27 Parkites race, 1 wins Brighton’s Cirque Series

Plenty of Parkites raced Brighton's Cirque Series stop. Photo: Root Roepke

BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah — On Saturday, 27 athletes from Park City and one from Kamas competed in the Cirque Series stop, held at Brighton, a hop, skip and jump over Guardsman Pass.

One Parkite came away a winner of her sport, Female Division, 34-year-old Elizabeth Hockett, with a time of one hour, 43 mins, 33.15 seconds.(1:43:33.15).

Finishing the 6.7 mile, 3,015 foot vertical course in second place for the same division was Park City’s 29-year-old Foreste Peterson at a time of 1:48:12.29.

In the Male Sport Division, the second place spot was captured by 38-year-old, Park City resident Kyle Andres, who crossed the finish line at 1:28:11.25.

They were among the 500 registrants who made the hard cut off number of 500 participants. 

Competitors self-assign into one of three divisions. It ended up 68% Sport (beginner/intermediate), 26% Expert, and 6% Pro. Many of the Park City runners were members of Park City Ski and Snowboard Team.

The courses in the Cirque Series are notoriously tough. As such, a blurb on the website’s description reads: “On Mt. Millicent summit area in particular, please be prepared to slow down, pay close attention to your footwork in the technical boulder fields, if you kick a rock loose, immediately yell ‘rock’ to notify fellow competitors you have kicked a rock loose. If you are further down the course and you hear, ‘rock!’, please do not look up, please turn your back and protect your head.  We can’t stress this section enough, careful footwork, look out for the safety of yourself and fellow competitors equally.”

Checkpoints and ski patrollers abounded while racers bounded up to the summit following a flagged route and race back down to the mass starting line. There’s a strict cut off time at 55 minutes, they all have to make it up to the Milly Express Chairlift before they’re stopped from going further.

Live music, a vendor village, food trucks and all the free rehydration one would need await competitors and spectators alike. A line formed at the finish coral medical tent since not everyone was lucky enough to have friend or strangers or strangers-turned-friends quickly grab their limb before they fell off any number of cliff-like parts of the course.

The Cirque Series started the season in Snowbird, and will continue in Alta, Targhee, A Basin, Alaska, and Switzerland.