Whatcom Events is pleased to announce that the 51st annual Ski to Sea Race has sold out as off March 22nd with a total of 500 teams. This is the first time the race has sold out since 2011, although last year was very close with 482 teams registered.
In other exciting news, we added three news states who have previously not been represented in the race since we started hosting. This year we have a racer from Alabama, Michigan and West Virginia. To complete our 50 state quest, we will continue to seek out racers from AR, DE, KY, LA, MS, ND & RI.
The Jr Ski to Sea Race (for elementary, middle and high school racers) IS Saturday, May 11 this year and registration is open. We currently have 26 teams registered for the Jr Race.
Contingency Plan for Low Snow Pack
If you have been following the snow report at the Mt Baker Ski Area in recent weeks, you may have noticed that the base tripled in just 10 days and now has lost 1/3 of that pack. Our small but mighty team is working on a contingency plan should we need to have alternate legs to replace the two ski legs. One will be replaced with an alpine run (if no snow) on the mountain or a trail run (if too much snow) in Bellingham. The other will be replaced by a mountain bike leg on Galbraith Mountain. We plan to update racers on April 5th and hope to make a final decision by the end of April.
We are working with our partners at the Mt Baker Ski Area, WMBC and Bellingham Parks and Recreation to come up with a plan that works for everyone involved; racers and our community. While drafting this plan is a lot of work on top of our already hefty work load, we recognize the value of getting ahead of things. Even if we are lucky enough to get more snow in the coming months and the ski legs are a go, we don't want to assume there won't be another year in the future with this same threat. Is should be noted that the snowfall this year is an improvement over 2015 (upper image) when the ski legs were canceled due to lack of snow. Fingers crossed that April brings us spring flowers in town and snowfall on the mountain.