West End News: December 12

Here is some big news from Lutsen Mountains Ski Area. The Midwest Extreme Snowmobile Challenge race is coming to Lutsen Mountains Apr. 18 and 19.  Somewhere between 400 and 900 racers will compete in hillclimb, hillcross and short course cross-country events.
 
The event is organized by Cor Powersports, one of the largest cross-country snowmobile racing circuits in the United States. The hill climb competitors in our event will be eligible to qualify for the 2016 Jackson Hole World Championship Hillclimb.
 
The racing will take place on Moose Mountain, while downhill skiing will still be happening on Eagle Mountain. This will add up to a spectacular setting for spectators to enjoy exciting race action.
 
One of the reasons that Lutsen Mountains was selected for this event is their incredible snowmaking capacity, which makes is certain that they will have snow on hand to run the event.  Congratulations to the local organizers for attracting a fun event that will fill hotel rooms during a normally slow weekend.
 
Also from Lutsen this week, comes a story of dramatic rescue. Ann and Tom Rider, who live at the ski area, have a well-known and socially active golden retriever named Rosie.  In the two years since Rosie arrived, she’s become a ski area favorite.  She’s a frequent visitor to the main chalet during the ski season where she is literally mobbed by small children. She is also known for her unauthorized trips to the bottom of the Bridge ski lift, where she is welcomed by the skiers, but not so much by the ski patrol. 
 
During the summer, Rosie likes to slide on the Alpine Slide. Not in a sled with a human companion, but by jumping on the track herself and sliding hundreds of feet on her own legs.  She also loves road culverts and never misses the chance to run through any culvert she comes across.
 
Last week, Ann took Rosie for a walk on the golf course and was surprised when Rosie discovered a black plastic culvert that was more than a hundred feet long. Of course Rosie dove in and scooted to the far end of the culvert that was barely big enough to allow her to belly crawl through.  At the far end, the culvert had flooded and then frozen, creating a sloped sheet of ice on the bottom.  The ice also blocked the exit of the culvert.  Rosie could not get a purchase on the ice to climb back to the entrance.
 
The situation became a “Rosie is trapped in the well” type of scenario.  Ann, just like Lassie did so many times, dutifully and efficiently notified Tom of Rosie’s predicament.  Tom responded with a large blowtorch, hoping to melt the ice from the culvert exit.  When that proved impractical, he called Dave Carlson to bring down a large rescue saw.  Together, Dave and Tom were able to dig out the top of the culvert and cut off a section behind Rosie until she was able to climb out.
 
All’s well that ends well, but I have a feeling that this won’t be the last adventure for Miss Rosie.  Tom’s comment was, “Just another day in the life with Rosie.” 
 
Not everyone is aware that you can become a nurse by attending school right here in Cook County.  Cook County Higher Education in Grand Marais has trained many nurses over the last 10 years or so.
 
The first step to a nursing degree is to obtain your Nursing Assistant/Home Health Aide certification.  Higher Ed is offering this course starting in February. 
 
Of course, the certificate can also be used to find good paying work, even if you don’t want to be a nurse. You can actually start working before you finish the course and, in effect, get paid to learn.
 
The four-credit course is offered here but is accredited by Lake Superior College.  Local nurse, Mark Abrahamson, is the instructor.  Financial aid is readily available. The people who work at Higher Ed will do whatever it takes to make you successful in improving your skills and completing your studies.
 
For more information, contact Cook County Higher Education at 387-3411 or email [email protected], or just search for Cook County Higher Education on the Internet.
 
Last week’s interruption of phone and Internet service was a reminder of how fragile our communication system still is here in the West End.  However, a few services kept working after the fiber optic line was accidentally cut, so the system is getting more robust. 
 
I think the workers who caused the outage were actually working on connecting up the new cell tower in Tofte. The tower has been up for over a year and the equipment arrived about a month ago.  I see the contractor trenching fiber optic lines up to the tower, so hopefully our communications in Tofte will improve dramatically as an early Christmas present.
 
(Photo courtesy of Ann Rider)