from www.rockymountainnews.com - February 4, 2006

Dawn of a new race
24 Hours of Sunlight is making its debut; time will tell who will rise to the occasion

By Cindy Hirschfeld

Special to the News

Alaska and Norway aren't the only places you will find 24 hours of sunlight. You actually can experience it in Colorado in just a few weeks.

The 24 Hours of Sunlight, an endurance race, debuts Feb. 11 at the ski resort outside Glenwood Springs. Competitors will hike up the ski area (on skis with skins or snowshoes), then ski, board or run back down, trying to complete as many laps as possible in 24 hours.

OK, so the sun won't really shine through the night, but there will be a full moon.

The first-of-its-kind race is a fundraiser for the Heuga Center, based in Edwards, which assists and educates people living with multiple sclerosis, as well as their families. The national organization was founded by former alpine ski racer and 1964 Olympic slalom bronze medalist Jimmie Heuga, who was diagnosed with MS in 1970.

Aspenite and Heuga Center board member Mike Marolt, who is known for his ski descent of Mount Everest, knows a thing or two about endurance. He came up with the event concept and said his primary goal for the 24 Hours of Sunlight is to heighten awareness of MS.

" There's so little knowledge of it," he said. "It's a horrific disease. When racers are out at 3 or 4 in the morning and hurting as bad as they can possibly hurt, they should keep in mind that there are (many) people around the world with MS that would give anything to be out there."

The format builds on the legacy of the defunct 24 Hours of Aspen race, in which elite downhill racers tried to rack up as much vertical as possible on Aspen Mountain - but they took the gondola up to the top. By designing the race to attract hardcore athletes, who can compete solo or in teams of two or four, and recreationists, who can put together teams of five, Marolt hopes to broaden the appeal while recapturing some of the community spirit that accompanied the Aspen event, which also was a fundraiser.

At the WestStar Bank 24 Hours of Sunlight, which will run from 10 a.m. Feb. 11 to 10 a.m. Feb. 12, "anybody can participate," Marolt said. Well, theoretically.
If the most exercise you've gotten this winter is toggling the remote as you switch between SportsCenter and Desperate Housewives, this event probably is not for you. But if you think you can handle hiking up, then skiing down, about 1,500 vertical feet four or so times, mixed in with some cold and sleep deprivation, the five-person team format has you pegged.

" If you can ski, and you're going to the StairMaster two or three times a week, this event can be a proving ground for you," Marolt said.

Carbondale-based skier and mountaineer Lou Dawson, 54, is putting together a team for the race that includes his wife Lisa; son Louie, 15; and renowned canyon survivor Aron Ralston. Though Dawson is known for having skied all of Colorado's Fourteeners, among other intrepid exploits, he said the 24 Hours will be purely a recreational outing for the Dawson family.

Nonetheless, the Dawsons have turned to an expert source of advice for the race, friend and acclaimed ski mountaineer Andrew McLean, of Utah, who will compete in the solo division (as will his wife Polly). McLean suggested that during the night, each team member should do as many laps in a row as possible rather than alternating laps, because it's toughest to recover from interrupted sleep cycles.

The Dawsons also plan to set up a base camp out of their car and stay well-hydrated, particularly with hot liquids such as soup or a warmed energy drink.

And Lou, who will use lightweight alpine touring skis - the heel frees for climbing, then locks down for the descent - said that because the course has a fairly low angle, the most fervent competitors will go faster on climbing skins made of mohair or a mohair/nylon blend, which glide more easily than the purely synthetic skins most skiers use.

" You gain all of your time on the up, not the down," he said.

The Dawsons, though, just want to have a good time.

" One of the things I really love is skiing uphill," Lisa Dawson said. "It's so exhilarating to skin up and get a good workout."

Though Lisa Dawson swims several times a week and has been skinning up part of Buttermilk ski area to train for the event, she doesn't claim a superhuman level of fitness.

" I'm an accountant, and winter is not a great time to work out. It's always a juggling act," she said.

The event is well-suited for Sunlight, the type of small (470 acres), nonglitzy resort favored by telemark skiers and those not afraid to make a fashion statement with duct tape.

" You could call us an old-school kind of a place, and it wouldn't hurt our feelings," general manager Tom Jankovsky said.

The base-lodge cafeteria will be open throughout the race; but with no aid stations on the course, competitors have to be self-sufficient as far as food, water and anything else they might need while completing a lap.
Spectators will be able to watch along most of the course, Jankovsky said, whether by taking the lift up and skiing down during regular ski-area operating hours (9 a.m.-4 p.m.) or hiking up later on. Though Sunlight will be open as usual for the weekend, lifts won't run after hours.

" In the solo category, there's going to be a race, and it's going to be fun to watch," Lou Dawson said. "The good people will probably be neck and neck."

Parties and other events also are scheduled for the race weekend, including a silent auction and a talk by renowned high-altitude mountaineer Ed Viesturs at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs.

Marolt said one of the most sought-after auction items includes pit and party passes to the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in France. Perhaps the lucky bidder on that package will be able to offer those drivers some pointers on stamina after the 24 Hours of Sunlight. The drivers, after all, at least get to stay warm in their cars.