"Eat lots of salmon and have no expectations," said Victoria Jealouse when asked to comment on the Mt. Baker Banked Slalom, words that resonated true throughout the entire weekend of January 26-28, 2001. Everyone expected that if Terje, a four-time champion, showed up, the race would be for second, and he did show up, but he wasn't the man to beat. Instead it was Temple Cummins leading the pack.

Temple qualified with a 1:29:55, in front of Haakonsen by more than a tenth of a second, and didn't bother to slow down to give anyone else a chance for the rest of the weekend. On the women's side, neither Karleen Jeffery nor Victoria showed up for their Friday qualifying run, Karleen out with an injury and Victoria battling the flu. Friday's race was between Marni Yamada and Barrett Christy, but Victoria overcame her ailment and blew away the preceding times by three seconds on her first run through the course. However, it was Barrett, who's time, a 1:38:27, was one second faster than Victoria's in the finals, when it really mattered. Marni Yamada rounded out the top three.

The Champ.

Temple's final time, 1:29:57, edged out Sylvain Duclos by .27 of a second. The only other 1:29 of the day belonged to Josh Dirksen. Terje ended up in seventh with a 1:31:5.

Another faulty expectation was that Baker always has tons of snow. It's not really a secret that the Northwest isn't having the best snow year, and days before the event it looked like the course was going to need some assistance from the piles of snow in the parking lot. It took some rerouting, but the mountain was able to pull it off. The only real problem was the snow on the course was pretty thin. So thin, in fact, that no one was allowed any practice runs.

The format, and the reason the race took three days to complete were as follows: Everyone got two qualifying runs, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first day, the top 25 percent of racers were qualified into Sunday's finals, and could use Saturday's run as practice. Those who didn't make it got another shot the second day, and another 25 percent were taken. The finals essentially consisted of the top fifty competitors in each group.

Now comes the eating salmon part. One of the best things about the Banked Slalom is the salmon barbeque in the parking lot Saturday afternoon. Here everyone in the race gets a chance to ask each other if they qualified, and those that didn't get a head start on the night's boozing. There was also a giant bonfire (last year it sunk into ten feet of snow, this year it started out on the pavement) where a few ceremonial skis were burned to entice the snow gods.

The Banked Slalom has never been about money, in fact, the pro winners don't even get monetary rewards. Instead, winners receive Duct Tape trophies and blown-glass art from a local artist. However, two racers decided to add to their incentives. Billy Anderson and Dave Sypniewski have always had an ongoing rivalry, and this year was no exception. They were already $500 deep after the qualifiers, with Sypniewski in debt after his time fell short by almost two seconds to Billy's. They went for double or nothing and by the end of the day Sunday, Billy was taking a $1,000 run. The event organizers took it upon themselves to recognize this element of the competition, and created an "Andernewski Award", a trophy adorned with a Budweiser to be passed to the winner each year.

Really, the Legendary Banked Slalom has never been about who wins. "Winning is the least of my priorities," said Tony Jonsson, who was racing in the Older Amateur Division. "My real priorities are as follows: 1. Fun, 2. Friends, 3. Good Smelling Wax."

"This contest is so cool because there's no pressure," said Ryan Kelly, the second youngest pro (older only than his brother, Jay), "and you always have the excuse, 'I'm not a racer.'"

RESULTS

Pro Men
1. Temple Cummins 1.2957
2. Sylvain Duclos 1.2984
3. Josh Dirksen 1.2992
4. Rob Morrow 1.3078
5. Matt Goodwill 1.3128
6. Arlid Brun-Kjeldaas 1.3138
7. Terje Haakonsen 1.315
8. Guy Deschenes 1.3171
9. Thomas Ligonnet 1.3185
10. Joey McGuire 1.3189
11. Peter Bauer 1.3192
12. Drew Neilson 1.3201
13. Ludo Strohl 1.3205
14. Billy Anderson 1.3215
15. Josh Charles 1.3224
16. Andy Johnson 1.3258
17. Jacob Wilhelmson 1.3296
18. Serge Vitelli 1.3299
19. Derek Liska 1.3303
20. Mitch Toelderer 1.3317

Pro Women
1. Barrett Christy 1.3827
2. Victoria Jealouse 1.3935
3. Marni Yamada 1.4033
4. Catherine Nieves 1.4132
5. Stacy Thomas 1.4301
6. Tanya Simonson 1.43.96
7. Marguerite Cossettini 1.4403
8. Martina Magenta 1.4417
9. Lisa Quirici 1.465
10. Allison O'Brien 1.4582

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