“It was another great and successful King of the Mountain competition,” said the race director for the last three years, Tyler Merringer, as the competitors assembled in Rafters for beer, pizza, and raffle prizes before the winners were announced.
“We had 18 competitors, which doesn’t sound like a lot,” he said, “but considering how exclusive the event is and that an individual has to do each of telemark, alpine, and snowboarding to compete, I thought it was pretty good.”
Competitors had assembled earlier in the day at the top of the Face of Red, below the Cliff. Beginning with their weakest discipline, racers were released one at a time from the starting gate to ski, ride, or tele a slalom course to the bottom, near the magic carpet.
There, the racers quickly changed into their next set of gear and scrambled to quickly get a lift back up. From the top, they negotiated the moguls on the cliff and the slalom course again, before making their second equipment change and returning to the top for their third and final run.
“As you can tell from the costumes,” Merringer said, referring to devils, rock stars, jeans, wigs, and onesies, “it’s definitely a fun event. We’re not taking it overly seriously.”
He paused, “But ultimately there is a sense of competition.”
Among the women, Andrea McCormick, wearing fuzzy purple-striped fleece pajamas, wrenched the title of queen from Caroline Rousselle with a time of 24 minutes and 14 seconds, the fourth-fastest time overall,
“It feels really good. This is my favourite Rossland race of the year,” McCormick said, “I came in second last year to Caro. She’s amazing. She was 10 seconds behind me this year. I gotta wax my skis next year, that’s what that says.”
When asked about time lost lacing boots, McCormick laughed. “Don’t lace the boots, that’s a rookie mistake, that’s just silly.”
Among the men, the old rivalry between Pete Golden and Duncan Browning played out again this year. Golden, long dubbed the ‘Princess of the Mountain’ for his losing streak against Browning, finally got some revenge. Despite a spectacular 360 on his back during a high-speed fall on the Cliff, Golden snatched the crown with a time of 22 minutes and 36 seconds.
“It was a big win,” Golden said. “There were lots of people in there, really tuggin’. The competition was tight.”
Only 19 seconds behind — and still one minute and 12 seconds ahead of Art Abrahams’ third place finish — Duncan was all smiles in his purple onesie.
“I think I skied, boarded and tele’d really well, I just screwed around too much on my transitions and didn’t have a full-on setup.”
We’ll have to wait until next year to see if new challengers rise to usurp the thrones.