Traverse City’s North American Vasa Festival of Races turns 50 this winter, with some 600 participants gearing up to hit the trails in celebration on Valentine’s weekend. The Ticker caught up with Vasa’s President Emeritus Pete LaPlaca to look back at the event’s defining moments and find out what’s in store for its next 50 years.

1976 Kicks off Vasa’s first official race
While the volunteer-run Vasa has operated as a nonprofit since 1990, it began like so many northern Michigan traditions, as a promotional event to draw visitors during the shoulder season. In 1976, then-Park Place Hotel manager Ted Okerstrom partnered with Olympic skier Vojin Baic to organize a cross-country race inspired by Sweden’s long-distance Vasaloppet, bringing roughly 40 skiers together to help promote the hotel.

By the following year, Baic and Okerstrom launched the first official North American Vasa Festival of Races. The 1977 event more than quintupled the original turnout, with 234 participants willing to brave the cold for some high-endurance sportsmanship. “That was the focus – on really high-end racers, very competitive racers,” LaPlaca says. Over the decades, he’s watched the categories grow – 2026’s lineup includes 12 races for everyone from fat-tire bikers and freestyle skiers to children and high schoolers – while the intensity has waned. “Now it's evolved over to, ‘come on in and get the thrill or the sense of accomplishment just from finishing the race,’” says LaPlaca.

The “Slush Bowl” of ’84 and other not-so perfect conditions
In an early effort to bring the race finish line downtown, organizers routed skiers across the frozen Boardman Lake, an area where Okerstrom advocated for what would later be the paved Boardman Lake Loop. But in 1984, unseasonably warm temps created a slushy mess that forced racers to stop mid-course as the ice gave way, in what became known as The Slush Bowl and cementing the Boardman as a no-go. 

It wasn’t the last time iffy weather challenged the race. Over the decades, the Vasa has seen nearly every winter curveball imaginable, from the -40°F windchills that canceled the 50K in 1995 to a midwinter thaw years later that was followed by rain and a deep freeze, leaving trails so slick the grooming machine slid into the woods just hours before the race. “Oh my gosh, it was so icy,” recalls LaPlaca. “The groomer [machine] couldn’t handle it, so the whole race had to be cancelled.”

As LaPlaca puts it, that incident, which he recalled as happening about 20 years ago, led organizers to innovate the groomer to better handle future freezes. Meanwhile, after 2024’s cancellation due to a critical lack of snow, Vasa leaders worked contingency plans into 2026’s race, which would move the event to Hickory Hills’ FIS-homologated Nordic course where there’s artificial snow aplenty. “That’s a backup plan,” says LaPlaca. “But hopefully we won’t need to use it.”

Finding a permanent trail & looking ahead
Timber Ridge Resort may now be synonymous with the annual race, but for its first 15 years, the Vasa’s course – and starting and ending points – jumped around the county, with its inaugural years running from Cherry Capital Airport south to Ranch Rudolf, often cutting across private property.
That changed in 1991 when, in collaboration with the DNR, the 25k Vasa Pathway officially opened. Winding through the Pere Marquette State Forest, the new trail allowed races to start and loop back to Jellystone Park (now Timber Ridge Resort) entirely on public land. It also made way for year-round recreation for snowshoers, bikers, hikers, and runners.

As the Vasa heads into its 50th year, several major projects are underway including an expansion of the Vasa Singletrack Trailhead off Supply Road and this year’s launch of the Trailblazing Tomorrow fundraising campaign. The fundraiser aims to cover new infrastructure improvements like the construction of a state-of-the-art grooming facility at Timber Ridge and accessibility upgrades to the Bartlett Road Trailhead.

So far, nearly $1.5 million of a $1.9 million goal has been raised. Looking toward the more immediate future, LaPlaca says 2026 Vasa participants will commemorate the landmark year at a post-race celebration On Saturday, February 14th at The Park Place, where it all began five decades ago. “Whether we have snow or not, we’re going to put the party on,” he says. “It’s just a celebration of life, a celebration of cross-country skiing and people getting together… It’s a really close community."

Pictured: the 1989 Vasa race