Skiers whiz across Mount Spokane in 44th annual Langlauf ski race, or ‘Bloomsday on snow’
Spokane doesn’t need Punxsutawney Phil to declare whether or not winter is coming to a close – just ask the 200-some skiers who on Sunday whizzed through the annual Langlauf cross country ski race on Mount Spokane.
The skiers, ranging from experts on the slopes to those looking for a leisurely ride, could tell you there are easily many weeks left in the season they spend under snow heavy branches gliding over the powder that blanket the 5,800-foot peak.
The 10-kilometer Langlauf race has taken skiers on a wintry loop annually since 1979, with a few skipped years for lack of snow or the pandemic. Avid skier and race director Tim Ray held the inaugural event with a friend and since then, Spokane has taken to the course.
“The whole thing with Langlauf is it’s basically our version of Bloomsday on snow,” Ray said. “It’s a big celebration of cross country skiing.”
The fastest tear through the hilly 10 kilometers, or over 6 miles, in just over 30 minutes. The more leisurely skiers have two hours to complete the course.
Though the lowlands have been atypically dry and warm, the mountain saw prime conditions for racing, Ray said, since it had just snowed the night prior.
He was awake from 11 p.m. Saturday to 3 the morning of, setting up the course, then rose again before 6 a.m. to groom the trail so racers had clear tracks in the fresh snow.
While many skiers are introduced to the sport as kids, many of whom hobble around the lodge area in miniature skis and puffy snowsuits, Ray got his start slightly later in life.
It wasn’t until he moved out of a desert biome as a teenager that he first hit the slopes. By the age of 18, he was already teaching classes and a handful of years later, he held the first Langlauf on Mount Spokane, where he can often be found meandering through the 43 miles of trails on his skis.
“You can ski into Idaho and back into Washington,” Ray said. “When you stand here and look out, when it’s clear, you see all the way across Idaho to the Cabinets in Montana, you have great views.”
Enjoying the multistate views for the duration of Langlauf was Sam Schlieder, who has competed in each race since the first one.
“It’s just tradition,” he said. “You have to keep doing them, kind of like doing Bloomsdays. Once you do one, you keep doing them all.”
The experienced winter sportsman grew up ice skating in Wisconsin and clung to the competition of ski racing. He’s raced around the world in endurance races, one called a Birkebeiner in Norway that was made especially difficult when accounting for the near-8-pound participants have to carry. The pack is meant to symbolize the weight of a young prince that rescuers carried to safety in 13th -century Norway, Schlieder said, the historic roots of the 31-milelong race. He’s done the American version, located in Northern Wisconsin, six times as well as a handful in Canada.
He prefers the groove of an endurance race to the sprint of Spokane’s Langlauf, though one stretch of the course is named “Sam’s Swoop” in his honor.
A recent highlight in all these years, his children and a grandchild entered the race to ski alongside their skiing patriarch.
He put his son Drew Schlieder in skis at the age of 2. Now an adult living in coastal California, he feels the slopes call to him so much that he’s the farthest traveler in Langlauf this year.
“I really enjoy coming back for the snow,” he said.
For Drew, skiing is a pensive activity.
“Once you get over the breathing part, it’s just kind of very relaxing to get up here,” he said, still catching his breath after the race.
For many, winter means dark, cold months of self-induced hibernation. For Ray and skiers like him, it means hitting the slopes, not letting any cold stop him from playing in the great outdoors.
“It’s a great way to get outside and just enjoy the beauty of the winter,” Ray said.
“It’s like you’re just floating on snow when you really get the technique down,” Ray said. “I don’t dance well, but I have a good rhythm on skis.”