The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It blows me away”
After getting its start as a hometown ski race and memorial event for an avid local ski club sponsor 33 years ago, the Dan Prater Memorial Cup has become a mainstay on the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s U14 racing circuit with some big names among its alumni. And it is coming to Crested Butte Mountain Resort this week.
Over the years, a few Prater Cup competitors have gone on to skiing greatness, like world famous freeskier Seth Morrison along with five-time U.S. Olympian Casey Puckett and his brother Chris, a former member of the U.S. Ski Team. Many more past Prater Cup competitors can be found among the ranks of ski industry professionals.
“It always amazes me when I travel to hear just how many people, from Seth Morrison … to the president of Spyder, who have heard of Prater or been associated with it in one way or another,” says organizer Stephanie Prater.
So in a sense, the future of snow sports is upon us as 250 of the Rocky Mountain region’s best junior alpine racers line up for Super G, Slalom and GS events and a whole lot of fun starting Thursday, February 21. The race is a U14 Junior Olympic Championship Qualifier.
Although Dan himself wasn’t a racer, and neither of his daughters were brought up in the sport, his eldest daughter, Stephanie, thinks her father would be happy to see where the racing event named in his honor has come over the years.
“He just loved this community,” Stephanie said. After following the track carved by Crested Butte ski pioneer and childhood friend (and babysitter) Dick Eflin from Wichita, Kansas in the early 1970s, Dan Prater became a dedicated Crested Butte ski club booster, taking his motor home to races as a support vehicle for the racers.
After Dan died in 1979, his friend, local attorney and racing coach Paul Puckett, father of the Puckett brothers, started the annual race in his honor.
Since then, the race has become a favorite for junior racers, as well as their coaches and parents. Prater says it’s because it is the biggest race of the regular racing season and because of the way the town comes out to support the event. And Prater estimates that at least 700 people come to town from across the Rocky Mountain region for the three-day event.
“As far as what Crested Butte does, it’s the biggest,” Prater says, pointing to the goodie bags and the barbeque. “It’s a huge commitment for racers and their parents to go to a new town almost every weekend and in most places you ski race and you go home. They don’t go above and beyond like we do. It’s a one of a kind and has always been a one of a kind and that’s why kids love it so much.”
But as big as the race has gotten, for the organizers, the event is bigger than the scorecards. It’s about showing kids from across the region and different teams that they all have something in common.
A big part of the competition is the Country Team Awards, which teams up competitors from different ski clubs, and tracks the good deeds they do, individually and as a team, demonstrating teamwork and sportsmanship. The points they score go into a “Prater Passport,” which is all part of the score to determine who wins the weekend.
After it’s over, competitors will line up to see who from the ranks gets to go to the Junior Olympics, but they’ll never leave their Prater Cup days far behind.
“It took me 15 years to realize what an incredible event this has become,” Prater says. “I go all over the country and everywhere I go people have heard of the Prater Cup. It blows me away. “
Everyone is invited to take in the racing and all the Prater Cup festivities from the bottom of the WestWall lift at Crested Butte Mountain Resort this weekend.
