French defends ski mountaineering title
Local endurance athlete Brandon French fended off Canadian Reiner Thoni on Saturday to defend his title as champion of the annual Whitefish Whiteout ski mountaineering race on Big Mountain.
French edged Thoni by six seconds after ascending and descending nearly 8,000 vertical feet across the ski resort. The Kalispell resident is the current U.S. Ski Mountaineering national champion, and following his win, French went for a another hike up the mountain for good measure.
The Whiteout challenges racers using Telemark, alpine treking or split snowboards to skin up Toni Matt, descend Haskill Slide, climb North Bowl, descend East Rim, boot-pack up North Bowl Chute (NBC), descend Connie’s Coulee and climb Slingshot to finish on the summit.
Thoni was the fastest to skin up Toni Matt, ascending the course’s first leg in 28:37. Melanie Bernier was the fastest woman in the field, completing the entire route in 1:48:01.
After eight inches of new snow on Friday, avalanche control work on Saturday morning pushed the race’s start-time back an hour, while ski patrollers cleared the course.
A small slide was released in the East Rim area that took out a few of the flags marking the mountaineering course. Course conditions were powder and packed powder, except for some icy spots in the steep North Bowl Chute, and it was a blue-sky, sunny day.
A shorter recreation course took racers up Toni Matt, down Marmot and up Gray Wolf to finish at the summit. Split snowboarder Noah Couser was the fastest in the recreation division, clipping Mark Sandry and fellow splitboarder Rich Graves at the finish. Leah Samberg was the fastest woman with a 1:17:27.
RACE
Men Tele
Colter Lane 41.11, 2:32:24
Keith Meehan 40.55, 2:36:26
Dave Chenault 45.47, 2:45:18
Warren Lane 45.07, 2:47:32
Men Split
Jon Stillman 42.OO, 2:44:21
Matt Baldwin 42.24, 2:52:52
Rob Berney DNF DNF
Men AT
Brandon French 0:28:58, 1:41:25
Reiner Thoni 0:28:37, 1:41:31
Brain Stoy 0:32:29, 1:47:45
Brad Schalles 0:33:31, 1:48:49
Erich Peitzsch 0:30:25, 1:48:50
Stano Faban 0:32:45, 1:59:18
Joel Shehan 0:31:05, 1:59:52
Brandon Kean 0:34:23, 2:29:57
Dusan Kafka 0:39:36, 2:30:01
James Whitesides 0:41:27, 2:35:19
Adam Clark 0:40:47, 2:35:36
Greg Kolodziejzyk 0:40:28, 3:07:53
Bear Barinowski 0:44:00, 3:19:13
Matthew Smelter 0:50:46, 3:19:28
Alrick Hale 0:30:25, 3:28:14
Jeremy Wolf 0:51:50, 3:50:13
Jay Burrell 1:03:16, 4:12:00
Steve Sellers 0:32:51 DNF
Ben Bernall DNS DNS
Women AT
Melanie Bernier 0:34:01, 1:48:01
Katie French 0:36:42, 2:11:26
Martha Burley 0:48:24, 2:46:53
Linh Barinowski 0:53:54, 3:19:28
RECREATION
Women Tele
Amber Steed 0:49:03, 1:25:43
Julie Engler 0:54:10, 1:38:11
Men Split
Noah Couser 0:39:45, 1:08:47
Jeff Metsky 0:47:00, 1:29:31
Rich Graves 0:39:47, 1:09:29
Scott Lawhead 0:44:30, 1:15:08
Nathan Hafferman 0:46:24, 1:18:44
Men AT
Mark Sandry 0:41:47, 1:09:04
Rob Hagler 0:40:43, 1:09:44
Ian Bailey 0:43:36, 1:11:48
Matt Krmpotich 0:45:08, 1:16:05
Jake Bramante 0:46:40, 1:19:53
Mark Decker 0:46:46, 1:21:37
Zachariah Deister 0:48:36, 1:21:42
Chris Brewer 0:42:25, 1:23:16
Chris Deister 0:46:58, 1:23:53
Erik Schliebe 0:51:00, 1:24:18
Paul Bonnell 0:47:19, 1:32:55
Graham McDonald 0:53:55, 1:38:16
Women AT
Leah Samberg 0:45:56, 1:17:27
Kim Givler 0:47:29, 1:17:55
Amanda Lenoch 0:50:25, 1:23:55
Sadie Baldwin 0:51:35, 1:29:11
Jessica Downing 0:56:36, 1:33:46
Elizabeth Pitman 0:55:47, 1:33:56
Megan Couser 0:56:33, 1:37:00
Danni Coffman 0:56:54, 1:49:35
Men Tele
Jonathan Ferree 0:40:38, 1:12:38
Jy Ponti 0:47:17, 1:20:30
Doug Snyder 0:53:26, 1:31:55
Kelly Curtiss 0:56:21, 1:34:49
Randy Hohf 0:52:41, 1:35:36