Sandy
Sugden's Incredible Birkie
Last
Saturday, 2/23/08, perhaps the most unbelievable
performance was by our own Sandy Sugden, who finished dead
last with a time of a little over 9 hours. While the winner
only needed the endurance to last about 2 hours, Sandy dug
deep for the stamina to last 4 1/2 times longer. Sandy
skied this year as a memorial to her husband Bob, who
passed away March 21, 2007. (Obituary further down this
page.) Bob was the first president of the Lapham Peak
Friends, active in the snowmaking project, and past World
Masters champion. Quite a few people came out to welcome
Sandy as the official last finisher of the 2008 American
Birkebeiner. Her triumphant ski down Main Street in Hayward
was captured on video by Sean Becker and posted on
youtube. Click here but have a hanky
ready.
Local
skiers Paul Sandgren and John Maki at the
Birkie
Spring
Bike Swap April
5th
Click here for complete
brochure and vendor's form.
Click here
for
final Lapham Peak Adult Wednesday Night results and for
info on the Award's Banquet. ( Wednesday, February 27th
at 6 PM.)
Waukesha Boy's Team 2nd, Girl's 5th at
2008 Wisconsin State HS Meet
Waukesha
West boys, let by Matt Dugan's 2nd overall and Luke
Gesior's 7th, placed second in the 2008 Wisconsin State
High School Nordic Ski Championship. The girl's team placed
5th overall, with Felicia Gesior leading the way with a 7th
place finish. The format was pursuit: A striding race was
held on Saturday and Sunday featured the skating race. The
races were at Minocqua Winter park, 2/9/08 -
2/10/08. Click here to view complete
results.
Waukesha Boy's Team Wins Madison Sprints
Lapham's
own Waukesha West boys (Luke Gesior, Matt Dugan, and
Grayson Butler) upset Hayward to win the Wisconsin High
School State Championship Team Sprint relays at Madison
this past Saturday. In
addition, the varsity girls took 4th and JV boys (called
the open division) took 2nd. West also placed 4 athletes in
the top 8 of the individual classic sprint
competition.
Click here for complete
results.
Wednesday Night H.S. Races
On
1/23/08 the Wednesday High School and Middle School race
was a 4.5 K classical race, Meet
at The Peak, with
teams from Lodi and Madison joining in the fun.
Matthew Dugan (male) and
Krista White (female) of Waukesha West were the top H.S.
skiers.
Click here to access
results.
Skiers Bundle up for Frigid 2008 Lapham Loppet
Click here for video of race by Sean
Becker.
Click here for video of top 10
finishers.
Click here for more
finishers.
77 Adult and 25 high school
skiers braved slightly-below-zero temperatures at
Saturday's Lapham Loppet. The men's winner was Brent Wesoek
with a time of 30:31. Top woman was JoEllen Torresani at 38:57. Winning HS
racers were Matthew Dugan for the boys and Krista White for the girls. Click here for complete
Adult and HS Results. John Wrycza, professional
photographer was on hand and took 416 photos of the
race. This is one of the most complete photo-sets you'll
ever see. Not only are the racers featured, as well as
the medals ceremony, a number of shots catch the overall
beauty of the park. Click here for the slide show.
Click here to see the entire
album.
Lapham's Snow Guns Work Day and Night
Photo by Sean Becker
(1/15/08)
Wednesday
Night And Lapham Loppet Races are ON!!
There will be a Wednesday Nite
race, January 16th. The South Hill will be omitted. We will
have the Loppet this Saturday, January 19th. Depending on
how much snow we get on Thursday, it will be either the
full 11K or a shortened course with lessened fees. Click on
link two paragraphs below for downloadable entry forms.
Online registration with active.com is available until 1
P.M. Friday. (Click here to register
online.)
First Wednesday Night Race Beats Rain
The first Wednesday nite race
went off as planned, just in time before the big meltdown.
Mary Eloranta was first female and Chad Tolbert beat all
the other men. Gary Hovila finished a few seconds behind
and the rest of the men's field included some of our top
junior skiers from past years. In fact UW-Green Bay alums
were well represented, led by Tolbert (former NCAA
All-American) and included Shane Hoelz, Mike Eckert and
Josh North. Exceptional finishes were also posted by
grizzled veterans John Hallet and Peter Jennik.
(Click here for
results.)
Sign up for Lapham Racing
Entry
forms now available online
Wednesday Night Races start January 2,
2008.
Click here to download pdf entry form and more information
on the race series:
WEDNESDAY
NITE SKI LEAGUE
Lapham
Loppet will be held on Saturday, January 19, 2008.
Click
here to download pdf entry form and more information on the
Loppet:
Loppet 2008
brochure
Friends of Lapham Peak Snowmaking Project
Phase 2-Part 2
Donate
a Section Fundraiser
The
Snowmaking Project has advanced to the last part of Phase
2. The well has been drilled, the cooling pond constructed,
the distribution pump installed and the electrical lines
installed. The last construction project for Phase 2 is the
laying of around 3600 feet of underground water piping and
hydrants. With the water pipe and hydrants in place, the
first loop of the Snowmaking Project will be complete!
Please help the Friends of Lapham Peak finish Phase 2. The
Snowmaking Project has been developed with gifts and
donations. Would you consider donating a
Section?
A
Section consists
of 250 feet of pipe with installation and a hydrant to
allow the water to be delivered to the snow guns. The cost
for the piping, hydrant and installation is $3000
per
Section.
Recruit a group of friends, your family or individually
donate to develop a
Section.
Business and Corporate donors are encouraged to help
develop this community asset.
Section donors
will be given special recognition.
For
more information contact:
Ed
Muzik, Property Manager, 262-646-3025 or John Corbin,
Friends of Lapham Peak Snowmaking Fundraiser Chairperson,
(262) 569-9397
Please mail your donations to:
Lapham Peak
Friends/Snow Making Project
W329
N846 County Hwy C, Delafield, WI 53018
If
you prefer to just “CLICK” to donate. We have a
very convenient option for you!
Online
Fundraising Powered by ActiveGiving.
To donate online
or anonymously go to:
www.active.com/donate/laphampeaksnowmaking
COLORAMA RUN/WALK HUGE SUCCESS
578 entrants, about the same
number as last year's record turnout, participated in this
year's event in hot and steamy conditions. In the
10k, Leslie Olson was the top female with a time of
49:07, while Chris Wichert won the men's event in
39:18. In the 10K run with poles, Susan Miller
was first female and Douglas Boduch first
male. Holly Ochs won the woman's 5K
while Aaron Nodolf was top male.
For complete results click
here.
19th ANNUAL LAPHAM PEAK COLORAMA
RUN/WALK
&
SMOKEY BEAR FUN RUN
Saturday,
October 6, 2007
This
year's event will be held in memory of Bob Sugden, who
was the first president of the Friends of Lapham Peak. Bob
was instrumental in the birth of the first Colorama Run and
played a huge part in bringing lights to Lapham's ski
trails.
Flash! Gollinger
of Chi-Town Sports has just
donated one set of Trab skis and Casco eye wear for the
Colorama Run free drawing. Note: All entrants in the
2007 Colorama Run/Walk will be entered in the
drawing.
Experience a beautiful fall run
at Lapham Peak State Forest. Run on wide, well-groomed,
ski/hiking trails or walk on the paved accessible
trail. Strollers or wheelchairs may be used on the
accessible trail with an optional walk up wooden
stairs to the Observation Tower. The 5K run will tour the
middle level of the park. We’ve brought back the
10K run with poles for those of you who cross train for
skiing by running with ski poles. The 10K course,
including those running with poles, follows the outer
perimeter trail. The Smokey Bear Fun Run [10
& under] will encircle Homestead Hollow. Share a treat
with Smokey after the fun run. Click here for
A History of
Colorama.
For more
details and a downloadable entry form click
HERE. To enter
online at active.com, click HERE.
Summer
Solstice Raises $1237.
The
Lupo Pond is not just for snowmaking.
Snowmaking
Update.
Bob Sugden
Memorial: $3367 has been donated to
Lapham Snowmaking in Bob's name.
Bike
Swap: This
year's (2007) Bike Swap raised $3470.90.
Summer
Solstice Fundraiser: On Saturday, June 23, 2007, the
Lapham Peak Friends will sponsor a celebration of
summer. The celebration will include a fun run/walk,
a silent auction, health fair, nature hikes and special
activities for children. (10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. at
Lapham Peak)
Click here for brochure: Solstice
Companies and silent auction
donors click here for 2-page brochure: Summer Solstice 2page
Corporation
Lupos
Give Snowmaking a Huge Boost.
John and Louella Lupo presented
a check for $26,000 on May 5, 2007 to Louise Borzynski,
president of the Friends of Lapham Peak, and Ed Muzik, Jr.,
property manager of the Lapham Peak Unit—Kettle
Moraine State Forest. The donation was earmarked for
snowmaking, particularly the pond. In recognition of their
generous donation, the pond will be named “Lupo
Pond.” John and Louella Lupo are active members of
the Friends and are currently serving on the board of
directors. In addition to holding and cooling water for
snowmaking, the pond will get plenty of summer use. It will
be stocked with fish as part of the urban fishing program
for kids, as well as for canoe and kayak
instruction.
I
would like to add that the Lupos involvement goes far
beyond their generous donation. Both have been very
active since the inception of the snowmaking project.
John can be found grilling brats at all the fundraising
functions. In fact, his whole family is involved; I
even met his father manning the grill at The Colorama Run.
And many of the photos on this website were taken by
John. He
has also prepared and presented several powerpoint
presentations to area businesses and chambers of commerce
to enhance the snowmaking committee's efforts to complete
this ambitious project in 4 years or less. In
addition, he is the overall head of the Snowmaking
Committee, for both fundraising and engineering.
Finally, John designed the snowmaking patch which
accompanies thank you receipts for all donors to the
snowmaking project. So, special thanks to the
Lupos. (Lee Borowski)
Bob
Sugden (January
18, 1941-March 21, 2007)
On March 21st, due to sudden
complications from chemotherapy, The Friends of Lapham Peak
lost a great friend in Bob Sugden. Bob,
along with his wife Sandy was a charter member of the
Lapham Peak Friends and avid cross country skier, competing
in 25 Birkie's. I've known Bob for over two decades. He's
been a friend, competitor (my age group) and we used to
rollerski together once a week. He was a very special
person. No one was nicer or more unassuming, yet he was a
tenacious competitor. Bob always greeted you with a shy
smile and I always got the feeling that he, like Will
Rogers, never met a person he didn't like; and he certainly
never met anyone who didn't like him. Bob will be sorely
missed by those who knew him...Lee
Borowski
Skiing
at Lapham all next winter?
This March, the manmade
loop survived heavy rain with temperatures of 70º and still
held a base of over 12 inches.. It was groomed through
Sunday, March 18th. If we get enough cold nights in early
December, next year we could be skiing all winter.
(Photo by
Ed Muzik: Saturday, March 17,2007)
Click here to make a donation
and help lengthen the manmade
loop.
Manmade Snow Saves XC Skiing in Boston
"In the winter we have some of the most reliable snow
in New England thanks to the manmade loop at the Weston Ski
Track. Despite our warmest winter ever, we’ve skied
since December 10th and will be able to ski till
mid-March." From an article
on why the Boston area junior ski program is so
successful. Click here for entire article.
Note: December 10th is almost exactly the day we lost our
early snow and had no skiing for a month. Next year we too
will have manmade snow for the entire winter. Just how long
the loop will be depends on how fast the donations keep
coming in.
Click here to
donate.
Bike
Swap March 24th
"The
Lapham Peak Friends' Spring Bike Swap is coming up
on Saturday,
March 24th (2007) at
Cushing School in Delafield, Wisconsin. The
Bike Swap is a fund raiser for the snow making project at
Lapham Peak. We would appreciate your help and
attendance at the Bike Swap. Last year was a very
successful event for all concerned. Whether buying or
selling bike stuff, we encourage your support.
Everything from new bikes to bike trailers were sold last
year. We actually ran out of resale bikes last year
for the consignment corral. Do you have bikes in your
garage that are unused? Bring them in!! Another
reason to attend is the bake sale that has been added this
year. Many Lapham Peak Friends are donating delicious
home-baked goods.
Another way to help this fund raising event is to let
people know about the bike swap. Click here for the
official flyer for the Bike Swap: BikeSwap07-LETTER Forwarding
the flyer to friends or printing and posting the flyer is
the best way to inform the community about the Bike Swap.
Thanks for your help." John Corbin
Lapham's
own Waukesha West Girls Win a State Championship at
Rhinelander
The
Girls' Team won the skating competition on Sunday, 2/11/07,
and finished 3rd in the pursuit. The boys' team team also
did well, finishing 4th in the overall
competition.
Alyssa
Beste (foreground) and Laura Koch (behind Alyssa) on their
way to taking 5th and 8th place respectively in Sunday's
pursuit race in Rhinelander. Erica Claas placed 15th,
securing third place overall for the team.
Click here for team
photos and overall results.
Lapham Loppet raises $1,462.65 net profit for
snowmaking.
$2325.89
was brought in this year but was offset some by debts
incurred during low-snow years.
Wednesday
Night Results
Click here (or on sidebar) for results of
Wednesday Night Races
"A special thanks to Kris Maki who
has been the race director since the first Lapham Loppet,
first Wednesday Night Races and the first Colorama Run. Her
dedication is now approaching two decades. Having organized
races in the past, I well know of the work and frustrations
along the way. And while the rewards are great, it takes
huge perseverance to last that long."... Lee
Borowski
Snowmaking
Saves Lapham Loppet
(Photo by Ed
Muzik)
Men's winner Scott
Oberbreckling with
mother Claire and daughter Madison.
(Photo by
Mike Graham)
The new snowmaking system was used to
stockpile snow and repair bare spots on the course for
today's race. Without that help, rock skis would have been
a must. As it turned out, the entire course was well
covered. So a special thanks go out to Ed Muzik and Sean
Becker, who spent many hours (often after midnight) to get
the bugs out of the new snowmaking setup.
(Click here for photos of
snowmaking and race day.)
Scott Oberbreckling was the men's winner and Katie Stalland
topped the female division in today's Loppet (1/20/07).
Birken Schimpff (male) and Alyssa Beste (female) won their
divisions in the high school race. In addition, a 1
Kilometer kid's race was held.
Scott came in from Colorado and is one of the original
group of junior skiers from our area who honed his racing
skills at the Wednesday night races at Heritage Ridge.
Scott was an All-American in college, has placed as high as
9th in the Birkie and was the winner of the first three
Birkie Elite Sprints. Then he took a long layoff and
returned to racing after his 40th birthday. Note:
Cross-country is certainly a lifetime sport as most of the
racers today were over 40 and quite a few over 60; we even
had one skier over 70. To view the results, click on
Race
Results in the
sidebar.
Wednesday
Night Races are on!
While we have decent skiing as of
Tuesday (January 16, 2007), we don't know if the conditions
will hold till Saturday. A decision will be made this later
this week when we see how the snow cover holds.
For all
race updates, click on Trail Conditions link in
sidebar.
We've
Got Skiing!
While we didn't get a big dump, it
was enough to groom for skiing. Click on Trail Conditions
button in Sidebar to see latest trail reports for, not only
Lapham, but the entire SE Wisconsin region. Our snowmaking
is now in it's shakedown period. Progress will be posted,
either on this site or the Trail Conditions page (link in
sidebar).
New Trail Report Website for SE
Wisconsin
The
Lapham Peak Friends' are introducing a ski trail report
website for SE Wisconsin. The first priority is to
enhance the Lapham groomer's daily report, which is done in
the morning and may not reflect conditions as they change
over the day. The second goal is to help local skiers
locate the best skiing, not just at Lapham, and not just
from yesterday's (or last week's) report. Often there
is good snow cover on some ski trails when other trails in
the area are bare. But up till now, there has been no
central source of information, so skiers have had to rely
on word of mouth and phone calls.
In order for this endeavor to be successful, many skiers
will have to become involved and submit reports. So
we are encouraging everyone to submit a report, especially
for the more obscure trails in SE Wisconsin, where often
there is excellent skiing. This will be
our
method
of communication and hopefully it will get much
use.
In fact, some of you may be wondering why we started this
website when Skinnyski.com has the same service. The
problem is that Skinnyski.com is based in Minnesota and
serves the entire Midwest. As a result many skiers
find it is remote and quite frankly, many of our local ski
trails never have ski reports.
Ski conditions and Lapham snowmaking progress can be found
at http://www.laphampeakfriends.org/ViewSkireportsExpanded.php.
Click here for latest photos
and information on completion of The
Pond.
Fundraising
Update (1/03/07): Mike Mandli and Bicycle
Doctor's Ski School, which was in session for 5 weeks this
fall, raised $500 for Lapham Peak Snowmaking. In addition,
the skis raffled off at Andy Schwartz's Snowman Triathlon
(a fundraiser which netted $455) were donated by Will
Edwards and the Bike Doctor. (The Bike Doc's contribution
was omitted in the original release.)
December 21, 2006. While we've had a meltdown, and
it's presently raining, area Alpine resorts will survive
this blip because of their artificial snow. In fact,
Sunburst has a Nordic membership and the XC skiing has been
very good - an excellent indicator of the future for our
snowmaking effort.
Now that the pond is in, we're close to making snow on the
entire 1 K loop. So the future looks bright. Final
adaptations are being made and the target date for firing
up the snow guns with water from the pond is January 4,
2007.
Click
HERE to see
photo updates.
"If you build it, they will come."
(Dec. 3rd Photo by Phil Van
Valkenberg,
who recently moved here from Northern Wisconsin.
Phil is the author of many biking books and ski articles.)
Click here for information on his
books.
More Lapham ski
photos.
This, now famous, quote could
easily be applied to Lapham Peak. Record turnout this
weekend (December 2nd and 3rd) had skiers backed up at the
entrance waiting to buy trail passes. Yet there was no
congestion on the trail; the length of the system and wide
trail design easily handled the huge amount of skiers. With
a track on the side, both skaters and striders enjoyed
hassle-free skiing, no matter their speed. Hopefully our
snowmaking project, which kicks into full-gear-snowmaking
on December 11, will keep local skiers on snow all season -
even if we lose much of our early snow
bonanza.
Click here for latest grooming
report.
Or
call the Lapham Peak 24-hour information line, (262)
646-4421
Recent Milwaukee Journal Blogs:
1.
Birkie Training
2.
Snowmaking Progress
Jim Jablonowski
Memorial Fund
Looking for a reason to support Lapham
Snowmaking?
Click here!
Click here for Archive of
Past Year