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CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — When she and co-founder Mike Martin first hatched the idea for a high-mountain adventure race — a trying 40-mile jaunt through the Colorado high country — Jan Runge was optimistic the plan would strike a chord.
The longtime Crested Butte resident never could have predicted this, however.
“I should’ve started this when I was 20,” joked Runge, race director for the Elk Mountains Grand Traverse, who declined to divulge her actual age. “Let’s just say that this year I don’t need the walker, but I’m not counting on next year.”
The Traverse, which begins at midnight Friday outside the Crested Butte Community School and is now in its 12th year, is as popular as ever. Open registration began Dec. 1, and all 130 two-person team spots were scooped up before the end of the day. Last year, available spots were filled in less than two weeks.
Are participants — those openly willing to test their grit, their equipment and their sanity in the remote backcountry between Crested Butte and Aspen — simply gluttons for punishment?
Runge has a different explanation.
“It’s just because of the volunteers … and the way we run a superior event,” she said. “They pull this amazing thing off. It works every single time. The racers love it.”
For three-time winner Patrick O’Neill, the attraction is obvious.
“It motivates me to get out the door, put on a headlamp and go skiing with a 20-year friend,” the Crested Butte schoolteacher told The Aspen Times before last year’s race. “All I want to do is have a great time with a bunch of people who really like this stuff.”
“It’s totally, ridiculously crazy coming down on breakable crust at 2:30 in the morning,” Pierre Wille of Basalt told the Times last year. “It’s an intense experience, where you’re focusing for so long on trying to stay alive and go fast. It’s extreme. It makes every other race feel small and petty.”
After racers push off from the community school, they catch the Upper Loop Trail and skirt along Hunter Hill Road before reaching the Crested Butte Mountain Resort. Then, they negotiate the East River valley and follow 19th century mail routes across two mountain passes before descending Aspen Mountain on Saturday morning.
The only thing to count on in this race is unpredictability. Tails of frostbite, dehydration, injury and brutal weather are well documented.
A ground blizzard in 2007 caught competitors off guard near Taylor Pass, pounding them with winds in excess of 50 mph and causing multiple cases of hypothermia. Of the 121 teams that started in Crested Butte, 30 dropped out.
Last year, snow and 30 mph-winds pelted participants, leaving many disoriented and struggling to stay on course. After a night spent jockeying for first with Crested Butte’s O’Neill and Jim Faust, Vail endurance racer Mike Kloser and teammate Jay Henry surged to the front on Richmond Ridge. By the time the duo reached the Gondola Plaza, crossing the finish in 9 hours, 4 minutes, 5 seconds, they were all alone.
While Faust pulled out of this year’s race because of complications with a hip injury, Kloser and Henry will be back to attempt the repeat. A win would be Kloser’s third straight and fifth overall.
Weather conditions should favor all competitors. Nearly 20 inches of snow has fallen in the last 48 hours, with some drifts as high as 30 inches on course, Runge said.
“Instead of being a slide for life on Star Pass, it will be more of a backcountry ski race,” Runge added. “It’s going to be soft, which is good for all the people on AT gear. … They can ski down in control and make some turns. A lot of them are just stoked and are saying, “Yeah, we’re going powder skiing.’”
Forecasts are predicting cold temperatures — as low as minus 5 — and little, if any, precipitation on race day, Runge said.
She knows better, though.
“There might be the usual bursts [of snow] that come through, but not much. Then again, one year a burst came through and dumped 30 inches,” she added. “That’s the beauty of this race. … It’s always exciting.”
jmaletz@aspentimes.com
The longtime Crested Butte resident never could have predicted this, however.
“I should’ve started this when I was 20,” joked Runge, race director for the Elk Mountains Grand Traverse, who declined to divulge her actual age. “Let’s just say that this year I don’t need the walker, but I’m not counting on next year.”
The Traverse, which begins at midnight Friday outside the Crested Butte Community School and is now in its 12th year, is as popular as ever. Open registration began Dec. 1, and all 130 two-person team spots were scooped up before the end of the day. Last year, available spots were filled in less than two weeks.
Are participants — those openly willing to test their grit, their equipment and their sanity in the remote backcountry between Crested Butte and Aspen — simply gluttons for punishment?
Runge has a different explanation.
“It’s just because of the volunteers … and the way we run a superior event,” she said. “They pull this amazing thing off. It works every single time. The racers love it.”
For three-time winner Patrick O’Neill, the attraction is obvious.
“It motivates me to get out the door, put on a headlamp and go skiing with a 20-year friend,” the Crested Butte schoolteacher told The Aspen Times before last year’s race. “All I want to do is have a great time with a bunch of people who really like this stuff.”
“It’s totally, ridiculously crazy coming down on breakable crust at 2:30 in the morning,” Pierre Wille of Basalt told the Times last year. “It’s an intense experience, where you’re focusing for so long on trying to stay alive and go fast. It’s extreme. It makes every other race feel small and petty.”
After racers push off from the community school, they catch the Upper Loop Trail and skirt along Hunter Hill Road before reaching the Crested Butte Mountain Resort. Then, they negotiate the East River valley and follow 19th century mail routes across two mountain passes before descending Aspen Mountain on Saturday morning.
The only thing to count on in this race is unpredictability. Tails of frostbite, dehydration, injury and brutal weather are well documented.
A ground blizzard in 2007 caught competitors off guard near Taylor Pass, pounding them with winds in excess of 50 mph and causing multiple cases of hypothermia. Of the 121 teams that started in Crested Butte, 30 dropped out.
Last year, snow and 30 mph-winds pelted participants, leaving many disoriented and struggling to stay on course. After a night spent jockeying for first with Crested Butte’s O’Neill and Jim Faust, Vail endurance racer Mike Kloser and teammate Jay Henry surged to the front on Richmond Ridge. By the time the duo reached the Gondola Plaza, crossing the finish in 9 hours, 4 minutes, 5 seconds, they were all alone.
While Faust pulled out of this year’s race because of complications with a hip injury, Kloser and Henry will be back to attempt the repeat. A win would be Kloser’s third straight and fifth overall.
Weather conditions should favor all competitors. Nearly 20 inches of snow has fallen in the last 48 hours, with some drifts as high as 30 inches on course, Runge said.
“Instead of being a slide for life on Star Pass, it will be more of a backcountry ski race,” Runge added. “It’s going to be soft, which is good for all the people on AT gear. … They can ski down in control and make some turns. A lot of them are just stoked and are saying, “Yeah, we’re going powder skiing.’”
Forecasts are predicting cold temperatures — as low as minus 5 — and little, if any, precipitation on race day, Runge said.
She knows better, though.
“There might be the usual bursts [of snow] that come through, but not much. Then again, one year a burst came through and dumped 30 inches,” she added. “That’s the beauty of this race. … It’s always exciting.”
jmaletz@aspentimes.com
