Olympic Alpine Uphill
Why does it seem that all the Winter Olympic sports are about sliding downhill? That's hardly a challenge. A real sport would be climbing up that same hill! Take the big Alpine Downhill skiing course, for instance. Two miles, 3000 feet vertical. It takes skiers a minute and a half to get down, but how fast could they get back up if they couldn't take a lift?
So here's what I propose: a mass start at the downhill finish line, with everybody in lanes for the first fifty yards to prevent collisions. Stay on the downhill course, zigging between the distant gates, and the first one to get their foot through the starting gate wins. Crampons are allowed, of course. And backpacks with water. Yes! Make the contestants carry their own water for a change! And food if they want it.
I reckon the winning time would be about twenty-five minutes. I think I could do it in forty. Maybe thirty or thirty-five if I train. It's only two miles, after all.
2 comments:
I think your time would depend a lot upon the footing. Using my handy-dandy exercise calculator, on a fast track, I predict a world-class athlete could complete your course in 28 minutes (equivalent exertion to running at 5 minutes/mile). No pack, in track shoes. Add crampons and hard-packed snow, adds 3-5 minutes. Add snowshoes and loose snow, might add 10 minutes, to a world-class athlete. Multiply all these times by 1.5 to estimate the time for a normal fit 20-something (so 40-55 minutes), and triple for me (50-something and slowing down), so 80-120 minutes for me.
That skiing course is hard-packed ice. With no roots or rocks to trip you up, it'd be easier climbing than any trail around here.
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