It turns out Crested Butte ski patroller Ethan Passant is not invincible. Going into last month’s North American Championship at Jackson Hole, the final stop in the 2007 Life-Link Randonee Rally Ski Mountaineering Race Series, the iron-thighed athlete had won every race he entered.
But at that race, Jackson Hole dentist Cary Smith dethroned the would be king, finishing the grueling 6,000 vertical-foot course 21 seconds ahead of Passant. Another 48 seconds behind Passant was newcomer Todd Glew of Alta, Utah.
Breckenridge’s Monique Merrill won the women’s race, beating Ophir’s Karen Kingsley and Jackson’s Amy Fulwyler.
But it was Kingsley who took the six-race series title, followed by Merrill, marking her second year in a row on the middle podium of the race series, and Fulwyler in third. Passant’s incredible streak this season earned him the series title for the first time, followed by Smith.
Passant and Smith earned spots on the U.S. ski mountaineering team, which will compete in the world championships in Switzerland next year. Merrill and Fulwyler claimed spots on the women’s team.
SURFING: Low waves cancel Mavericks contest
The dragon didn’t show this year. The world’s best big-wave surfers – 24 in all – were ready to roll within 24 hours of “The Call,” as they are every January, February and March. But the revered break that is Mavericks, a monster wall of water that can reach 50 feet a half-mile off the coast of California’s Half Moon Bay, didn’t rise from her watery depths this year. Last week, organizers of the world famous Mavericks Surf Contest, a sort of Super Bowl of big-wave surfing, canceled this year’s event. It takes a near-magical merging of wind, swell, tide and weather to conjure up one of the most dangerous waves in surfing, and this year it didn’t happen.
CYCLING: Boulder-Roubaix race pushed back
The weekend’s snow crushed the course for the Boulder- Roubaix Road Race, an 8.6-mile loop around Table Mountain with three-quarters of the course on dirt roads in north Boulder. The high-profile race, which this year includes Discovery Team rider Tom Danielson, has been moved to Saturday. The race offers 12 categories, and racers 18 and younger are free. Click www.dbcevents.com for more info.
KAYAKING: Duo completes first leg of trip
It started as a hedonistic pursuit of whitewater, an endless summer of kayaking. But somewhere in Central America, world-class kayakers Seth Warren and Tyler Bradt found a higher calling. Last week the duo piloted their Japanese fire truck into the southernmost point of South America, ending the first leg of what will be a worldwide tour promoting alternative fuel and teaching people of all economic classes how they can reduce their energy dependency while preserving, if not increasing, their quality of life.
Almost a year ago, the two passed through Colorado with a dream of paddling exotic rivers on a biofueled adventure. Since then, kayaking has taken a back seat as they have delivered their message of alternative fuel to six U.S. embassies, visited 32 schools, spoken to 9,455 students and held news conferences in 14 major cities. They paddled 37 rivers, logging two first descents and surfed 14 breaks. They traveled 46,500 miles, never topping 50 mph.
And the only fuel they used for the entire trip was waste vegetable oil. Click over to oilandwaterproject.org for details and photos of their adventure.
