Weiland’s Way: Two-time Grand Traverse champion returns to 40-mile skimo race for first time in 18 years

When Dan Weiland last competed in the Grand Traverse, he did it on skinny classic cross-country race skis.

“There was no such thing as skimo gear,” he said. Weiland teamed up with Mike Kloser to win the 40-mile trek from Crested Butte to Aspen in 2003 and 2005 before placing fifth in 2006, his last go at the point-to-point backcountry affair.

Times have changed.

But Weiland’s competitive spirit and ageless fitness have more or less remained intact — even if metal edges, high-tech boots and lightweight all-mountain planks have changed the human-powered skiing landscape. On Sunday, the 49-year-old teamed up with his former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athlete, Josh Smith, to place third in the event. The podium finish is the best Eagle County showing since Kloser won the last of his five titles in 2009.

When asked if Weiland had any tales from those glory days, Smith was ready with a playful jab.

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“Yeah — it’s like your grandpa telling you a story,” he said before Weiland joined in on the sarcastic banter, adding, “We used to walk uphill both ways.” 

Weiland didn’t return to the marquee skimo event just to rekindle old rivalries, though he reveled at the starting line with John Brown and Pat O’Neil, the Crested Butte legends who went back and forth with Klosure and Weiland in the early 2000s. The night before the midnight start, Weiland’s wife asked the former SSCV Nordic program director: “What’s the goal?”

“It’s just kind of how I am and it’s kind of snotty, but like, I don’t go to lose,” Weiland said, explaining his mentality before releasing a light-hearted chuckle. “Sometimes that’s to a detriment because I will go as hard as I can to win.”

Those competitive juices spilled out on Sunday. Literally.

Weiland redlined ascending the first major climb, losing his breakfast at the top.

“I went full hypoxic — rookie mistake,” he said. The Vail duo dropped from third to sixth. They skated back into podium position before beginning the 1,330-foot, 1.75-mile Star Pass climb. At the course’s halfway point, however, Weiland’s intestines let him down again.

“Dan was tough as nails,” Smith said. “I probably would have quit.” 

Weiland wasn’t the only person suffering.

Two-time Australian Olympian Jessica Yeaton and David Norris — a three-time world championship competitor for the U.S. Ski Cross-Country ski Team — ended up winning the co-ed race in 6:55:13.8, but not before Norris fell victim to altitude sickness.

“Jessica was really strong the entire race,” he said. The 33-year-old American Birkebeiner champion towed Yeaton along for the first three hours of the race.

“David was absolutely hauling,” Yeaton said. “I felt like I was redlining from the start and absolutely would not have held that pace without him pulling and encouraging me.”

Once the World Cup skiing super couple hit 11,000 feet, things changed. Yeaton noticed the pace drop and knew something was wrong.

“I actually told her to take the lead and get a head start on the downhill if she wanted,” Norris said.

“We unclipped and I went in front, thinking maybe that would encourage him,” Yeaton added. “But when I turned around to check he was throwing up.” 

Norris said he’s suffered similar bouts competing at the Pikes Peak Ascent and Mammoth Trail Fest. The professional trail runner and Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club coach knew he’d be fine once he got down.

“As I expected, I felt good once I got a little lower and was back to charging with Jess,” he said. “(It) was an awesome event and we are so impressed by the work that goes into it.”

Disgusting details or not, Weiland agrees.

“It’s like nothing else that you do,” he said of the 25-year race. “And it’s all these people who are kind of like us —  off their rocker a bit — who come together and enjoy that weird suffering.”

Though few words were spoken at the Friends Hut as Weiland and Smith dropped back to eighth, two decades of training and racing together provided enough of an unspoken shared vocabulary. Smith was a senior in high school when Weiland launched the SSCV Nordic program, a group that included Sylvan Ellefson, Duncan Robinson and Taylor Shelden.

“He’s the reason I skied in college,” Smith, who raced at CU, said. “I always have really appreciated our friendship, so for me it was pretty special to do it with him,” he added before splicing in another old-guy joke. “Especially since he’d done it in the stone age.”

Weiland said all-day mountain adventures with current and former athletes are “part of who I am and the culture I hopefully created.”

“That, to me, is so important,” he said. “That’s like my life.”

Trailing the podium by 25 minutes, Smith and Weiland dashed through trees and skated the final gradual climb to come within less than two minutes of eventual runner-ups Noah Williams and Jason McGowan by the finish.

“I feel like we went as fast as we could have for our general health state that day,” said Smith.

Logan Greydanus and Adam Loomis defended their title, winning in 5:35:25.1. When asked if the top step is still a reality — or at least a shoot-for-the-moon type goal — Weiland said, “If everything went well … and I was 15 years younger … maybe.” 

Whether he wins again or takes another 18 years off, it’s clear the Grand Traverse encapsulates Weiland’s modus operandi: Go hard, suffer long, savor friendships.

“It’s just who I am. I really hope that my body can sustain as much as I want to — at some point it’s got to end. But right now, my body feels pretty good, and I’m going to do it at the highest level that I can possibly do it,” he said.

“That’s, like, a weird thing to say for a 49-year-old.”

After the race, Weiland paced incessantly, the only cure for his aching feet. Finally he sat down with Smith for a cappuccino.

“Ah, that wasn’t so bad,” he said to his former pupil, first-time Grand Traverse teammate and longtime friend.

“Maybe we should do this again.”