Mark Mikos charges to take 7 Hours of Twisted Banana title

Youth movement

Hard to say what was the most impressive feat at the 7 Hours of the Twisted Banana on Sunday, March 4. While the event is a fundraiser for the Adaptive Sports Center, it always brings out the latent competitiveness that permeates the valley and showcases the athleticism of the valley from the six-year-olds to the 60-year-olds.
The first two years the event was held on the Banana, but due to current snow conditions, it was moved to Twister, making for a whole new kind of pain.
“I didn’t think Twister was going to be as hard as it was,” says two-time 7 Hours of the Banana champion Wendy Fisher. “It was brutal. I definitely felt the body pain kicking in and I never felt that before.”
Mark Mikos, skiing for local company ROMP skis, skied a total of 50 laps on Twister over the course of the day for a grand total of 51,750 vertical feet and the Twisted Banana title. Fisher was gunning for her third title in a row but a series of crashes dashed her hopes for a three-peat. Nevertheless, Fisher persevered to finish in second place with 49 laps.
Telemark skier Arianne “Quadzilla” French skied 43 knee-dropping laps for the overall telemark title, to earn the aforementioned nickname that day.
But I think what really stood out among the throngs of skiers, snowboarders, fans and volunteers was the effort of the youth in this valley.
Fifteen-year-old Oz Scott, skiing with father Jeff, led the under-18 charge, firing off a total of 45 laps. The youngest competitor, Aksel Lindenmeyr age six and Fisher’s son, laid down 34 laps through the Twister bumps and Avery Bernholtz, age 10, led all girls under 18 skiing 42 laps.
“I was super impressed,” says Fisher. “They gave it their all. They were inspired and were totally inspiring.”
Swinging to the other end of the age spectrum was Bob Vandervoort, age unknown. Vandervoort hasn’t missed a seven hours competition yet and once again was in the mix all day, finishing in third place with 49 laps, just behind Fisher.
Mikos missed the first two years due to the freeskiing competition circuit but got talked into staying to compete in the prestigious local event this year.
“Caleb [owner of ROMP] talked me into it,” says Mikos. “It always seemed kind of interesting.”
The night before the event, organizers told the athletes that they believed 50 laps and 50,000 vertical feet was possible, and that’s what Mikos set his goal at.
“I’ve never done that before,” says Mikos. “I thought that would be awesome.”
But, on the day of the event, Mikos was even more psyched to be skiing and competing against Fisher.
“It was really cool getting to compete against her—surreal,” says Mikos. “I grew up watching her in ski movies.”
Mikos had an early mishap that almost ended it for him before it even got started. At 10 a.m. Mikos broke the toe piece on one of his bindings. Fortunately, Weinberg was on the lift competing as well and managed to ski down and switch skis out with Mikos. The exchange was nearly flawless and Mikos was just a minute and a half behind Fisher when he got back on his skis.
As the day wore on, Mikos retook the lead but Fisher maintained a close gap before the carnage ensued.
Fisher, whose career includes ski racing in the 1992 Winter Olympic Games as well as numerous starring roles in Matchstick Productions movies, crashed five times throughout the day, including one that left her with a bloody nose.
“I haven’t crashed in years,” says Fisher. “I took five of the top eight crashes of my life in the event. It was not a perfect day. [Mikos] was way more fluid and I was just crumbling.”
Aside from the toe piece incident, Mikos’ day was relatively flawless, so much so that he adjusted his strategy.
“I had a plan that if I was in the lead at two, I would ramp it down a little bit,” says Mikos. “But I was feeling good, and getting 50 laps was an awesome driving force for me.”