Following a summer packed with mountain bike and trail races, athletes are now shifting gears for the winter race season.

Although it will be a while longer before Nordic ski races take place in Summit County, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area hosted its first ski mountaineering race of the season early on Tuesday morning, Nov. 4.

Titled the Rine N’ Shine Rando race series, competitors from Summit County and the general area showed up to the ski area sleepy but prepared to take on their first race of the winter season. 

For the first race in the series, athletes lined up in Mountain Goat Plaza a little prior to 7 a.m. before beginning to skin their way up the intermediate trail — High Noon. Once athletes reached Black Mountain Lodge near the middle of the mountain, athletes were tasked with removing their skins and getting their skis ready for downhill travel.

Competitors then flowed back down High Noon to the plaza. From there, athletes completed the same course as many times as they could before the cutoff at 8 a.m. The three men and three women with the most laps in the shortest amount of time were awarded with prizes after the completion of the event.  

Featuring several transitions and a steep pitch, the race provided athletes with a strong training effort and valuable practice transitioning from climbing to descending.

Leading the charge in the first Rise N’ Shine Rando race were three male ski mountaineering athletes. Boulder’s Marshall Graybill, Mt. Shasta’s Chris Carr and Dillon’s Finn Brown were the first few athletes to set themselves apart from the rest of the field.

The trio of talented athletes displayed their ability to quickly ascend the mountain, effectively transition and bomb back downhill. Graybill, Carr and Brown were all able to record five laps of the High Noon ski-mountaineering course. Graybill won the event by completing the five laps in 1 hour, 6 minutes and 10 seconds with Carr taking second in 1:08:34 and Brown taking third in 1:09:23.

“It was lots of fun,” Brown said. “I was just really excited to get back on skis. That was my third time, I believe, on skimo skis this season, so I was excited to see how I felt coming off a good mountain bike season. I got to test myself against some other guys.”

Brown is currently a senior at Summit High School and was recently named to USA Skimo’s junior D team. Brown will be joined by several other Summit County locals on the team including fellow junior-level athlete Ashley Adkins, who is a junior at Summit High School. 

“I felt pretty good,” Brown said. “I was reminded how hard skimo is. It is like running up a hill. You do that five times, and it is really hard. It makes me excited for the rest of the season and if I will get stronger.”

The women’s race was just as close as the men’s. Three women hailing from the Front Range completed four laps to lead the rest of the trailing field. Boulder’s Annelise Weinmann won the race by completing all four laps in a time of 1:03:21. Weinmann was followed by Boulder’s Abigael Carron in second with a time of 1:06:20 before Golden’s Madigan Miller came in third in a time of 1:10:34.

All of the other racers completed as many laps as possible before the end of the hour. 

The ski mountaineering race on Tuesday morning marks the first in a four-part series at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area. The ski area will host a second race on Tuesday, Nov. 18, before hosting two races in the month of December. 

The final two races will also take place on Tuesdays, with one scheduled for Dec. 2 and the final one scheduled for Dec. 16. All of the races will start in Mountain Goat Plaza at 10,780 feet and will finish near the summit at 12,474 feet. 

Races are scheduled to take place from 7 to 9 a.m. The Guest Services office will open for event check-in at 6 a.m. A single skimo race costs $25 or participants can register for the entire series for $80. All competitors must wear a helmet. To register for a future race, visit store.ArapahoeBasin.com.