Sisu aims for 800 skiers in 2021

By TOM LAVENTURE

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Ironwood - By all accounts it was a very successful event, said Jackie Powers, race director of the 11th Sisu Ski Fest on Saturday.

"I think it's brought a lot of community pride and has given Ironwood a piece of its identity," said Powers, noting the planning team is aiming for 800 skiers at the 12th Sisu Ski Fest in 2021.

There were 755 registered skiers for Saturday's event. That was more than matching the 680 skiers who came in 2019, with credit to the good weather bringing 75 more skiers than expected, she said.

"I think there was a bigger crowd," Powers said. "Everybody I spoke with seems very happy and I heard a lot of positive comments from the skiers on the course, and from the volunteers about how well organized it was."

There were also more people showing up for the pre- and- post-race events, she said.

For the first time ever the servers ran out of Pauline Rigoni's pasty dinners at the post-race awards ceremony. The 1,500 homemade cookies made by a core of volunteer bakers were also cleaned out at the event.

"A lot of friends and family came with the skiers to the Memorial Building," she said.

The same could be said of the registration night on Friday when a big crowd showed up for the party at the Historic Ironwood Theatre.

The course changes were a gamble but it was to avoid congestion in areas and for safety, she said. Some people who questions removing the downhill at the start of the race said after that the course was improved overall, she said.

Preliminary discussion after the race was to keep the same course design for 2021, she said.

"We send out surveys to ask the skiers opinion on everything from the expo to the volunteers and the course, and they have until the end of the month to send it back," she said. "We are not anticipating any kind of complaints that would result in us changing anything but it's nice hearing that people are happy with the way it is now."

There will always be changes, she said. The best approach to change is from a process of communication and cooperation among team members over time, she said.

There are things that go wrong and the idea is to not have them happen again, and especially two years in a row, she said. Even without the feedback, the tell-tale signs of success are when thing go according to plan and there aren't serious injuries - both true for Sisu 2020, she said.

As with any repeating event, there is turnover and the goal is to have returning volunteers keep things running smoothly while training in new volunteers, she said. Those are the "checks and balances" of consistency, she said.

"There are parts that are well-oiled and and there are parts that are always in need of maintenance and overhauling," she said. "Every year we have a few key volunteers who need to step away and we also bring in new people."

The real end of the Sisu event is the volunteer and sponsor appreciation banquet held a few days after the race, she said. There is a dinner, program and door prizes to recognize the efforts of approximately 220 individuals who form volunteer teams.

"It's a feel good night and a celebration of hard work and of how we all came together," she said.

The event has grown steadily over a decade, she said. There are usually around 100 skiers who wait until the last week to register because they want as accurate a weather forecast as possible, she said.

"We had 30 people sign up the last night, which is typical," she said.

When weather forced the cancelation of past races, the people who paid and arrived were still treated to all of the social events that are associated with the Sisu, she said, and it became an all-day party.

There were also two years when the race was delayed for extreme cold, she said. When the decision was made to change the race length from 42K to 30K, the start time was also moved from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

This would hopefully add a few more degrees to the morning temperatures and avoid delays, she said.

It happens to all outdoor sporting events, she said. The marathons sometimes have rain, cold or heat, and the ski events sometimes get no snow, or it's too cold or too warm.

"Outdoor sporting events are subject to this and this year it was in our favor," she said.

It's difficult to measure but it's fair to assume there was a positive impact on area hotels, restaurants, taverns and other businesses, she said.

"Many hotels were full," she said.

Powers said the Ironwood Tourists Council would be conducting a hotel survey to get some idea of community impact. The survey will try to assess the numbers of skiers who stayed at area hotels, if they are returning skiers, how long they stayed and how much they spent, and then compare that with previous years, she said.

"It's not an exact science but we are asking the hotels if they felt they were full or how close to capacity were they," Powers said.

There were skiers who stayed through the entire weekend and were still skiing ABR trails on Monday, she said. That says a lot about what skiers think of the area and how much they enjoy the trails here, she said.

"They came for a race and stayed four days," she said.