Travis Mason and Jill Seager won the fifth and final Rise and Shine Rando ski mountaineering race of the season at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area on Tuesday.
Mason completed the 3-mile, 2,150-foot elevation gain course in 49 minutes and 59 seconds, 3 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Ross Herr (50:32). Seager completed the course in 54 minutes and 52 seconds, well ahead of second-place female finisher Ella Green (01:05:18). It was Seeger’s first victory and third top-4 performance of the 5-race winter series.
Despite the copious amount of snowfall that fell on the ski area Monday night into Tuesday morning, 31 total skiers took to the course that required athletes to first traverse up the lower-mountain High Noon run to Grizzly Road. Then, near treeline, skiers ascended to the top of the Pallavicini Lift before transitioning to downhill. They continued to cross to the ski area’s West Wall Saddle before descending through Dercum’s Gulch to the east of the Tree Line Terrain Park.
Skiers then used Lenawee traverse and Burt’s Bypass to access a transition area just below the bottom of the Lenawee Mountain Lift. Skiers then traversed uphill to the east of the Lenawee Lift to Tower 3 before continuing through the old weather station gap and across the West Gully to the Gentry trees. After exiting the trees at the bottom of Gentry Face, skiers traversed to the west between Jamie’s Face and Gentry. Skiers then boot-packed up in a closed section of the ski area to Lake Reveal. With skis and skins back on, skiers skinned across Dercum’s before contouring through lower Norway and Core Shot to the “Big Al” rock. The race’s finish required athletes to climb up Musket Ball to the Cornice Run, before heading toward ski patrol headquarters PHQ for the finish line in the Snow Plume Refuge.
Arapahoe Basin Ski Area Rise and Shine Rando Ski-Mo Series
Race No. 5
Men’s podium
1. Travis Mason 49:59
2. Ross Herr 50:32
3. Eric Poore 51:00
Women’s podium
1. Jill Seeger 54:52
2. Ella Green 01:05:18
3. Shauna Bocksch 01:13:11