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Fernie, BC: Revelstokian takes Mountain Storm Ski Mountaineering Race title in epic finish

» January 21st, 2008

On Saturday January 19th, the Fernie Alpine Resort hosted the first edition of the Mountain Storm - Ski Mountaineering Race. The race was the first event of such kind in the South Rockies region and the first race of the 2008 Canadian Ski Mountaineering Cup.

At 8 am Saturday, 35 racers lined up on the starting line to race over two race courses – Sane course for novice racers and Crazy for the more experienced folks.

The main race over the Crazy course, which had over 4000 feet of vertical climbing, was won in an epic finish by Aaron Chance in front of Jeff Colvin, both from Revelstoke, BC. Colvin was just tipped to the line by Chance after the former lost an edge and crashed within metres from the finish. The first woman over the Crazy course was Melanie Bernier from Whistler, BC. The Sane course race was won by a hometown boy Ryan Selving in the men's category and by Inga Gazdikova of Squamish, BC in the women's.

The event is hoping to bring some new life into the somewhat “boring” modern ski culture by returning to true roots of skiing. The Fernie Alpine Resort recognizes this along with other sponsors of this event – BackcountrySafety.com, Alpine Club of Canada, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Backcountry Access, Ortovox, Intuition Sports, Sherpa, SnowClaw, and DD Photography.

» Mountain Storm 2008 complete results

Crazy Men

1. Aaron Chance – 1:39:14
2. Jeff Colvin – 1:39:21
3. Andy Traslin – 1:42:55

Crazy Woman

1. Melanie Bernier – 2:13:39
2. Polly Samuels-McLean – 2:53:38

Sane Men

1. Ryan Selving – 57:20
2. Greg Voyer – 1:01:18
3. Bob Werner – 1:02:39

Sane Woman

1. Inga Gazdikova – 1:10:02