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s t a n l e y • F a i r f i e l d • S h o sh o n e • P i c a b o Boulder Mountain Tour Features Strong Finishes by Local Skiers
Valentine’s Activites in the Valley
the weekly
Page 4
What Will You do with Your Tax Rebate? Page 7
Smile for A Night of Happiness this Saturday
read about it on PaGe 3
Page 13
F e b r u a r y 8 , 2 0 1 2 • V o l . 5 • N o . 5 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
These snowshoe drag racers were approaching the finish line at the first annual Winterfest.
Stanley-Sawtooth Winterfest This Weekend BY KAREN BOSSICK
C
urling takes the stage Saturday and Sunday when Stanley throws its third annual StanleySawtooth Winterfest. The two-day festival will include a curling demonstration and competition, winter triathlon, big-air competition, snowshoe drag race, street dance, pond hockey, snowmobile fun run, powder 8s competition, an introduction to avalanche education offered by Sawtooth Mountain Guides, and more. Signups for the various events begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at the stage on Ace of Diamonds Street. Schedule:
SATURDAY
All Day Stanley School Parents Association Kids Fun Area, corner of Ace of Diamonds and Wall Street. 10 a.m. Events signup at stage on Ace of Diamonds. 11 a.m. Curling competition and demonstration at ice rink. 12 p.m. Sawtooth Hotel mini-triathlon begins at Pioneer Park. 12 p.m. Smith Sunglasses big-air competition begins on Airport hill. 2 p.m. Bridge Street Grill snowshoe drag race on Ace of Diamonds. 3 to 5 p.m. Stanley Kasino Club street dance with music by Black Label or Old Death Whisper at stage on Ace of Diamonds. 5 p.m. Awards ceremony at stage on Ace of Diamonds. 6 p.m. Papa Brunee’s pond hockey tournament at ice rink.
SUNDAY
All Day Sledding and snow play on Airport hill. 11 a.m. Snowmobile fun ride to Redfish Lake. Participants meet at corner of Niece and Critchfield. 12 p.m. Powder 8s competition. Participants meet at Bridge Street Grill in Lower Stanley. 12 p.m. Pond hockey at ice rink. tws
Gone Globetrotting
One of the perks of competing in the Olympics was the opportunity to witness the “Miracle on Ice” game in which the U.S. hockey team defeated the Soviet team, which was considered to be the best in the world, at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. “The energy in that arena was phenomenal,” Sun Valley native Pete Patterson said. “It wasn’t even the final game but it was THE game.” Team USA went on to win gold. PHOTO: KAREN BOSSICK/SUN
BY KAREN BOSSICK
P
ete Patterson did it all as a youngster, from playing hockey to bouncing through elephant-sized moguls on Limelight. But it was an odyssey on skinny crosscountry skis that helped him gain an edge on his Olympic competitors in the 1980 downhill at Lake Placid. Forced to take a year off from the racing circuit to recuperate from a broken leg that would have ended other skiing careers, the Sun Valley native made the Junior National Nordic Team. And he believes the time he spent on those twoinch-wide skis helped propel him to the best downhill showing an American man had made at the Olympics at that time. “The skis are so narrow that if you’re even a little on edge, it’s going to slow you down,” said Patterson, who added that Nordic racing was the hardest sport he’d ever done. “I ended up doing a lot of gliding on the downhills with cross-country skis—I even took them to Europe with me and trained on them in my spare time. They helped my balance and I think they improved my time.” Indeed, if it hadn’t been for a split-second mistake on the top half of the course, Patterson might have medaled. But still he managed to finish fifth. And that showing was part of why he was inducted into the Sun Valley Ski Hall of Fame last Wednesday, along with nine others. “I had posted the second and third fastest time in training runs. But I made a tiny mistake on the upper part of the course, getting off a little on a jump. I
This shot was in the Mustang region of Nepal. We run treks in Nepal in the spring and fall & will return to Mustang again for our 4th year straight in October 2012. COURTESY Photo: KIM JACOBS
knew I had to make up for it and I posted the fastest time on the bottom of the course. Still, I kick myself a little,” he recalled. Patterson, who always sports a ready smile and a gracious spirit, still lives and plays in the shadow of the mountain that fueled his career as an Olympic skier. But the spirit of adventure he gained on Sun Valley’s premier mountain has taken him far, as well—to a bronze medal in the combined at the 1978 World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen; the world’s first telemark descent of the Polish glacier route on Aconcagua—South America’s highest peak; up numerous 20,000-foot peaks in the Himalaya; and around the world, guiding others on skiing, climbing and trekking adventures. Patterson grew up in a 1,300-squarefoot, L-shaped home where the Warm Springs Lodge now sits. His father and mother—James and Joan Scribner Patterson, who came here as ski instructors—had bought the property and built the house when there were just a few houses along the dirt road that led to the base of Warm Springs. “People would ski down Warm Springs at the end of the day and a bus would be waiting to pick them up. They’d have to cross Warm Springs on a little bridge and it would ice up in the afternoon so my dad was always pulling people out of the river,” Patterson recalled. When they weren’t skiing, Pete and his four siblings played winter baseball on a patch of ground at the base of Warm Springs that stayed free of snow, thanks to the natural hot water there. But in
1967, the family moved to one of the first residences on Saddle Road, turning their home over to Sun Valley, which turned it into the North Face hut. “I hated to leave. But it was cold and dark there in January and February and my mom was ready to leave,” Patterson recalled. In 1974 Patterson made the U.S. Ski Team at the age of 17 and posted a strong 13th showing in the downhill at the Innsbruck Olympics. The U.S. Ski Team, which included Phil and Steve Mahre, trained with the Swedish team leading up to the Olympics. The Americans taught the Swedes football; the Swedes taught them about soccer and hockey. “To get better, you need to train with better people. I got to train with Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark who was the best in the world, the guy I looked up to most. He was a quiet, serious skier who worked from sunup to sundown and trained harder than anyone. He was the type who even built his own high jump when he thought that would help with his training.” Still, Patterson looked forward to the times he got to come home and work with local coaches who, he says, were as good as those at the national level. “The local coaches were able to focus more attention on me and get me back on track,” he said. “I was pretty much just an average skier, but I loved the sport and I had great coaches who said, ‘If you work hard enough, you can do well.’
continued, page 6 “My sister Susie competed in the
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