Al Johnson Uphill/Downhill Telemark Race

The 40th annual Al Johnson Uphill/Downhill Ski race at Crested Butte.  We didn't consider it a race (b/c the fastest time for a guy was under 14 minutes and we took a leisurely 1 1/2 hours), but got into the spirit of the costumes and the fun.  Dan came up with the brillant idea of making lego people.  So we had 5 different heads and bodies, and 2 bonus little people costumes (they didn't compete, just acted in the important role of support crew).  He created the heads out of cardboard concrete form tubes and insullation foam and the bodies out of cardboard and then painted them.  The only downside to our amazing costumes, they were a bit difficult to ski in.  The limited visibility and restricted movement made skiing the double black diamond run down the North Face even more challenging!  We also had the scare of riding up the Silver Queen high speed quad before the race and not all fitting on the chair properly and not being able to bring the bar down b/c of the size of Dan's costume, so Dan and I held onto Josh (who was sliding off the chair w/ his costume on) and held our breath for the duration of the chairlift.  But, thankfully all was fine, we all managed to ski in our costumes and we even won one of the many prizes for best costume.  Ben and Josh both want to ski the race next year, guess we'll have to find tele gear small enough for them?   

The boys at the finish line, you can see the Last Steep in the background.