Eastern Mountain Sports Team Blog
presented by EMS

Dmitry Drozdov of Waltham, Massachusetts, a two-time Olympic trialist and member of the Eastern Mountain Sports adventure race team, led the charge, putting in the fastest run split of the day, finishing the 8.3 mile road run in 46:06, to give the Team a slim 10 second lead over hometown favorite and returning champions, Keep it Classy Tilton. After the tag at the kayak launch, former US Kayak team member, Kari Crowe, of Campton, NH, built another 43 seconds into that lead as she navigated the swollen Saco River. The river was still raging hard following last Mondayâ??s norâ??easter which, come race day, left Kari still without power back at home. At the kayak take-out, Kari, still in the lead, sprinted the 100 yards to the road to tag cyclist Troy Fenderson, the 2006 NH Masters Road Race Champion,
who then proceeded to put in a blistering 1 hour, 51 second bike split, despite a brutal headwind encountered on the 18 mile climb to the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center.

This, the overall fastest bike time of the day, gave the teamâ??s â??hikerâ?? (they actually run most of the way) Paul Low, more than a 5 minute head start over Team Lake Placid, now in second place after moving up a place on the bike. Paul, of Belchertown, MA and member of the US Mountain Running Team, now had the task to run up the steep 3 mile, snow covered Ravine Trail that climbs to the floor of the Ravine ski bowl. He did it in a mere 35 minutes, 02 seconds, leaving more than enough breathing room for the last leg. The shortest leg, it may also be the most grueling; a climb up the left gully of the headwall and then a treacherous ski down through the giant slalom course. This task fell to Dave Mingori, a top trail and road runner from Webster, MA, who knows about every ski route in the Ravine. Dave cleared the course and swept through the finish flags to bring home the win. Total finish time for Eastern Mountain Sports was 3 hours, 31 minutes, more than 9 minutes ahead of their closest rivals.

Meanwhile, in the TuckerMan race, competitors race the same course, only they do every leg completely by themselves! Additionally, unlike the relay team entries, competitors must carry their own skis all the way up the mountain from the Pinkham Notch transition area. Core members of Team Eastern Mountain Sports, adventure racers Chad Denning and Dave Lamb were there to toe the starting line. Chad Denning posted the fastest solo run split of the day to give him a 2 minute lead over Dave Lamb as he started his kayak down the 6 mile stretch of whitewater in the Saco River. The two battled it out in the river and on the bike with Dave Lamb pulling into the Pinkham Notch transition area with a mere 3 minute lead over Chad. But it was on the hike where Dave made his big move, building an insurmountable lead as he headed up the climb of the left gully then through the finish flags for his fourth win in a row. Chad Denning was close behind for second place.

The Tuckerman Inferno Pentathlon is held annually on the third Saturday in April by the Friends of Tuckerman Ravine. The race is renown as one of the most challenging multi-sport races in the country. Team Eastern Mountain Sports is comprised of world-class athletes that hail from the northeastern Unites States. They are the reigning US National Adventure Race Champions.