How fast could you ski between the towns of Crested Butte and Aspen? In the 1970’s, Lou often left Aspen and skied over to Crested Butte to visit his mom. He’d start at Ashcroft and ski to Cold Springs Ranch. He held the record for a while, covering about 20 miles in 4 hours on wooden nordic race skis.
The Elk Mountain Grand Traverse race connects the two towns but takes a different route than Lou’s “short” one back in his day. It’s more than twice as long, starts at midnight, and the demanding course involves sidehilling on steep, icy terrain, along with lots of strenuous high-altitude ski skating. Top finishers in the past got it done in about 8 hours. This year, the top team of Hamilton-Simmons finished in an astounding 6 hours, 44 minutes. Volunteers weren’t even done setting up the finish line when they blew thru it at dawn. Second and third were close behind. Amazing.
Top three teams. First place, team #89, Hamilton-Simmons, 6:44. Second place, team #06, Thomson-Krar, 6:54. Third place, #42 Brown-Laird, 6:55.
Fourth place, Wickenhauser-Smith, 7:12.
A cutoff pair of Mom’s designer stretch jeans was the winning secret for team 26. Trim pockets, breathable, anti-chafing, they work well for long distance running too. I plan to pass this gear tip on to Louie.
Yes, these are nice.
First place co-ed team, Edmiston-Plant, 7:59.
Team Cook-Koons, 8:02.
From Iowa, Team Frey-Howdyshell finished 8:02, missing the top ten by just over a minute. Training on the corn fields paid off.
Crested Beauty, Glo Cunningham, one of the outstanding volunteers. She hands out hugs and medals, and if a nose needs realignment, she’s got that down too.
Team Pirc-Hadley, 8:50. Allen Hadley is the only person to have finished all 18 Grand Traverses. He said this one ranks in the top 5.
Scarpa’s Samantha Killgore with her man, Jason, and his teammate. Killgore-Gravch, 8:59.
Cripple Creek Backcountry co-owner Doug Stenclik and partner, Meredith Edwards, Dynafit athlete. 9:23 The tutu got caught in a tree, eating up precious minutes that edged them out of 3rd place co-ed. But looking good is worth it. Especially in Aspen.
They’ve skied all of Colorado’s 14ers. 100 mile foot races are their summer fun. The Grand Traverse is another day in the mountains for Ted and Christie Mahon. Finishing under 10 hours was their goal and they did it, 9:49.
The top 25.
The Grand Traverse is a grueling race. Most of the race is done during the pitch of night. There are a few streams to cross, 7,800 feet of elevation to climb and a long slog section of skating. To finish it period is a noteworthy feat and we applaud every entrant, and every volunteer who makes the race possible.
Buy your stretchy designer race jeans here.
Recap of WildSnow posts from last week:
The Human Factor — Black Diamond Skiing Avalanche Safety
Atomic Backland — Putting a Boot Fitter Near You Out of Business
Glacier Bay Alaska 2015 – First Post From The Nieve
Living the Life” by David Rothman — Book Review
Weird Winter 2015 — Ski Touring the Wapta
Alaskan Skiing Dreams, Lines, Aircraft and Storms — Haines Report 2
