Free Shipping in the U.S on orders over $50.

New England Rando Race Series end of season review.

by Michael Hagen April 02, 2018

Funny looking back now on my Feb 19 comment about our desperate ski conditions: in the following days, the weather became even worse!

When I was out flagging the course in 60F+ temps I felt overdressed in my race suit as the lift-served racers were wearing shorts. Some of the alpine racers were even going topless (with the girls in sports bras).

Fortunately I still managed to pull off a race at our back-up venue of Berkshire East.

Even though temps became a bit more normal by race day on Feb 24, we were still skinning up through slush in many places, and we even skied through fairly deep standing water to reach the ski>skin transition at the resort base.

For Team Hagan results, Jerimy took the win with Alex in third. I took 4th followed by Misha in 5th. Some other guy I didn't know (Anthony Colby) was also on Hagan, and although an eventual DNF, that meant during the first ascent all but one of the six top racers were on various generations of Hagan race skis!

The first Saturday in March was Jay Peak. For some unexplained reason all the descents were easy groomers even though almost all of the usual race descents were open. Hagan results were Jerimy 4th, Brian 5th, Sheldon 7th, Josh 10th, and me all the way back in 24th given the deep field and the lack of any real skiing, sigh.

Then everything changed, and we got 6' of snow in the first half of the month!

Jerimy, Josh, and Brian were all away at the Pierra Menta for Bromley. But Alex took 3rd, Misha 6th, and for my first outing on the Ultra 65 I blasted through the cut-up powder and tight moguls to take 7th for the Master's win ahead of my 45+ rival this season.

For the last race of the season, Jerimy didn't return in time from the Pierra Menta. Jan took 2nd (Ram Mikulas's old setup), Brian 3rd, Josh 5th, and me 9th (eventually beating out five other racers who had all out-paced me on the initial ascents, followed by lots of tough skiing where I could fortunately make up time).

Finally some normal spring weather now, but should be lots of good spring skiing left well into May.

Thanks again for all your support this season, and hope the season has been good for all of you out West!

http://nerandorace.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/NERandoRaceSeries/

Four Hagan skis at the Bromley NE Rando Race Series Race

Michael Hagen

Author

Comments will be approved before showing up.

Also in News

Ambassador Hagan

Hagan Ambassador Program

by Michael Hagen April 15, 2018

Announcing our new Hagan Ambassador Program. We know there are a lot of Hagan fans out there, and we greatly appreciate you. We do almost no marketing. It isn't our nature.

Hagan Brand Ambassadors

If you would like to help spread the word on Hagan and encourage ski tourers to try Hagan gear, please write and tell us a bit about yourself.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON VACUUM BASE SKINS

by Michael Hagen November 05, 2017

HAGAN Vacuum Base Composite climbing skins are developed especially for easy handling. They are very different from traditional glue skins and have specific care and usage guidelines.

In order to guarantee the durability of your HAGAN product, the following guidelines should be kept in mind: