February 26, 2008 12:49 AM
24 seconds of racing vs. 24 hours
I managed to squeeze my surgically repaired but still very sore foot into a ski boot on Saturday and make a few runs at Keystone. It was great to be back, even if I did have to limit myself to a half day and stay far away from the black runs.
It was painful pushing the foot into the boot and painful getting it back out, but not bad at all while I was skiing. I even made both runs of the Teamski race instead of stopping at one like I’d planned, and I was only a little bit slower than my December time on the same course prior to my foot surgery.
So I’m back to skiing; the next challenge is to get running again. That’s going to be a very gradual process.
While I was enjoying an abbreviated day on the slopes at Keystone, some hardy skiers were pushing their limits at Sunlight Mountain Resort in the 3rd annual 24 Hours of Sunlight.
My race at Keystone took exactly 24.05 seconds, so for each second I spent racing, the Sunlight competitors literally spent an hour. Where I had the luxury of riding a chairlift back to the top after each run, they were climbing back up under their own power.
So I take my hat off to Eric Sullivan, of Crested Butte, who completed 34 laps of striding up and skiing down the mountain to set a new record of 51,068 vertical feet climbed under his own power, and to Molly Zurn, of Reno, Nev., who set a women’s record of more than 30,000 vertical feet in completing 22 laps.
The race directors reported a field of almost 300 competitors – 100 more than in the previous year – and 82 teams. According to Sunlight’s Web site, together they completed 1,822 laps, accumulating 2,551 miles trekked with 518 miles of elevation gain.
That’s an impressive feat, but what really caught my eye was the big gain in participation. Whether it’s for the challenge, the team camaraderie, the perverse pleasure of skiing all night instead of heeding the call to come home – whatever it is – these folks are having fun. And they’re drawing more people to join them.
In contrast, Teamski has struggled to survive the past couple of years as the number of racers dwindle. And that struggle was the main topic of conversation at my table during the awards party following the race.
We recalled the glory years of not so long ago when we had three or four times the approximately 150 racers we have now. People got older, had kids and started devoting their time to their youngsters’ racing instead of their own was the prominent speculation, and certainly there’s a lot of gray in the heads nodding agreement.
What we can’t quite figure out, however, is why the younger skiers aren’t joining our ranks, especially since there are so many kids racing in big youth programs across Colorado and the nation. Where do they go after racing in high school, college and perhaps making a run at the U.S. Olympic program?
Maybe someday somebody will do a study. Meantime, it looks like a few at least are migrating to backcountry skiing and the type of challenges represented by the 24 Hours of Sunlight.
Join the discussion