DAY 1 / SATURDAY
7am
Lisa: I was thinking the McDonald's drive-thru did me good as I rubbed my belly full of pancakes and coffee at the starting line. It was snowing lightly and we were about to start our day with a climb at 6720-foot elevation up 1500 feet of vertical. Race directors gave competitors the option of skiing or snowshoeing to Checkpoint 1, and whichever gear you weren't wearing, you carried on your back. Although skis would be heavier on our backs, we opted to snowshoe, well aware of our snowboarding selves embarking on a long day on two planks.

After final gear organizing and map checking, we were off.

11:55am
Greg: Among the other 23 teams were some normal and some not-so-normal human beings. Just so you know, I consider our team to be comprised of three normal human beings, thus the requisite amount of heavy breathing, pain and suffering. Having watched a few teams (the not-so-normal kind) literally ski away from us at Checkpoint 1 with blinding speed, our team settled into what would become an up-and-down ride through the backcountry surrounding Steamboat Springs. Having perfected the use of touring skis one week prior to this event, our expertise basically was not to be seen. Along with other teams of normal beings, we would ski 50 feet or so and then faceplant in about two feet of fresh powder. This comedy took place repeatedly over the course of four hours, but with the help of the newly designed Salomon X-Adventure gear (a ski and snowshoe system with one boot compatible to both), we made it to Checkpoint 2 within minutes of the cut-off time.

1pm
Lisa: Six hours into the race, the effects of the altitude and a long day emerged in the form of light-hearted expletives during the climbs on skis. With a little teamwork and a lot of laughing at ourselves, the three of us finally summitted after what was probably the longest climb of the day, shoved some broken Pringles with raisins stuck in them in our mouths, and enjoyed the ski downward to the base of yet another hill.

5pm
Greg: We knew that climbing the last hill would be the worst, but we also knew that we would have one sweet downhill ski to the first day's finish. We missed the 4pm cut-off for the 150-foot rappel by 20 minutes, but bombed down toward the finish like we were professional downhillers (sort of). We knew we'd soon be sitting in the hot tub, drinking whatever was available, and eating a warm meal of pizza and lasagna that had been promised by the race organizers. We also knew that an excellent day of activity would make for an even more excellent night's sleep ... until getting up once again the next morning for another day of backcountry bliss.

DAY 2 / SUNDAY
7:30am
Lisa: After a good sleep and another pre-race meal of flapjacks and coffee, we were a half-hour into Day 2, running five miles down a paved road on heavy legs. We could see the winners of Day 1 - Team Pearl Izumi up ahead, behind Team Salomon Design Center and Team Three Decades. The second day always hurts more than the first, but the three of us are runners, so these first five miles weren't so bad.

10:20am
Greg: The five-mile road run again led us to a five-mile snowshoe up into the hills. The benefit of being a team of normal human beings was that we didn't have to break trail through the snow, since the leaders had already done that for us. Thus our chore at hand was to follow their trail, and get through the snowshoe course as fast as our tired legs would allow us. Luckily for me, as I got towed by a bungee cord, the legs of my teammates helped get me through the course. Unfortunately, we had an additional five-mile road run back to the transition area, which if you haven't figured out yet, was an exercise in pain management for us. Imagine being pulled down the road not on your own will, with lungs, legs, and mind totally void of any energy, and you'll have a good picture of at least two of us on that second run.

12pm
Greg: With the run behind us we had one more event before we could finally say we were done. With what little energy we had left, we were lucky it was a short, ski orienteering section that would involve only a few hills. The task was to find three orienteering flags hidden in different locations on a mapped course. Having realized that we were close to finishing the event, we were able to gather our energy and find all three flags in good time, navigating successfully to each location with minimal mistakes.

12:40pm
Lisa: We had been swapping positions with another team throughout the ski orienteering section, and met them once again as we left the third and final flag. With competitive juices flowing, we climbed on past them and skied like we'd never skied before (although that's truly not saying much) to the start of the last downhill. And there we saw them: yet another team we might be able to catch for a nondescript, yet at the same time important, 9th place finish for Day 2. Greg suddenly went banzai down the steep, groomed slope, and I followed, trying to minimize my snowplow. The three of us skied past one member of the other team, then the other, then the third. Cheers arose from the finish as we made the final turn and raced to the line. We caught two teams within the last quarter mile, which made for a pretty gratifying end to two days of exhausting but invigorating backcountry adventure.

The True Race
The true race (the one for 1st place) was won by Team Salomon Design Center, which beat out Team Beaver Creek by one minute over two days. Dave Mackey, Darcy Piceu and Adam Chase of Team SDC are snowshoe-, trail- and ultra-runners with skiing backgrounds, though relatively new to adventure racing. The endurance of these Boulder-based athletes and spot-on navigating by Mackey paid off, as Team SDC had a phenomenal race and took home the $900 first prize. Team Beaver Creek finished 2nd, followed by Team Pearl Izumi in 3rd.

This was the second year of the Salomon Winter Adventure Race, with nine more teams than last year competing, marking an increased interest among adventurers getting out and training in the winter months.

"We wanted to give people the total backcountry experience," Siff said at Saturday night's dinner. Well, take it from two competitors who are having flashbacks of climbing and descending snowy hills by foot and dastardly skis, a backcountry experience it was. And a good one at that.