Wholistic Fitness

Durango Nordic Skiers/Snowshoers Crush Some New Mexico Chile…

Local yoga teacher and legendary outdoor athlete, Steve Ilg,  once again led the Durango charge of nordic ski racers at the 39th Annual Chama Chile Ski Classic in Chama, New Mexico held over the Martin Luther King weekend.  This prestigious event features 5 nordic and snowshoe racing events in 2 days, and over a dozen ski education clinics, yoga, broomball, backcountry tours, and lots of partying spread across the 3 day-weekend.  Over 250 skiers, snowshoers, and winter sports enthusiasts attended the event, according to Race Director, Mary-Anne DeBoer.   The event is growing each year under the guidance of DeBoer and the amazing course groomers – led by cycling’s Time Trial Champion Clay Moseley of Los Alamos – which magically transform a powder-snow alpine meadow near the top of Cumbres Pass into a nordic racers paradise for only 3 days. “This weekend is like the aerobic, winter counter-part to a Tibetan Sand Painting;  over a course of a few days intense focus and beauty and transformation occurs, then?  By the fourth day?  Nature just erases the whole artistry replacing it with her own for the next year,”  states former King of the Mountain Champion, Steve Ilg.

On Saturday,  Durango ski mountaineering champion,  Scott Simmons, barely won the 15k Freestyle fighting off a scintillating late-race charge by fellow Durangoan Andrew Ferguson.  Course groomer and cycling champion, Clay Moseley of Los Alamos, NM finished third.

Sunday featured the much anticipated King of the Mountain KOM) rematch between former KOM Champion Steve Ilg and  current KOM Champion, Daryl Dagel of Albuquerque, NM.   In the KOM competition,  racers must race a 10-kilometer classic style ski race then snowshoe race for 5-kilometers.  Hit the replay button from last year:  Ilg crushed King Dagel in the ski section by over 6 minutes only to lose more than that to the reining and still current Dagel in the snowshoe.  “That does it,” quipped the ever-smiling and 2x OUTSIDE Magazine cover athlete Ilg after taking his beating in the KOM competition, “next year?  i’m actually going to snowshoe train!”   Ilg is a 2x World Mountain Snowshoe Champion medalist and Race Director for the upcoming “Winter Warrior 5&10k Snowshoe Race” right here in Durango on Saturday, Feb 11th at the Durango Nordic Center.

Durango podium results from the Chama Chile Ski Classic, February 14-16, 2012:
•) 1st place 7.5k Freestyle – Steve Ilg
•) 1st place 15k Freestyle – Scott Simmons
•) 2nd place 15k Freestyle – Andrew Ferguson
•) 2nd Place AG, 7.5k Freestyle – Jo C. Soigner
•) 2nd place AG, 15k Freestyle – Donna Thormalen
•) 1st place AG, 15k Freestyle – Kim Fluty
•) 1st place AG, 15k Freestyle – Andrew Ferguson
•) 1st place AG, 15k Freestyle – Sabina Kuss
•) 3rd place AG, 10k Classic – Kerry Honsinger
•) 2nd place AG, 10k Classic – Steve Ilg
•) 3rd place AG, 10k Classic – Anne Sutherland
•) 1st place AG, 5k Classic – Sarah Sturm
•) 3rd place AG, 5k Classic – Charlotte Deters
•) 1st place AG, 5k Snowshoe – Steve Ilg
•) 1st place AG, 5k Snowshoe – John Gilbert (Mancos)