WildSnow EU – Back from the hut, and a spectating Mountain Attack rando race
Ok, it’s 1:30 AM here, left the hut about 6:00 AM, got to Saalbach just in time to watch the start of the famous Mountain Attack ski mountaineering race, then stuck around for the after party. Um, 3,050 meters vertical, 2 hours and 36 minutes?
But before I hit the ZZZZs, turns out I might have the money shot of women’s division winner Michaela Essl, Austrian Ski Mountaineering Team. You boys think you could keep up? Three hours for 10,000 vertical feet of skinning up and skiing down?
Michaela Essl, Austrian Ski Mountaineering Team, winner women's division Mountain Attack 2010
I’ll report more on this later, along with Dynafit goodies as well as trip reports, starting tomorrow. Thanks all guest bloggers for filling in while I drank the Dynafit magic potion over the last few days.
Comments
12 Responses to “WildSnow EU – Back from the hut, and a spectating Mountain Attack rando race”
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Good stuff Lou, that is a fast race to see.
The record I think is under 2h 30min but by looking at the top 10 men it does not look like big names attended as they used to in previous. Never the less the times are still crazy fast.
No Lou, I could not keep up with Michaela Essll. 3050 FEET in 2:36, maybe on a good day.
Macht schnell Michaela!
(Lou would you please kidnap her for me)
I attended this impressive event. And yes the big names were not there. I know Michaela personally and yes she is fast ! :w00t:
I was told the record is 2:27
Lou, rumor has it that in the record year the timing was flawed and everyone was about 5min faster. Tough luck for a new record.
BTW you guys, we do have some “Guess That Pastry” posts coming from the desert capital of the Western World. Stay tuned. Gotta get those pesky gear reviews out of the way first!
Jack, 2:36 was the winner, Michaela Eßl’s time was 3:00.
If you can follow 2:36 on a good day you should come and be on the podium next year, it’s one of the most prestigious races here in Austria
http://www.mountain-attack.at/engl_ma/main_res10_e.html
Oh *feet* sorry.
(quoting the nasa engineer)
Lots of Scarpa F-1′s in that race: no surprise. And I am intrigued by some of the headlamps. There was one type many racers had that was, by any standard, huge. Anyone know of the brand of headlamp with the massive housing/ colimator?
Mark W: Silva ( http://www.silva.se ), Mila ( http://www.mila.se ) and Lupine ( http://www.lupine.de ) are the most common ones with those big halogen lamps. LED technology (and thus more compact lamps) are on the rise though probably all of the above along with Petzl have interesting offerings that can match halogen lamps in power.
Many racers get the Carbon Boots from Gignoux
( http://www.pierregignoux.fr/GB/Accueil.php ) because they are stable and by far the lightest boots out there.
A lot of new bindings are out there as well, the most interesting are the Haereo (distributed by Montura http://www.haereo.it/index.html ) and the french binding Plum http://tinyurl.com/ybmu5l4
The official record is 2:27 but as Rob mentioned the timing was flawed, therefore the “real” record is 2:30 from the year 2008.