Great Bear Chase 2013 wrap-up

Our first Nordic race mapping project was a success!  It all started with making a pre-race map for the Great Bear Chase Ski Marathon (GBC) organizers, and finished with the Trail Genius (TG) crew racing the event.

We could not have asked for better conditions for filming the pr-race map, it was cold but the sun was shinning and the trail crew took extra care to make sure the trails looked and skied great.  The plan was to ski and film the 25k course with two skiers from the GBC crew and Chris from Trail Genius.  One of the GBC crew used his striding gear for a short section at the beginning of the course, and then switched to his skate gear for the remainder of the course.  One of the trail grooming crew was kind enough to follow our every move in the snowmobile/groomer with one our our TG cameras, and Chris wore a backup camera on his head.  In the end the footage came out great, and the map we created is available on the TG site and embedded in the GBC race map page.

Four of the TG crew were present to help film on race day.  Phil and Barb took care of the 14k classic, Katie the 14k skate, Phil finished his 14k in time to do the 25k skate, and Chris was in charge of the 50k skate.  The weather was cloudy with a chance of snow, and the temp was hovering just below freezing.  The course started out fast, but it started to snow part way through the 50k which slowed things down a bit.  In the end everyone made it through their respective races and the video and GPS was used to create a race map of the event.

Overall it was a great weekend!  The Great Bear Chase organizers do a great job at running a first class event, we really enjoyed working with them and look forward to seeing our maps put to good use.

Thanks to the guys over at Brockit Inc for taking great photos of TG crew and the whole event.