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Shrills and Spills Mark First Day Of National Ski Championships
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Alpine Combined winner Brennan Rubie, center, had to figure out how to hold a box of spuds, in addition to flowers and skis, atop the podium. At one point, he held the flowers between his teeth.
 
 
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Wednesday, March 23, 2016
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sometimes it pays to go slow in order to go fast.

That’s what 59 of America’s fastest gentlemen skiers found out Tuesday as they tackled a gnarly Super G course on Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain.

Ten of the first 21 racers did not finish after either falling or missing a gate. In all, 23 racers—including  Steven Nyman, David Chodounsky and local favorite Tanner Farrow—either did not finish or did not start because of issues at the start or were disqualified.

 
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Sun Valley’s Kipling Weisel signed autographs following his Super G run, which took all of 1:17.97 minutes.
 

But Kipling Weisel took third among junior racers, even though his mother Emily had to don his medal after the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation alum skipped the awards ceremony at River Run Plaza.

America’s fastest females will tackle a slightly shorter but otherwise similar course today.

Tuesday’s race, which opened the 2016 Nature Valley Alpine Championships, was delayed by an hour due to additional grooming that had to be done after three inches of snow fell on Baldy overnight. Forty-five skiers—many of them racers with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation—side-skied down the course before the first racer tackled it.

Midway through the race, course workers had to apply a “cement” of snow and water to a couple potholes that developed midway down Greyhawk. SVSEF’s Hunter Storey followed behind, applying a new outline of blue to the course with what looked like a hand-held pesticide tank.

 
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Kipling Weisel’s Mom—Emily—showed off her third-place Alpine Combined medal to Sun Valley’s Mountain Manager Peter Stearns after her son went home early rather than attend the awards ceremony.
 

When workers weren’t repairing the course, the racers came so quickly it seemed as if one had barely finished before another was cresting the top of Greyhawk, sending rooster tails of snow behind them at every turn.

The course was a little bumpy in mid-Greyhawk. Manmade bumps prompted racers to catch air to the delight of spectators. Tommy Ford’s mother explained how some ski race courses look like an ice rink under the lights. By contrast, Sun Valley’s was not icy—it had even got a little grippy by the end of the race at 1 p.m.

Blue course lines and slalom gates zigzagged down Warm Springs from a start near the bottom of International. The course was lined by double and triple netting in some places, including A-netting strung on high poles that was designed to catch and envelop any racer who skied off course.

Big red air bags were positioned around snow guns.

 
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All it took to get a medal like this was to ski nearly the entire length of Warm Springs and Greyhawk in a minute and 15 seconds—and then complete a slalom course in about 45 seconds.
 

Alpine Combined winner Brennan Rubie called the traverse, which resembled a vertical concrete dam between two cat tracks leading from Warm Springs into Greyhawk, “scary.”

“All I could see was the mountains in the background. I was a little tentative on it,” said Rubie, who completed the course in 1:15.80 minutes. “And the bottom of the course was scary too. Because there’s so much vertical in the course, they had to make the turns tight. I would have liked bigger wider turns because you can build up a lot of speed in there.”

Mark Engel sprayed snow over the first row of spectators as he skied across the finish bouncing off the airbags separating the course from spectators.

Engel said some of the first skiers skied away from the traverse and then back to it, but coaches radioed back that that technique wasn’t working.

 
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Hannah Ferris, Jessica Blackburn and Saba Grosswman collected autographs on their caps and faces.
 

 “So I checked my speed and took a direct approach—it worked for me,” said the racer who grew up skiing at Sugar Bowl. “It’s really beautiful here. The first thing I did when I got to the top was take a picture.”

“It’s beautiful—and it’s a pretty cool, pretty fun course, even though I lost my ski on the traverse,” added George Steffey. “I’ve never skied a traverse like that before.”

Hundreds of spectators watched the race from the bottom of Greyhawk—some taking their spot on bleachers and others in lawn chairs they’d brought. Some watched practically the entire race—the first part of the course included—through binoculars from the Warm Springs Lodge.

Still others hiked up cat treads that Sun Valley had purposely etched in the snow at the bottom of Warm Springs to take positions along the Greyhawk course, while others skied down cat tracks from mid-Limelight to watch the top part of the course.

A TV screen will be set up in the spectators circle Thursday when the entire NBC-TV crew is in place for the Men’s and Women’s Super G.

“These guys are scary,” said Ketchum hairdresser Brenda Spackman, who hiked partway up Greyhawk. “But it’s so exciting with the loudspeakers, the sound of the skis on the snow.”

Sondra Van Ert, a Sun Valley ski racer who competed in the Olympics’ first snowboard competition, walked up to Sun Valley’s Marketing Director Jack Sibbach at the bottom of Greyhawk and shook his hand.

“Thank you for having racing here again,” said Von Ert, who saw the last big race Sun Valley held in the mid-1970s. “This is so awesome. It’s so cool we get racing back in the valley.”

Racers graciously signed caps, T-shirts and even faces on young SVSEF racers like Jessica Blackburn, Saba Grossman and Hannah Ferris.

Jack Gower won the Super B, nudging out Brennan Rubie by .23 second and Kieffer Christianson by .37 second. Sun Valley’s Kipling Weisel finished ninth—2.40 seconds behind.

As soon as the Super G portion of the Combined was finished, the men ran slalom gates.

Once slalom scores had been added to the Super G scores, Brennan Rubie climbed atop the podium.  Kieffer Christianson took second--.46 seconds behind. Hig Roberts claimed third—2.24 seconds behind.

River Radamus took first in the Junior Combined; Drew Duffy, second; and Kip Weisel, third.

The men’s combined winners got a box of gold-wrapped bakers with their bouquet of flowers. The juniors got a sack of spuds.

“The race was all about having fun. I just tried to stay strong on the traverse,” said Rubie. “As for the potatoes, I’ll give ‘em to my Mom to cook.”

DID YOU KNOW?

Nature Valley Alpine Championships souvenir cowbells, T-shirts, ball caps and stocking hats are available at Pete’s Lane’s at Warm Springs and River Run.

TODAY’S RACES:

Forty-three women, including Stacey Cook and Sun Valley’s Haley Cutler, will compete in today’s Alpine  Combined. The Super G is scheduled to start at 10 a.m., according to Sun Valley media representative Kelli Lusk.

The Slalom Races on Hemingway and Greyhawk are scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. An awards ceremony will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Warm Springs Plaza.

A Street Party and BBQ featuring live music will start at 4 p.m. on Picabo Street outside the Warm Springs Lodge.

 

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