Discussion: Blue Hills Traverse results

Preliminary results (from memory):
Men: Ross Smith (1:49:something), Joe Brautigam, Ernst Linder

Women: Samantha Saeger (just under 2:00), Hillary Saeger, Erin Nielsen

Links to maps:

East map.
West map.

Which way was best 2-3? (There are some tricky legs on that course... nice work, whoever is responsible.)

Dean set the very nice course; I especially liked all the options for the long leg to 17. (I went trails around to the left on the second half, which made it very easy and, I think, no slower.) On 2 to 3, I angled SW to the lower trail; not a fast leg, but it's hard to see how any other route could be better.

Hill and I punched 2 together and saw everyone climbing over the hill directly west and thought it didnn't look like too much fun. We contoured around the hill, and when we hit the first north/south trail, we ran down and around on it to approach the control on the trail from the south. Looking back, we should have cut down to the southern trail right away instead of contouring around. We punching #2 right behind Joe B., and we punching #3 maybe 5 second behind him. I think both routes were close.

Heading out of 2, I started up briefly, then thought better of it. I agree with Phil and Sam that angling down to southern trail would have been best as the sidehill was a bit tricky and provided no benefit. I also found 17 to have a very challenging array of route options. I opted to go more or less straight N on my final approach, departing the trails W of the large marsh. I was perhaps influenced by the fact that I was not running very well even on the trails. I don't feel I lost much time that cannot be accounted for by slower running speed, although in retrospect the approach coming down the ridge to the cliff certainly was riskier than other options as the visibility from above was poor.

I climbed from 2 to the upper trail, and I certainly can't recommend it. Trail had a lot of up and down and very rocky, and then still a lot of work to do once I had to jump off the trail again.

As to 17, I took the trail route around to the W, all the way to approach from the north on the trail. I walked a fair amount, including most of the uphill from the horse barn, but this was a very easy route to navigate, and I was able to keep moving with confidence the whole way. Based on relative times in the split list, this was my best leg.

And Dean, thanks for setting a very fine course, and particularly for having the foresight not to make us run across the ski slope while the snow guns were going!

Yeah, I thought it was a very pleasant course!