He’s conquered the Squamish 50, Alice Lake and mountain trails all over the world and Nick Elson added the Sea to Sky Gondola to the list on Saturday (June 27).
Elson won the inaugural Sea to Sky Scramble vertical race, completing the six-kilometre run from the bottom to the top of the Gondola in 46 minutes.
He edged out his ski mountaineering teammate and Squamish resident Eric Carter by 81 seconds in the win. Vancouver’s Jordan Guenette finished third with a time of 55:32.
Other Squamish residents in the top 10 included: Eric Goodwin (fifth, 57:54) and JD Disney (ninth, 1:01:27).
Squamish’s Zoe Dawson was the top female at the event, completing the course in 1:05:28. She beat out American MK Cirelli and Vancouver’s Emma Slaughter in the win.
It turned out to be an even more memorable day for Dawson and Goodwin as they were also awarded the first ever Squamish Mountain Man and Woman champion. Run Squamish, the group running the Scramble, partnered up with Test of Metal to combine times from each event to crown a top local male and female. The lowest times for both gender received prizes.
Goodwin completed the Test of Metal on June 20 with a time of 2:54:05 and finished 31st overall to combine with his fifth place showing at the Scramble to win the Mountain Man title. Dawson placed 81st overall in the Test with a time of 3:07:19 and combined with her strong showing at the Scramble was crowned the 2015 Mountain Woman champ.
The event also crowned the Squamish Mountain Boy and Girl, with a random drawing of all the kids who participated in both the Mini-Metal on June 21 and the Mini-Scramble on Saturday. Travis Fleming and Moira Masterson were the winners and also received a number of prizes from local businesses.
The Scramble’s debut drew a total of 93 participants and was the third of four races in the inaugural year for the Run Squamish series.
The next event for the group is the Skyline Ridge Trail run, which also occurs atop the Gondola. Runners can hit the trails on either a 10 km or 21 km race. It all goes down on Oct. 10 and kicks off at 9:30 a.m.
