2021 Hinesburg Town Forest Winter Adventure Summary & Photos

From the feedback we continue to receive, the bite-sized, “do it at your own speed, on your own time” type events seems to be a hit! Unfortunately due to some insurance hiccups we weren’t able to announce this thirt installment until just a couple days before it opened, but that didn’t stop almost 20 teams from exploring the beautiful winter wonderland of the HTF.

Timing could not have been better as the warm weather is quickly rolling in, and temps climbing briefly into the 60’s – we might not have snow much longer! The combination of warm and cold days added unique challenges – some teams had clumps of wet sticky snow as ankle weights, and other teams had a crusty top layer that would only sometimes break under full weight, making every off-trail step a clunky surprise! You can see the photos teams shared, as well as their result sheets, in the photo gallery.

EVENT RECAP:

Teams received their instructions and maps before the “nine-day drop-in-whenever-you-like” window began. Participants were given 2 options for maps, either a HTF trail map with the points pre-plotted, or alternatively a blank trail map along with a topo map of plotted points incase they wanted to practice reading a topo map and transferring the points to the trail map (a valuable skill in adventure racing!) There were 18 total points, and of those only 4 were on trail. The layout of points was designed so there wasn’t just one clear route choice for a team looking to clear all the points – I’d say this was a success as we received multiple emails wondering how other teams approached the course and what was the best route.

It was fun to see the varied approaches, ranging from teams dropping by on multiple days to grab a few more points each time, to experienced teams pushing to do everything as quickly as they could in a single go.

We’re glad you all made the event your own!

While this was largely a non-competitive event, we can’t help but highlight team CloudKicker who postholed the entire course and finished in an impressive 3 hours 45 minutes! (Even after losing a shoe in knee deep snow and having to dig a giant hole to find it!) An impressive feat of navigation, speed, and endurance!

Congratulations to everyone that participated. For those curious for something bigger, the Bitter Pill is coming up later this summer. To everyone reading this, we hope you are finding time to have adventures, whatever size they may be!