Despite lack of snow, Sisu crews celebrate with food, fun

By MEGAN HUGHES

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Ironwood - The lack of snow in Ironwood may have stopped the Sisu races from taking place, but it certainly did not stop the celebration.

Organizers still held the annual Depot Dash at the Ironwood Depot on Friday afternoon and gathered the community together on Saturday for food and fun at the Sisu Expo.

Hannah Panchi, an organizer of the Depot Dash, said the last-minute snow allowed them to hold the dash. If they didn't have enough, she said they likely would have done a foot race or something similar.

"We groom a little loop around the depot pavilion, and bring cross country skis for kids to try," she said. "Sometimes we gather kids up to do a little race around if there are enough at one time."

Panchi explained that the event was appealing to kids who had competed before but also is great for kids who have never skied before. Every year they get more kids, Panchi said.

"There is a lot of little ones that participated this year," she said. "If it's a nice day, we get a larger crowd."

Volunteers at the dash helped to shovel snow from under the pavilion onto the track to make the dash possible throughout the afternoon, so that skis didn't get damaged from rough ground.

"The Depot Dash went off as planned, and we had 40 children who came and participated," said Jackie Powers, Sisu race director. "We had just enough snow for that event."

Powers explained that both the dash and the expo take a lot of planning and commended the volunteers who made the events possible with their hard work.

"There are probably 15 or so volunteers that make the event happen the day of," said Powers about the dash. Another group of around 20 volunteers made the expo possible this year.

Powers said this was Sisu's 15th year. They decided to cancel the Jan. 6 races on Dec. 29 because of insufficient snow.

"We had to make the decision about how long we were going to wait," she said. "We began to make plans."

Powers said organizers had made plans for a variety of scenarios, such as if they got just enough snow for trails to be safe to ski, even if the road crossings were not.

"For those who have an adventurous spirit, we still wanted to have an event. We felt that it was important for our volunteers for us to mark the day and do what we can, even if we could not actually have the race," she said. 

So the expo acted as a party, with racers coming around to pick up their flags, sponsors picking up awards, and everyone enjoying a pasty lunch.

"We served over 500 pasties. People felt that there was a good vibe and were glad that they came," said Powers.

Powers explained that the feedback from vendors that attended the expo was also positive, with many people interacting with the groups.

One such group was the Wolverine Ski Trails, which had a booth at the expo. Bill Greiter, a volunteer for Wolverine, said he was quite pleased with the crowd.

Powers said that racers come both having trained specifically for the Sisu, whi;e others use it as a training race itself, in preparation for others later in the season.

"Of course we are planning to have a full race next year, which is January 11, 2025. Most of our planning for that end is taking into consideration that in 15 years, 13 of those we were able to race," said Powers.

She said organizers were taking into mind the feedback that they have received about this year's events, in the off chance that cancellations happened again. 

This was the second time that the race had to be canceled, with the last time having been due to icy conditions making it dangerous to ski.

"We had a 10-year streak. So hopefully that will repeat for the next 10 years," she said.

For more information on the Sisu Ski Fest, the Depot Dash and other related events, visit sisuskifest.com.