Every year in February, Kahtoola sponsors the Kahtoola Uphill Race. The proceeds from this fun event go to Friends of Camp Colton. The race has several distances (1 mile, 600′ vertical; 3 miles, 1550′ vertical; 3.5 miles, 2200′ vertical) and categories (foot traction, skis, and splitboard). And, of course, costumes are encouraged.
Here are a few images taken of both the start of the race and as finishers return to the start.
It’s great that one can do all three of these in the winter. Ski in Flagstaff; run and mountain bike in the deserts. We have done all three this winter with the emphasis on running. Here are a collection of photos from this winter.
Bonus photo from last year’s epic winter. Yeah, untracked powder!
We have had snow–lots of snow–this month. After one of these events we headed for the San Francisco Peaks and some backcountry skiing. Fortunately for us, there were skiers ahead of us and the track up the trail was already well established. Thanks!
We arrived at the bottom of “Flying Dutchman” to ski the powder–but clearly we were not the first as there were many tracks already carved into the area. Years ago we were often the only skiers here and put down first tracks. Those idyllic days of the past are long gone.
The rime-ice and snow-covered trees were really amazing and the deep powder skiing was great fun. Blue skies. Light winds. What’s not to like?
In late January we had many days of snow with over 40″ falling in about 11 days. What a great chance to ski down Skunk Canyon. I’ve been here many times walking, running, and mountain biking—but never skiing.
In the morning, it was quite cold—the overnight low temperature was +9°F—and the snow was very dry; Swix Blue Extra Wax was perfect for getting a bit of grip and a good glide. There was a broken trail part of the way into the canyon but mostly we had untracked snow and broke our own trail.
At the point where Skunk Canyon briefly gets very narrow everyone but me turned around. I had never been to Fisher Point in the snow and I was probably not going to get another chance for a while so I continued. There were some old, snow-covered ski and snowshoe tracks here and folks had probably come in via Walnut Canyon and the Arizona Trail. But no one else was there while I visited.
I turned around to retrace my steps and within a few minutes was having issues with the rapidly warming snow sticking to my skis. I was no longer able to glide and several inches of heavy snow were clumping to the bottom of the skis. Wow! This was going to be a long slog back to the car. I was pretty tired when I finished and the deep powder was already a distant memory.
And that’s what skiing in Flagstaff is like. Once the storm ends and the sun comes out there is only a very brief window of a few hours. Get it while you can.
The last major snow event around here was a multi-day storm from January 19–25 that put down about 36″ of snow in town. The Kachina Peaks received anywhere from 5 to 7 FEET of snow. Since then, the weather has been pretty quiet with no storms. The snow in town had melted away and the snowpack in the mountains had melted/sublimated substantially.
Finally, however, another snow storm moved across the area earlier this week bringing about 16″ in two days to Flagstaff and about 18–24″ across the peaks. Time to hit the slopes.
Our original destination was the area known as Allison Clay but that idea was abandoned because of the amount of trail breaking required to get there. Instead, we went for the nearer destination known as Flying Dutchman. A few skiers had already broken a trail to the top of the area so we had an easy climb. Thanks, guys!
Here are a few images from the downhill runs.
Will this be the last chance for good skiing? Or will we see another big event in March?