RANDO RALLY FINALS: Swensen wins at Jackson
After the subsequent on-piste descent, racers embarked on a mammoth skin up Moran Faces and The Crags before a technical ski down into Casper Bowl via the south-facing C-1 chute. In an effort to gain ground on the leaders, Kroger kept his skins on for the descent and managed to pass a few racers and move into the top five.
Ejecting out of their skis at the transition zone, the next obstacle for racers was a 700-vertical-foot bootpack to the top of the Headwall. From here, competitors skied a short distance down Pepi’s Bench and ascended a section of Tensleep Bowl to the base of Corbet’s Couloir.
A second bootpack took race division racers up the infamous canal of snow where a ladder was attached to a vertical wall of ice to aid skiers in their climb. A final 4,000-vertical-foot descent down Rendezvous Bowl through Central Chute to Lower Sublette Ridge led to a herringbone up the Union Pass lift line with a flat ski to the finish at the base of the resort.
“It was definitely a great feeling to finish the season here at the home hill,” Kroger said. “People really like going up the [Corbet’s] Couloir because it adds more of a mountaineering element to it.”
In the women’s racing division, Jeannie Wall of Bozeman, Mont., claimed her second consecutive North American championships race win with a time of 2:19:53 in the 10-racer field. Finishing second was Monique Merrill of Breckenridge, Colo., in 2:21:02 and Karen Kingsley of Ophir, Colo., nabbed third in 2:32:42. Surprising the field was Wilson resident Cortney Kitchen who took fourth place with a time of 2:55:55 in her first-ever randonnee race.
“My friends lured me into doing the race division and told me that there were only one or two girls entered I was sandbagged,” said Kitchen, who was racing on telemark gear. “I thought about dropping out of the race a few times, but when I passed the girl in pink Lycra I got more motivation.”
In the 35-racer men’s recreational division, Jackson residents Luke Lynch and Danny Beasse nailed down first and second places, respectively, with times of 1:16:56 and 1:17:36. Ron Polk of Anchorage, Alaska grabbed the final spot on the podium in 1:24:34.
Pacing the nine-racer women’s recreational division was Victor, Idaho, resident Price Mathis who crossed the finish in 1:37:18. A mere four seconds separated Mathis from Wilsonite Lillian Hoffman and Amy McCarthy who took second and third, respectively. “I’m a tele skier and I chose to bring rando gear because I knew it would be faster,” Mathis said. “I’m not a racer, but it was super-fun. I encourage any woman to come out and do it because there’s not a lot.”
The Ray Azar Golden Shovel Award, given to the racer who demonstrates the pinnacle of perseverance, was presented to 16-year-old Willie Neal for the second consecutive year. Willie, a sophomore at Jackson Hole High School, was second to his 15-year-old brother Eliot as the youngest racers. Resort events manager Erica Pitts was given the first Heather Paul Heart of Gold Award for her incredible motivation and devotion to sport. Paul, who died in a climbing accident last summer in Grand Teton National Park, was a caring, adventurous individual who won the women’s overall randonnee rally series title in 2003.