Satchmo for Satchmo from Kyle Spaulding on Vimeo.

Dave Satchmo Sugnet’s 13/14 season edit.

Filmed in Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte Colorado.
Song: Go Down, Moses- Louis Armstrong

Additional Footage from Taylor Ahearn

Graham Ruhmann in the front of the pack on lap one in Men’s A Short Track

Western athletes gave great performances in a few different classes. Graham Ruhmann and Max Durtschi both made massive statements in their respective races. Graham held up the front of the pack in Men’s A Short Track Cross Country, finishing in a brilliant second place. While Max came out blazing to take third in Men’s B Downhill.

Max sending some air before the last stretch to the finish line

While the Snowmass course was a little dry and loose, Western athletes were still able to dish out some impressive lap times and represent the entire Mountain Sports Program very well. Each school was extremely appreciative of Aspen Snowmass, the volunteers, community, staff, and everyone else for encouraging a race in such a beautiful area. The Western Mountain Sports Program wanted to extend their gratification to the people of Aspen Snowmass for their effort in making this event possible.

Results can be found at the USAC Website

Western athletes gathering near the base area

Written by David Dieckhaus. Photos by David Dieckhaus and Mason Strehl. More photos from the event may be found on the Mountain Sports Flickr page.

Sierra Halverson makes her way down the rock garden during the DH competition

Western’s Mountain Sports athletes had a great showing with outstanding performances from Graham Ruhmann, Sierra Halverson, Daniel Frentzel and Jimi Averill.  Ruhmann took second place in the Men’s A Short Track and fifth in Men’s A Cross Country.  Sierra Halverson was top five in Women’s B Downhill, Dual Slalom and Cross Country.  Freshman Daniel Frentzel made statement by taking a close second in the Men’s B Dual Slalom and annihilating the field in Men’s B Downhill with a more than 3 second victory.   Senior Jimi Averill took 6th place in an incredibly talented field of Men’s A Downhill riders.

Cameron Smith in the Short track race

The Pagan Pedal has set itself apart as one of the top-tier Collegiate Mountain Bike Events in the RMCCC, riders from every school present had  nothing but praise for the courses and all of the wonderful volunteers, staff and community members that made the event possible.  Western’s Mountain Sports Program would like to send a huge thank you to the excellent people at Crested Butte Mountain Resort for their hard work and dedication throughout the weekend.

Results can be found at the USAC website

Banks Kriz races to the finish in the dual slalom

Written by Jason Holton. Photos by David Dieckhaus, Preston Hoffman, and Mason Strehl. More photos from the event may be found on our Flickr page.

On the first day of competition, the riders were up early training. Cross country riders had the first race, with enduro following close behind. The racecourse was exciting, with both races having a downhill portion on Granby’s Silky Johnson trail.

Peter Noon pops over a knoll in his cross country race

The following morning, the short track races began, taking place on the lower part of the mountain. The course consisted of a short climb, followed by a banked downhill section with a single jump. The racers cycled the course for 15 to 20 minutes vying for the top spot. Following the short track race, the downhill race began on Granby’s Stranger trail. The trail is a very technical route down the mountain, with a several rock gardens and a few drops, followed up by a series of optional jumps at the bottom. Western’s riders trained and executed swift descents on the exciting course. Check out the photo slider and video below for the action.

Results will be posted as they become available, so check back in a while.

WSCU’s camp at Granby

Photo Credit to Preston Hoffman, Video & Writing by Mason Strehl

Please pick-up a registration packet from the Mountain Sports Office in the south end of the Mountaineer Field House.

Contact Assistant Director of Mountain Sports, Jason Holton for more information

jholton@western.edu

970-943-2014

Skiing is my passion and it is what brought me to Western, the vast expanse of the Elk Mountains promised me endless opportunities for my favorite type of adventuring: backcountry skiing.

With the passing of two winters now in the range I have to admit the mountains have shown me more joy than I ever believed possible, and have cultivated multiple friendships that will stand the test of time. People find bliss in many different places; and for me, my place is the mountains, on the East Face of Gothic Mountain and at the finish line of The Elk Mountain Grand Traverse. This year our range was blessed with epic amounts of snow and it kept my friends and I on ski’s, earning turns all the way into June.  I finished my season on the 5th with a very special descent of the Refrigerator Coliour on Ice Mountain, a remote peak that is home to sustained 50 degree slopes and near vertical rock.

The Refrigerator Couloir – Ice Mountain, CO

So, with the thinning of the snow pack and the blossoming of the Cottonwoods, I began to feel a bit out of place. Lost in a world without white, ecstatic about having just experienced the best and most progressive season of my life; I was stoked but I was not content. I longed for pow. And soon I would find it in a place that I had almost forgotten.

Pedaling along, the sage fly’s by my side in a blur, the colors of a lush high desert pallet; green’s, gold’s and grey’s are all vivid in there spring infancy. The clouds are breaking above my head and the sun is dropping into an orange sky that lies between the horizon line and cumulus above. Hartman Rocks and its miles of trails north of the power line are now open. I turn onto Rattlesnake stand up out of the saddle and begin to power through beautiful burning legs. Down the first rock moves and onward to a glorious re-acquaintance with my second favorite thing BROWN POW!

Mountain Sports Athlete Ellie Atkins Shredding Brown Pow

Riding your bike is fun, it is fun in the hills, it is fun in town, it is fun with friends and it is fun all by yourself. Last year in the dog days of summer it may have even saved my life. At home in the California heat, hanging drywall for cash, depressed, questioning, and in contempt, I forced myself out on a forty mile high country ride and somewhere between Coyote Flats and Baker Creek I found a new happy, healthy energy.  I came home that day, quit my job the next, traded in my burnt out steel hard tail for a new aluminum one, split for single track ridge riding in Lake Tahoe for a few days, came back to Bishop for a couple, and headed out to Moab and the La Sals just a week later.  Single track salvation! Soon I was at home in Gunnison, riding above tree line in the Elks, and through the sage again at Hartman’s.

This summer I chose to make Gunnison my home, avoiding the 100 degree temps in California and enjoying the splendors of life in the Elk Mountains with gratitude.   My mountain bike season began with the close of my ski season. The decreased objective hazard in the snowless hills has lent itself to daily exploration and long weekend epics, one of the most beautiful things about dirt is that it doesn’t develop depth hoar.

In late June I raced The Original Growler, a 64-mile cross-country race at Hartman Rocks on a single night’s notice. My co-worker and Mountain Sports teammate Alex passed his registration on to me because of a hurt knee and plans of an upcoming trans-America mountain bike tour, GO ALEX! The Growler was short enough for me to think I might be able to kind of race it but long enough to be seriously humbling. I flatted twice, had to hike about ten minutes to get another tube on my second, and cramped pretty darn bad at the Top of the World on lap 2. For off the couch racing, it was long, muddy, technical, and awesome! I was stoked to finish in six hours and forty something minutes, and can’t wait to try to go sub-six next year.  Hopefully better conditioned, and flat free.

Crested Butte’s Famous 401 Trail

As June drew on I knocked off a few new and obscure rides feeling liberated by the adventure of exploration and hard effort.  One ride took me on a long climb in the West Elks, up mining roads and down barely scratched in elk trail, another started right out of campus headed east to the Fossil Ridge, where Mule Deer were my only witnesses and the climbers at Taylor Canyons First Buttress must have thought I had just finished Doctors Park.

As my Legs started to get tired my head seemed to be hungry for a bit of fear, because I began a three week climbing bender with my buddy Elias in late June.  We were psyched on rock, making our way through the grades at Taylor, and even putting up a few of our very own on first ascents in the 5.10 range at a splitter crag I had found out on a long ride west of town.  Rock climbing is a funny sport for me, when I am motivated the fire burns hot and I cannot get enough, but somehow it dies out overnight. I grow tired of pushing myself through the fear and movement. Maybe it is too sedentary; to slow to reach the final destination. I prefer the movement of a bike, the feeling of covering tons of country, seeing many things, not having to stop at a belay. Unless of course it is in the mountains, mountain climbing is different.

Mountains Sports Athletes enjoying the classic Agate Creek Trail

June has become July and the high country riding is in full effect, wild flowers are chest deep on the 401 trail, and the alpine brown pow is being rejuvenated nearly daily with afternoon thunder storms.  Two weeks ago I went big and failed on an all dirt Crested Butte to Gunnison ride, it was to include, Trail 401, to Deer Creek, to Block and Tackle, to Reno, Flag, Bear, Doctors, to Forest Road 586, and finally descend Signal Ridge. I came up short at Harmels after ten hours, the climb up Forest Road 586 sounded heinous, I was out of food and decided it best to throw in the towel and ride the pavement home to Gunnison.

The Crested Butte Classic a 100 mile race came up a little less than a week later, and with the absence of an entry fee or really much organization at all it seemed like just my type of ride. A mellow scene and awesome course that included; Strand Hill to Teocali Ridge on lap one, Reno, Flag, Bear, Deadmans from town on lap two, and finished with Kebler Pass, the Dyke Trail, and Wagon Wheel back to Crested Butte.  A little nervous at the start because of my recent big effort, I was stoked to fly through lap one feeling great on the new Teocali re-routes. That trail is awesome and if you haven’t already ridden it you need to get out there! Lap two was really hard, the climb up Reno Divide seemed endless and I was alone for most of it not knowing if I was going fast and suffering or going slow and suffering.  My friend JP caught up to me at the bottom of the Flag Creek descent and we pushed each other through the rest of the lap, enjoying the best Bear Creek descent ever, filled with hollers of stoke and all. I dropped JP on the road back to Crested Butte, and set out for lap three all alone again. The Kebler climb went well, and I cleaned the entire Dyke Descent but had no hope of clearing the steep single track climbs by that time of day. I battled hard to keep up the cadence from Horse Park Ranch to the top of Kebler knowing the end was near. Finally I was descending Wagon Trail completely exhausted. I pulled into town in sixth place over all with a time of 10hrs 17mins. Cool!

Enjoying friends and fire between epic rides

Life in Gunni has continued on in its unique awesomeness the past week, I rode 401 with a great gang last Monday night and camped out at Emerald Lake afterwards. Hit Hartmans a few times throughout the week, once with my stellar co-worker Jefe who is pretty damn rad and showed me all sorts of new rocky lines! And yesterday we had a six-person Western Mountain Sports crew on Agate Creek, off of Monarch Pass, which is just one more Gunnison gem. While the thought of the rapidly approaching fall semester makes me shutter, I am getting more and more excited to race the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Series with my Western teammates and hopefully enjoy another seamless transition into my favorite season come November! I’ll be itching for a change in pow!

When: Thursday May 1st at 5:30pm

Why: To celebrate another incredibly successful season of competition and to honor the athletes and media that make it all happen!

Purchase Tickets or Make Donations Here!

$15 per plate or $105 to buy a table for you and your friends!

Come Get Awesome!

Training for you first 100 miler is a daunting process that very few people on the face of the Earth can really comprehend.  Many ultra-runners will run over 100 miles per week in preparation for a single race.  Most athletes that compete in these events are only up against themselves with just a belt buckle and a story to win.  The Zion 100 Mile Endurance Run has been looming over Bryan for months, last weekend he got his chance to run.

The 100 mile course meandered around the southern Utah desert adjacent to Zion National Park, five steep climbs onto the area’s many mesas provided about 12,00ft in elevation gain.  Bryan came out strong for the first half of the race before the real challenges began.  “I had a good day out there, but had some problems past mile 50 leaving me a crippled mess for 20+ miles, trying to regain myself,” says Bryan.

When all was said and done, Bryan ran 74 miles in 23 hours and 15 minutes.  When asked after the race whether or not there were more 100′s in his future, Bryan said, “(I’m) definitely interested in 100′s. I can’t stop thinking and planning out when my next attempt will be!”

Peter Noon enjoying the cold smoke. Photo: Preston Hoffman

Western’s Snowboarders kicked off the two-star action on Thursday with freshman Peter Noon and senior Tyler Patterson dropping in on the treacherous Headwaters venue.  Peter would finish in 9th place and Tyler in 6th, both just shy of the cut-off for the four-star competition over the weekend.  Mike Huse, Sam Lesnikoski, Morgan Haymans, Matt Martell, Connor Michael, Xavier Martin, Justin Barr and coach Ed Dujardin skied in the two-star event.  Coach Ed led the group with a 10th place finish.  Right behind him were junior Morgan Haymans in 13th and senior Mike Huse in 16th.  See Big Sky two-star results here.

Athletes and coaches make nice with Big Sky’s finest. Photo: Preston Hoffman

Three Western athletes found themselves pre-qualified for the weekend’s four-star event: junior Morgan Haymans,  senior Francesca Pavillard-Cain, and coach Dave Sugnet.  Morgan had been having a breakout season headed into the Series Finals, he would carry his momentum through the event landing in 29th place in the four-star event.  Coach Dave caught a tip right out of the gate and was unable to recover. He ended up in 31st when all was said and done.

Coach Ed Dujardin teaches by example. Photo: Preston Hoffman

The main story for the weekend was Francesca Pavillard-Cain’s domination of the women’s ranks.  On day one, she laid down a solid and technically sound line placing herself in the top spot.  Weather delays on Saturday had many competitors biting their nails, but not Western’s Pavillard-Cain.  A seasoned competitor, Francesca was able to ignore the meteorological distractions and lay down another amazing run to take first place.

Justin Barr gets a base grind the old-fashioned way. Photo: Preston Hoffman

With this win and her laudable rookie season on the 2014 Freeride World Tour, Francesca secured passage to yet another season competing in the sports highest arena in the 2015 Freeride World Tour.  Fran would like to thank Western State Colorado University, the Mountain Sports Program, Haber Vision, Rossignol, AIARE, the Crested Butte Snowsports Foundation, Colorado Freeskier, Mountain Hardware, and Crested Butte Mountain Resort.

An elated Francesca makes her way to the finish. Photo: Preston Hoffman