Photo: Marni Mattner

A shot from Wick on 11/1/2010 already four days into the backcountry season!

BRYAN WICKENHAUSER

PROFILE | BIO

Wisconsin born, Colorado bred. Bryan Wickenhauser is a unique blend of these two distinctly different cultures. His grit is the kind you seen in wise, old men. It is completely self-contained and only really comes to the surface when he is chided by a worthy competitor. The simplest jab like, ‘you are moving slow today old man,’ is a spear to his heart. Look out now because here he comes.

It is the Wisconsin roots that give him such a good temper. Like the rest of the Midwest, Bryan loves to eat, he loves his family, and he is hardy in an unassuming way. Unlike the rest of the Midwest transplants to Colorado, however, Bryan has not grown soft against the cold. He lives in the coldest city in the state and he feels blessed. His wife is the running coach at Western State College and his neighbor is Dave Wiens who beat Lance Armstrong in the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. Down the street are his adventure racing teammates and up the hill is Crested Butte. The valley is home to many of the most accomplished backcountry athletes in the US and it is precisely for this reason that Bryan will never leave. This was so clear to his parents that they packed their bags and moved to the valley as well.

I have often thought about an adventure race that pits the states of the union against each other in good spirit. Selecting the Colorado team would not be much of a challenge. Go to Gunnison and start taking names. The real question would come down to whether the hardest men and women would even want to race. It might cut in on the 25 mile training fun run they have planned. Simply put, it might just be too damn stressful!

But Bryan would be in. He loves competition because he is not stressed out by it. It does not matter if he wins or loses. Sure, he wants to win, but for him, the journey is the thing. I have seen him get down about a race result. It lasts for all of two minutes and it is gone. He is over it and turning his attention to congratulating his friends on the podium, buying them beers, positioning his long frame low in a chair to relax.

His attitude and his deep love of people and community are attributes that set him apart. Personally, I find myself somewhere in the middle when it comes to backcountry endurance sports. 25 miles over high mountain passes today, no problem, but I will not be running up the hills, only down them. Climbing the Diamond in a day, no problem, but I will not be riding my bike to and from the city of Boulder for the approach and descent.

The middle is a hard place to be. I think it might be the hardest place to find good partners. You want to push yourself so you seek out the hard men of the world, convince them to let you tag along and you try to keep up. You can’t. Then you feel their same sense of frustration when you let someone slower tag along with you. Bryan, on the other hand is not selfish, so I get to tag along. His patience is one of the greatest reasons I can think of for my progress as an adventure athlete. He pushes me hard, but he is not afraid to wait when I need him to, or he is happy to run laps around me while I am walking in order to keep moving.

It is precisely this kind of patience that has made him one of the finest elite adventure racing team captains on the planet. You want someone who knows how to push, but you cannot have someone who is pushy. Like the adage, ‘speak softly and carry a big stick.’

Bryan is a natural at leading by example. Someone is lagging, he drops backs to pace them without a word. If he is lagging, he accepts assistance without hesitation. That is leadership and it is why he is one of the most sought-after backcountry ski partners in the valley. Team dynamics and good leadership can mean the difference between life and death and a guy like me trusts a guy like Bryan to death.

He also f’in RIPS! The difference between Bryan and other rando racers is that he can ski. His alpine racing roots on the ice bumps of the Midwest make powder and corn seem delightful and easy for him. On the other side of the fence, Bryan is different from other solid backcountry skiers because he can skin. The only times I have seen Bryan wanting for partners is when he wants to skin in 15 miles to bag one quarter-mile run. The effort, for most, is not worth the reward. For Bryan, though, it is not effort. He really is the most proficient skinner I have ever seen (note: I have not seen the Euros in action) and no matter how fast he approaches, he always seems to have the energy to throw the skis on his back, punch the ridge line to the summit drop and rip the descent.       

Now Bryan is a dad, another position of leadership he is proving to be a natural at. For a guy like me who gets stiff too easily and generally feels stir-crazy, it is inspiring to watch a guy like Bryan achieve true relaxation and balance without even trying. He is the kind of person that is comfortable in the here and now, is settled with his past so he has no reasons to lament, and looks forward to the future with a sense of hope because bad things do not happen to good people, right?

I hope this is the case, because in my mind, a guy like Bryan is proof positive that some people deserve only the best.