Kloser, Henry win Grand Traverse 2008
It's Vail endurance racer's second consecutive title and fourth overall
Jon Maletz - The Aspen Times


ASPEN, CO — Mike Kloser thought his chance at consecutive titles had faded into the bitter early morning air.

The Vail endurance racer’s lead in Saturday’s 11th annual Elk Mountains Grand Traverse, a 40-mile slog through the Colorado high country between Crested Butte and Aspen, had withered. After nearly eight hours spent struggling to maintain their course and confront inclement weather, he and teammate Jay Henry were admittedly exhausted as they negotiated Richmond Ridge on the backside of Aspen Mountain.

Three-time winners Jim Faust and Pat O’Neill of Crested Butte were gaining ground.

“When you leave the [final checkpoint at the] Barnard Hut, it doesn’t matter if you have the lead or not. It’s a suffer fest,” Kloser said. “That’s why we call Richmond Ridge ‘A bitch of a ridge.’

“[Faust and O’Neill] were hounding us. They were 100 to 200 yards back. I thought for sure that was it.”

It wasn’t. Faust and O’Neill momentarily took over first place, but Kloser didn’t give in.

He couldn’t, not with the finish line approaching and a record fourth win within reach.

Kloser urged Henry on, the duo vaulted to the front and soon were all alone as they closed in on the Gondola Plaza. Kloser, in much the same way he did one year ago with then teammate Steven White in tow, gazed uphill, then raised both ski poles above his head as he slid into the finish area after a 9 hour, 4 minute, 5 second ordeal. Faust and O’Neill were three and a half minutes off the pace.

As the crowd drew closer and he and Henry embraced, a look of elation and relief stretched across Kloser’s windswept face.

“I kept saying that it’s not over and not to give in,” the 48-year-old Kloser said. “That’s what has helped us win as much as we have.”

A victory — his fourth in the last seven years — looked like it would allude Kloser about an hour and a half after the midnight start as competitors wandered through Brush Creek. Kloser remarked to Henry that he thought they were heading too high and wandering off course, a suspicion that was realized when the duo was passed by competitors in both the women’s and co-ed divisions.

The navigational difficulties were just beginning — for the entire field. Clear skies five minutes before the start in Crested Butte became overcast. Snow pelted the racers and made trail markers largely indiscernible.

The three lead groups — Kloser and Henry, Faust and O’Neill, and Pierre and Andre Wille — found themselves together and slightly disoriented near 12,303-foot Star Pass. Moments earlier, Faust and O’Neill had been breaking trail through dense trees when they came face to face with a steep side hill caked with hard snow.

“It was game off all of a sudden. We’re all in a situation here,” Faust said. “Everyone shined their headlamps [in one direction], there’d be a cliff and we’d say, ‘OK, we’re not going up there.’ Then we’d shine them over there.

“We spent about 45 minutes chasing our tails. We were out there in the dark, it was dumping snow. You could barely see your hand in front of your face.”

The sense of desperation was not lost on Pierre Wille.

“There was so much snow, you couldn’t see the summer trail,” said the Basalt resident. “You could barely miss it and be in a forest. … We were lucky to make it home.”

Once the teams found there bearings, it was “game on,” Faust said.

Kloser and Henry set the pace as the course wound through exposed Taylor Pass.

Faust and O’Neill remained in hot pursuit as the two teams contended with 30 mph winds and temperatures that plummeted below 20 degrees, Kloser estimated.

Kloser and Henry made it to Barnard Hut — a mandatory 10-minute stop roughly seven miles from the Sundeck — six minutes before the Crested Butte team.

The race for first, one between familiar foes, was rounding into form. In 2003 and 2005, Faust and O’Neill finished second to Kloser, who’s raced with three different partners. They topped the decorated endurance racer and Dan Weiland in 2004.

“We reeled them in,” said Faust, who was competing for the first time after having his left hip replaced one week before last year’s Traverse. “It was back and forth there. We’d catch up on the downhill, and we’d walk on the uphill.”

Despite gaining and giving up ground on the final push, Faust and O’Neill overcame the sizable deficit and momentarily passed Henry and, thus, vaulted into first.

Henry and Kloser were up to the challenge. They assumed command shortly thereafter, and soon were pulling away.

“They were always in sight,” Foust said, “but if they don’t fall or make a mistake, we’re not beating them.”

While his time was 18 minutes slower than in 2007, Kloser’s effort on this day was good enough to best Faust, O’Neill and a field of more than 250. His effort was good enough to pick up consecutive wins and a record fourth Traverse title.

“It was a new goal I wanted to achieve, and it feels good,” Kloser said. “You can’t come into this race without your ‘A’ game and expect to be a contender.”

A year after finishing second, the Willes wound up eighth after finishing in 9:48:20.

“It was a long, brutal night,” Pierre Wille said. “In that race, you’re just happy to finish.”

Team Nike’s Kloser with Steve White win Elk Mt. Grand Traverse 2007
By Chris Freud - Vail Daily reporter

Vail’s Mike Kloser momentarily gazed uphill then, with relief on his face, raised both ski poles in celebration. Just 5 seconds separated first from second place at last year’s Elk Mountains Grand Traverse; Saturday, in the 10th edition of the demanding endurance race, vast terrain separated Kloser and teammate Stephen White from the rest of the 250-person field. The Vail duo overcame equipment failure, inclement weather, fatigue and a deficit that ballooned to 30 minutes on their 40-mile, night-long slog from Crested Butte to Aspen. And, after 8 hours, 46 minutes and 50 seconds they cruised to the finish line at the base of Aspen Mountain.

The victory is Kloser’s third in the event; He took home the 2003 and 2005 titles with then-teammate Dan Weiland. Local brothers Pierre and Andre Wille crossed the finish in second, 8 minutes off the pace. Crested Butte’s Dave Penney and Todd Malzhan finished third. Penny was the first competitor across the line in 2006, but could only watch as Gunnison’s Jon Brown and Brian Smith finished five seconds ahead of his partner, Eric Sullivan.“This is a tough race, and you suffer a lot,” said Kloser, who finished fifth last year. “You better appreciate it any time you win it. This one was the most rewarding considering how we had to fight from behind and persevere.”



Bald tires
Competitors set a quick pace as they pushed off at midnight from the base of Crested Butte Mountain. (The start point in Crested Butte was moved this year because of deteriorating snow conditions.) As the pack climbed the mountain, then crossed the east river valley, the duo continued to trail. A poor wax choice made each step laborious, White said. He began to feel the effects. “I was struggling miserably,” he said. “It was like trying to get traction with bald ties. I felt like Bambi.
“I was having a hard time keeping up with the pace, but my partner helped me pull through.” As seven teams distanced themselves from the field, Kloser and White managed to stay close to the front. As they negotiated 12,303-foot Star Pass — the course’s highest point — the team vaulted into second. But, because they helped break trail, the teams close behind didn’t lose ground.

Negotiating the soft snow made traversing relatively straightforward, White said. They managed to overcome unforeseen equipment malfunctions — Kloser skied the entire race without a functional headlamp and both struggled with pole straps that continually became disconnected, making it difficult to push off.

Taylor Pass
The biggest obstacle, one that hindered the entire field, lay ahead on remote Taylor Pass. As Pierre Wille and his brother, also near the lead group, climbed a cornice on their ascent of the pass, they were hit head-on by sub-zero temps and winds that Pierre Wille estimated reached almost 60 mph. Snowmobile tracks and wooden stakes charting portions of the course were nowhere to be found. Conditions were so severe that race organizers reportedly halted some competitors early Saturday and forced them to bivouac. “There was no trace of where to go,” said Pierre Wille who, with teammate Travis Moore, won the inaugural traverse in 1998. “We couldn’t see anything. It was still dark and our headlamps shined on all the snowflakes.
“It was like being on the inside of a Ping-Pong ball.” Pierre Wille’s thin boots were frozen solid — during the early stages of the race the competitors had to negotiate multiple small streams. His hat also froze and felt like a helmet.

The frigid temperatures and gusts bordered on unbearable, he said. “I thought we were going to die out there,” Pierre Wille said. “It was a little scary. We had to stop and put on every piece of clothing we had.”

Final push
Still, they pushed on. So, too, did Kloser and White, who were not far behind. The two reached the Barnard Hut, a mandatory 10-minute stopping point, just in time to see the lead group — Gunnison’s Bryan Wickenhauser and Eric Sullivan — push off in the direction of Richmond Hill. Kloser and White waxed their skis and prepared for one final push.
“We started picking off guys left and right,” Kloser said. “Those other guys said they cracked and became unglued.” The two’s deficit, which had swelled to as much as 30 minutes earlier that morning, was trimmed to 7; they made up that time just 20 minutes after pushing off from Barnard — some 6 miles from the finish. While others faltered, Kloser and White jumped ahead for good. They passed the Willes on Richmond Ridge and didn’t pause until reaching the bottom of Ajax.

“I’ve had my share of screw-ups, and people have proven they are capable of coming from behind,” Kloser said. “Nothing in this race is ever a sure bet.” Eight minutes later the Willes, exhausted after their nearly nine-hour ordeal, drew roars from the gondola plaza crowd as they descended Little Nell to the finish. After shedding their 20-pound packs stuffed with food, avalanche beacons, bivouac gear and even a stove, they embraced.

“It’s great to be home,” Andre Wille said. “Right now, the weather here is so nice. It’s a totally different world up there.”
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