Build My Own FeedBD employee John DiCuollo competes in Colorado's Elk Mountain Grand Traverse backcountry ski race
John DiCuollo lives in Carbondale, Colorado (down-valley from Aspen) and works with our PR firm, Backbone Media. He recently competed with Steve Lavelle in the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse, a brutal 40-mile backcountry ski race that goes from Crested Butte to Aspen through the Colorado highcountry. Below is his report and a couple of photos from the event.
So, this has been two years in the works—I bailed out 15 miles into the 2009 Elk Mountain Grand Traverse. Temps were bitter cold, negative two degrees Fahrenheit at the start, and it got colder and colder as I attempted to ski from Crested Butte to Aspen. Steve and I actually beat the cut-off time at the Friend's Hut by 1 hour, arriving at 6am, but after looking up at the ground blizzard on Star Pass I chose to turn around for the safety of the trees. The ski back to Crested Butte was pretty humiliating... skiing past other racers still pushing on towards Aspen, with my tail between my legs, water & energy gels completely frozen and wondering how to get back to Aspen once I arrived in CB? Getting home ultimately took longer than if I had just skied the race.
This year was different—in more ways than one. The Elk Mountain Grand Traverse ski race normally runs from Crested Butte to Aspen, but over a foot of new snow and blizzard-strength winds forced organizers to cancel plans for the midnight start and high-altitude (12,000 feet plus) traverse to Aspen. Instead, racers did the “Grand Reverse,” starting at 6 a.m. and following a complex course up to the Friends Hut and back, doing several loops to add distance, and finishing back at the Crested Butte Mountain Ski Resort. The Grand Reverse distance was approximately 38 miles and 7,000 feet of vertical, which is slightly shorter than the usual course. For many, this year's modified course turned out to be much faster. The winning racers finished up to three hours ahead of the winning times carded during the past several years. For me, it was all about finishing this time around.
In the days leading up to the race, all I could think about was whether I would make it to the finish line in 2010 or would I have to bail again. I spent a lot of time combing through my ski journal wondering if all my training would pay off. Looking at long range weather forecast models wondering how bad the weather would be, and trying not to shake hands with anyone for fear that I would get sick. At one point, I even went to the doctor to get an advance prescription of antibiotics in case I came down with something. Pretty f#$K%d up...wouldn't you say?
When I sat at the pre-race meeting on race day and heard the rangers on radios spraying about 60-plus mile-an-hour winds and heavy snow on Taylor Pass, I asked myself why I was attempting this again? Why not pull out and go powder skiing instead? It's all about the down, right? To my surprise, later that day I learned that the weather conditions were so serious that the race would not be going to Aspen and in fact I would be doing the "Grand Reverse" one more time.
As I knew the course well from my experience the year before (including taking a bus to Gunnison, walking through town with my ski boots/skis and renting a 1 way car back to Aspen), the odds were stacked in my favor. My race partner Steve and I, rocking the BD colors (Cults, Traverses, Speed 40s, Sprinters, Prodigys, etc), did pretty well this time around. We beat our time to Friend's Hut by over an hour over last year and finished 57th out of approximately 130 teams and crossed the finish line in under 10.5 hours. And two years later, finally got my EMGT medal as a token of all my efforts to complete this race.
Like to say thanks to the organizers, sponsors (yeah, BD!) and volunteers who helped make this year's event such a huge success. Great call on the "Grand Reverse!" Also to Team BD, especially Colleen, who helped get me in this year's race, which filled up in only 20 minutes back in December. Lastly, to my partner Steve Lavelle, who put of with me all winter long. We had a blast. Now it's time to get back to the down.
I guess the question remains...do I have to do it again? An official race from Crested Butte to Aspen? Can't think about it now...
— JLD
United States / English 
