No, that pretty snow capped peak you see isn't Skibowl. "Mt. Hood Skibowl," while containing the words "Mount" and Hood" in it's moniker, isn't actually on Mt. Hood. (Editor's note: I have been informed that Skibowl technically is on Mount Hood. I technically don't care.)
Naming the resort "Mt. Hood Skibowl" is an interesting attempt to capitalize on Skibowl's proximity to the bigger, more picturesque mountain next door. It's kind of like getting your picture taken with someone famous, and then assuming that people will now take interest in your less interesting, less successful self.
Petr and the Hurricane Racing racing crew, Team Krunkshox, and lots of other people who didn't sit on the couch last weekend worked their butts off shoveling snow and getting the track dialed in. And that's exactly what it was: dialed. So next time you're at Skibowl, you can thank Petr for making it all possible:
Looking for a picture of Petr to butcher in MS-Paint, I found this little gem of Petr Winning the "Arctic Man" race in Alaska for the third time in 2001:
Fun fact: the last time Petr competed in Arctic Man, his teammate on the snowmobile was Todd Palin. No shit. I'm not creative enough to make stuff like this up.
As for the MS-paint picture? Nailed it.
While you're busy thanking people, Don't forget Bend, Oregon's own Jim Karn:
If you like the rock garden and the woods at Skibowl, that's probably 80% Jim's work you're riding. I completely made that statistic up.
Course builders everywhere could stand to learn a thing or two from Skibowl's formula. Please take note: going fast is super fun. Especially over big bumps and rocks and stuff like that. In fact, that's what our bikes were designed to do. Instead of spending lots of time building jumps, spend half that time, cut down some trees, and let us go straight down the hill for a while. Or at least mostly straight.
After all, that is why we ride downhill mountain bikes. So we can go down mountains. They are not called "meander and turn a million times as you pedal your brains out and desperately try to maintain momentum before you eventually get to the bottom" bikes.
Course building rant concluded.
Actual race report:
I rode down the hill and then they gave me a bunch of money and everyone clapped. It was awesome.
Current series points standings (based on my questionable addition skills):
Mikey Sylvestri: 414
Eric Loney: 375
Kyle Thomas: 322
Charlie Sponsel: 247
Here's some dorky math. I have a 167 point deficit for first overall and a 128 point deficit for 2nd place overall. That means if I had attended the prior race at Port Angeles I would have needed either a 6th in quali's and finals to put me in first place overall, or a 9th place in quali's or finals for 2nd place behind Mikey.
And yet, after all that dorky math, I still coasted across the finish in my quali run yesterday. I missed out on 2nd place in qualifying by two tenths of a second, and kissed five precious points goodbye. Oops.
Here's a video from a race day practice run with PRKT, who also has a website now:
Mt Hood Race Day Warm Up NW Cup #3 2011 on pinkbike.com
Final times were something like this:
5th Some old guy: 3:59 and something
4th Some 19 year old on a clapped old bike: 3:59 and something less than the old guy
3rd Me: 3:54
2nd Some guy who isn't riding for Yeti anymore: 3:49
1st Some guy who doesn't ride his bike over the winter, doesn't train, and doesn't warm up before race runs, made a huge mistake and still set an all time record down the hill: 3:45
Here are some other cool things that happened this weekend at Skibowl:
Bummer. The good news is that after a few stitches and some gauze, the horror movie level of blood that was pumping out of Mitch's leg was stopped.
-Chazz out
