Jackson Hole’s annual spring ski-bike-boat race, set for March 29, will include an extra leg this year as competitors cycle from Teton Village to the southern end of Shooting Star to begin the cross-country segment.

Beginning and ending at Shooting Star’s southern entrance, the Nordic course of the Pole Pedal Paddle wends its way over what in the summer is the subdivision’s golf course.

Racers will need to cover 1.3 miles on a bike to get there following the alpine ski leg.

Then, after the Nordic leg, they have to ride another 18.5 miles to the South Park bridge to float the Snake River as the final segment of the race.

The approximately 3,500-vertical-foot, 3-mile alpine ski leg and the 9-mile boating leg remain largely unchanged, race organizers say.

The 8-kilometer Nordic leg tours a circuitous loop around nearly the entirety of the Shooting Star golf course, according to race maps.

“This is a big change,” said Carrie Boynton, executive director of the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club, which puts on the race. “This is a big deal that we’re able to do the Nordic race in Shooting Star.”

Last year’s race had competitors skiing up the Teewinot lift line for the Nordic portion of the race, Boynton said.

In years before that, cross-country racers skied on Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s own tracks.

This year’s race rules say that if the same person on a team does the alpine and Nordic legs, that person must ride the first cycling leg.

On teams with separate alpine and Nordic racers, the cyclist will complete the first bike leg before recovering it at the end of the Nordic leg, Boynton said.

The March 29 race will be the 39th Pole Pedal Paddle.

This article appeared in the Jackson Hole News & Guide on March 21, 2014.

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