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Bowdoin College Nordic ski team page

Silverthorne local and future Colby College skier James Sowers hops on the podcast to talk about the latest chapter in his ski story.

Three parts to the show today!

1. First 30 min - we talk about Mt. Blue Sky Hill Climb, Tour de France, and Tom Danielson's controversial doping comments

2. Jim Galanes joins to discuss USBA/USSS Strategic Alliance

3. We read off the FAQs on the Strategic Alliance page

Get to know NMU skier Fisk Johansson!

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Vail Daily feature click HERE

If you ask any of Greg Birk’s friends, they’ll probably say something similar: The man simply loves running.

“More than anyone else I’ve ever met,” stated Wyatt Smith. The Vail Recreation District race director admitted the Vail Hill Climb’s 50th anniversary wouldn’t have been acknowledged if not for Birk.

“There was a period where both the recreation district and newspapers got confused with the anniversary,” Smith continued. “Identifying that this year is the 50th wouldn’t be possible without his love of this race.”

“No one loves the hill climb more than Greg Birk does,” added longtime Eagle County resident Brendan White, one of several athletes who migrated to the mountains from the Midwest because of Birk. “Certainly no one has come close to traveling as many miles each year to run it.”

Whether he was living in Breckenridge, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas or Switzerland, Birk almost always found a way back to Vail for the iconic uphill. Along the way, he’s collected all of the shirts between 1991 and 2026 and several from prior editions, too. All are currently on display as part of a hill climb exhibit running the next couple of weeks at the Colorado Snowsports Museum. Birk’s obsession with the race — and running in general — is directly linked to his appreciation for what it’s taught him and where it’s brought him.

Bridger Ski Foundation skier Sam Madsen hops onto the podcast!

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From the UVM website:

Patrick Weaver, a two-time U.S. National Champion in cross-country skiing, was named head Nordic coach at the University of Vermont in May of 2010. Prior to being named head coach, Weaver spent three seasons as an assistant Nordic coach with the Catamounts.
In 2012, Weaver helped Vermont win its sixth NCAA National Championship in program history in Bozeman, Montana. The Catamounts won by a record-breaking 832 points and outdistanced Utah by a record 161 points.
Nordic skier Amy Glen won the NCAA individual title in the 15K classic race. Glen took the race by two inches in a photo-finish to earn her first career collegiate victory.
In 2011, his first season at the helm of the UVM Nordic team, Weaver was named the EISA Coach of the Year. He guided the Catamounts to a dominating performance on the EISA Circuit. Vermont won five of six carnivals on the EISA Circuit that season, including earning its 31st EISA Championship. UVM posted 1,000-plus points four times on the EISA Circuit and averaged 991.7 points per meet, winning by an average of 160.5 points in its five carnival victories.

BIG show today!

Come back tomorrow for our interview with UVM coach Patrick Weaver!

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Live from High Mountain Institute in Leadville, Colorado!

We get to know Missoula's Odin Berryman!

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Keep on striving. Keep on skiing.