Noel Lyons Takes Skiing Past the Speed Limit

by Brian Metzler

Noel Lyons thought she was done with ski racing. Last winter, however, the 36-year-old U.S. Ski Team member and successful pro racer rekindled her passion for speed through skiercross—a wild, bone-jarring event that pits six skiers against each other in a bumpy, obstacle-laden speed race.
This latest skiing rage might best be described as the mutant offspring of medieval jousting and NASCAR racing. And although competitors can’t intentionally smash into each other, if it happens—and it does—that’s just part of the game. As with boardercross, the extreme snowboard equivalent, skiercross emerged at the Winter X Games. Until this year, only 10 to 20 skiercross events were held in the U.S., with just 50 to 100 skiers partaking in them. This year, however, a new circuit and additional events will push that number much higher. Call it ski racing for the next millennium, or carnage on the slopes. Title notwithstanding, it’s a thrilling event for spectators and participants alike.

NO GAME OF CHICKEN
“Skiercross is an all-out fight to the finish,” says the effervescent Lyons, a Boulder resident who has worked as a ski model and equipment tester for the past five years. “It’s super intense, with high-speed action and big air - like a game of chicken at fifty to sixty miles per hour.”
Last winter, Lyons, who occasionally graces covers of SKI magazine, won the first skiercross event she entered - pocketing a handsome winner’s purse in the process. Her success comes as no surprise, considering she’s excelled in every type of ski racing event she’s ever entered. A former collegiate standout, her impressive résumé includes a World Extreme Skiing Championship and three record-setting performances in the audacious 24 Hours of Aspen, an international race consisting of 70 to 80 runs down Aspen Mountain in a 24-hour period - an average of about 3.5 runs per hour around the clock. Lyons is somewhat of a ski star, too, appearing in numerous ski movies, television shows and commercials.
You might wonder how such a petite person could survive - let alone thrive - in combative skiercross. But Lyons’ size belies her fearlessness.
Although skiercross competitors wear helmets, few don extra padding that could slow them down. Consequently, the finish lines at some skiercross events resemble M.A.S.H. units. Lyons was one of the favorites at last January’s inaugural women’s skiercross at the Winter X Games in Crested Butte, but she suffered a bad fall in the qualifying heat. She continued down the mountain under her own power with four broken teeth, a twisted knee and badly bruised ribs.
The fall didn’t keep Lyons out of action for long, however. Two days later, she had her teeth fixed and 24 hours after that was on her way to Jackson Hole for a photo shoot. She’s now determined to compete at the next Winter X Games at Mt. Snow Resort in Wilmington, Vt., in January [2000].
Why enter more of these events?
“Because it’s a lot of fun,” says Lyons, a self-employed professional gardener in summer. “It combines the wild freedom of extreme skiing with the best elements of racing. My ski-racing background is definitely an advantage for me. You actually need a lot of strategy and technique to be successful in skiercross. But it’s always better to be good and lucky.”
“It’s a wild event,” agrees Aspen resident and men’s skiercross champion Chris Davenport. “With six skiers going shoulder-to-shoulder at high speed, it’s totally unpredictable.”
And that suits Lyons just fine. “Noel’s as tough as they come,” says Mike Jaquet, publisher of Boulder-based Freeze magazine, a publication dedicated to new ski styles. “She can ski circles around me.”

Photo by Anne Karus/ Courtesy Mike McMenamy

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