“It’s been an incredible journey,” Claire Wilson, Executive Director of the Loppet Foundation, tells me. When I call to interrupt her preparations, it’s the evening of Friday, February 9^th – one week since FIS officially cleared the event to proceed. In the crawling evening chill at Wirth Park, the snow guns will roar to life as soon as the temperature drops below freezing. When she heard the good news, “I cried,” Wilson confesses. “I burst into tears. Everyone was very emotional.” With close to 30,000 tickets distributed to spectators from 35 U.S. states, Wilson and her team are determined not to endure another torturous cancelation. They are determined to put their city – and its unique community of skiers – in the long–awaited spotlight.