The 49th annual Ski to Sea event had a successful revival after a rocky two years weathering increasing costs, the pandemic and lost revenue from race cancellations, race director Anna Rankin said.
In spite of spiraling costs and other variables, the race remains on solid footing, organizers believe.
“There’s just no way the community would let Ski to Sea go away,” Rankin said. “And when I say the community, I mean the community of racers, our sponsors, the physical community of Whatcom County, Bellingham, the Port of Bellingham and the cities of Everson and Ferndale, the ski area — all those places the race takes place. It just wouldn’t happen.”
In hindsight, Rankin said the decision to not increase registration fees this year hurt the race’s finances. Inflation also increased by 20% to 25% for race necessities, another unforeseen financial plight. Next year, racers can expect either a higher registration fee or cost-cutting measures, like a price tag on team T-shirts, which have traditionally been included in the cost of the race.
While Rankin won’t know the true financial state of the race until next month when all the bills are paid, she is optimistic for next year’s 50th anniversary event.
“It’s always late June before I have a really good idea where we’re at for the year,” Rankin said. “We started the year pretty strong, so that’s good. In my mind, if there’s any year we’re going to get back to having 500 teams, it’s going to be next year … Once the dust settles, we’ll figure out what we need to do next year.”
Whatcom Events, the nonprofit that owns Ski to Sea, was awarded some COVID-19 relief funding, but it was not enough and the race committee had to create a GoFundMe fundraiser to cover basic expenses in 2021, Rankin said previously.
At least 300 paying teams must participate for the event to break even because the $320,000 current cost to stage the race does not change regardless of how many teams are competing. This year, 250 paid teams competed.
However, Rankin said the 50th anniversary will be hard for long-standing teams and newcomers to pass up.
“I certainly think we’ll see over 400 teams,” Rankin said. “Although I’m not feeling really optimistic about how the financials are going to turn out this year, I think we’ll rebound by next year.”
Ski to Sea takes a massive amount of manpower to put on, and more than 500 volunteers braved the various weather conditions to ensure the race ran smoothly Sunday.
Despite the icy mist at the Mount Baker starting line, 343 teams showed up to compete in the annual seven-leg relay race. Spectators also amassed for the return of the race but kept mostly to the relatively sunny and warm conditions of Fairhaven’s finish line.
The joyous day ended on a somber note as it was announced a cyclocross racer in his late 50s had died of a medical emergency on the course.
“Myself and the board of directors express our deepest condolences to the family, the friends and the teammates,” Rankin said Sunday night.
Rankin said her race committee was working to return the racer’s bicycle to his teammates on Monday.
Surprisingly, Rob Lawrance’s death was the first to be associated with the Ski to Sea race, which has drawn in thousands of racers — many of whom are older adults — every year for the past 49 years.
“What happened Sunday was a medical emergency, and that is nothing that I have control over,” Rankin said. “Of course, my preference would be that there’d never be [a death].”
Aside from the tragedy, Rankin said she was inundated with calls and messages from racers about how much fun they had during the event and how great it was to be back.
“From racers’ perspectives, people had a great time,” Rankin said. “It’s such a great feeling: You work on something so hard and for so long, all for one day. But when you see people post about getting together with their teams for the first time in two years or doing it for the first time, it makes all that hard work worth it.”
