Snowshoe Challenge
Racers compete with snowshoes at Spring Mountain for 13th year
UPPER SALFORD » There’s nothing like a brisk early morning walk to get your day started.
That’s why about 50 people decided to take that up a notch on a recent Saturday at Spring Mountain Adventure’s 13th Annual Snowshoe Race.
Snowshoes are special footwear that runners attach to their shoes to help them with traction while on a course covered in snow.
Participants braced the frigid air and strapped on their snowshoes as they gathered at the starting line early Saturday to take on the slope. Racers began at the bottom of the slope and made the difficult trek upward, looping back around to the finish line.
“I’ve been snowshoeing for 20 years. I started in 1998. I ran a race in Saranac Lake, New York at the Winter Carnival. It was a dewy mountain and I met a guy there named Jim Tucker and he was part of the Snowshoe Association and I did it the following year. Then I got a letter in the mail that said, ‘Come to the Plattsburgh Global Challenge.’ It was actually the first nationals, ”said Snowshoe Race Director Ed Myers. “It’s a sport for mountain runners so they can do it in the winter. It really builds you up anaerobically. You can really send your blood oxygen level down and it’s amazing,”
The sport so amazing, in fact, that organizers have added new features to the competition this year so that more people can experience the sport. This year, a separate race was created
for younger kids. About six young snowshoe racers bundled up and got ready to take on their own course after the race for adults kicked off. Spring Mountain also partnered with The Montgomery County Special Olympics to provide racing opportunities for snowshoe racers with special needs.
The race began to wind down at around 8:40 a.m. with participants smiling through the exhaustion as they crossed the finish line.
While some of the participants Saturday were first time competitors, others were seasoned snowshoe racers. Myers said they had several participants who have previously placed nationally and though races tend to be on a smaller scale in the U.S., there is no shortage of passion in the people who participate. Myers says he would like nothing more than to see the sport gain some momentum in the U.S.
“The bottom line goal is that we would like to see Snowshoeing become an Olympic event. It’s starting because the World Snowshoe Federation has started holding World Cup events and they held one last year at Saranac Lake. They also held a North American Championship in Saranac. So it’s starting to come to the United States.”
Finishing in first place for Saturday’s race was Chris O’Sulivan followed by Evan Daney and Eric Bofinger. Finishing first in the Masters division was Mike Halstead and the first female to cross the finish line Saturday was Kristin Zielinksi.