats to Team Skoog! Seth, Lowell and Monika 5-6-7 in the race division! They have the results pretty well hidden on the OR site:

athleteslounge.com/results/event/2349/results.php

Anyone know if the "Open" winner, Randy Iddings, is a poster here?

Definitely a good event. Damn skins on 1 ski wouldn't stick a few hundred feet from the top, so I had to boot. Then, stop again to get gloves out because the hands were freezing. Lost a good 7+ minutes because of it...definitely frustrating to be equipment failure when physically I was doing fine.

Found out from Jared, who placed 2nd in the race that he carries a spare set of skinny skins.

Wow! So much fun! Thanks to Martin, OR, and the rest for putting on a great event. I had a great time and learned a ton that I'm looking forward to applying to the Alpental race.

One of the things I learned was that the shock cord tie down on the top of my pack is not sufficient for holding onto my skins. Thanks much to who ever finished a few minutes after me who picked up one of them. If anyone finds the other, please let me know. G3 skin with grey base and a blue black diamond tip loop. Cut to fit 163cm Crossbows or 164cm Trab Freerides.

Monika: congrats on your win. It was very nice meeting/skiing with you after the race.

On behalf of Outdoor Research, Crystal Mountain, and the sponsors of VertFest Crystal 2008, I'd like to thank everyone who participated this past weekend. We were impressed with the enthusiasm, determination, and just plain joy on display at VertFest - what a great thing to be a part of! And, as we said last year, events like this simply can't happen without the community coming together and getting involved. So, thanks to you all.

We'll have the results of the race and photos up on the OR/VertFest site soon. We'll also get your T-shirts sent out at the end of the week (sorry for this delay).

As Todd mentioned at the awards ceremony, it's looking like we will raise in excess of $3000 for Friends of NWAC, but the final number will have to wait until after the Alpental event. Talk you friends into participating in VertFest Alpental and maybe we can push that number higher.

And finally, don't forget about VertFest Alpental coming up at the end of the month on Saturday, March 29th. We'll have the same race categories as Crystal and roughly the same course as last year at Alpental. There will be cash and gear prizes, another gear raffle, and more Lazy Boy beer to enjoy. Stay tuned for additional details about Alpental. When the two races are complete, we'll post the winners of the VertFest two-race series and send gear prizes to these folks.

Thanks again and see you all soon.

Kaj and the VertFest team at Outdoor Research