Olympic cross country ski racer and U.S. Ski Mountaineering Team member Pete Swenson of Boulder took top honors Saturday in the inaugural America’s Cup race in Jackson Hole, Wyo., considered the national championship of ski mountaineering.
The race featured a grueling, 6,100-vertical-foot climb that included a boot-pack up, through and out of the famed Corbett’s Couloir before a punishing 4,000-vertical-foot descent to complete the circumnavigation of the notoriously steep ski area.
Swenson, who completed the course in 2 hours, 1 minute and 45 seconds, also nailed down the overall title for the eight-race Randonnee Rally Race Series with the win, sharing the podium with female counterpart Karen Kingsley of Ophir, who finished third at Jackson Hole (2:32:42) behind Jeannie Wall (2:18:53) of Bozeman, Mont., and Monique Merrill (2:21:02) of Breckenridge. Merrill also finished second in the overall series standings.
The Randonnee Rally Race Series is a series of ski mountaineering races conducted at some of the premier resorts in North America. They are designed to test the competitors’ endurance and skiing skills while skinning up and skiing down some of the toughest terrain the resorts and their surrounding mountains have to offer.
FREESTYLE SKIING
Discoe continues to shine
Freestyle phenom Jimmy Discoe of Ridgway followed up last week’s silver-medal performance at the junior world championships with another sterling performance Sunday at the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships in Killington, Vt. Discoe, 17, finished second in dual moguls competition behind repeat national champion Sho Kashima of Zephyr Cove, Nev. Landon Gardner of Missoula, Mont., edged out Salt Lake City’s Jay Bowman-Kirigin for third.
Variable snow conditions throughout the day created problems for competitors. Kashima and Discoe had trouble off the bottom jump in the head-to-head race.
“I got a little bucked on that last mogul, and it kind of threw me off the lip a little quicker than I wanted,” Discoe said. “It’s kind of funny, because right when I took off I saw Sho out of the corner of my eye, and he was stretching (to get his feet under him for the landing) the same as I was. Basically, it was just survival after that.”
In the women’s race, Shelly Robertson of Reno, Nev., took advantage of Shannon Bahrke’s bobble off the tricky bottom jump to win in the dual moguls finals. A day before, Bahrke, from Tahoe City, Calif., led the field in individual moguls competition as Eliza Outtrim of Steamboat Springs finished fourth, Whitney Henceroth of Dillon placed sixth and Mikaela Matthews of Frisco was eighth.
Freestyle halfpipe: Colorado men represented themselves well in the halfpipe portion of the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships. Avon’s Taylor Seaton led four local jibbers placing among the top seven.
Seaton reached the podium with a third-place finish behind David Wise of Reno and Tucker Perkins of North Hampton, N.H. James Leonard of Vail placed fourth. Jack Sullan of Snowmass finished sixth and Tony Seibert of Edwards finished seventh.
Defending ski pipe champion Jen Hudak of Park City, Utah, won her second consecutive U.S. title in the women’s competition. Sophia Schwartz of Ketchum, Idaho, and Kim Sharp of Park City rounded out a repeat of the 2006 podium at nationals.
DISABLED SKIING
Coloradans pull off sweep
George Sasonetis of Fraser led an all-Colorado sweep of the men’s standing division in the Hartford U.S. Disabled Alpine Championships giant slalom competition last week in Waterville Valley, N.H. Brad Washburn of Littleton finished second and Ian Jansing of Granby was third.
Winter Park’s Nick Catanzarite was second behind New Hampshire’s Chris Devlin-Young in the sit-ski GS race while Hannah Pennington of Denver and Elizabeth Miller of Winter Park placed second and third, respectively, behind Elisa Story of Ketchum, Idaho, in the standing division of the women’s GS event.
