STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Mia Case was 4 when her mother took her cross-country skiing for the first time in her home state of Wisconsin. Stuck at the bottom of a hill trying to figure out how to get up it without sliding back, she told her mother that she hated skiing and would never go again.

But she did go again and she fell in love with the challenge of outskiing her classmates. And when she learned to skate ski, she was in it for the long haul.

On Saturday night Case returned to Sun Valley from Lake Placid where she had spent the week competing at the US National Cross-Country Championships with colleagues on the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s Gold Team.

Charley French, who is still cross-country skiing at 99 years of age, was among the first to arrive at the Apres Snowmaker Fundraiser.

She didn’t even unpack before joining in at the SVSEF XC Apres Snowmaker Fundraiser held at Sage School Barn in Hailey.

The barn swelled with those who turned out to support the program, which currently boasts 232 athletes coached by 36 full and parttime coaches. And they ended up celebrating a community legend who was honored with the inaugural SVSEF Cross Country Community Legacy Award, as well.

“This program is a lighthouse in a troubled world,” SVSEF Executive Director Scotty McGrew told the crowd. “We are profoundly blessed to have this incredible place …. and our community that partners to put the child first…”

The evening included hearty hors d’oeuvres, a huckleberry-inspired cocktail, trivia contest and the chance at prizes, including a big ceramic bowl featuring Nordic scenes created by EJ Harpham. Three-time Boulder Mountain Tour Zack Simons even offered to coach a Boulder Mountain Tour racer to attack corners, climb Hawk Hill and make clean descents—all with enough snacks to fill an aid station

Will Koch had just returned from the US National Cross-country Championships in Lake Placid where he ended up on the podium in the classic sprint.

“I’m here because I love the community of cross-country skiers and I want kids to continue to fall in love with Nordic skiing,” said Joyce Fabre.

Among those who crowded into the Sage School Barn were Jim and Wendy Jaquet. They signed their sons up for the cross-country program with a couple neighborhood boys back in the day.

The cross-country team trained in summer, which kept the boys out of trouble, Jim said. And cross-country skiing helped Brian get into Darthmouth College, while it helped Michael get into the University of Colorado-Boulder.

“Both made some very good friends as a result so, yes, we have an allegiance to this program,” said Jim.

Muffy Ritz has coached hundreds of people through the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation and the VAMPS, which she started to encourage women to learn to Nordic ski.

Mia Case, who represented the current roster of athletes, said that she and her teammates had to contend with 10-degree weather earlier in the week and pouring rain by the end of the week at Lake Placid.

“The weather was constantly changing—the wax that was working at 9 was not what was working at 10. And the course was one of the hardest courses I’ve competed on with 2,300 feet of climbing over 20K and 3K of climbing at one point. And the downhill wasn’t straight down—it went up and down –not fun when your legs are burning. But everybody on the Gold Team is really motivated, and it was a wonderful experience.”

The SVSEF’s Nordic program started in 1972—part of a larger program that at 60 years old is one of the oldest youth programs in American skiing.

“Six decades we’ve helped young people grow,” Head Nordic Coach Becky Flynn told those assembled. “We’re shaping not just athletes but incredible human beings.”

Scotty McGrew honored Sam Adicoff for volunteering as interim director during a rough patch in the SVSEF’s history.

The program has had eight athletes compete on the World Cup circuit. And it currently has four Gold Team members on the Cross-Country World Cup and Para Nordic World Cup circuit.

Jake Adicoff, a sight-impaired athlete who has already competed in three Winter Paralympics, will be headed to his fourth at Milan-Cortina with Gold Team member Peter Wolter serving as his guide.

And Flynn said that Sammy Smith, who won two national championships at Lake Placid, and John Steel Hagenbuch, who also medaled there, have very good chances to make the U.S. Olympic Team.

“But it’s not all about winning medals,” she said. “It’s about creating a space and culture that challenges young people. We truly have the resources in this valley to take a young person to the world stage. Not many places in this country can say that.”

In addition to celebrating today’s youth, former Nordic Head Coach Rick Kapala bestowed the new Community Legacy Award on Muffy Ritz for enduring dedication and service that has created a lasting, meaningful legacy for SVSEF Cross Country and for Nordic skiing in the Wood River Valley.

The award, Kapala said, was long overdue and well deserved, given her “never-ending passion to give back to this community.”

A tearful but excited Ritz, who had taken part in the Snowmaker Classic at Lake Creek that morning despite a torn hamstring, said she had learned of an opening for a coach while taking part in a race in West Yellowstone in 1990.

She has, she estimated, coached a thousand people over the years.

“Rick interviewed me on a snowmobile because he didn’t have time to interview me in the office,” she recounted. “It was a match made for the last 35 years. I wanted the job as much as he wanted me. And Rick and everyone else inspired me to take on the VAMPS (women’s Nordic skiing program).”

McGrew also honored Sam Adicoff, who served as interim director of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation prior to McGrew’s hiring. Adicoff is also the father of Jake Adicoff.

“The job can be thankless at times, and he did it as a volunteer for years,” McGrew said. “He brought the team, which had been fractured for a while, together and created a dialogue. And we really are the envy of many programs in this country.”

DID YOU KNOW?

The Apres Snowmaker Fundraiser helped raise money to support the kids and to help the SVSEF groom the Lake Creek trails three times a week. A grooming machine alone costs $39,000.