The long-time alpine race director of the Vail Ski and Snowboard Club wins the prestigious US Ski and Snowboard Award

PJ Jenick wants every alpine ski event he runs to be perfect.

“We do it every now and then,” said the longtime race coordinator for the Vail Ski and Snowboard Club. “But we achieve excellence when we strive for the perfect race. … I accept excellence.”

Jenick’s meticulous attention to detail in organizing events at Golden Peak over the past quarter century earned him US Ski & Snowboard’s Paul Bacon Award last month in Park City. The award “is given to an individual or group for the greatest contribution to the field of race organization.”

“PJ has brought a level of attention to detail and a commitment to perfection to the running of ski races that the club did not have to any significant degree prior to his arrival as race director,” said Bryan Rooney, SSCV COO. “He has been instrumental in raising the bar so that Vail can host some of the best racing in the country, if not the world.”

Jenick is not the first Paul Bacon Award recipient from the Vail area – Bill Brown and Jimmy Roberts won in 1974 and 1999, respectively – but he is the first SSCV employee to receive the honor. At the club’s internal awards banquet, Jenick also won his second Zella Gorsuch Award, which is given annually to the person who has made the greatest contribution to the advancement of skiing in the Vail area.

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“It takes a huge team. And I’m not alone. I’m certainly not alone,” Jenick said, before giving credit to a long list of timekeepers, snowcat drivers, course setters and assistant race directors. “The organization has to follow and flow. Sometimes I feel like I’m conducting the sixth-grade orchestra and it’s the first week of rehearsals – and sometimes it’s relatively easy.”

Although Rooney called Jenick’s punctuality “legendary,” the race coordinator took his time, maneuvering through countless handshakes, hugs and compliments as he made his way to the podium at the U.S. Ski & Snowboard banquet in May. When he finally arrived, the national governing body’s executive director, Sophie Goldschmidt, leaned over and said, “Boy, you have a lot of friends!”

Jenick has also dedicated his entire life to skiing – in racing, in sales, in advertising, as a coach and as a referee – and can tell many stories.

From ski salesman to SSCV

Jenick worked in ski wholesale before joining the Ski and Snowboard Club Vail in 1998.

After graduating from Western State College in 1969, Salomon hired Jenick to develop a service program for the U.S. and Canadian ski teams. At the time, the company only made ski edges and bindings. Eventually, Jenick helped start a subsidiary in North America. He had no intention of leaving Salomon—until K2 offered him double pay for the same work in the early winter of 1974. Single and yearning for a new adventure, Jenick left Crested Butte and moved to Seattle.

“The entire racing program had to be reorganized, refreshed and restructured, and that’s why they hired me,” Jenick recalls.

“And then we ended up with names like Phil and Steve Mahre. … That ended up costing K2 two dirt bikes,” he said of the first “contracts” signed by the high school phenoms who won gold and silver in slalom at the 1984 Olympics..

“They were down-to-earth and grounded,” Jenick added before moving on to another story about the twin brothers.

“They looked the same, talked the same, had the same tone and intonation – you really couldn’t tell them apart,” he continued. “One time they came to me at a World Cup race and they were first and second, but they had worn the wrong bib number – which resulted in immediate disqualification. And they stood up and said, ‘Well, that’s the rule – it was an accident. We messed up, but it happened.'”

Throughout his time at Salomon and K2, Jenick longed for a coveted sales position.

“The big money in the ski business back then was in sales,” he said. “But they don’t come along very often.”

His first opportunity was a sales territory in Chicago. Coincidentally, his new bride Jean was from that area.

“We embraced it,” said PJ Jenick. “And never looked back.”

The couple’s son, Cody, was born soon after and was skiing before his second birthday. It wasn’t long before the future Battle Mountain state champion and CU skier needed tougher competition than the Central Division offered. By now, Jenick’s job at K2 had expanded to snowboards and inline skates.

“I work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and I don’t enjoy it as much anymore,” Jenick recalls.

He gave up his career in sales and moved west. After cutting his teeth as a race organizer in the predominantly “parent-driven” Central Division model, Jenick was excited by the prospect of working with the professional staff at Beaver Creek and Vail Resorts when he came to SSCV looking for work in the late 1990s.

“It was easy for me to step in and say, ‘Let’s raise the bar,'” Jenick said. “And that evolved into me designing every single ski race we ran, (even if) it was the smallest of our events. I implemented the same process when planning and running a Vail Cup race as I would when running a NorAm race or even the World Cup.”

“Basically, he’s just about supporting the athletes,” Rooney said. “No matter how old they are. His passion ranges from 7 to 77 years old.”

Angela Worrell, head coach of the SSCV’s part-time U14 and U16 programs, was herself a victim of this attack. She said her first memories of Jenick go back to the early 1990s, when she didn’t even live in Vail.

“I always admired and respected him because he was so well organized and put on a first-class race,” she said. After moving to the valley in 2010, Jenick became an encouraging mentor to Worrell.

“He was always professional to work with,” Worrell continued. “PJ took so much pride in his role at SSCV; he is so dedicated and his attention to detail will be hard to replicate!”

Jenick is motivated by putting himself in the shoes of his parents and the athletes. This helps him imagine the perfect day:

“Mom and dad have a smile on their faces, they are proud, the kids had fun, they had a great time all day,” he said, “and yet they were allowed to ski with the kids at 1 p.m.”

Groundbreaking

For the past two years, Jenick has organized the U16 regional alpine championships as well as the U16 and U18 national championships. He has also helped with Golden Peak’s usual hosting of NorAm and FIS competitions. In addition to his role with the club, Jenick is a technical delegate with the Rocky Mountain Ski Race Officials, where he served as vice president of the board of trustees for two decades. The group helps smaller mountains with fewer resources improve in all aspects of race organization.

“It’s a progressive organization that the rest of the country looks at from afar,” Jenick said. “We are definitely a leader in the country.”

However, precision, punctuality, excellent surface conditions and well-designed routes do not come by themselves.

Jenick himself admits that he is strict with his time. He sets high standards for attention, even cracking one of his classic “dad jokes” – “Here’s a dollar so you can pay attention!” – when necessary. And while his enthusiasm for all things skiing – especially its history – often forms the basis for heartfelt conversation, Jenick’s softer side is juxtaposed with a necessarily tougher exterior. This trait is most evident in his characteristically undemocratic team captains’ meetings the night before a competition.

“I say, ‘That’s tomorrow’s business. It’s not a committee decision. I’m not asking for help. I’m telling you what we’re doing tomorrow,'” Jenick said, impersonating himself. “So, be prepared, be dressed and ready to go. And be there early.”

When asked if he thinks he’s finally found a job that’s tailored to his personality and passions—or if he’s just always been flexible enough to figure things out on the fly—Jenick shared a few more stories, most of which come from the time he spent with his father.

“He had a talent for being talkative,” Jenick said of the former Eastern Ski Writers Association columnist and radio host who was also president of the local YMCA.

“He always found ways to make things happen, to overcome unexpected problems… but (he) had a way of getting around them, of overcoming them, whatever the case might be.”

Although Jenick is not officially ready to ride off into the sunset on his beloved motorcycle, he is aware that he must manage his position at the SSCV well and also prepare a successor.

“I really think it’s time for a changing of the guard,” Jenick said. “I’m not leaving the ski club. I just want to step back and help where I can, where I’m asked, where I think it’s needed.”

Things are now going so well in Jenick’s racing department that the crew members have coined a term for every satisfactory event that meets their high standards: “normally good.” In reality, it’s more like “unusually excellent.”

And sometimes it’s perfect.