Kongsberger Ski Club

  Rob Corkran photo Jan Guenther is easy to admire: the owner of Gear West Ski and Bike Shop in Minnesota, she is a perennial age-group winner at the American Birkie and World Masters Championships. In the summers she's an Ironman triathlete, an open water swimmer, an outrigger paddler, a trail runner, a bike racer. But at age 65, there was one thing she hadn't explored yet, and that was back-country wilderness skiing at altitude. So when her friend suggested they tackle the 40-mile point-to-point Grand Traverse back-country ski race this last winter, traveling high-mountain wilderness from Crested Butte to Aspen, she was all in. So that meant a scramble to learn a whole new sport -- new skis and boots to try and buy, new hydration packs and safety equipment to try and buy, new experts to talk to and learn from -- and somehow figure out a way to take all the sea-level Minnesota-flat training and transform it into trackless backcountry skills at altitude. She and her friend made...

When you're new-KSC-member, long-time skier Jane Ritchey and you just can't bear for the ski season to be over yet, what's a girl to do but head down to Bend for JD Downing's renowned spring training camp? Rob and Suzanne felt the same way and they went with her; all three experienced fantastic skiing, fantastic coaching, an inspirational head start on next season! Below is Jane's report, followed by some additional commentary from Rob. (Both photos are Rob's.) Suzanne, Jane, and Stacey Galinant, coach for Bogus Basin Nordic Team and  spring  camp and MWC regular  As reports came back from Rob and Suzanne’s trip to the World Cup, I was inspired to look for more opportunities to race or at least work on technique. After the Ozbaldy race it seemed too soon to end the XC season and KSC snow melt was looking like there would be very little track skiing after the end of grooming March 30th. I was starting to dream about going with the US team to Italy in 2026. So I s...