SNOWBIRD, Utah — Utah celebrated 60 years of Ute skiing with the Celebration on the Snow reunion, held at Snowbird Mountain Resort, April 18-20.
Over 160 alumni from around the world traveled to Utah for the event. Activities for the weekend included both a Nordic and alpine (slalom) ski race and an all-mountain scavenger hunt. Josh Smullin (men) and head Nordic coach Wendy Wagner (women) won the Ski Up, a four-mile cross country race up the Snowbird service road to the top of the tram. Participants were split into teams of four for the slalom race and scavenger hunt. Team Park City, which featured current Ute Hermann Lager, 1959 Slalom, Alpine and downhill champion Marv Melville, Brita Knockum and Bjorn Bjornstad, was the grand prize winner, with the best combined score in the alpine and scavenger hunt events. The group also won the slalom with a combined time of 3:00.39. A full list of winners is below.
The events culminated with the annual ski team banquet on Saturday evening. The Utes were honored for their 2008 third-place finish, and team awards were handed out. Scott Veenis was a double winner on the evening, being awarded the Jerry Dixon Scholarship and the C.D. Reddish Memorial Award. Eva Huckova and Even Sletten earned the outstanding women’s and men’s skier awards, respectively. Chirine Njeim took home the Alf Engen Sportsmanship Award for her tenacity throughout the season, skiing well and keeping her grades up while taking care of a loved one with terminal cancer.
Former NCAA individual and team champions were also honored at the banquet. Former Utah Ski Director Pat Miller, who coached from 1974-2000, received one of the biggest ovations of the evening.
“The reunion was a smashing success,†Director of Skiing Eli Brown said. “It was a great experience to get to know former skiers, reconnect and build new relationship. We hope to use this as a starting point to create a strong bond with our alumni.
“One of the highlights was the slalom race. I had the pleasure of helping at the start and watching the alumni get their game faces on after many years was a hoot! We are already looking forward to the next reunion.â€