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A mountain runner powers through some of the final steps up to the top of Little Lenawee Peak in the high-alpine of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area during last August’s Cirque Series mountain-running event. The race returns to A-Basin on Aug. 10.
Courtesy Rachel Zimmerman
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A mountain runner paces adjacent to incoming clouds in high-alpine of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area during last August’s Cirque Series mountain-running event. The race returns to A-Basin on Aug. 10.
Courtesy Rachel Zimmerman
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A mountain runner runs up the East Wall, the Montezuma Express chairlift in view behind him, in the high-alpine of Arapahoe Basin Ski Area during last August’s Cirque Series mountain-running event. The race returns to A-Basin on Aug. 10.
Courtesy Rachel Zimmerman
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Mountain runners push up the rocky high-alpine terrain at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area during last summer’s Cirque Series event at the ski area. The mountain running event will return to the ski area for the third year in a row on Aug. 10.
Courtesy Rachel Zimmerman
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The apres-run area is seen at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area’s Mountain Goat Plaza during last summer’s Cirque Series mountain running event. The event will return for the third consecutive summer to A-Basin on Aug. 10.
Courtesy Rachel Zimmerman
KEYSTONE — Arapahoe Basin Ski Area is just more than one month away from hosting the Discrete Cirque Series, an event touted as “the premier mountain running series in the United States.”
The 6.8-mile race, Aug. 10, at A-Basin will feature 1,890 feet of elevation gain as runners switchback up the ski area’s front-side terrain before turning around at the summit of Little Lenawee Peak. Runners then will switchback down the mountain to the finish line in Mountain Goat Plaza. Aid stations will be located at Mountain Goat Plaza, Black Mountain Lodge at midmountain and at the top of the Lenawee Mountain Lift near the Snow Plume Refuge.
“A-Basin is kind of the perfect place for it in that it’s gorgeous up there, and it’s right under the Continental Divide — dramatic views, dramatic course,” Cirque Series spokesman Drew Petersen said. “One of the things we like about A-Basin, too, is you spend so much time in the Alpine. You really get that feel of getting up high and experiencing that draw of what’s inspired so many of us to get into hiking, peak bagging and trail running.”
Registration is still open, though there is a cap of 500 competitors. Last year, 67% of runners signed up for the sport, or most novice, race category while 28% were expert runners and 5% were pros.
Petersen said Tuesday that the A-Basin race already has registered several top pros, including the top-ranked mountain runner in the country, Joey Gray, as well as top pro runners Dakota Jones, Dani Moreno and Ashley Brasovan.
Last year’s men’s pro race was won by Adam Loomis, of Kamas, Utah, in a time of 1 hour, 2 minutes and 59.8 seconds. Giselle Slotboom, of Salt Lake City, won the women’s race with a time of 1:13:18.8, just ahead of second-place finisher and Breckenridge local Kelly Ahern (1:14:36.3).
Despite these blazing times and the high-level running of the pros and experts, Petersen said the event is also suitable for more casual mountain runners, evidenced by 82-year-old Ross Westley, of Arvada, who completed the race last year in 3:32:55.06. Petersen noted there is no minimum age to partake in the event.
Top Summit County finishers last year included: Lanie Szuch of Dillon; Teague Holmes of Breckenridge; Jonnah Glassman of Frisco; Jill Seager of Silverthorne; Eva Hagen of Breckenridge; Michael Hagen of Breckenridge; Andy Hardy of Frisco; and Pat Gephart of Breckenridge, among others.
“Our races are really fun courses, and they are really for everyone,” Petersen said. “We get everybody from pro runners all the way to people who hike the course — make that their adventure for the weekend.”