REVIVAL

“I didn’t have any legs by the time i got halfway down the course,” wails pro skiercrosser Eric Archer. “I was just trying to stay alive.” Held at Sugar Bowl last March, the reincarnation of the Tahoe Silver Belt race (which ran from 1940 to 1975) drew 58 competitors. True to tradition, it was a gang-start downhill, with six skiers to a heat elbowing it out over 1,800 vertical feet-almost twice as long as modern courses. Unlike old times, the race was held on ungroomed snow. “Skiercross is already painful enough,” says pro racer Aaron McGovern. “Adding all-natural terrain puts a whole new twist on the game.”