Loppet Weekend
Well it was Loppet weekend again here in Ottawa.... and of course - for those of you that can't translate - Loppet means "f&**^! cold" weekend. Actually it wasn't as bad as it has been in past years for the newly named (but 30th edition)Gatineau loppet. I made the annual trek up to the park to ski/drive around and catch some of the racing action from various vantage points. Pretty sure this is my 30th year of chasing the ski races so at least I know where I'm going to be in the middle of February.

Saturday was a series of classic races and it dawned with -20C temperatures(not much wind though so that made things feel a bit better). I went to a few spots (mostly driving) to see the classic races. I had scanned the start lists Friday night and was pretty excited to see Lukas Bauers'(CZE) name in the 30k classic race! I suspect (okay I know) it wasn't the Lukas Bauer (current world cup XC ski leader). There was of course a World cup race in Czech the same day. Also, he was listed as starting in the "E" wave here in Ottawa which was probably another clue, but you never know... In the end it was pretty cold standing around waiting for Lukas so I didn't take in the full race. Instead I decided to head off to get in a ski myself. By then (~noon) it had warmed up nicely to -12C under perfect blue skies. I made a tour of some of my favourite backcountry trails enjoying some of the great powder we've had over the last few days.

Sunday was considerably warmer with -11C at the start of the skate race. I made the full tour skiing to the start line and the 5k point before driving and skiing higher up in the park to see the race develop. Ivan Babikov was here and he seemed to control the race pulling a small trio away on the Penguin hill and holding a good gap the rest of the way through. In the end he beat Robin McKeever by a few seconds at the finish line. Being high up in the park I couldn't beat them back to the finish line but I suspect it was a "no mas" sprint.

By lunch time, with a fair amount of skiing under my belt and a Texas low filled with freezing rain descending rapidly on Ottawa I opted to head home and watch the Daytona 500 from the warmth of my living room. We got a fair amount of freezing rain but nothing too severe and (as I write this) its switched to light rain so we shouldn't lose too much snow. Of course this means all the loose fluffy powder we had is now toast. I'll venture up to the Park tomorrow to see what the damage is.