A "First" in Ski Expeditions

At sunrise on Saturday, April 1, 1972, five cross-country skiers set out from Marshall Pass, Colorado in a unique attempt to ski northward along the Continental Divide to the Wyoming border. Outfitted with winter mountaineering equipment and assisted by a support crew who will carry food and supplies to the group at several predetermined rendezvous points along the route, the 450 mile journey is expected to take 50 days.

Don Johnsen '69 is leading the group, which also includes Chuck Bent '71, last year's ski captain. The group consists of cross-country racers, ski touring instructors and guides, a professional alpine racer with nordic experience, and a commercial photographer who is also a certified alpine instructor and patrolman.

Due to the high avalanche danger involved during some sections of the trip, the group is equipped with Skadi Transceivers. These devices are radio beacons which emit a continuous beeping signal, audible through the use of a self-contained receiving unit and allow the location of a buried avalanche victim to be pinpointed in a matter of minutes.

A proposal is before Congress to designate the Continental Divide as a National Scenic Trail and as a result the project has received support from the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, Governor Love, and both Senators Allott and Dominick. Senator Dominick has been extended and has tentatively accepted an invitation to join the expedition and ski along with the group for a brief section of the trail.

The Colorado portion of the Continental Divide is rich in the history and legend of the early development of the West. Memories of the narrow gauge railroads, mining towns, and gas-lit saloons of a hundred years ago still live on through the many extant traces of former days in this region. The experiences of the expedition party will be photographically documented and the story written up for publication at the completion of the trip.