How cold was it for Sunday’s 40th annual Winterstart cross-country ski races at Galena Lodge 23 miles north of Ketchum? Single digits when the sun finally came out, but below-zero around dawn.
Nevertheless 90 Nordic skiers proved that the spirit of a season opener was more powerful than the blast of cold air. And Galena Lodge had plenty of snow from a series of early December storms that dumped snow at higher elevations.
Race director Rick Kapala, head coach of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s Nordic team, said, “Temperatures hovered at –5 Fahrenheit as skiers arrived. The start was pushed back a half hour to 10:30 a.m. to allow for extra time for the sun to warm the day.”
Technique was skating with starts of four skiers per wave.
In the Men’s 10-kilometer race, the top tier featured all SVSEF Gold Team racers with Patrick Johnson winning in 22:31 followed by teammate Matt Gelso (22:47) and SVSEF post-grad Kevin Bolger (24:14).
Brooke Hovey (26:20) started her season looking fit as she bested SVSEF Gold Teamer Alexa Turzian (27:04) and former U.S. Olympian Nancy Fiddler (30:40) in the 10k skate.
In the 5k, SVSEF standouts Laurel Fiddler (14:01) and Maranda Stopol (15:17) went 1-2 and third-place Muffy Ritz (15:23) looked sharp in a new race suit. Former SVSEF junior David Vanderpool (12:06) won men’s 5k followed closely by SVSEF J2 boys Eli Jensen (13:32) and Peter Wolter (13:34).
Nordic World Cup update
( Ketchum’s Reid Pletcher, 24, winner of the USSA SuperTour skate sprint Nov. 29 in Bozeman, Mt., qualified for the International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cup sprint races Dec. 7-8 at Quebec City, Canada. Pletcher and former Boulder Mountain Ski Tour king Sylvan Ellefson of Vail, Colo. finished 24th in team sprints.
( Five SVSEF Gold Team racers including Pletcher have qualified for further North American World Cup races Dec. 13-16 at Canmore, Alberta, Canada. Others are Mike Sinnott, Matt Gelso, Chelsea Holmes and Simi Hamilton (33rd in Saturday’s Quebec individual skate sprint, with Pletcher 73rd in that event).
Canmore events: Mass start classic Thursday (women 10k/men 15k), skate sprints Friday and mass skiathlon Saturday (women 15k/men 30k).
( Anchorage’s Kikkan Randall swept the Quebec sprint weekend and moved the defending FIS World Cup sprint queen into first place in the 2012-13 sprint standings and into second place overall behind Norway’s Marit Bjoergen.
( The U.S. Olympic Committee honored the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team with its “Team of the Month” award for Nov. 2012. The team made history Nov. 25 in Sweden with its first-ever relay podium—third in the women’s 4x5 team event with Randall, Jessie Diggins, Holly Brooks and Liz Stephen.
2012 Winterstart Nordic results
Dec. 9, 2012, the 40th annual Winterstart cross-country citizen races starting at Galena Lodge 23 miles north of Ketchum—hosted by Galena Lodge, The Elephant’s Perch, Blaine County Recreation District and the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation cross-country team and its parent volunteers. A total 90 skiers, 33 female and 57 male. Next local races are the SVSEF Christmas Classic Dec. 22-23 at the Lake Creek trail system north of Ketchum—featuring the skating prologue Saturday and mass start classic 5/10k Sunday.
10 KILOMETER (2 laps)
Female racers
1—Brooke Hovey, 4026:20
2—Alexa Turzian, 2427:04
3—Nancy Fiddler, 5630:40
4—Katie Feldman, 1632:57
5—Tricia Swartling, 4638:02
6—June Lane, 6642:46
Male racers
1—Patrick Johnson, 2322:31
2—Matthew Gelso, 2422:47
3—Kevin Bolger, 1924:14
4—Eric Jensen, 4524:16
5—Cole Greenberg, 1624:44
6—Nicholas Lovett, 1824:55
7—Paul Clark, 2925:32
8—Luke Costley, 1825:45
9—Jake Adicoff, 1725:56
10—Ben Grodner, 1626:08
11—Sam Miller, 1626:45
12—Andrew Graves, 1727:01
13—Nate Thomas, 1627:06
14—Stephen Pfeiffer, 1627:08
15—Zach Lindahl, 1827:26
16—Nathan Nasvik, 1627:37
17—Will Northrop, 4227:55
18—Richard Feldman, 4328:13
19—Kris Thoreson, 5528:38
20—Sam Young, 3628:53
21—Don Shepler, 3929:56
22—Del Pletcher, 6830:22
23—Jay Pedro, 4531:23
24—Jim McClatchy, 6031:31
25—Ralph Johnson, 6431:54
26—Matt Fethke, 4232:17
27—Andy Andrews, 7133:12
28—Jon Holmquist, 5934:08
29—Gary Bowlin, 5635:26
30—David Adams, 5336:51
31—Matt Gervase, 6338:10
32—Tullio Celano, 7041:22
33—Mike Grodner, 5444:49
34—Peter Maier, 7152:28
5 KILOMETER
Female racers
1—Laurel Fiddler, 1714:01
2—Maranda Stopol, 1715:17
3—Muffy Ritz, 5515:23
4—Annika Landis, 1416:21
5—Kelly Allison, 5116:38
6—Haley Montgomery, 1616:49
7—Janelle Conners, 4418:10
8—Sofia DeWolfe, 1718:18
9—Susan Thoreson, 5118:20
10—Loni Unser, 1519:05
11—Grace Gorham, 1519:24
12—Carol Rank, 5520:10
13—Grace Dyck, 7120:55
14—Brenda Spackman, 5521:03
15—Lucy Bourret, 5121:33
16—Joney Otteson, 5221:59
17—Marilyn Celano, 6122:05
18—Sophia DeKlotz, 1529:31
19—Carol Monteverde, 6631:32
20—Paula Perry, 5834:54
21—Josie Arias, 6437:31
Male racers
1—David Vanderpool, 2612:06
2—Eli Jensen, 1413:32
3—Peter Wolter, 1413:34
4—Zach Williams, 1313:52
5—Jacob Truxal, 1414:54
6—Ben Brunelle, 1415:11
7—Lukas DeWolfe, 1415:18
8—C. Carter Ros, 1416:33
9—Derek Thompson, 1517:33
10—Sigi Vogl, 6018:12
11—Max Tanous, 1418:27
12—Jay Hagenbuch, 6120:47
13—Patrick Kinney, 4224:31
14—Mel Dyck, 7124:42
2.5 KILOMETER YOUTH
Girls
1—Lily Brunelle, 127:27
2—Ella Wolter, 117:41
3—Chloe Tanous, 118:28
4—Sophia Coplin, 138:45
5—Ellie Gorham, 129:10
6—Tess Burchmore, 1310:14
7—Sophia Kinney, 1112:52
Boys
1—Keene Morawitz, 136:43
2—Cooper Roquet, 136:50
3—Taylor Koth, 137:14
4—Johnny Hagenbuch, 117:51
5—Luke Dean, 118:18
6—Felix Gerlach, 109:02
7—William DeWolfe, 99:30
8—Jorgen Lawrence, 1310:16
9—Jake Gorham, 1010:37
Poling away from the start of Sunday’s 40th annual Winterstart cross-country ski race at Galena Lodge. Photo by Roland Lane
