Salomon/Crested Butte
presented by Salomon USA

Above are two photos from The Turas in Ireland. The first is the team walking through the twon of Dingle and the second is of us and Team New Zeleand as we ride along the Iveragh Penninsula near The Ring of Kerry. The race was outstanding for a first ever event. The race organization did a great job in preparing a difficult course, while showing off the Soutwest part of Ireland. We of course had the rains to deal with (only about 24 hours of on/off rain to contend with in a 4 1/2 day race) and lots of sunshine and a stacked filed of competitors. We certainly felt honored to take thrid place with such an elite field, its our best international result to date and hopefully a sing of things to come for our team.

Now its time to rest and quickly reload for the Saab/Salomon Mtn X Race in France July 21-26th www.mountainxrace.com We will be fielding two teams and all womens team headed up by our own jari Kirkland and then an all male team including Jon Brown, Travis Macy, and Bryan Wickenhauser. Lots of road biking recently for recover as its easy on the body with some shorter intensity running has been the recent staple for recovery as we ease back into training. It often a delicate balance with such a short recovery into a fast race like the Mtn X Race. O' yeah....we're still skiing as well! Tons of snow of high still!

Cheers,
Team Salomon/Crested Butte

No really, it really isn't easy. I suffered like nobody's business. Usually riding your bike for 18 hours is hard but I enjoy it but this weekend was hard. I can tell you the course forwards and backwards and I have mad skills in the sand now. Now, I am ready for the season to really start. We are doing a 24 hour adventure race this weekend in Colorado which is going to be the real kick off to the season. I hope I can remember how to use my compass.

Team Salomon/Crested Butte is just getting over the 11th addition of the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse. Read all about it in the Denver Post! See the link below.

So how did the team do? Jari and her partner, Olympian Nordic skier Rebecca Dussault...1st! Wick & Sully 3rd and Jon & his partner Brian Smith 4th in one of the tightest finishes ever for the top four teams, all separated by under 4 1/2 minutes.

Taking the top spot in the men's division was adventure racing legend Mike Kloser and his partner Jay Henry.


http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_8763623

Race Report on the Men's Race

http://www.teamcrestedbutte.com/page.cfm?pageid=1414

Whad up? From the town under miles and miles of snow. It has been so crazy here. The snow has been epic. We have so much that our stop signs are under snow. And our street signs. And some of our houses. So getting around is a bit tricky if you are new to town.

Racing has been good. Wick, JB and I (Jari) all qualified for the U.S. Ski Mountaineering Team. The world champs are next week in Switzerland. Wick will be the only one of us going and representing the U.S. Just not enough sponsorship money, these things will happen.

The guys raced the Crested Butte Randonnee Ralley last weekend and placed 2nd (Wick), 3rd (JB), and 4th (SUlly). They did me proud. I was in a wedding in Breckenridge, which was good on a different level. Next Sully will be racing the 24 hours of Sunlight this weekend, trying to break the world record for most vertical in one day. Good Luck Sully!!!!

We are supposed to get more snow for the next 5 days. I will be keeping my fingers crossed.

Here is Wick's gear room. Send us photos of your's, if its good we'll throw it up on our site.

from race director and head coach, Pete Swenson! Three of our four member team will be competeing over in Switzerland february 23-29th as part of the US Ski Mountaineering Team!

For details on the racing scene go to

http://www.crestedbuttenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=255&Itemid=44

Details on the World Championships

www.smwc2008.com