Biggers, Fisher join forces for A Basin Enduro Race

66 laps in nine and a half hours

Wendy Fisher and Johnny Biggers took their lift-served endurance skiing talents on the road competing in the 22nd annual Arapahoe Basin Enduro on Wednesday, April 13.
Ed—Dead Head Ed—Boardman has skied in all 22 Enduros. This year he teamed up with a friend from Summit County and set a personal record of 63 laps.
Competing in the race was Biggers’s idea and he called on Fisher to join him.
“I heard about it over the years and I gave Wendy a call to see if she was interested,” says Biggers. “We thought we’d be a pretty good team.”
After discussing it with her husband, Fisher was in.
“I knew nothing about it but I’m always up for something new,” says Fisher. “It’s just fun to see what else is out there.”
Fisher and Biggers finished first and second, respectively, at the 7 Hours of the Banana this season, knocking off 34 laps for a total of 70,720 vertical feet skied in seven hours.
With the support of Crested Butte Mountain Resort, the two teamed up to rattle off 66 laps at the Enduro, skiing a grand total of 87,714 vertical feet and coming in third behind two local men’s teams.
The Enduro is similar to the 7 Hours of the Banana in that it’s lift-served endurance skiing, yet different in a number of other ways.
For one, competitors do the race in teams of two.
Second, instead of skiing the same run over and over like in the 7 Hours of the Banana, teams have 20 different lines they must ski in succession off of the Pallavicini chairlift.
Third, while the ski runs at the Enduro are 1,329 feet in length, approximately 700 vertical feet shorter than the Banana, the race is longer.
“Ours is a little more leg burning per run,” explains Biggers. “But this one is three hours longer.”
It was Fisher’s first day on skis in three weeks and she was a bit nervous about how it would feel. In the end it proved to be more of a mental challenge than a physical one.
“I never felt the leg burn like I did at the Banana,” adds Fisher. “I felt really strong and it was amazing skiing with Johnny. I felt the tiredness more in my head.”
The Enduro started at 7 a.m. and the skiers spent the better part of the early morning skiing firm conditions but as the sun hit the slopes of A Basin, conditions primed for fast descents.
“Conditions were really good,” says Biggers.
“There were areas that were wind buff and carve-able,” adds Fisher.
With teams spread throughout the venue, there was no way for Fisher and Biggers to know where they were in the standings throughout the entire day, so they just kept skiing as fast as they could.
“I knew we were top five but I didn’t realize how far out in front of fourth we were,” says Fisher.
The two skiers stopped three times during the entire day for bathroom breaks; other than that they just kept skiing. At around 3 p.m. the weather moved in and it started snowing hard. With just a half hour to go in the race, Fisher’s and Biggers’ race came to an abrupt end when Biggers broke his leg.
“I hit a rut the wrong way and exploded,” says Biggers. “I heard my leg snap.”
Fortunately, the lap count they had up until then was enough of a buffer and they finished the race on the podium in third place.
“I knew we weren’t going to beat the record [72 laps]—I just wanted to represent and do well,” says Fisher.
Boardman touts two things for his 63-lap success: conditions and equipment.
“I’ve never seen A Basin with that good of conditions—it was just spectacular,” says Boardman. “And the fact that I was on a decent pair of skis, something modern. I’ve never skied that fast.”