BELMONT, Mich. — It has never been done before in West Michigan — until now.
Cannonsburg Ski Area is introducing the area's first-ever winter triathlon: The Abominable Snow Tri.
"It consists of a 5k run, a 10k fat bike, and then a roughly a two-mile cross country ski," said Erika Chapman, who's on the Cannonsburg Ski Patrol team.
Chapman has been a patroller at Cannonsburg since 2008. The full ski patrol team has 130 members — every single one is a volunteer.
The triathlon is meant to support the ski patrol team, which has struggled to bring in their normal amounts of donations because at least one partnering organization went out of business.
That funding, Chapman said, is crucial.
"The area does provide us with our medical supplies," she said, "but we do still need to raise money for training events. We'd like to send our patrollers up to Crystal or Boyne, and things like that, so we can do additional training for either medical training or also additional ski training so that, when we do have an accident, our patrollers can safely carry them down off the hill."
The triathlon race will take place at Cannonsburg Ski Area on February 19th, 2023. Registration ends on Thursday, February 16th.