The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Smiley team takes women’s title; Wickenhauser breaks ski
Several local heavy hitters in the ski mountaineering race world looked outside the valley for partners to race at the Five Peaks COSMIC race held in Breckenridge on Saturday, April 9 and littered the podium with results.
The Five Peaks course is comprised of four climbs totaling 8,500 feet, hitting the series of peaks above Breckenridge ski area. The resort lived up to its nickname, Breckenwind, as competitors were met with close to 50-mph winds at the top of each climb.
Janelle Smiley and Breckenridge skier Eva Hagen won the women’s race and Bryan Wickenhauser teamed up with his old foe from the Grand Traverse, Mike Kloser, to come in second place in the men’s race.
“All of a sudden, I was racing with Kloser,” says Wickenhauser. “It was cool to race with him rather than against him.”
Smiley admits she was on the fence about the race but fellow racer Monique Merrill thought Hagen and Smiley would make a good team and put them together.
Smiley met Hagen the night before the race and Hagen let her know the plan the next day.
“She said, ‘I know you’re faster than me—I’m bringing a tow rope,’” says Smiley.
Smiley got a sense for Hagen’s pace on the first climb and eased off the throttle, helping out at each transition.
“I just slowed down and enjoyed the sunrise,” says Smiley.
In the end the team hit both of their pre-race goals, covering the course in a time of four hours, 29 minutes and 12 seconds.
“We were hoping for top 10 [overall] and to win the women’s race, and we did both,” says Smiley.
Wickenhauser and Kloser jumped out to the lead on the first climb and were primed to carry their lead through to the finish until the first descent.
Due to high winds, the tops of all the descents were “wind-hammered sastrugi” and as Kloser and Wickenhauser were bombing down the first descent, Wickenhauser suffered a massive equipment failure.
“Mike and I were definitely flying down and my right foot punched through and all of a sudden my ski snapped,” explains Wickenhauser.
After nursing it to the bottom of the first downhill, they took a quick look at the ski and while it was broken, it wasn’t broken completely in half.
“It was just hanging together by the p-tex base,” says Wickenhauser.
Rather than take a DNF, the two decided to continue and Wickenhauser milked the broken ski through the rest of the course.
They reeled in the lead team of Max Taam and Peter Gaston on every climb but lost time on each descent.
“I just took it conservative on the descents,” says Wickenhauser.
Kloser jumped out into the lead on the final climb. Wickenhauser was hoping for Gaston and Taam to crack on the final climb.
“The only way I figured we could win the race was if they blew up,” says Wickenhauser.
They didn’t, and Kloser and Wickenhauser ended up in second place, broken ski and all, with a time of three hours, 41 minutes and 44 seconds.
“I’m never happy with second but I guess I was still psyched to hang on with a destroyed ski,” says Wickenhauser.
Billy Laird found a partner from the Aspen Valley to come in fifth place in a time of four hours, eight minutes and 54 seconds. Stevie Kremer and Marshall Thomson took second in the coed race, eighth overall, with a time of four hours, 10 minutes and 33 seconds.
Both Wickenhauser and Smiley plan on making it to the eighth COSMIC race of the series, the San Juan Rando, on April 23.
