Carl Praeger is 49 years old and for the past 30 years he has been the consummate Wood River Valley athlete, competitor and citizen, the embodiment of a mountain town lifestyle of healthy living and physical activity. He has consistently been one of the community's best competitive endurance athletes for all those years. He grew up in Seattle, where he was a competitive water skier, swimmer, wind surfer and Hobie cat skipper. At the University of Washington he competed on the swimming and crew teams. Of course, he was a lifetime skier, and that passion led him to Sun Valley, where, since 1983 he has been one of the best skiers and instructors on the Sun Valley Ski School.
Now, Praeger is in trouble and the Sun Valley Ski School is coming to his assistance and asking the Wood River Valley community to join them. Praeger recently underwent his fourth surgery in just over two years to rid his body of the cancer that has attacked his mouth, throat and neck. The ongoing treatments and surgeries have been financially devastating to Praeger. Members of the ski school have taken it upon themselves to relieve his financial stress as much as possible in order to allow him to focus solely on recovery.
On Friday, March 23, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Carol's Dollar Mountain Lodge in Sun Valley, there will be silent and live auctions, music and dancing by the Kim Stocking Band, food by the Sun Valley Co. and raffle tickets for a season's ski pass to benefit Praeger. Raffle tickets are $10 each or six for $50 and can be bought at Apple's Bar & Grill, The Roosevelt Tavern, Warm Springs Ski School desk at Warm Springs Lodge or from a Sun Valley ski instructor.
Among many other auction items will be a guided opportunity to "Bag a peak for Carl" for 10 people with The Elephant Perch mainstays and mountaineers Nappy Neaman and Roger Mankus; a day of helicopter skiing with Sun Valley Helicopter Ski Guides; a Las Vegas weekend at the MGM; a house for a week in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; gift certificates for many different local restaurants, stores and personal services; and dozens of items as varied as golf lessons, skis, ski tunes, wines, fur blankets, art, clothes, movie tickets, snow removal and many others.
Though he originally came to Sun Valley to train as a competitive bump skier, Praeger eventually joined the ski school in order to earn enough money to finish his studies at the University of Washington and, of course, to get a lift pass.
"If I was going to ski, my only option was to join the ski school, much to the chagrin of my bump skiing buddies," he said.
He has worked with the ski school every winter since 1983, and, he says, "It just keeps getting better and better."
After graduating from UW with a degree in exercise physiology, Praeger spent 22 years managing Elkhorn's two swimming pools. He also began doing volunteer work at the Gold Mine thrift store, which supports the Community Library in Ketchum. At the Gold Mine he worked with the sports equipment, and store manager Jan Mason said he proved himself so helpful to so many customers that store employees finally decided they needed to pay him.
"He's a treasure for us," Mason says. "People just glommed on to him—he's so patient."
After Praeger moved to Idaho, he took up cross-country ski racing, road bike racing and triathlons. He has regularly finished in the top 25 in the Boulder Mountain Tour, which attracts over 1,000 competitors each year. He always finished in the top 10 in the annual Baldy Hill Climb. He has posted numerous second place finishes in the Tri-Elephanton race, each time behind his younger brother, Wade, who he credits with inspiring him to push harder in his endurance racing.
"The emphasis for me wasn't on winning," Carl said. "It was on participation and having fun."
From road biking Praeger moved to mountain bike racing. He won the Master's Expert division in numerous northwest regional races in Idaho, Washington and Montana, as well as the Idaho state championships.
In October 2004, just after winning a mountain bike race near Pocatello, Praeger noticed a small sore on the side of his tongue. He had it checked out by a doctor. A biopsy done in Seattle confirmed he had cancer. It was horrifying news.
He went in for surgery almost immediately. Part of his tongue and the lymph nodes in his neck were removed. But the cancer had spread. In May 2005, a radical neck dissection, from his ear lobes to his Adam's apple and out to his shoulder blades, removed more lymph nodes and his saliva glands. Two months later his cancerous tonsils were removed, as were tumors on his spine. He was treated with radiation and chemotherapy.
Praeger was told the cancer had gone into remission, but in May 2006 scans showed a new tumor on the back of his tongue and an apparent tumor in his lung. He was given heavy-duty chemo treatments. The suspected tumor on his lung disappeared, but the one on his tongue kept growing.
He was informed that since the cancer had spread further, radiation or surgery would be of no use. However, a doctor at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle told him he thought he might be able to beat the disease with one more surgery.
In January surgeons removed more tissue from his mouth and throat, including most of his tongue. He is now relearning how to talk and, he hopes, to swallow. He has been told he will probably need to obtain most of his food through a tube directly into his stomach for the rest of his life.
Despite his suffering and uncertain future, Praeger has embraced his old life with as much gusto as humanly possible. He is already riding his road bike, skiing on Bald Mountain with his friends in his free time and, most important, teaching skiing once again with the Sun Valley Ski School, which concludes its news release on the Carl Praeger benefit with: "... and we humbly ask for your help."
Carl Praeger skis in the 2000 Boulder Mountain Ski Tour. Photo by David N. Seelig
