Jennifer Mygatt '04 faced the steep course and cold Greenlandic coastal winds with the words of fellow-racer Fabian Mauz in her head: "If you can't find something to smile about you might as well shoot yourself."
It made her laugh as she was forced to herringbone up another hill of the formidable terrain in conditions that, on that first day of the Arctic Circle Race Sunday, March 28, could be called challenging at best.
"It didn't let up a lot," Mygatt said. "And you couldn't really warm up. None of the locals had seen weather that bad in March."
Two days after Mygatt and Emily Chenel '04 arrived in Sisimiut, Greenland for the three-day, 160-kilometer cross-country ski race, a severe storm destroyed the skiers' base camp and wiped out the groomed tracks, bringing 50-meter-per-second winds, decreased visibility and negative 52-degree temperatures that necessitated a two-day race delay. Only five out of 88 original tents at the original skiers' camp were still usable; the course had to be completely redesigned and the race shortened to two days and 106 kilometers.
The racers finally set off at noon on Sunday. As Mygatt made her second lap past the first control post, a support volunteer warmed Mygatt's Dermatone-protected cheeks and checked her for frostbite.
"I was afraid someone was going to pull me for something and I felt fine. I was just afraid I'd get frostbite and they'd make me stop," Mygatt said. "You just kind of start going and you don't stop until it's over. Just go. You just get out there and ski."
Mygatt and Chenel finished the 53 kilometers over slow, dry snow by 5:15 p.m. The last skier returned after nine and a half hours, escorted through the dark by three snowmobiles.
Norwegian Bjorn Daehlie, hailed as the most successful cross-country skier of all time and a competitor at the ACR this year, said in an ACR press release, "I have taken part in hundreds of races and so feel well qualified to admit this one has lived up to its reputation as the hardest. I am impressed by the racers who manage to finish year after year."
Twnety-eight skiers dropped out of the race by the second day, but coaches and friends never doubted that Mygatt and Chenel would succeed at this long-distance endurance cross-country ski event, despite the fact that neither of them had ever done anything like it.
"Knowing their characters, it was not surprising. It suits them," said Ruff Patterson, director of the Dartmouth ski program. "It wasn't a small thing that they did, it was a very extreme event."
Women's cross-country coach Cami Thompson agreed.
"It's right up their alley to do long races. Just the fact that it's a little bit out of the ordinary and it was such an adventure and it's a long race -- that's something they could really do well at."
The first day of the race, Chenel came in just three minutes after first-place finisher Ulioq Slettemark, having kept pace with her until a necessary pit stop toward the end. At the finish line on day two, Chenel and Slettemark, who has won the ACR for the past six years, crossed the finish line hand-in-hand.
According to Mygatt, the second day's weather was a huge relief. She and Chenel were overwhelmed by the beauty of the fjords and the stark blue, black, and white landscape around them. Mygatt began with a fast start and kept pace with Chenel and the lead group of women until the downhill when Chenel's racing experience allowed her to race Ulioq Slettemark on the downhills faster than she's ever skied, according to Mygatt.
Of 120 skiers from 12 different countries, Chenel came in 17th overall with a combined time of 09:25:53 over the two days. Mygatt came in 23rd at 10:23:59. They finished second and third out of 28 women, 19 who finished the race.
Chenel grew up cross-country skiing in Washington state. She competed in Junior Nationals in high school, was an Olympic forerunner at Salt Lake City in 2002 and has skied for Dartmouth's varsity cross-country ski team for four years. A regular at carnivals, she spent this past season training for 5 to 15-kilometer races.
This winter, Mygatt entered two 50-kilometer marathon races that helped her prepare in part for the ACR.
"Three years ago I had never skied at all. Going to Greenland to race and having a really strong experience there -- it was just great," Mygatt said.
A few of the race participants were doubtful that the two young American girls could handle the race before they saw them ski, Mygatt said. They were two of three Americans in a group dominated by Greenlandic, Swiss and Danish competitors.
"I knew they'd do well because they're both so determined and I think challenges that might seem impossible to other people seem really doable to them," said ski team co-captain Eileen Carey '04. "If two people were going to do it they'd be the two people from the team I would think would be successful at it."
The difficulties of the race surprised Mygatt. She had worried about the distance and keeping warm at night, but said the hardest part was dealing with the weather the first few days.
"The things I thought would be tough were not tough," she said.
On Friday the race was cancelled, Saturday was a series of delays and on Sunday the race was postponed from nine to noon. Mygatt said she appreciated how positively everyone dealt with the disappointments and delays leading up to the race: Everyone seemed excited to be there.
"It's not just a race," she said. She described meeting skiers from several different countries; listening to announcements made in Danish; Greenlandic, and English; the social and excited atmosphere; fascinating stories and eccentric personalities, and the fact that everyone was there to ski.
"Everyone loves skiing so much. Enough to get there," she said.
Besides Dartmouth seniors Mygatt and Chenel, participants included nordic-skiing icon Bjrn Dhlie of Norway, Philip Boit who skied for Kenya in the 1998 and 2002 Olympics and was the first African to compete in the winter Olympic games. Mygatt and Chenel were two out of three Americans competing.
First, second, third, and fourth-place finishers were ystein Slettemark of Greenland, former member of the Swiss national team and Olympic competitor Patrick Rlli, Olivier Bulle of France, and former German nordic-combined national team member Fabian Mauz.
