150 skiers take part in eighth annual event
By Hayden Seder
This year’s Baldy Challenge came to an official close on the night of Monday, March 4, as more than 150 participants in the yearly event brought their score cards to Whiskey Jacques’ for a party of drinks, food, camaraderie and prizes. Now in its eighth year, proceeds from this year’s PK’s Baldy Challenge will be going to The Hunger Coalition, organizers said.
Created by Chelle and Baird Gourlay of PK’s in 2012, participants pay a fee to receive a score card and then have the entire month of February to complete every run on Baldy, in addition to other challenges. The couple created the event, they said, as a way to help people support local charities while also enjoying the Sun Valley lifestyle; hence, their term “funraiser” as opposed to fundraiser.
The Funds
The event is set up so that a new nonprofit receives the proceeds every two years. So far, the following nonprofits have been recipients: Bald Mountain Rescue Fund, Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, Higher Ground, and last year, The Hunger Coalition. Almost $6,000 was raised this year to go to the local nonprofit.
In addition to the regular Baldy Challenge of skiing every run on the mountain in a month, there are many side challenges, including the “Lift/Lodge Challenge,” which includes riding every lift in one day and having a cocoa in every lodge; the “Butch Challenge,” which includes skiing every run without stopping or falling and repeating the run if either of those happen; the 1/2 Baldy Challenge (completing half the runs on Baldy); the “Leisurely Janet” Challenge, which includes riding all the runs on Dollar; and the “Happy Challenge,” which includes doing every run on Baldy twice.
Of course, some participants choose to make things interesting and make their own challenge. Chelle and Baird’s daughter Charlotte got a late start on this year’s Baldy Challenge and decided to do the entire thing in just two days, recruiting her brother Ben to do it with her even though he had already completed his Baldy Challenge.
“She skied 66,000 vertical feet the first day and finished the challenge the next day, skiing 41,000 vertical feet,” Chelle Gourlay said.
The Fun
All of this year’s participants gathered upstairs at Whiskey Jacques’ this week for the closing ceremonies, where prizes from sponsors like the Warfield Distillery & Brewery, Grumpy’s, Whiskey Jacques’, The Cellar Pub, Knob Hill Inn, Sun Valley Resort, and more are given out and funny incidents from the event are rewarded.
Grumpy’s owner Pete Prekeges emceed the event and gave out prizes for trivia questions, best crash (the winner broke his back and several ribs), oldest and youngest participants, and more. A prize even went to a couple who got engaged while doing the challenge.
The premiere prize each year is a pair of K2 skis as well as a full-season pass donated by Sun Valley Resort. To be eligible to win the pass, you must have had to complete the entire Baldy Challenge. This year’s pair of K2 skis went to Glenn Thomas, while the ski pass was won by ski patroller Emily White, who was not in attendance but who communicated by phone that night that she indeed wanted the pass.
Many participants said that a February challenge like this is usually meant to combat boredom and keep people wanting to ski, but with so much powder this February, it was anything but boring.
Said last year’s K2 skis winner, Larissa DeHaas, “This year was hard because all of the non-main runs of the challenge were so good, there was a lot of pow to ski.”