STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

It only took the first four men—and four and a half minutes—to determine the medalists in Friday’s Men’s Super G.

Three of the first four men beat out the remaining 54 challengers in the 2018 Toyota U.S. Alpine Championships being held in Sun Valley.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle, whose mother won a gold medal in slalom at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, claimed his second gold medal in as many competitions this week. Great Britain’s Jack Gower claimed silver and River Radamus, who turned 20 in February, took bronze.

“The course is in great shape despite yesterday’s rain,” said Sun Valley Kipling Weisel, a member of the U.S. Ski Team. “It really couldn’t have been more perfect.”

Racers had Sun Valley Resort and about 50 volunteers to thank for that.

Sun Valley’s fleet of groomers, including a number of winches, worked through Thursday night into Friday morning preparing the course to perfection before it could set up as the temperature dropped to 19 degrees on top of the mountain, said Wally Rothgeb who supervised the effort.

Volunteers wearing garbage bags worked through the downpour on Thursday raking and fine tuning the course.

And Friday morning the work continued with people like Ski Patrol’s Bryant Dunn shoveling ice off the bleachers so spectators could sit down.

Still, the steep, technical course kicked butt as 21 of 57 men and 20 of 49 women either fell or missed gates.

“It’s very different from the Olympic course in Korea, which didn’t have much of a consistent pitch,” said Olympic racer Alice Merryweather. “I don’t know of any hill like this. It’s a challenge for sure, but I like it.”

The course started on Warm Springs before traversing onto Greyhawk.

“It was super sideways scary,” said Community School student Oliver Guy, who was photographing the skiers for the U.S. Ski Team’s social media. “Then they had to drop over onto Greyhawk and navigate the first gate immediately.”

Skiers then negotiated several gates on Upper Greyhawk before heading over into the Hemingway run. They caught air just as they headed back onto Greyhawk, which resulted in plenty of thrills for spectators as skiers performed some wild maneuvers to try to maneuver around the first gate heading to the bottom.

“It’s incredible. I’ve never seen such great skiers,” said Guy.

“It’s fun to see so many finishing versus two years, ago,” added Dollar Mountain Ski School Supervisor Alan Hogg, who was helping his wife Mary Hogg retrieve race bibs. “As I recall, more than half didn’t finish then. Still, they’re telling us how hard this race course is as they come through the finish.”

Squaw Valley’s A.J. Hurt, who won the Women’s Alpine Combined race on Wednesday, narrowly missed another gold on Friday as 20-year-old U.S. Ski Team member Nina O’Brien beat her by less than a tenth of a second.

Fellow U.S. Ski Team member Nellie Rose Talbot from Vail took third.

“The course was super good. Not icy. Not soft but grippy,” said Sun Valley’s Erin Smith. “But it’s so challenging it’s pretty much impossible to ski 100 percent. I had to hang on in dramatic fashion just trying to make it down. I think today’s winner is the one with the most confidence.”

Alicia Hiraki, who moved to the valley with her husband from the Seattle area in August, is among 250 volunteers helping to put the event on. She’s loving every minute of it.

“It’s so exciting, especially since I’m not so familiar with racing,” she said. “I’m getting exposed to something new.”

Racing is scheduled to resume today--Saturday, March 24--with the women's first slalom run starting at 9 a.m. on Hemingway and Greyhawk. The men's first slalom will follow at 10:30 a.m. with second runs taking place at noon and 1:30 p.m. An awards ceremony will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Warm Springs Plaza, followed by a street party featuring Micky and the Motorcars at 3 p.m.

Race highlights will be shown at 4 p.m. and athlete autograph signings at 5 p.m., both in the Sun Valley Opera House.

NBC-TV is scheduled to show the Men's and Women's Super G that took place Friday at 10 a.m. Mountain Daylight Savings Time.

MEN’S SUPER G RESULTS

1-Ryan Cochran-Siegle 1:06.61

2-Jack Gower 1:06:95

3-River Radamas 1:07:53

WOMEN’S SUPER G RESULTS

1-Nina O’Brien 1:13:31

2-A.J. Hurt 1:13:42

3-Nellie Rose Talbot 1:14:00