Natalie third in America's Uphill

Woody Creek Racing's Natalie Ward continued her strong season with a third place overall in yesterday's America's Uphill race in Aspen. America's Uphill has been going on for 22 years, it is a straight uphill race from the base of Aspen Mountain to the summit. Natalie has won this race 3 times and was the course record holder for a few years. Yesterday she entered for the first time in a couple of seasons and had a great race, recording a 55:40* (probably a 56:24 in reality). She was also the top skier as the first two racers were in the "open" division which usually utilizes spiked running shoes or snowshoes. Good job skier!

* A side note: Ricky Gates went super fast and posted a time that will officially go down as a course record, 40:26. However, there was substantial confusion over the timing as the finishing clock showed a 41:10, some 9 seconds short of legendary Matt Carpenter's record. Many racers had timed themselves including multiple winner Mike Kloser. Their times were almost exactly in time with the finishing clock, throwing the record in dispute. Here's hoping the timing goes perfectly next year and Ricky can set the record and leave no doubt.

Left: Natalie climbing her way up the infamous Spar Gulch

Right: Natalie Ward (L) - 3rd, Megan Lund (C) - 1st, Cynthia Arnold (R) - 2nd