1,000 coming for Boulder Ski Tour
Biggest field ever for Saturday’s race
"We’re setting new records. We’ll end
up with over 1,000 skiers, which is close to 200 more than we’ve ever had
before."
—KEVIN SWIGERT, Race director
By JEFF CORDES
Express Sports Editor
In 1973, some local cross-country skiing
buffs like Kevin Swigert, John Beaupre and Ruff Patterson originated what was
then called the Sawtooth Mountain Marathon. There were only 49 entrants.
This coming Saturday, a record-breaking
crowd of over 1,000 skiers will tackle the 28th Annual Wells Fargo Boulder
Mountain Ski Tour along a similar 32-kilometer (19.8-mile) course north of
Ketchum.
It’s an event that has matured from a
small, local race to an event of national prominence on the American Ski
Marathon Series circuit. But it’s also very close to its roots.
Race director for the first time is
Swigert, 49, a Wood River High School graduate who not only won the Boulder Tour
three times, he also was a three-time U.S. national champ in cross-country
skiing.
"We’re setting new records," said Swigert
on Sunday. "We’ll end up with over 1,000 skiers, which is close to 200 more than
we’ve ever had before."
In all, the 2003 Boulder Tour events will
cover three days and roam up and down the valley—from Ketchum to Hailey and the
actual race starting line of Galena Lodge 23 miles north of Ketchum.
But the main event is Saturday’s race,
which leaves Senate Meadows near Galena Lodge at 10 a.m. and finishes for the
elite skiers about 11:15 a.m. at the SNRA headquarters seven miles north of
town.
This week’s rainy weather could guarantee
a lightning-quick course, according to chief-of-start Rick Kapala. But you never
know. Cool temperatures and new snow could slow the course considerably.
Swigert, Boulder Tour winner in 1975, 1976
and 1980, said, "The men’s and women’s elite fields are both full with 50 skiers
each. And it looks like the women’s elite field is very strong, possibly
stronger than the men’s this year."
Racing for the Subaru Factory Team on her
2003 retirement tour will be 19-time national champion and four-time Olympian
Nina Kemppel of Anchorage. Defending Boulder Tour women’s winner Suzanne King is
on the Atomic Team.
The Rossignol Factory Team, which is
sending 11 skiers, includes Ketchum’s Brooke Baughman, second to King last year
in the Boulder. And the Alpina Factory Team features Irene Eder and Natalie
Ward.
Hailey’s Kristina Joder is also on the
nine-skier Subaru Team coming to Ketchum.
Two-time defending men’s champion Justin
Wadsworth wasn’t registered as of Sunday, Swigert said. But the men’s field
looks very solid.
It includes Rossignol skiers Jon Engen,
two-time Boulder king John Aalberg, Peter Webb of Ketchum and Colin Mahood of
Bend, Ore. Subaru racers include Eric Meyer and Nathan Schultz, both of Boulder,
Colo.
"We changed the structure of all the
waves," Swigert said.
Race organizers will separate the field
into eight waves starting with the 50 elite men at 10 a.m. and the 50 elite
women at 10:01 a.m. A five-minute break will follow, and then the third wave
will leave.
Swigert said, "Having the break will free
up the elite women so they won’t intermix with that aggressive third wave of men
that in the past has caused tremendous traffic."
The third through six waves, each with 150
skiers, will depart two minutes apart. Then there will be another five-minute
break and the final two waves of 150 skiers will leave.
One notable skier who won the Boulder Ski
Tour in 1997 will mingle with some of the later skiers—giving technique advice
and lending motivation.
Two-time Olympian and nine-time national
champ Marcus Nash of the Subaru Team will start in the fifth wave and ski with
the thongs of citizens that make the Boulder one of this country’s greatest
skiing events, according to a Subaru Team press release.
Here is the schedule:
- Friday, Jan. 31: The Wells Fargo
Festival Tent will be set up in the parking lot across from Ketchum’s Giacobbi
Square from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. There, racers will pick up their bibs and BMT
duffel bags. Twelve manufacturer booths will operate in the tent.
- Saturday, Feb. 1: Shuttle buses to
Galena Lodge from the Ketchum Park & Ride will run from 7 a.m. to 9:15 a.m.
Skiers in the first four waves should take the earlier buses. Spectators can
ride some of the later buses if they wish.
"We’re doing everything we can to
alleviate traffic problems," Swigert said. Traffic headed north to Stanley can
still get through, but no private cars will be allowed at Galena Lodge, he
added.
The post-race party will start at 5 p.m.
at The Cutters Barn off Buttercup Rd., Hailey. The party includes a catered
dinner, live music and announcement of $3,500 in cash awards plus raffle prizes.
Some 150 dinner tickets still remain.
- Sunday, Feb. 2: As part of today’s
Wells Fargo Ski Festival at Galena Lodge, free cross-country ski demos and
free clinics will be available starting at 10 a.m. Bring kids 12-and-under to
the children’s cross-country adventure course, too.
The festival ends at 2 p.m. with prize
drawings for registered kids and adults who participated in earlier events.
The Boulder Tour organizing committee that
has been meeting on a regular basis since last August includes Bob Rosso, Rick
Kapala, Ted Angle, Jenny Busdon, Ed Cannady, Pepin Corso-Harris, Ned Hamlin,
Roberta Heinrich, Gay Riley, Andy Munter, Jim Mayne, Nappy Neaman, Tall Paul,
Gene Ramsey, Muffy Ritz, Ron Robinson, Jim Santa, Char Savage, Carlin Thompson,
John Seiller, Peter Stephenson, John Wells and Mike Wolter.