Chris Rose celebrates sweet victory at the Hill of Death Graveyard Summit.

Sept. 16-  The traditional pre-season Peru Nordic Masters/Saratoga Biathlon get together took place today on the infamous wall of the beloved Hill of Death.  Although technically not a race, the climb to the graveyard finishline always becomes competitive.  Members of the Peru Nordic Masters used team tactics to break away on the first pitch.  By rotating the lead, this paceline of rollerskiers was able to get a good recovery on the false flats by the Peru dump.  At the "Kobak Korner" turn, two oversized and overzealous rotweilers almost stopped the group, but Bob Maswick used his patented "dog whisperer" technique to safely guide the racers through.   When the final wall was reached, Jim Kobak had the lead.  Quickly, Chris Rose attacked with Rene Sommerfelt-esqe compression and turnover.  Rose broke away on the climb and sailed to victory.  Near the apex of the climb, Kobak hit the wall like Joergen Brink at the '03 World Championships.  "I skied the 10 k like a 5 k."  Bob Maswick noted the lactate induced weakness and struck.  With a  few powerful strokes, he separated from Kobak to cruise into the silver medal.    Saratoga Biathlon's Tom Moffet captured fourth place, losing valuable time to the other racers in the shooting range.    Conspicuously absent from the finish were Doug Deil and Charlie Mitchell.


After the climb, members of the Peru Nordic Masters gathered for the world premeire of Inertia: the movie.  This 45 minute opus got rave reviews from Bob Maswick, "that was really good."  However, it was panned by renowned critic, Kim Rose, who noted that her husband was acting, "really gay" at least 6 times during the film.  The movie is now available on DVD in limited release.  Try Netflix, or contact [email protected] for a copy.