Beaver Mountain closes x-country race season with the annual Uller Chase

By Monica Swapp

March 18, 2008 | Anyone can "rock the race" this year, said Josh Anderson, director of the annual Uller Chase, Beaver Mountain's final winter cross-country ski race that's being held for people of all ages and skill levels.

There will be a 10k, a 15k and a 25k race for those skiers 14 years old and older, all of which will start at the same time. There will also be a 1k kid's race that will be held at a separate time. Starting and ending in Logan Canyon approximately 25 miles from Logan proper at the Sink Hollow ski trailhead, at Beaver Mountain Ski Resort, the Uller Chase will be held on March 8 at 10 a.m. All racers must meet at the Beaver Creek parking lot in order to take a bus to the starting line at Franklin Basin. Utah State University Campus Recreation and Nordic United will be hosting the race and giving away $150 gift certificates donated from local companies to the winners in both a men's and women's division of the 25K race.

Uller is the name of the Nordic God of skis who comes down from the north to show off his skiing skills. Skiers "chase" Uller out because it's the last race of the season, thus the name the Uller Chase fits it nicely, said Anderson. The race has been around for a while but it has been known as the Uller Chase for only the past three years he said.

The cross-country race used to be called the Steam Mill Stampede before Kevin Kobe, then the director of the race, renamed it three years ago to the Uller Chase said Mark Fels, President of Nordic United. Two years ago the Uller Chase was just starting out and there were only a couple of races precluding it he said. Last year they started to develop the Citizen's Race Series, with a couple of races during the season and the Uller Chase to end them all Fels said. This year there is a fully-developed Citizen's Race Series, a bi-weekly race series spanning the entire ski season held for all skiing skill levels and the series of events ends with the Uller Chase he said.

The original idea was to have a 40k race going up into Idaho and spanning from Beaver Creek to Tony Grove Fels said. He said last year and the year before, this idea took place and it brought more elite and serious skiers to the race. There was problem though with this idea; Idaho refused to close the trails to snowmobiles for the race and that made skiing there more difficult he said.

There has been a recent conflict between skiers and snowmobilers not only concerning this event but winter recreation in general said Fels. There have been articles written about the current conflict and how it has effected people's recreation in the valley he said. Cache County decides where certain closures will happen and with motorized vehicles expressing concern for the closures of motorized vehicle trails and the need for equality among recreation, some areas in the canyon won't be closed for the race he said.

"We decided that we could keep fighting to get the closures for the race or we could focus our efforts on getting our smaller community race together now and worry about closures next year, and we chose to do the latter," Fels said.

A bigger problem is the location of the race in the future, the land it sits on is currently owned by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), who can do whatever they want with the land Fels said. Nordic United pays SITLA for the use of the land right now but if SITLA chooses to develop the land, everyone is out of a place to do any winter recreation he said. Fels said Nordic United is currently looking for a place to hold the Uller Chase in the future and possibly put in a Nordic facility as well.

This year they have decided to have a few shorter races and not even go into Idaho and deal with closures in the future. Fels said the Uller Chase has decided to hold four smaller and shorter races instead of just one, hoping to involve the community and people of all ages and skill levels. With this decision, the race will most likely lose some of the more elite skiers, but they feel it is worth it this year because it will be successful in a different way, serving a different purpose he said.

The ideal goal for the future of the Uller Chase is to have three separate races; the 1k for kids, the 10k, 15k, and 25k for average skiers and the 40k race for elite skiers, this catering to many different types of people and their skiing preferences said Anderson.

"Doing the Uller Chase how we are this year is the best way to get the greatest amount of people to participate in the race and get involved in skiing," he said.

Skiers intended to come to Beaver Mountain for the race are from the Cache Valley community as well as various people along the Wasatch front area Anderson said. People of all ages go skiing at Beaver to have a good time and get some exercise he said.

"Beaver Mountain is a great place to come, they are smaller than other resorts but they do really well with what they have," said Jeremiah Harris, USU student and local skier.

The Cache Valley Visitors Bureau is always excited to raise awareness of events such as the Uller Chase to people in the community said Julie Hollist, from the Cache Valley Visitor's Bureau.

"Beaver Mountain is the longest-running family owned ski resort in the country and skiing brings in most of the tourism to Cache Valley in the winter, so this event along with many others will help," she said.

"We hope for a good turnout at the Uller Chase, this is a great activity to involve anyone who's interested," Anderson said.

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