The Chen Cup GS race start gate

The Chen Cup is a ski race networking event for environmental professionals at Eldora Mountain Resort in Nederland, CO. How cool is that? It combines a nordic race and a GS downhill race for teams of environmental consulting firms to compete for a chance to win the Chen Cup. It has been held annually since the mid-1980’s, but I just found out about it this year and had to compete.

It’s the perfect event for environmental professionals in Colorado. Living the environmental professional lifestyle typically involves enjoying the outdoors. In Colorado in the winter that means skiing or snowboarding. I fall into that category and have experience skiing all over the mountain, except racing. From the people I met on the mountain that day, it was much of the same. This gave recreational skiing environmental professionals a chance to compete in a pro-style race competition and oh yeah, do some networking.

As networking event, it was unique. It wasn’t as easy to meet as many people as a meeting, conference, or social event, but it was much more fun. I met a hydrogeologist, mining engineers, lab technician, and several other consultants and they were all thrilled to be there. Most people weren’t in it to win the race, just to ski some real race gates, meet other like-minded people, and have a good day on the mountain knowing you are surrounded by your professional community.

Since I was racing gates for the first time ever, I made sure my GoPro rolling to capture my runs. I didn’t win, but for a brief moment got to pretend I was Ted Ligety instead of Glen Plake.  Check it out.