Club auctions chance to ski with Olympic racer Picabo Street
Olympic gold medalist and World Champion ski racer Picabo Street will visit Whitefish in January as a guest of the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation.
Street will join 10 successful auction bidders for a day of backcountry cat skiing on Friday, Jan. 22 with Great Northern Powder Guides.
The next day she will be the guest of honor, cheering on junior ski racers competing in the Northern Division USSA 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, winning Olympic gold in the Super G at Nagano, Japan in 1998 and World Championship gold in the downhill at Sierra Nevada, Spain in 1996. She also competed at Whitefish Mountain Resort (then Big Mountain) in 2001 in the U.S. National Championships.
The 10 seats to join 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 Nov. 20.
Other auction items include a ski day with Whitefish’s own Olympian Maggie Voisin, a gourmet dinner for eight prepared in your home by award winning chef Andy Blanton of Café Kandahar, weekend ski trips to Fernie, B.C. 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 more items great
“Thanks to Picabo and Maggie Voisin, our auction this year will be bigger and better than ever,” said Tim Hinderman, FVSEF executive director. “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.”
The Showcase of The Chef’s is hosted each year by FVSEF 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.
The theme for this year’s Showcase takes guests all the way back to the 1930s to “Celebrate 80 Years of Ski Racing on Big Mountain.” This year’s event will feature the chefs and entrees from Tupelo, Wasabi, Whitefish Lake Restaurant, The Boat Club, Iron Horse, and the Cuisine Machine.
New this year, there will be an opportunity for “absentee bidding” at the auction for people who are interested in participating but 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 Showcase benefit the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation and the Ski Heritage Center Museum of Skiing.
For more information contact Tim Hinderman at 406-885-2730, or visit www.fvsef.org.