The End of 48 Straight

The first knockout of a vehicle-sponsored tour is now official. When Jeep pulled out of paying for the winter version of 48 Straight, it was the end of the line. A simple message on the event web site says it all: “With news that Jeep has decided to no longer continue its sponsorship of Jeep 48Straight, the company has announced that the 2008-2009 winter event series has been canceled.”

Three stops had been scheduled; Telluride, Co. Dec. 12-14, Squaw Valley Jan.30-Feb. 1, and Sun Valley, Id. March 27-29. All three events featured pipe and cross comps for both skiers and snowboarders, and each stop was to be broadcast twice by CBS.

Some 60 pro snowboarders and skiers are now left out in the cold after planning their winter to allow for the competitions. The pipe and cross courses were considered among the best of any winter contests.

But the organization was plagued by bad luck that started when it was still called Jeep King of the Mountain. Top rider Tara Llanes crashed in the 2007 finals and was paralyzed from the waist down. Summer stops in 2008 were rained out, and the promised 48 straight hours of music were intermittent and soggy. Still, the series was looked on as a rising star in the world of action sports. Yet an economy that has car makers going to congress with hat in hand for a bailout doesn’t bode well for any of the many events sponsored by the auto industry—including freestyle skiing World Cups and the snowboard Grand Prix series.

48 Straight started out as the Honda Ski Tour. In 2007, Jeep replaced Honda, and the well-established Jeep King of the Mountain series became 48 Straight, offering exciting summer mountain bike cross-like competition and winter events. The summer bikecross stops offered one of the richest prize purses in mountain biking. Many saw the quickly growing summer series as a Dew Tour wannabe, with bands and a village, but with a major focus on helping the global environment.

Organizer Kipp Nelson worked frantically to come to some financial arrangement with Chrysler, the parent company of Jeep, but while the economic slide may allow automakers to fly to Washington on private jets to beg for taxpayer money, it evidently doesn’t allow the continuing sponsorship of an action sports tour.

Fans and athletes alike are disappointed. No word yet on whether the summer bike races part of 48 Straight will survive. But Nelson has said that when the economy recovers, it will be easy to get another sponsor and bring the tour back.

- Wina Sturgeon, Adventure Sports Weekly