Ketchum locals Roger Mankus and Kyle Rafford com-peted in the 12 Hours of Sun-light Endurance Challenge Sunday, Feb. 13 at Sunlight Ski Resort outside of Glenwood Springs, Colo.
Their sponsors included Club Ride Apparel, Jensen & Stern, Johnny G's Subshack, The Elephants Perch and Te-cate.
The 12-hour hike-up/ski-down enduro challenged skiers, snowboarders and snowshoers to hike a run called Rebel and then ski, board, hike or other-wise slide down the exciting run called Beaujolais.
Climbing per lap was 1,550 feet and the course was closed to all other mountain users. Racers tried complete the most laps in a 12-hour period, start-ing at 8 a.m.
Rafford and Mankus com-peted in the Solo category and were both on Randonee gear, the preferred method of suffer-ing amongst the majority of participants.
In the end both racers com-pleted 12 laps. Rafford threw in the towel at 7:01 p.m. and Mankus—the voice of reason—finished in a daze at 7:15 p.m. They placed fifth and sixth re-spectively, both men climbing over 18,000 feet for the day.
The winner of the race was Carey Smith (Dynafit, Hammer Nutrition) out of Jackson, Wyoming. Smith completed an unimaginable 19 laps and took home the $500 cash prize.