sun HAILEY
•
KETCHUM
•
SUN VALLEY
•
BELLEVUE
•
CAREY
the weekly
•
S TA N L E Y • FA I R F I E L D • S H O S H O N E • P I C A B O
Jasmine Campbell Heads to Olympics
Local Snowboarder to Compete at Sochi
PAGE 3
Nordic Fest Calendar of Events PAGE 6
READ ABOUT IT ON PAGE 5
Habitat for Non-Humanity PAGE 12
J a n u a r y 2 2 , 2 0 1 4 • V o l . 7 • N o . 4 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
Sawtooth Bonspiel BY KAREN BOSSICK
T
he Boise Curling Club calls it “the greatest Olympic sport on Earth.” And it’s being played in Stanley this weekend. The Boise Curling Club will hold its second annual Sawtooth Outdoor Bonspiel Friday through Sunday at the outdoor ice rink in Stanley. Teams are coming from six states and the spectating is free. In fact, spectators will even have the opportunity to give curling a try in a free group curling lesson at noon Saturday, said Rachel Holtgard, treasurer of the Boise Curling Club. “The Sochi Winter Olympics, including the great sport of curling, will be watched by millions in the weeks to come. This is your chance to get out on the ice and experience it firsthand,” Holtgard added. The SOB, as it’s called, began as an experiment last January, said Bonspiel Chairman and Boise Curling Club President Jared Belsher. It proved so successful that it’s now a United States Curling Association event known as “the Stanley Cup of Curling.” “Almost no one is crazy enough to host a bonspiel outdoors. We invited curling clubs throughout the United States and Canada to come to Idaho’s mountains for the 10-team event. It was so successful and so popular that we’ve expanded this year’s bonspiel to 16 teams,” said Belsher. Among the draws: the chance to play the game outdoors, as it was done for hundreds of years in Scotland and other parts of Europe before the invention of indoor ice rinks. The Boise club built its own equipment for outdoor curling in any type of weather. Russ Benson, a Micron engineer, even figured out a way to place electric lights under the ice so games can continue after dark. There will be a rink-side heated tent and fire barrels to keep curlers and spectators warm. The competition starts at 5 p.m. Friday and continues through the weekend with games being played Saturday morning and evening. The championship game will be played between 10 a.m. and noon Sunday. The event will include live music with Bernie Reilly performing Friday night and Gizzard Stone on Saturday night at the Kasino Club Bar. There is no cover charge. Cody Canada and the Departed from Austin, Texas, and American Aquarium from North Carolina will perform Saturday at the Rod and Gun Saloon. Tickets are $10 in advance at rightlaneproductions.net and $15 at the door. tws Information: sobidaho.com or boisecurlingclub.org
The curling stones James Foster and Glenn Lindsley built contain their fair share of duct tape.
PUTTING THE CURL IN THE STONE hailey teachers have the craft PHOTOS AND STORIES BY KAREN BOSSICK
To hardcore curling fans, the kettle-shaped stones are spoken of in hushed terms. After all, these are rocks born of a distinctive water-resistant microgranite culled from Ailsa Craig, an uninhabited 220-acre volcanic island off the west Scottish coast that towers 1,100 feet into the sky and was even memorialized in a Keats sonnet. It can cost $40,000 to outfit just one team with the eight stones needed to complete a game of curling. “They cost $4,500 used!” says James Foster, a Wood River High School social studies teacher. Foster wasn’t willing to shell out that kind of money for a curling stone. But when he and high school math teacher Glenn Lindsley found a YouTube video about making curling stones, they couldn’t resist. They didn’t have the diamond cutters used to cut granite the size of cars into 44-pound Sochi stones. Nor did they have the cables, drill cores, high-powered hydro systems, hydraulic press, grinding machines and computer-guided imagery machines used at the curling stone factory on the Ayrshire Coast. But the two did have four stainless steel salad bowls that they could screw together and fill with cement. They topped these with rebar they bent to create handles. Then, Foster made bumpers with hoses wrapped in pipe insulation. “We finished them off with duct tape, of course,” he adds. These curling stones would never pass muster at Sochi
James Foster and Glenn Lindsley say they like being part of the Hailey ice rink because of the number of kids it attracts. “We’re providing a spot to hang out,” says Foster. “I was out two nights last week and they had two different pickup games attracting people between the ages of 7 and 55.” where the 2014 Winter Olympics starts in two weeks. They might not even pass inspection at the second annual curling tournament being held in Stanley Friday through Sunday. Especially, since they weigh closer to the 25-pound junior stones for kids. (“We ordered the wrongsize salad bowls,” Foster says.) But they’re the darling of dozens of youngsters who frequent the outdoor ice rink at the Hailey Rodeo Park. “Bring them out and the kids flock to them,” Foster says. Curling is said to have its origins on Scotland’s frozen ponds, possibly as far back as 1511. One curler slides forward on the ice, letting
The BCRD Celebrates Nordic Town USA!
with the Sun Valley Nordic Festival January 25 - February 2
CONTINUED, PAGE 16
GalenaLodge
SAVING GALENA
S