STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

When Rick Kapala took over as head coach of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s Nordic program in the early 1980s, he could fit all of the kids in one van when they headed to a race.

Today there are 250 youth on SVSEF’s Nordic teams, and some of the program’s top skiers, including Sammy Smith, John Steel Hagenbuch and Peter Wolter, are chasing Olympic and World Cup dreams.

“The journey of these kids doesn’t have as much to do with medals as it has to do with friends and pushing oneself to excel,” said Kapala.

Amy Morrison helps herself to a table spread with shrimp, cheeses and kiwi fruit.

Nordic enthusiasts came together Saturday night over passed hors d’oeuvres at the Sage School barn to celebrate the program’s successes. They sipped Nardo cocktails, a spicy jalapeno cocktail named after the award given to the stupidest mistake an athlete makes during a year.

And, before the evening was over, many had pitched in donations to support the program’s Golden Team and maintain the cross-country ski facility at Lake Creek.

“Your support moves mountains,” Kapala told them.

Sun Valley’s Nordic program was started in 1972 by Rob Kiesel, a former member of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team and the first person to put glide wax on cross country skis. Under his leadership, Nordic was the second discipline after alpine skiing to join the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation.

Nordic Coach Travis Jones told attendees that the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s Nordic program is one of the best Nordic programs in the world.

The Nordic team started off training on the Big Wood Golf Course, then made Lake Creek its permanent home in 1982 when it persuaded the county to put up a little skier cabin.

Kelley Sinnott Yeates, the XC assistant program director, said the Lake Creek hut was a single-story, single-room building with a cement floor when she started racing with the program as a first-grader in 1990. Eventually, the SVSEF added a second story and, during the last renovation about four years ago,  lockers.

Across the bridge over the Big Wood River are the Lake Creek Trails, characterized by magnificent views of surrounding mountains, a large stadium area to start and finish races and steep hills where kids chalk up milestones by successfully descending trails with names like “Waterfall.”

“Jessie Diggins, America’s top female Nordic racer, said, ‘If you can ski Lake Creek, you can ski anywhere in the world,” Yeates said. “Training at Lake Creek makes our skiers surefooted and confident.”

Amy Morrison, Svea Grover, Claire Muth and Anne Brunelle were among those taking part at the first Nordic get-together of this sort since the BCRD discontinued the Galena Benefit.

“Lake Creek gives you the most bang for your buck,” added Muffy Ritz who has spent 34 years coaching SVSEF kids and women and men in the VAMPS and DONS program. “It has some easy terrain, a nice big stadium, big uphills and big downhills and lots of corners—good for teaching technical skiing.”

More recently, the Nordic program expanded to Quigley Nordic with the help of the Blaine County Recreation District, noted Kapala. This provides trails for kids who don’t have time after school to head north to Lake Creek.

“And the BCRD even built a roller ski path up and down the valley. It just so happens it’s nice for biking, too,” Kapala quipped, referring to the paved Wood River Trail that stretches 22 miles from Hulen Meadows north of Ketchum to Bellevue.

“We have the premiere Nordic skiing in the world. In the country, it’s not even close,” he added.

Suzi and John Zook, right, joined Galena lodge managers Kyle and Chelan Oldemeyer, who has timed the birth of her little “Galena girl” for April—right after the lodge closes for the winter.

The SVSEF Nordic program is “a lighthouse program,” said Scotty McGrew, SVSEF’s executive director. “People look to this program for balance, anchoring, inspiration. An entire country looks to this program as a better model.”

The place is special, too, said Becky Woods, SVSEF Nordic head coach: “There’s nothing like it, and I see why people return.”

One of those who returned is Travis Jones, who coaches the program’s Comp team. Jones joined the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s Gold Team after racing for the University of Colorado. He returned to coach it after working as an archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Arizona.

“I was drawn to return to Sun Valley because of Rick Kapala and the opportunity to helping kids reach their potential, not just as athletes but in life. And there’s no place like this place.”

Woods recounted how, when she first took over as head coach, she skied out with the skiers who liken themselves to a wolfpack.

“When they reached the turnaround point, they started howling, and they howled loud,” she said. They realize the strength of the pack—that we’re stronger with each other. And the community is part of this pack. What you’re doing for them allows them to pursue a dream they’ve had since kindergarten.”

Charlie St. George, a junior at Sun Valley Community School, said one has to be a little bit crazy to be a cross-country ski racer as it seems ludicrous that anyone in their right mind would enjoy pushing themselves to ski long distances in cold weather by themselves.

“But doing something hard is awesome,” he said. “I remember one time when I was racing in a mass start race at Jackson Hole in negative 15-degree weather. I was trying to keep up with the front pack and I collapsed three-quarters of the way through the race. But it felt good knowing I had pushed myself and worked hard.”