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Forever Plaid’s Final Show this Friday at the Boiler Room Page 3
VAMPS throws Pajama Party
Hunger Game-time at The Community Library Page 4
Celery Root Slaw and Creamed Heart of Palm Soup Recipes Page 13
J a n u a r y 4 , 2 0 1 2 • V o l . 5 • N o . 2 4 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
read about it on PaGe 10
STORY & PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
F
Sarah Nathan
COURTESY PHOTO
Valley Native Finds Herself in the Midst of Cancer Research BY KAREN BOSSICK
S
pring break for Sarah Nathan means doing homework and grading lab tests as the chemistry major completes her final year at Idaho State University in Pocatello. But that’s actually a reprieve for the Hailey native as she prepares to head to Cornell University where she plans to pursue a PhD in chemistry on a full-ride scholarship. Nathan, who was homeschooled by her parents Joan and Mike Nathan, has already gotten a taste of the possibilities in chemical research. And she likes what she tastes. She has been conducting research looking at the effects of cancer drugs on DNA, a project which could get her published. She was invited to participate in a summer research project at Cornell University. And she has won all the awards her chemistry department at school hands out, including awards for organic, physical and assessment chemistry. “I like figuring things out, taking a problem and discovering the answers. One of the projects involved a platinum-based drug for which people can develop a resistance. I’m looking at the drug to see if we can change something to develop a better drug. You do that by testing each piece of the compound to see which piece doesn’t fit,” she said. “Who knows? Maybe 20 years down the road I can look back and say, ‘I contributed to that drug that saves lives. I made a difference.’ ” Cindy Husband, who lives in the valley, is one of Nathan’s biggest fans. “She gets award after award after award. She was a pianist in the Sun Valley Summer Symphony School of Music—she’s an accomplished classical pianist. She knits, she crochets, she hunts, she skis, she does archery—she’s probably the most well rounded young woman I know,” Husband said. Nathan says she isn’t sure exactly what she wants to do once she finishes with graduate work. “I might like to teach. Or work in a national lab or maybe the Industrial Laboratories researching different projects. I just like seeing how things work together.” tws
rom the top of Baldy, the car lights making their way from Ketchum to Hailey look like a ribbon of lava flowing down-valley as the sun fades in the western sky. Out to the south, the lights of Twin Falls are beginning to appear. But Jim Wieand isn’t focused on the emerging lights or the moon, which resembles a smile hanging in the darkening sky. His attention is focused on the snow on Christmas Ridge. Wieand pushes a small lever on his left armrest ever so slightly and the silver metallic Beast in which he’s sitting dives over the edge. He manipulates a joystick with his right hand and the massive blade in front of him begins leveling the moguls as the tiller on the back of the groomer turns them into a 23-foot-wide swath of white corduroy. “It’s kind of like playing a video game—I’ve got my big screen right here,” Wieand motions to the expansive picture window in front of him. Wieand is the commander of The Beast, one of two state-of-the-art snow groomers that are so wide, so powerful and so fast that they make the older yellow snow cats look like pussy cats. The biggest groomer on earth, the futuristic-looking Prinoth Beast is oneand-a-quarter times larger than regular groomers, allowing it to groom 40 percent more surface and push 40 percent more snow around than the regular cats. It can cover five more acres per hour than a regular groomer, saving man hours and machine hours, yet its fuel-efficient engine uses the same amount of fuel per acre as earlier models—and every little bit helps, considering Sun Valley’s groomers chug a thousand gallons a night. “With a tiller four feet wider than traditional snow cats, I can groom in two and a quarter hours what it takes a regular groomer four hours to do,” Wieand said. “I can also go up steeper slopes the others can’t.” The half-million-dollar Beast is designed by Pininfarina, an Italian design company which also designs Ferraris, Jaguars, Maseratis, airplanes, ships and high-speed trains. It boasts an engine like that of a semi-truck, cranking out 550 horsepower compared with 350 for regular-sized cats.
Want to ride it?
The Beast heads up the cat track between Christmas Ridge and Mid-Christmas.
Sign up at Sun Valley’s Recreation Center in Sun Valley Village. Free rides are offered Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. INFO: 208-622-2135.
Last year Sun Valley was among the first ski resorts to purchase one. It added a second to its fleet this year along with two smaller Prinoth Bison groomers. The “sizable investment” makes a strong statement about Sun Valley’s commitment to providing the best snow surface possible for its guests, says Peter Stearns, director of Mountain Operations. It’s also a far cry from the 1970s when groomers drove four-wheel-drives pulling tillers behind them. One groomer would chop down the bumps while another rolled over them, says groomer Jeff Dent. “The only run we groomed consistently then was College.” Wieand’s work shift begins at 4 p.m. as the lifts are grinding to a stop and the ski patrol is sweeping the mountain. Grooming manager Kerry O’Brien gives six groomers their assignments based on what he noticed while skiing that day. “Charlie, let’s see if you can get another half-track wide on Olympic. Let’s spend some time on it now while it’s cold, get it wide and let it sit. It’s too narrow right now.” He turns to the Beastmeister—“Same thing with Cold Springs—widen it out.” Wieand heads to the garage where he climbs onto the treads of The Beast and into the cab. He punches a few buttons and adjusts the climate control inside the cab to 70 degrees. Then he slowly backs out of the shop, leaving behind a few piles of snow on the floor that The Beast lugged in earlier that morning as the lifts were cranking up. He heads up Lower River Run at seven
Jim Wieand removes “Closed” ropes that the ski patrol strung across Christmas as they closed Seattle Ridge earlier in the afternoon.
miles per hour past school kids carting cafeteria trays that they will turn into sleds. “Eleven miles per hour is tops, but it’s too fast for decent grooming,” he says. “We usually groom between three and six miles an hour. Even then, we put on 35 miles a night.” Four of the groomers joining Wieand on the slopes tonight have 25 or more years of grooming under their belt. Wieand’s been tilling Baldy’s slopes for 31 years.
continued, page 10
Company of Fools invites you to
Sunday April 1, 2012 3:00pm to 5:00pm Liberty Theatre a free community celebration