DART-nuun News
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DART-nuun racer Jennifer Ratay journeyed off piste on March 4th with five adventurous Bay Area females to experience the snow, sun, steeps, and camaraderie of the annual Tahoe Winter Blue Adventure Race.

Ratay assembled three two-person all-female teams comprised of talented athletes: road bike racer Ashley Fouts, Ironman triathlete Clea Sarnquist, adventure racers Mari Chandler and baarbd adventure racing website co-founder Jen Klafin, and former Ultimate Frisbee world champion Shelley Ratay.

For some of these women, today would be their first ever adventure race. For another, today would be her first time on telemark skis.

Members of the three all-women "Sherpina" teams arrived early to the North Star ski resort for the pre-race briefing, where they were delighted to see bluebird skies and familiar, friendly northern California adventure racers. Above normal mercury readings signaled that afternoon temperatures on the mountain would reach into the sixties.

The pre-race instructions held the only real disappointment of the day for the ladies: the secret-weapon sleds they had envisioned using to descend the snowy slopes and pass other teams at lightening speeds topped the forbidden gear list.

After ducking into Starbucks yet again and fiddling with map cases and ski boot buckles, teams scrambled to the far backside of North Star Mountain, where the starting line awaited. The winter adventure racers faced a course made up of early-morning black diamond ski runs covered in thaw-freeze 'death ice' and untracked backcountry terrain that taunted racers with vast elevation gains and losses. Some teams, like the female Sherpinas, raced on telemark skis and climbing skins. Other racers chose light, plastic running snowshoes.

Race director Todd Jackson told teams at the race start that racers were not allowed to use the resort's chairlifts as race course transportation. This new piece of information on the rules of travel forced navigator Jennifer Ratay to re-adjust her plan of attack for the first three checkpoints, which racers were permitted to pursue in any order. The Sherpina teams failed to stick to their compass bearing leaving the starting line and skied zigzag patterns to the first checkpoint, which was nestled at the top of one of two hills subtly protruding from a dense, pine-covered valley.

With this early navigation error, the potential for an overall race victory slipped from the ladies' grasp. While regrouping at the first checkpoint over Clif bars and nuun hydration, the women took a few moments to appreciate the stunning beauty of the snow-covered jagged peaks surrounding them and decided on a new set of race goals:
continue to have fun together, hone critical navigation and snow angel making skills, savor the unique aspects of winter adventure racing, teach Mari Chandler to telemark ski before the end of the race, and win all prizes in the notoriously generous Big Blue post-race raffle.

More than five hours and five 7,000+ foot ridgelines later, the women skied down to a Transition Area in the same spot where the race had started. They were in fourth place overall. Here a Big Blue race volunteer broke the hard-to-hear news that the Sherpina teams had missed the cut-off time - by a large margin - and would not be allowed to ski the second half of the race. All teams were to head directly to the finish line located at the Cross Country Ski Center. While some of the ladies were visibly disappointed that the race was over, all were ready to feast on the cornbread, chili, and beer that welcomed racers at the finish line.

Congratulations to team Dirty Avocados' Will Newcomer and Donato Polignone, a speedy duo who on snowshoes won the race over the rest of the field by an impressive time margin. Kudos and thanks to Todd Jackson of Big Blue Adventures and his team for putting on a memorable race and somehow picking every one of the ladies' raffle tickets out of the hat for the fantastic swag.