Page 45 - Flathead Living // Spring 2015

BEN PARSONS // 34 // KALISPELL
BEN PARSONS KNOWS HE’LL HAVE to choose someday. New domestic responsibilities will arise and priorities will shift. He won’t have time for two full-time racing schedules. But that day hasn’t come yet.
Parsons acknowledges an “internal debate” between focusing more on ski mountaineering or mountain biking, or maybe less on both. At his best, he’s a top-40 mountain biker and top-10 ski mountaineering racer in the country. He loves them both.
So, for now, he’s sticking with them both. But when the day comes that he has to gear down his competitive racing, he’ll still get out on skis and a mountain bike when he can, and he’ll be as happy as ever.
“More than the racing, I’ve always just loved being able to move through the mountains, whether that’s on skis or on foot or on a bike,” Parsons says.
And he moves pretty fast, up and downhill. Parsons, a full-time firefighter and para- medic for the city of Whitefish, has placed high among the world’s elite at ski mountaineer- ing competitions across the globe, including a first-place finish in his backyard at the 2012 Whitefish Whiteout.
In ski mountaineering, participants wear climbing skins made of fabric on the bottoms of their skis, providing friction that allows them to climb up the mountain. When they reach the top, they peel off the skins and ski back down through difficult terrain.
During spring, Parsons combines his two passions by biking with skis on his back into the mountains. Then he ditches the bike, hikes or skins farther up the mountain and skis
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU
“IT’S THE MEDICATION FOR ME TO GET RELAXED AND BE PRESENT IN THE MOMENT. AND THERE’S DEFINITELY A PART OF ME THAT WANTS TO FIND OUT WHAT I’M CAPABLE OF, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY.”
back down to his bike.
Parsons focuses on mountain biking in
the summer, dedicating many weekends to races just as he does with ski moun- taineering races in the winter. When fall arrives, he incorporates more running into his workout routine. He bikes into the mountains with his running shoes, goes on a long run – maybe bags a few peaks in Glacier – and then bikes back home.
Parsons spends 16-20 hours each week between the three disciplines, climbing an average of 30,000 vertical feet. And with a decision looming, he’ll keep head- ing to the mountains. That’s where he’s always found his answers.
STATS
Three-time Montana off-road moun- tain bike champion; two-time nation- al 24-hour mountain bike champion in men’s duo; first-place finishes at ski mountaineering Canadian Alpine Cups in Fernie and Lake Louise; top-ten finishes at U.S. Ski Moun- taineering Nationals
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SPRING 2015 | FLATHEAD LIVING 43