Tom Sutter entered the very first North American Vasa, held in 1977, almost as an afterthought. He’d just completed a 50-kilometer ski the previous weekend, at the White Pine Stampede, and brutal conditions during that event – including a windchill of -35 degrees – didn’t exactly have him clamoring for another bite at the apple. But encouragement from a friend convinced Sutter to jump into that first Vasa race – and in doing so, started a dynasty.

Nearly half a century later, Sutter is the one and only skier to have participated in every single official North American Vasa – a streak he’ll keep alive tomorrow (Saturday) as the beloved cross country ski race celebrates its 50th anniversary.

“I can't believe I'm still pinning a bib on and competing at 78 years old,” Sutter laughs. “I just love that the race is still solvent, and that I’ve stayed connected. But I do have to think twice about it, in the ‘Have I really done every single one?’ sense.”

Though he grew up in the small mid-Michigan town of Chesaning, Sutter says he’s always had an affinity for the northern part of the state.

“One of my good friends, his family had a cabin on the north branch of the Au Sable, and in the wintertime, we would come up and ski the nearby snowmobile trails,” he tells The Ticker. “This was in the early ‘70s, and we’d always try to get at least a few outings in on our wooden skis where we lived downstate, but we just had minuscule snow. Up in Grayling, they’d have two feet of snow. So, we’d go up on the weekends, ski the trails for hours on end, come back to the cabin and have a couple beers, and then do it again the next day.”

At the time, Sutter was working an apprenticeship at the Buick plant in Flint. When business slowed down in the middle of the decade, he cut his losses and moved north, putting down roots in Leelanau County. He quickly struck up friendships with local skiers, and spent winters “chasing the snow” all around the region.

Had Sutter not been such a newcomer to northern Michigan, he may have garnered an invite to the unofficial start of the North American Vasa in 1976, when Boardman Trail forefather Ted Okerstrom and Yugoslavian Olympian Vojin Baic convened about 40 skiers for an informal ski race. Starting with the Vasa’s official launch the following year, though, Sutter has never missed a single incarnation of the race. A few cancellations over the years – including no-snow years in 1980 and 2024 and a COVID-19 disruption in 2021 – make Saturday Sutter’s 45th Vasa.

Along the way, Sutter got front-row seats to all the evolutions of the race. He was there in the early years, as the Vasa bounced around in search of a permanent course. The early races started at the airport and ended at Ranch Rudolph, and frequently saw participants wander off the barely-groomed trail. For part of the 1980s, the race kicked off at the Grand Traverse Resort and included a road crossing on M-72 that Sutter diplomatically describes as “not viable for the future.” He was also there for the “slush cup” year in 1984, when the course involved crossing a rapidly-melting Boardman Lake.

Things stabilized in 1991 when, after years of temporary courses and barely-groomed trails, the Great American Vasa got its permanent home: the namesake Vasa Pathway in the Pere Marquette Forest. A consistent course – and better trail grooming – have meant far fewer lost skiers wandering the woods in search of the finish line.

Not that there haven’t been tough years along the way. Sutter still sounds haunted when he talks about the 1995 race, when temperatures dipped to -40 degrees and race organizers dropped all 50K racers down to the 25K as a safety precaution.

“The snow was so cold that you just couldn’t even glide on it,” Sutter says of the ’95 race. “There was a Norwegian skier who lived in Fairbanks, Alaska that won that year, and I remember him saying, ‘We ski on this kind of dry snow all the time!’ But for the rest of us, it felt like we were skiing on sand.”

These days, bitterly cold temperatures and dry snow on race day seem like relics of the past. Beyond the 2024 cancellation for lack of snow, the 2023 Vasa race also had to be modified due to warm temperatures. This year, for the 50th anniversary, Sutter says participants have been gifted with ideal weather and “beautiful trails” out on the Vasa, but he thinks those conditions will be the exception more than the rule going forward.

“Climate change has impacted our winters, no doubt,” Sutter says. “The deniers can say it’s a hoax, but since this is my sport, I see it firsthand. We used to be able to ski from November through early April, and we’ve lost at least a month from what we had when this race started.”