By TREVOR SCHUBERT
and REBECCA MEANY
Express Staff Writers
The Honda Ski Tour kicks off Thursday, Jan 11, and Sun Valley Co. and other area businesses are eager to see the culmination of their hard work on the big stage.
The multi-day event will feature some of the best skiers in the world in skiercross and halfpipe competitions chasing their share of a $500,000 purse. In addition, the tour will feature headliner bands in local pubs and eateries and at the Basecamp Music Experience in downtown Ketchum.
Coverage of The Ski Tour's inaugural Sun Valley stop will be aired on ABC television Saturday, Jan. 20. The tour will then visit three other major ski areas in the West.
Event organizers have said the event could bring thousands of visitors to Ketchum and Sun Valley.
"It should be an exciting time and an exciting week," said Sun Valley Co. spokesman Jack Sibbach.
On Jan. 7, the tour gained official accreditation from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA), the national governing body for Olympic skiing and snowboarding, as a sanctioned USSA skiercross event. The sanctioning requires the skiercross course to be built according to strict international standards, said USSA Chief Operating Officer Dick Coe.
"I am very impressed with what they are doing over there (on Dollar Mountain)," Sibbach said. "There is a lot of snow being pushed around. They (the tour representatives) are designing it. We are just helping them build it."
According to Sibbach, Sun Valley Co.'s mountain staff described the tour's designers and crew as a "very professional" group.
The International Olympic Committee recently approved the addition of skiercross for the 2010 Winter Games. "This essentially makes The Honda Ski Tour the proving ground for our future Olympic ski cross athletes," Coe said. "This is a great development for The Honda Ski Tour."
In addition to skiercross, the tour will feature halfpipe competitions on the Warm Springs side of Bald Mountain. The combination of progressive skiing and avant-garde musical acts should provide an injection of youth and excitement some say Sun Valley has been lacking in recent years.
"I think it will help our image as an exciting place to be," Sibbach said. "I think it is more important than the World Cup being here. It (the World Cup) is not an exciting thing anymore unless you are really into downhill skiing."
Kipp Nelson, The Ski Tour co-founder who lives in Ketchum, agrees the tour can provide a much needed spark to the community, if everything goes according to plan.
"Steve (Brown, co-founder) and I have seen too many of these made-for-television events that don't really involve the towns' people," Nelson said. "Often at these competitions they don't care if the public shows up to watch. We want the whole town to come out ... and if they don't it will look bad on television."
Sibbach pointed to the hours upon hours of energy that have gone into preparations.
"Everyone has put a lot of time and energy into this event," he said, "and I just hope it goes off smooth."
Already, the town is filling up with people, and that is a boon for local business.
More than a dozen workers are staying in hotels in Warm Springs Village in Ketchum, said Hank Minor, owner of Apple's Bar & Grill.
"They've been coming in here for briefing meetings to talk about what they need to get accomplished," he said. "They're using our facility a ton. They're having something to eat, having coffee at our new coffee bar. They're spending a lot of money in town. In short, it's exactly what this town needs."
Ketchum's downtown and Warm Springs Village have seen businesses sag, and the city is gradually implementing aspects of a new master plan to try to revive economic and social activity.
"The Ski Tour is going to boost the economy," Minor said, giving accolades to the event's founders.
"It's like Christmas is coming again," he said. "This town has been needing this for 30 years, this kind of culture, this kind of soul, this kind of passion. Our town needs to support it to the max."
The Honda Ski Tour co-founder Kipp Nelson, of Ketchum, tours the site of the event?s main concert venue on East Avenue in downtown Ketchum. The skiing and music extravaganza is expected to attract thousands of visitors to the Wood River Valley. Photo by Willy Cook
