The Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup (COSMIC) debuted Saturday at Ski Sunlight with Gunnison County racers dominating the up-and-down race.
Crested Butte ski patroller Ethan Passant, who won this year’s grueling Montezuma’s Revenge bike race, broke trail on his multiple skins upward and plowed through 20 inches of fresh snow in his descents to win the men’s division in 1 hour, 55 minutes. He was chased by fellow Gunnison County racer Bryan Wickenhauser. Third place went to Gunnison’s Jon Brown, who shared his third perch with Vail adventure racing veteran Mike Kloser. Karen Kingsley of Ophir won in the women’s competition, followed in order by Sue King of Breckenridge and Jari Kirkland of Crested Butte.
The next race in the COSMIC series is Saturday with a long course from Snowmass to Buttermilk. For more information, go to www.cosmicski.com.
SNOW RACING: Austria loses race to Beaver Creek
The Jeep King of the Mountain Series has moved its next race from snow-deprived Austria to Beaver Creek, bringing another high-profile showdown to Colorado on Sunday.
The athletes enlisted for the Beaver Creek race mirror the boardercross medal podium from the sport’s international premiere at the Turin Olympics last year. Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott is on board, fresh from his second-place finish at the Snowboard World Championships in Switzerland. Boardercross Olympian Lindsey Jacobellis, who took her second world title two weeks ago, will join fellow Olympian Tanja Frieden of Switzerland.
SKIERCROSS: Puckett shines in Sun Valley
Aspen’s Casey Puckett continued his career-long domination of skiercross with a win at the inaugural Honda Ski Tour Ski Cross in Sun Valley, Idaho, last weekend. The world’s top skiercross racer was followed by Stanley Hayer of the Czech Republic, Lars Lewen of Sweden and former U.S. ski racer Daron Rahlves, whose collision with Puckett early on the course sent him careening.
Pipe master Simon Dumont, who is a front-runner for X Games gold this year, topped strong performances by Carbondale’s Peter Olenick (a double front flip to start, followed by back-to-back 720s) and New Zealand’s Jossi Wells to win the halfpipe contest.
FREESKIING: Copper Mountain on center stage
Skiing’s best jibbers come to Copper Mountain this weekend for Summit County’s first dalliance with the 10th U.S. Free- skiing Open. The colonizing Freeskiing Open’s slopestyle, superpipe and big air competition will feature the biggest names in jib skiing and serve as a crystal ball for the X Games. Watch Simon Dumont fight to protect his halfpipe status alongside Tanner Hall from up-and-comers such as Corey Vanular, Sammy Carlson and A.J. Burton.
The open’s big trick contest typically has been the stage for busting out the sickest new tricks, such as last year’s staggering 1440 (yeah, that’s four full rotations) by T.J. Schiller.
LUGE: Zablocki in world championships
Courtney Zablocki of Highlands Ranch clinched the fourth and final spot on the U.S. women’s luge lineup for next month’s world championships by finishing seventh Sunday in a World Cup event in Oberhof, Germany.
The world championships are Feb. 2-4 in Igls, Austria.
The other U.S. women are Ashley Hayden, Julia Clukey and Erin Hamlin.
(COMPILED BY STAFF WRITERS JASON BLEVINS AND JOHN MEYER)
