Ready to mount challenge

"The mystique of Mount Washington means something to a lot of people," said spokesman Ryan Triffitt. "Whether it is a bike race, a foot race, or now a ski race, the fact that they can say they raced up Mount Washington is a feather in their cap."

The Ski to the Clouds was first held in 1996, and then dropped in 2002 before being replaced by a ski marathon that has since been discontinued.

The race, limited to a field of 100, is attracting other top-notch athletes such as US Mountain Running Team member Kevin Tilton and regional ski marathon winners David Herr and Eli Enman.

Big Green red hot

After falling behind in Day 1 of the Eastern Ski Championships at Middlebury, Vt., last weekend, Dartmouth poured it on in the women's cross-country competition to seal the win. Dartmouth finished with 928 points, beating Middlebury (906) and Vermont (868.5). Dartmouth, the defending national champion, ends the Eastern part of its season with five carnival wins in six meets and now heads to the NCAA Championship at Bozeman, Mon., beginning Wednesday and ending March 8.

Big Green senior Susan Dunklee won the closing 10K classic race in 29 minutes 9.3 seconds, barely ahead of her team captain, senior Elsa Sargent (29:11.9), with Vermont's Jennie Bender (30:04.4) finishing third.

The Dartmouth men had four finishers in the top nine of the 15K classic - Nils Koons, third; Glenn Randall, fourth; Patrick O'Brien, seventh, and Max Hopkins, ninth. The event was won handily by Juergen Uhl from Vermont.

Homey accommodations

Maine's newest backcountry hut opened this month in Carrabassett Valley to cross-country skiers, snowshoers, and winter hikers.

The Poplar Stream Falls Hut is the first of about a dozen woodsy accommodations along the planned 180-mile long trail between the Mahoosucs and Moosehead Lake.

The Kingfield-based nonprofit Maine Huts and Trails (mainehuts.org) organization is overseeing the ambitious trail system that will also be open to hikers, as well as to paddlers and mountain bikers in select locations.

"This is the first step," said executive director Dave Herring. "We want to build several more of these to make places where people want to come back."