Bob Marley would have been proud of the 50 telemarkers and six snowboarders who took part in Sunday's Sun Valley Telemark Series event at Soldier Mountain near Fairfield.
The Bob Marley's Birthday Reggae Race sponsored by Black Diamond and Scott USA was an all-terrain spectacular—top to bottom at Soldier, through the Terrain Park followed by a hike up Monument and skiing through great snow on north-facing slopes.
And music by a band from Durango, Colo. at the cabin.
Ryan Casey won the Elite Men's race over John King, while Jen King and Mollie Holt placed 1-2 in the Women's Sport Class. Jeremy Hadden was the Citizen Men's winner and Guy Robins clocked the fastest snowboard time on the course.
Open Class snowboard winner was Shawn Kelly.
Soldier also staged a Big Air contest for alpine, telemark and snowboard Sunday—and telemarkers captured the top three spots with winner Chris Cook, Ryan Casey and Danny Walton. The only women in the contest were Mollie Holt and snowboarder Robin Shaw.
"Best Air," went to Chris Cook and "Best Effort," to Doug Oplt, who hiked up Monument the whole way. The awards party was held at Whiskey Jacques in Ketchum.
Next: The Kavu Dollar Mountain giant slalom is Sunday, March 6. Besides telemarkers, snowboarders are welcome to participate. No alpine is allowed in the series.
Series sponsors: Guinness, the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber & Visitor Bureau, Atomic and Sentinel Fire and Security.
Results by class from Soldier Mountain Sunday:
Elite Men: 1—Ryan Casey 4:17.58. 2—John King 4:32.36. 3—Buck Cobb 4:41.73. 4—Joel Mallett 4:45.43. 5—Scott Levy 4:49.69. 6—Lance Levy 4:50.94. 7—Chris Page 4:59.80. 8—Todd Falk 5:06.98. 9—Danny Walton 5:18.61. 10—Randy Edgar 5:51.42. 11—Chris Cook.
Elite Snowboard: 1—Guy Robins 4:24.09. Men's Snowboard: 1—Shawn Kelly 4:50.23. 2—Chris Barrell 5:18.04. 3—Eric Tiles 5:27.84. 4—Frank Stanton 5:29.74. 5—Brian Bailey 5:41.22.
Women's Sport (top 15): 1—Jen King 5:12.21. 2—Mollie Holt 5:32.35. 3—Thia Konig 5:34.75. 4—Tiffany Moore 6:10.29. 5—Staci Page 6:10.92.
6—Casey Hanrahan 6:12.24. 7—Sara Torres 6:20.15. 8—Kelly Mabel 6:20.69. 9—Randi Pallan 6:22.22. 10—Julie McGregor 6:26.53. 11—Pauline Flippo 6:38.95. 12—Jill Parker 6:40.86. 13—Christine Bretal 6:44.36. 14—Robin Shaw 7:01.46. 15—Becky Brown 7:12.24.
Citizen Men: 1—Jeremy Hadden 4:58.16. 2—Sean McEntee 5:08.95. 3—Sean Flynn 5:16.40. 4—Chad Hansen 5:26.48. 5—Chad Brown 5:30.89.
6—Todd Carrier 5:35.31. 7—Jim Hadden 5:36.36. 8—Josh Glick 5:41.53. 9—Greg Hedin 5:45.54. 10—Doug Oplt 5:48.64. 11—Randy Edgar 5:51.42. 12—Rudy Karkowski 6:05.46. 13—Mike Torrez 6:05.89. 14—Chris Tucker 6:19.04. 15—Logan Largent 6:45.38. 16—John Roach 6:52.90. 17—Tim Rocco 7:77.49.
