WEATHER
It was about midnight when the effects of skiing since 10 that morning finally caught up with Linnea O’Mealy.
When the sun set, a chilling wind whipped up at the White Pass Ski Area, engulfing the skiers participating in a 24-hour ski marathon to raise money to help fight cancer.
“Here it was in the middle of the night, and I had to tell myself, ‘I can do this,’ ” O’Mealy said. “This was the first time I had ever done something like that.”
O’Mealy was the only woman on an 11-member team that participated in the “Hope on the Slopes” ski marathon on March 15-16. Her team skied a total of 1.3 million vertical feet in 24 hours and raised $5,098 for cancer research.
“This cause is very personal to me,” O’Mealy said. “I lost my mom to cancer in 2005. My sister-in-law died of cancer in her mid-40s. She was a young woman when she passed away.”
What was especially touching to the marathoner was the common goal the skiers shared on the slopes that weekend.
“Every single time I got on the ski lift, people would share stories about how cancer has affected their lives,” she said. “I learned so much. There were families skiing with their children and teaching them that they were participating in something greater than themselves.”
The event was a family affair for O’Mealy, too — her husband and two brothers-in-law participated, and her two young children came along and stayed with their aunt.
“They were the support team,” O’Mealy said. “I never could have done it without them.
“People from the lodge were cheering us on. At 10 p.m., my daughter handed me a cup of coffee, and that kept me going until midnight. I’ve never had coffee at 10 at night, and it never tasted so good.”
O’Mealy skied for 17 hours during the event, which ran from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday. Participants rested in sleeping bags sprawled all over the floor of the ski lodge.
“It was very surreal,” O’Mealy said. “I was so tired, but I don’t think I actually slept. I could hear things going on around me, but my eyes were shut.”
Crawling out of the warm sleeping bag and returning to the icy slopes was the most difficult part of the experience, O’Mealy said.
“I had to reach deep down inside of me and make myself put my boots back on,” she said. “I thought, ‘This isn’t about me — it’s about having the plague of cancer cured. I’m sure my mom was in a lot more pain during chemotherapy than I am right now.’ ”
Three Peninsula High School students skied on O’Mealy’s team: Kevin (KJ) Smith, Jonathan Ernst and Alex Welstad. Smith, 15, said he took two 30- to 40-minute breaks throughout the marathon.
“It was so tiring — it was hard to stay awake during the night,” he said. “I was very tired for a few days after that, too. But it was for a good cause, and we wanted to raise the money.”
Smith said he knew people who have died because of cancer. He and his friends are trying to put together a team of students at his school.
“I think next year we want to make a team for the high school,” he said. “We’re going to try; if not, we’ll be on the same team (as) this year.”
• Todd O’Mealy
• Jonathan Ernst
• Troy Good
• Michael Mills
• Chad O’Mealy
• Linnea O’Mealy
• Richard Papic
• Sam Pettibon
• Kevin Smith
• Jeff Spence
• Alex Welstad
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