The Hog Loppet

This past Saturday Erik, Carey, Alisa, Rich (Alisa’s husband) and I all skied the Hog Loppet, a 30k “race” from Mission Ridge outside Wenatchee to Haney Meadows at Blewett Pass. It was a bluebird day with temps in the 40s.



The race covers 18 miles and starts at 6400 feet. The first 3 miles has a LOT of down, over 1000 feet, which makes for some comical moments when everyone is on waxless fishscale cross country skis, or skate skis. Ass-craters littered the slopes.

We started at 8:35, anticipating 3-4 hours of socializing and easy skiing with the beautiful weather. I expect that’s what happened, but I’m not 100% sure, since I didn’t see the rest of my group again after about half a mile in, at the end of the second short descent. As I climbed out of a small valley I looked back to see a guy face down halfway down the hill. Other skiers were milling around him and when they started to take off their skis I figured I should go check it out and see what happened.

Turns out that he’d dislocated his shoulder, though you wouldn’t know it for his behavior. Stoic about the pain and mostly just pissed that he’d fallen and wouldn’t be able to ski with his 12 year old daughter who was up ahead on the course. I packaged him up and kept him company until Mission Ridge patrol showed up with a snowmobile, then scooted off. I figured I could catch up with Erik et al if I boogied for a while.

That didn’t last long, as I quickly came upon a woman who’s boot-pin for her NNN-BC bindings had sheared in half. She was trying to attach boot to ski with duct tape, which wasn’t going to work, so I broke out the repair kit and started trying to figure something out. It took 5 or 6 iterations and about 4 miles, but I ultimately recreated an old Riva-Z cable binding with three Voile ski straps and a 4 inch machine screw with two locknuts.

It was like my personal MacGyver moment – I love that kind of tinkering.

Anyway, I ended up skiing with the two of them for the rest of the day, since there wasn’t a chance that I’d catch up with the other Cascade folks after so many hours of shenanigans. We got on the last bus to Leavenworth at a little after four and my two new friends gave me a lift back to Mission Ridge to get my car, as thanks for the help.