Snowshoeing in August

Yeah, I realize it's August 2nd but it's never too early to begin planning a snowshoe racing series. In 2009 the Granite State Snowshoe Series (GSSS) was born as the collection of existing NH-based snowshoe races were organized together to further promote snowshoe racing in the region. Whether causal or coincidental, all six races in the series saw record numbers of participants. The series also developed a strong team aspect to this individual sport as a number of groups raced under united team colors including Dungeon Rock Racing, Rochester Runners, CMS, Team TNT, and of course the series champions...acidotic RACING. In addition to team excellence, the series witnessed the rise of two stars in the sport, Jim Johnson (CMS) and Liz Hall (acidotic RACING). These two athletes captured the men's and women's series titles. They were not, however, the only top athletes to compete in the series. Both categories saw fierce battles for podium positions with the Top 3 overall spots determined on the last racing weekend of the series. Laurel Valley, Leslie Dillon, Diane Levesque, Ri Fahnestock, Scott Graham, Jay Myers, and Steve Wolfe all either finished on the series podium or were within points of doing so.

Looking forward to the winter of 2010, the northeast will be the epicenter of snowshoe racing in the United States as the US Championships will be held in Syracuse, NY on March 5-7th. Not to be outdone, the GSSS will add a Granite State Snowshoe Championship event on March 13th (tentative) at a location to be determined. The original six series races will return with the possibility of an additional one or two races added before this fall. The 2010 GSSS schedule is set to be released very soon on the GSSS website. Check it frequently in the next few weeks. Snowshoe racing is argueably the fastest growing winter sport in the northeast and the success of our series is a testament to that fact.

[Photo cred: acidotic RACING's Jay Myers at the Pooh Hill Snowshoe Scramble, Madison, NH]