17th Annual Grand Traverse kicks off Friday at midnight

Send them off and then follow their progress online

Two hundred teams, the most ever, of two skiers will head out at midnight on Friday, March 28 for the 17th annual Gore-Tex Grand Traverse, presented by Outdoor Research and Dynafit.

The race has a long and storied past, filled with epic tales of broken bindings, broken boots, broken fingers, broken spirits, and blinding ground blizzards—to name a few.
On the upside, there are just as many success stories in which partners pulled together amidst all of the adversity high up in the mountains in the middle of the night to pull each other for 40 miles from Crested Butte to Aspen.
Only one person has seen it all: Allen Hadley. Hadley has started and finished every single Grand Traverse race since it all began. He’s been a part of the magic and the mayhem that the Grand Traverse has to offer.
“I think the coolest thing is the opportunity to ski from Crested Butte to Aspen on a quasi-supervised route,” says Hadley. “The trail is broken, there’s some semblance of support. Anybody with a mindset and some physical ability can do something that otherwise would be wicked extreme.”
Hadley offers some advice that has helped him finish every race, and oftentimes, finish well.
“The trick to getting there is preparation in advance and just keep moving,” says Hadley. “Seriously, one foot in front of the other, constant motion.”
With everything in place, equipment functioning and food and water intake substantial, there’s still a section of the course that can put the hurt on some of the strongest of teams.
“The biggest logistical challenge and mind**** is from the Barnard Hut in to the finish,” says Hadley.
This year is shaping up to be a classic Grand Traverse year. Copious amounts of snow over the winter have blanketed the mountains and the recent spate of warm weather has settled the snowpack.
Grand Traverse snow safety director Ben Pritchett was out last week to assess the snowpack and course conditions and was overall happy with what he saw, so far.
“There’s good snow coverage and racers should be able to stay in their skis with no booting,” says Pritchett.
He does have one initial concern. All but one of the avalanche paths in the Star Pass area that cross the course had flushed during the February storm and avalanche cycle.
“The north face of Crystal did not run and that’s our biggest concern,” says Pritchett. “It’s still sitting with snow in it.”
There is another lingering concern on the horizon, with a significant storm forecasted to hit the Central Mountains, including the area between Aspen and Crested Butte, starting on Wednesday.
As of Tuesday night, Crested Butte Avalanche Center avalanche and weather forecaster Zach Guy had some updated information concerning the storm.
“We have a pretty good idea at this point,” says Guy. “Good news for snowfall, bad news for wind.”
Guy has been watching a slew of weather models and according to them, snow is expected to start on Wednesday and continue into Friday. The storm, which is actually a series of pulses, will open with strong winds and snow on Wednesday but winds will calm down by the time a cold front rolls through Wednesday night.
The next pulse of snow on Thursday will favor the Kebler Pass area and could ease up in the Star Pass and Taylor Pass areas.
“I don’t think that one will do a whole lot in the Star Pass area,” says Guy.
By the time the race is to start, the skies should be clear, with plenty of snow sitting on the ground.
“Star and Taylor Pass areas could see anywhere from 10 to 24 inches of snow between Wednesday and Friday,” says Guy. “It all depends on where the jet stream lines up.”
The Grand Traverse has been turned around only twice in its first 16 years with teams forced to turn back to Crested Butte at the Friends Hut. Whether or not that happens this year depends almost entirely on the storm headed our way.
“In the end, what’s going to make the decision is the storm,” says Pritchett. “We’re paying close attention to that.”
Previously, snow has come in the day of the race and teams were sent to Aspen without a problem. It’s the wind that can mess things up.
“The biggest concern is wind slabs,” says Pritchett. “Several years ago we had 12 to 16 inches of snow with no wind and we could do the race.”
Pritchett headed back up to the Friends Hut on Monday morning and will continue to monitor avalanche and weather conditions along with his team of Crested Butte Professional Ski Patrol members, Tom Schaeffer and Zach Springer, and Crested Butte Avalanche Center forecaster Ian Havlick. Pritchett will have additional avalanche and weather information on other parts of the Grand Traverse course coming from John Mortimer and Sam Malone, who will base out of the Opa’s Hut closer to Taylor Pass.
“It’s really a question of what the wind does with the storm,” says Pritchett.
Thanks to modern technology such as satellite phones and Internet at the Friends Hut, race organizers will be able to wait until the final hour before they may have to pull the plug.
“We’re tracking this storm aggressively,” says Bryan Wickenhauser, the race co-director. “The primary goal, of course, is safety first. The second goal is to ski to Aspen.”
If racers do have to turn around, the contingency route is in place and involves following the normal course to the Friends Hut before turning around and throwing in a tour of the Farris Creek drainage before returning to the ski area boundary and climbing back up and over to the base area for the finish.
Wickenhauser has two Grand Traverse titles to his name along with partner Brian Smith and returns this year again with Smith to try to keep the Grand Traverse title in the Gunnison Valley. They will have their hands full though, as a host of heavy hitters, some new, will be lining up this Friday as well.
Local Marshall Thomson won the race last year with an out-of-town partner, Tom Goth. This year, Thomson is teaming up with German ski mountaineering (skimo) athlete Benedikt Böhm.
“He has a number of ski speed ascents records in the Himalaya,” says Wickenhauser. “He eats, breathes and sleeps skimo. They’re a formidable team for sure.”
Andy and Jason Dorais will be back after placing third last year and last year’s second-place finishers Teague Holmes and Brad LaRochelle will return as well.
On the women’s side of things, the local team of Stevie Kremer and Jari Kirkland are a pre-race favorite and the coed title could return to the Gunnison Valley as three-time overall Grand Traverse winner Pat O’Neill teams up with three-time Olympic Nordic skier Rebecca Dussault. The two athletes are strong enough to also have a shot at the overall title.
The racers will head out into the night on Friday at midnight from the base area of Crested Butte Mountain Resort. You can come out, send them off and then track their progress on elkmountainstraverse.com. There are also daily feeds on the race website from the crew at the Friends Hut all week leading up to the race.
If you’re planning on watching the leaders finish, Wickenhauser expects them to hit Aspen eight hours after they start.