Photo by Dan Young
Racers in the 2010 White Mountains 100 climb the Wickersham Dome Trail about 10 miles from the finish line of the 100-mile race in the White Mountains National Recreation Area. The entry limit for the 2011 race was increased from 50 to 65 racers and was filled on the first day of registration on Oct. 1.
FAIRBANKS — The second annual White Mountains 100 bike/foot/ski race is set for March 27 and this year’s race will be bigger than the inaugural edition.
The Bureau of Land Management last week approved a permit for the 100-mile human-powered race in the White Mountains National Recreation Area with a cap of 65 entrants, up from the limit of 50 in 2010.
The BLM granted a request from race organizer Ed Plumb for a bigger field, even though he was a little reluctant to ask for it. He had been the one who set the cap at 50 to minimize the impact of the race would have on other trail and cabin users.
“I was kind of adamant about keeping it at 50 people but I had so many people asking me to increase the number (of entrants) that I asked the board what it thought about applying for an increase,” Plumb said.
After much discussion, the six-person board agreed to request a cap of 65 racers.
“We talked about it,” Plumb said. “We didn’t want to change how we operated the race. With 15 we thought we could keep the same structure of the race without making any changes.”
Not that it matters much at this point. The 65-racer field is already full with another 32 names on a waiting list.
Racers who competed in last year’s race were given first option to register for the race, which resulted in the first 40 slots being taken before general registration opened on Oct. 1. It took only “a matter of minutes” for the remaining 25 spots to be claimed once registration opened at midnight on Oct. 1, Plumb said.
In future years, there will be no such grandfather rights for returning racers, Plumb said. Starting next year, registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
“I don’t want it to be an exclusive club,” Plumb said.
Plumb said he has no intention of increasing the number of racers beyond 65 and if conditions at checkpoints and along the trail seem too crowded as a result of the increase in racers he will scale it back to 50.
“If things don’t go well with 15 more we’ll back off,” he said. “We want to keep that feel to it and not have it that crowded.”
Judging from the names on the race roster, the 2011 race should be as competitive as the 2010 edition, if not more so. Eight of the top 10 finishers will return, including defending overall champion, cyclist Jeff Oatley of Fairbanks, who won the 2010 race in 12 hours, 37 minutes; Mike Kramer of Fairbanks, who won the ski division in 16:17; and Heather Best of Fairbanks, the top woman biker who finished third overall, just 1:18 behind Oatley, who is her husband.
Prominent newcomers will include Britain cyclist Carl Hutchings, who has several top finishes in the 350-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational to his credit; Owen Hanley of Fairbanks and Rob Whitney and Cory Smith of Anchorage, all of whom could challenge Kramer for the ski title; and former Fairbanksan Kate Ardusa (aka Pearson), who is living in Cordova and will likely contend for the women’s ski title.
A nonprofit organization, Endurance North, Inc., was created to oversee the White Mountains 100 and Plumb is hoping the group can come up with other extreme races for both summer and winter. He mentioned the Ultraski, a 70-kilometer ski race from Nenana to Fairbanks on the Tanana River that was held for several years, as an example,
There is also potential for summer and winter races in the Chena River State Recreation Area east of Fairbanks, Plumb said.
Contact outdoors editor Tim Mowry at 459-7587.
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