WASILLA — Long hidden from the national scene by the remote mountains in which they ride, Alaska’s snowmachine riders are about to go prime time.

Three Alaskans — Dane Ferguson and Paul Thacker of Anchorage and Willow’s Robert Graeber — are leaving the underground world of Alaska sledding and taking their sleds to Aspen, home of the 2008 Winter X Games.

“I’m super stoked,” Thacker said last week. “Obviously, X Games is the best of the best.”

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The 12th annual Winter X Games are scheduled for Jan. 24 through Jan. 27, and will be televised on ESPN.

Thacker will be racing in a newly-created “Speed and Style” event, while Graeber will be racing snowcross and Ferguson will be one of eight competitors in freestyle, in which athletes launch themselves high into the air and perform jaw-dropping tricks, including Ferguson’s specialty, the backflip.

At a qualifying event in Billings, Mont., Ferguson set two new records by completing three backflips in one run and nine flips during the qualifying event — records he said he set pretty much by accident. Because he typically rides in the mountains and not in competition, Ferguson said he started getting really nervous. Thacker, who was also at the event, gave his friend some advice.

“He told me to relax and just, ‘do what you know how to do’,’” Ferguson said.

Because he knew he could nail the backflip, he said that’s all he ended up trying.

“I know that trick looks good, and I can always do it,” he said.

By virtue of his backflipping ability, Ferguson was one of the top four competitors at the event, sewing up a spot in the finals and making some unintended history along the way.

“Because I was chicken I ended up breaking those records,” he said.

Thacker just missed out on a spot in the freestyle event, but was selected to compete in the speed and style race, in which athletes will get points based both on their speed through the course as well as the tricks they do along the way.

“Basically it incorporates racing and freestyle into one event,” Thacker said.

Both Thacker and Ferguson said they’re not sure how they’ll deal with the media spotlight of the X-Games, which are televised around the world. Both grew up riding in the Alaska back country as part of the state’s large underground snowmachine culture, which until now has existed outside the mainstream.

For years, snowmachine videos such as the Turnagain Hardcore series have circulated among riders and fans, showing Alaskans soaring more than 100 feet through the air or performing death-defying leaps over snow-covered peaks deep in the wilderness.

But that’s a far cry from hitting a ramp in front of thousands of screaming fans with a camera in your face.

“I’m really not looking forward to the cameras,” Ferguson said. “I’m a mountain guy.”

But while Alaskan riders are new to competition, they’re not exactly beginners. Thacker said he believes the hard-core style brought about by going big in the mountains can only help in competition.

“Alaska’s got such a core group of talented riders. Whenever we put our minds to do something we have some success at it,” he said.

While Thacker and Ferguson are veterans of the Alaska back country scene, Willow’s Graeber is the new kid on the block. Just 17 years old, his rise to the top is likely to be one of the big stories in Aspen. An Alaska state snowcross and motocross champ last year, Graeber this season made it onto the professional Rock Maple circuit in Maine, where earlier this month he won an X-Games qualifying race at Black Mountain.

Graeber’s mother, Chris, said her son grew up racing sleds and has been passionate about the sport since the moment he got behind the handlebars.    

“He lives and breathes snowmachine racing,” Chris Graeber said from Hatcher Pass Polaris in Willow.

Chris Graeber said her son started racing when he was 10 years old, and has had his eyes on becoming one on the best in the sport since he started.

“I’m super proud of him,” she said. “This is a long time coming.”

While finding success on the national level is likely to bring temporary fame to Alaska’s three X-Gamers, Ferguson said the life of a pro snowmachine rider isn’t exactly glamorous. Because there’s limited money available from sponsors for even the best riders, Ferguson said he’s had to finance his career by working construction and maxing out his credit cards.

“I snowmachine for a while, get in debt, usually break a bone and then end up going back to construction,” he said. “It’s pretty much a repetitive process.”

He’s hoping that once he shows what he can do in front of a worldwide audience, that cycle can come to an end.

“This year I’m hoping to make enough not to have to go back into debt,” he said.

In order to try and raise money, Ferguson said he’s planning on an exhibition run in the near future at Harry’s Track on Vine Road in Wasilla.

Other than that, he said he’ll be hitting up local sponsors interested in getting their name out to an audience of millions. He said he’s been in contact with the city of Anchorage, hoping to get on with the city’s new “Big, Wild Life” campaign — which he thinks would be a natural fit with the sport of freestyle snowmachine riding.

“I think it’s pretty wild.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com