The Rocky Mountain Division Cowboys Up
By xcskiworld.com Contributing Editor Andrew Gardner
Photos: Bill Kastning
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“I like your style, man. You’ve got that whole cowboy thing going on.”
- Jeff Lewbowski from The Big Lewbowski.
In the progressive political climate of Vermont, “cowboy” is a moniker avoided by most inhabitants, who, eschewing the outlawed connotations of six-shooters and unbridled freedom, revel in covered bridges, dairy farming, and maple syrup. It’s not surprising then that Vermont native, Jeff Banks, albeit proud of his eastern-wool-sweater heritage, relocated to Crested Butte and took up employment seasonally as a climbing trip leader with Crested Butte Mountain Guides and a coach of the Crested Butte Nordic Ski Team. Banks is a cowboy: tall with large wide-set eyes and a voice inflection that brings to mind the leader of a wild west posse, “Saddle up, kids, we’re going in search of faster Nordic skiing.” Last week, Banks began his new job as Rocky Mountain Division Nordic Skiing Junior Coordinator, a cumbersome title with a burdensome job description: raise the level of cross-country skiing in Colorado. He has wasted little time.
Andrew Kastning (left) speaks on technique will Chris Mallory, Marty
Smith and Simi Hamilton look on.
Forty-three skiers from programs throughout Colorado flocked to Crested Butte on Thursday at Banks’ dinner-bell call to snow. The first division-sponsored junior camp of the season was Banks’ own, an ambitions proposition that included two kilometers of groomed skiing high atop Paradise Divide, a mountain hiccup near the Elks Range.
Sleeping low and skiing high is the physiognomic opposite of what recent trends in skiing have been calling for. For most of us, though, left helpless in the unhinged margins of our Nordic skiing world, any snow at this time of the year is akin to a heroin addict’s first hit. Banks knows this and enlisting the help of a talented supporting cast parlayed the four-day camp into an epic training experience for the kids involved.
Brian Tate, Emily Muth, and Andrew Gardner discussing technique on
the snowfield.
Training days began early at Crested Butte’s Old Town Inn. Sleepy-eyed junior skiers demolished the continental breakfast before trudging into vans and loping up a forsaken four-wheeled drive road to a cache of snow. Divided by age, the skiers received solid instruction on technique and training amidst a spectacular setting. The afternoons were spent in either dryland specific skiing drills or assuaging the distracting powers of climbing, kayaking and high mountain hikes by climbing, kayaking and high mountain hiking.
It will take a cowboy ethos to wrestle back potential Nordic juniors from the variable edge of distraction, of virtual reality, of the visceral sexiness and instant gratification of X-games sports. Nowhere is this more present than in the Rocky Mountain Division, where distraction looms as boldly as 10,000-foot peaks. The posse of coaches sharing the hefty charge to Banks addresses this challenge with unflappable presence. College skiers Abbey Harris, Chris Mallory and Andrew Kastning leant much-needed assistance and perspective to Banks’ coaching staff. Boulder Nordic Coach Eric Pepper, with a dyed red coif, and an easy manner of coaching is a serious student of this sport. His coaching efforts in the snowfield at Banks’ camp were Herculean. Pepper has a deft understanding of all elements of Nordic skiing and is using them to aid the RMD. His coaching partner Emily Muth, who has been instrumental in a reorganization of the division and who oversaw an increasingly weary clan of J2 campers, compliments Pepper. Brian Tate of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club is soft-spoken but ruthless in his love of skiing. In addition to heading up the afternoon kayak sessions with the juniors, Tate, at the CB camp was, what all coaches should be, kind, knowledgeable and given to bouts of clean classic skiing. Ruthie Brown, an Aspen Coach, was responsible for the creation and fruition of Bank’s job. Not content to merely coach at the CB camp, Brown spent evenings in the enviable tasks of organizing, filing and drafting new doctrine for the RMD.
Jeff Banks cowboys up.
Our favorite pastime is atrophic. There are increasingly fewer junior athletes available to all sports and culturally fewer souls aligned with the difficult tenor of Nordic skiing. It will take skiing in June, sexier camps, charismatic coaches, and larger efforts to keep junior skiers attached to the sport, not merely in the Rocky Mountains but throughout this vast country of large vehicles and fast food. It will take a hyper-observant attitude and attention to skiing that will draw in Nordic skiers. Jeff Banks has the attitude and he’s roping the Rocky Mountain Division along with him.
Andrew Gardner skis for Atomic and the Swix Tech Team. He is the Director of the Colorado Rocky Mountain School Nordic Program in Carbondale, CO.
