Helgeson and Harris were all smiles when they arrived. They shared some water, then moved onto the next leg, a 300m ski descent. Next they'd hike, or "bootpack," with their skis strapped to their packs.
When the first racers reached the Peaked Mountain summit at around the one-and-a-half-hour mark, it was a brisk 18 degrees. The Grand Teton, usually visible to the north, was hidden by the milky fog. There was talk of cold hands and frozen hydration-system tubes. But a reward lay ahead: 610m of virtually untracked powder in an area usually reserved for snowcat skiing. That kind of big-mountain skiing is what distinguishes ski-mountaineering races from other winter competitions, said Pete Swenson, a former pro mountain bike racer who won the national ski mountaineering title in 2006.
At the 2006 world championships in Italy, he recalled: "There were about 80 of us in the elite field, but just behind us were 400 raging citizen racers. I thought: `Man, we need to bring this here, we have so many good athletes.' This sport will be very popular in the US. You just have to get people to see it."
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