Two years ago, Sedalia endurance runner Diane Van Deren fractured her foot and finished only 260 miles of the Iditarod Invitational, the human-powered footrace following the famous 350-mile trail raced each year by dogsledders. This year, Mother Nature forced her to quit after 165 miles. Her partner in the audacious feat, Kami Semick, dropped out after about 100 miles with a hamstring injury. With the wind chill reaching minus-71 degrees on her fifth day of running, Van Deren ventured past the race’s fourth checkpoint and up a daunting mountain pass. According to an online dispatch from race directors, Van Deren ran 12 miles up Rainy Pass before visibility “was so bad that the tracks made by a fellow racer 5 feet in front of her disappeared in front of her eyes” and she returned to the checkpoint 14 hours after departing.
KING OF THE MOUNTAIN: Puckett, David take titles at Telluride
Aspen’s Casey Puckett is en fuego. The four-time Olympic ski racer cemented his legacy as the world’s best skiercross racer last weekend at Telluride, earning a record third world championship title at the final stop of the Jeep King of the Mountain series. Tomas Krause of the Czech Republic took second, and Swede Lars Lewin was third. Steamboat Springs’ Justin Glick and Vail’s Chris Del Bosco finished sixth and seventh, respectively.
France’s Ophelie David skied into Telluride on a seven- event win streak and left with win No. 8 and her fourth world championship title. Her teammate, Meryll Boulangeat, won the first race of the championship heat against David but slipped to second in the final race. Sweden’s Magdalena Iljans took third.
Canadian snowboarder Drew Neilson took full advantage of a recent injury suffered by Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott to not just win the final snowboarding race in the series but the overall series. Austrian Mario Fuchs took second, and Utah’s Graham Watanabe took third.
Vermont’s Lindsey Jacobellis, who won series’ first two races, took the race and the series title in Telluride, followed by France’s Julie Pomagalski and Austria’s Manuela Reigler.
MOUNTAINEERING: Passant, Merrill prevail at Loveland
The third race of the inaugural Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup (COSMIC) series drew 86 up-and-down ski racers to Loveland on Saturday, making it the largest mountaineering race in Colorado. Crested Butte ski patroller Ethan Passant, 34, finished first in 1 hour, 30 minutes, marking his third COSMIC win and his fifth consecutive victory of the season counting two wins on the Life-Link Randonnee Rally Race series. Cary Smith of Jackson, Wyo., finished one minute behind in second. Breckenridge’s Monique Merrill won the women’s race in 1:43, followed by Karen Kingsley of Ophir (1:48). The series has two more races, at Silverton Mountain on April 21 and Arapahoe Basin on April 28.
FREERIDING: Aspen duo sweeps Snowmass event
Aspenites Kiffor Berg and Kate Cardamone took honors at last weekend’s 2007 Stihl Colorado Freeride Championships on Snowmass’ rarely open Burn Side Cliffs. Berg stomped a triple drop to eke past California’s Aaron Estrada, who took second following his comeback victory at the U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championships at Crested Butte last week. Brian Anzini of Aspen took third. Among the women, Jane Somerville took second and Amelia Barr third.
