Ski Foundation’s auction features cat-skiing trip with champion downhill skier

Former Olympic and world champion skier Picabo Street will visit Whitefish in January as part of a fundraising effort for the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation.

Street, who won the gold medal in the Super G event at the 1998 Olympic games in Nagano, Japan, will be in Whitefish on Jan. 22. She will join Great Northern Powder Guides and 10 successful auction bidders for a day of backcountry cat-skiing.

Ten spots to accompany Street on the cat-ski trip will be the auctioned at the 2016 Showcase of the Chefs dinner, wine tasting and auction to be held at The Lodge at Whitefish Lake on Friday, Nov. 20. The cat-ski trip is an all-day excursion departing from Great Northern Powder Guides’ headquarters on U.S. 93, 20 miles north of Whitefish. It’s designed for intermediate to advanced powder skiers. The skiers travel 30 minutes up into the Stryker Ridge area of the Stillwater State Forest via a snow cat with a large 15-passenger cabin, according to Foundation Executive Director Tim Hinderman. A gourmet lunch will be served at midday in a warm, dry yurt.

On Saturday Jan. 23, Street will cheer on junior ski racers from throughout Montana competing in the Northern Division U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Races at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

Street grew up in Triumph, Idaho, and began her ski racing career in Sun Valley. She went on to spend 13 years on the U.S. Ski Team. Street won the World Championship gold medal in downhill skiing at Sierra Nevada, Spain, in 1996, then went on to win gold in Nagano. She also competed at Whitefish Mountain Resort in 2001 in the U.S. National Championships.

Another standout auction item is a ski day with Whitefish’s own Olympian, Maggie Voisin. Voisin earned a silver medal at the X Games before heading to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, in February 2014. At age 15, she was the youngest Winter Olympic athlete since 1972. She was unable to compete in the Olympics, however, after sustaining an injury during women’s slopestyle training.

“Thanks to Picabo and Maggie Voisin, our auction this year will be bigger and better than ever,” Hinderman said. “We’re focusing on some one-of-a-kind experience-type items in addition to all the great donated items that we receive from merchants from all over the valley.”

Other auction items include a gourmet dinner for eight prepared in your home by chef Andy Blanton of Café Kandahar; weekend ski trips to Fernie, British Columbia, and Alta, Utah; a seven-day guided Bob Marshall Wilderness trip for teens; a two-day, three-night Sun Valley, Idaho, golf package; guided mountain bike trips in the Canadian Rockies and many other items.

The Showcase of the Chefs is hosted by the ski foundation each year to celebrate important milestones from Whitefish’s skiing history and to raise money for the race team and the proposed Ski Heritage Center Museum of Skiing in Whitefish.

The theme for this year’s showcase is a look at the 1930s as the nonprofit foundation celebrates 80 years of ski racing on Big Mountain. This year’s event will feature the chefs and entrees from Tupelo Grill, Wasabi, Whitefish Lake Restaurant, The Boat Club, Iron Horse and the Cuisine Machine.

New this year will be an opportunity for “absentee bidding” at the auction for people interested in participating who can’t be present at the event. For an updated list of auction items as well as absentee bidding information, visit www.fvsef.org.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $75 per person in advance, $85 at the door. Tickets are available at Sportsman & Ski Haus stores in Kalispell and Whitefish, Great Northern Cycle & Ski, The Lodge at Whitefish Lake and online at www.fvsef.org.

All proceeds from the showcase benefit the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation and the Ski Heritage Center Museum of Skiing.

For more information contact Hinderman at 406-885-2730 or visit www.fvsef.org.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.