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STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK PHOTOS BY NILS RIBI AND KAREN BOSSICK The glow on Haley Cutler’s face as she zoomed into the finish arena following Wednesday’s Super G wasn’t from schussing down 1,604 meters of Warm Springs and Greyhawk. Cutler, who has skied Sun Valley since she was 2, was soaking up the energy from an enthusiastic crowd at the bottom cheering on the hometown girl on the second day of the U.S. Alpine Championships.
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A proud Grandpa Jim Cutler came from California to watch his granddaughter Haley Cutler ski in this week’s U.S. Alpine Championships. PHOTO: Karen Bossick
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“Skiing this race in Sun Valley is awesome!” said the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation racer. “Hearing the crowd scream for me is so cool. It energizes me, makes me happy.” The challenging Challenger race course—named for the Union Pacific train that spurred Union Pacific to build America’s first destination ski resort in Sun Valley--was a little firmer than it was for Tuesday’s Men’s Alpine Combined. But the women competing in Wednesday’s Alpine Combined had the same troubles navigating a wall-like traverse from Warm Springs that dropped onto Greyhawk. Many had trouble making the transition from the pitch onto Greyhawk and ended up skiing off course. If they got past that, they had to contend with a steep pitch at the bottom with gates that were tighter than they are on many Super G’s.
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Megan McJames just missed the top rung on the podium. PHOTO: Nils Ribi
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Fifteen of the 43 racers did not finish the race. “It’s definitely one of the more difficult ski race courses I’ve seen,” said 18-year-old Cutler, who won the U-19 national Super G earlier this month. “The traverse was scary—I stood on my skis and tried to hang on. You ski into it blind so you can’t really see what’s ahead until you’re there. The whole course is a fighter with lots of turns, lots of vertical.” The slalom that followed had just as many “ooh oooh ooh” moments for spectators with racers teetering and tottering on the edges of their skis as they careened around gates, slapping them with their hands. Laurenne Ross, the leader after the Super G, got tangled up in the jungle of poles at the bottom and fell just short of the finish line bringing an exciting conclusion to the day’s races.
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Megan McJames threads her way through the poles at the bottom towards the finish line. PHOTO: Karen Bossick
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It was eighth-place Super G finisher Galena Wardle from Aspen, Colo., who climbed to the top of the podium with her first national title. Wardle, 17, had her own contingent of cheerleaders in Sun Valley. “Her father used to be a ski instructor here before he moved to Aspen,” said one woman as she watched Wardle run her slalom race from a cat track partway up Greyhawk. “He taught me to ski.” Wardle narrowly edged out Megan McJames by two-hundredth of a second. Patricia Mangan claimed third. “Another hard day at the office,” said Mangan. “The Super G was very turny—almost like a giant slalom. The slalom was good. Overall, it was a good day.”
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These guys were disappointed when Laurenne Ross, the frontrunner after the Super G, crashed at the bottom in the slalom. PHOTO: Karen Bossick
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Cutler, a 2015 Wood River High School graduate, finished eighth on Wednesday, going up against members of the U.S. Ski Team. “I’m pleased with today, but I want to do better,” she said. Cutler will have that chance when she competes again today in the Women’s Super G, which will be televised on NBC at 10:30 MDT Saturday, March 26. The Men’s Super G, originally set to start at 9:30 a.m., will start at 10 a.m. The Women’s will start at 1:30 p.m.
Wednesday’s results: Galena Wardle 1:13.94 Super G, 45.50 Slalom, 2:04.44 Combined Megan McJames 1:18.52, 45.94, 2:04.46 Patricia Mangan 1:18.55, 46.27, 2:04.82
Hailey Cutler 1:19.34, 47.51, 2:06.85
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