Gunnar Hagen Race Report

Many thanks to Rob Corkran for providing this awesome report on the 2025 Gunnar Hagen classic ski race at Cabin Creek last weekend:

Gunnar Hagen, Winner, 1954 Provincial Championship, Edmonton, Alberta.

In this photo Gunnar anticipates by two years, and with beautiful form, the revolutionary change that swept the 1956 Cortina Olympic jumping competitions. The American and Norwegian teams, the former ironically coached by KSC founder Olav Ulland who had once been a leading practitioner of the older Kongsberg technique, did not stand a chance.  The Central Europeans dominated using the new form. Did Gunnar initially practice this technique as coach of the 1936 Royal Yugoslav team on the huge jump at Planica, the first ski flying hill? Ragnar Ulland, Olav’s nephew, first Kongsberger US Junior National Champion and member of that 1956 American Olympic team, to his surprise readily adapted to the new technique.

The Kongsbergers’ 30k classic race, which had served on occasion as the Pacific Northwest regional championship, was named in Gunnar’s honor in 1980, the year following his passing. He had also been a strong cross country skier.  In one race he finished 10 seconds behind his son Koll who was skiing for the University of Washington.  The press labeled him “one tough cookie!”  Koll had been top ten in both jumping and combined at junior nationals and had just concluded an All-American football career at UW. Koll’s brother Halvor, a Weber State Hall of Famer, later had a successful NFL career. Both brothers grew up jumping and skiing xc at the club during its early years.

 

The first Gunnar Hagen was won in 1980 by Olympian Jay Bowerman and Barbara Schmitt. Jay, son of noted Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman, was recently named to the Biathlon Hall of Fame. This writer’s most notable achievement in ski racing was getting lapped by winner Jay, probably twice, in the 1970 PNW championship on the KSC 6x5k course.

 

Kids ruled the 7.5k in 2025. About sixty of the 88 finishers were juniors.  They came from five teams, Momentum, Ellensburg, Plain Valley, Methow, Kongsbergers and Bush.  Momentum and Ellensburg had particularly strong teams, fielding thirteen of the top 25 finishers and numerous age class medalists.  

Jeff Hashimoto photo. 7.5k winners (minus one who left early).

Kudos to coaches Tom Echelberger, Stacy Marion and Adam Tuff for Momentum and Jeff Hashimoto and Carey Gazis for Ellensburg. King and Queen for the day were two hotshots from the Methow, Lena Decuir (U14) and Soren Decuir (U-16). Solid efforts from the Bush coaches Lucy Alexander and Nick Gardner, both former Williams skiers and finishing second and third in their races, could not displace the young Decuirs from their respective positions at the top of the heap.  Annika Peterson(U16)  from Plain Valley had a fine race finishing second in the women.  Likewise Kian Compton (U18) of Ellensburg finished third on the men’s side. Unusual for actual winners, the Decuirs maintained their supremacy in the age-adjusted results.  Not even the generous handicaps offered the “elderly” by Webscorer, accorded to my wife Suzanne at 73, could overcome their speed in the age-adjusted results.  She finished third overall in age adjusted to the youngsters  (The Finns hosting lasts year’s Masters World Cup labeled women athletes over 70 and men over 75 as “elderly!”)

 

The Bush School is now in its fifty-first year of racing on Kongsberger courses. That would include almost every running of the Gunnar Hagen.  Fifty years of persistence pays off.  Bush provided the entire female U-18 field and swept the medals, with Ada Miller in first place!  There was a photographer engaged by the school for this momentous but uncelebrated occasion, though probably not for that reason.   

 

The “elderly” had their own fun. 

Frank Harris photo. Three racers and the Chief of Course, all in their 70s, because age is just a number!

Jane Ritchey (M10) from a distinguished skiing lineage, was pleased to have just finished her first xc ski race in 55 years, having skied four-way for the UW.  Her father Lon Robinson had raced downhill in the legendary Silver Skis from Camp Muir to Paradise on Mt Rainier in the thirties, skied at an international xc ski race in Trondheim in 1939 and jumped at the Kongsbergers in the fifties! My wife Suzanne Corkran (M9) is coming off open heart surgery six months ago and was pleased to be able to maintain a steady pace throughout. Our oldest participant, Kongsberger parent and grandparent Katherine Collins (M11) gamely took on and mastered the course. Jim Lindsey at 90 was at his usual pre-race job, drilling holes to set fencing. Gunnar Unneland, 94, was in the cabin providing moral support and occasional help.  Gunnar defeated Jay Bowerman in the 1970 John Craig Race across McKenzie Pass when Jay was midway between his two Olympics as a biathlete. Sweeping around a switchback with Gunnar in the lead, the finish, of unknown location to the one way racers, was right there and Olympian Jay had not the time to pounce!

 

Bush seems now to ski and race primarily on Madshus skin skis for classic, a reasonable solution for a team that trains, practices two techniques and races as a group only during the several months available for a varsity sport.  For most skiers on the course it was another klister day. The old standby for an icy day at the Gunnar Hagen, Rode Multigrade or its upgrade KM3, was much in evidence. Also seen on wax tables were Start Warm and Guru Extreme 39, among others.  Momentum and Ellensburg have game changers in the form of wax machines.  The former elected to apply a base klister even for the 7.5k juniors, so easy is it to do. Former Bush skiers will remember hiding out with Rob upstairs in the waxing shed, no vises or tables, applying klister with skis propped against a foot with a torch, palms and thumbs.  “Don’t worry.  If you can get your gloves on it will magically disappear!”

 

In the premiere event, the 30k winner Chris Pappathopoulos of North Bend, skiing under the aegis of Pioneer Midwest, may well be on his way to becoming this race’s next dynast having won consecutive races. But he has work to do in that regard. Also in the event was Brad Bauer who has won it four times.  New member Montana Tucker’s dad, Scott Tucker, won five times and that stands as a record for men.  Other previous winners skiing included Rune Harkestad, Jeff Hashimoto, Brent Turner, David Lindahl and Michael Karas. Malcom Groves and Kevin Rieke also had outstanding races in finishing second and third.  Kevin has been a great skier for the Leavenworth Winter Sports Club since he was a dominant PNW junior skier forty years ago.  It was no surprise that Rune Harkestad (M7) and Dave Ford (M9) of the Methow, two of the best masters skiers in the country, finished one-two in the time adjusted results, with Kevin Rieke (M5) in third again.

Jeff Hashimoto photo. 30k winners.

Augustina Harper photo. Rune Harkestad, never not smiling!

Augustina Harper photo. David Lindahl, the definition of smooth.

Erica Swanson photo. Nothing better than mother/daughter racing -- Erica and Yeti Riley!

Winner among women was Andreea Ghizila, no stranger to Kongsbergers.  My wife Suzanne spotted her as a precocious kiddo skiing with her dad and suggested that they join Momentum.  Several years later as a leading junior racer Andreea gave a memorable demonstration in chin-ups to an overflowing post race audience in the cabin. To shouts and cheers of the entire assemblage she did over fifty from the pipe above the stairwell.

Angry Snowflake Laura Moore of Corvallis was second and our own Mona Deprey was third.  Mona (M6) was first in the age adjusted category and long-time Kongsberger Marcia Ostrom (M7) living in Leavenworth, was third to Andreea’s second in that category.

 

Kongsberger races have been hand-timed for almost seventy years. For most of those years Olympic officials Dave and Shirley Newton, for whom our stadium is named, were the timers. Augustina Harper led the club’s successful foray this year into the world of chip timing. Preparations were lengthy and included a test run with juniors from Momentum.  Among odds and ends, straps for the chips were on the long side, perhaps suitable for reindeer racing in Finland,  Cut to an easier size to handle, some of the youngest racers still had to be counseled not to wind extra strap around the chip! The groomer also had to set track so that the limited range sensor could read the lap lane.  The owner of Webscorer, Vesa Suomalainen, was on hand for the race.  He has a special interest in the Gunnar Hagen, having been a two-time winner!

Augustina Harper photo. Matt Swanson Webscoring.

Augustina Harper photo. Webscorer, the brain behind the curtain.

 

The many Kongsberger volunteers and our great groomers once again pulled off another high quality event and are credited elsewhere.  

Lilian Andrews photo. 

Lilian Andrews photo. It's not a race without the chili at the end!

Three competitors, including board members, from the Teacup Lake club near Mt. Hood in Oregon were impressed.  Emilie Blevins, one of them and fourth overall among women in the 30k, is in training for racing successively the Konig Ludwig Lauf and the Transjurassiene. She loved our course!

 

Photos from the event are posted on the link thoughtfully arranged by Ann Grodnik in response to my request for photo assistance [see link below].  

Notes on the grooming from Chief of Course Don Brooks:

And let's not forget our great grooming team.  Nick and Bill were very responsive to my requests and carried them off without a hitch,  Saturday night I talked with Bill as he began his rounds and he was completely on task, understanding all the requests for where to set 2 tracks, where to pull the classic tracks (i.e. the turn at the bottom of Strawberry Hill) and so on.  It may be of interest that the entire course was first groomed with the large machine and its 22' width before shifting over to the smaller one to set the actual classic tracks.

Photo album courtesy of Ann Grodnik:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/m38TQejiR6EnHojM6