Tour de Cascades?

You needn't look overseas for distance races:

www.elkmountaintraverse.org/

The record time for that race is only about seven hours.
Plus the terrain is mainly nordic.

By contrast, the PDG would be considered a multi-day tour by any normal ski tourers, but the record is only a little over six hours.

I agree though that a true multi-day rando race would be a great idea!

Some local sponsers should pick this up and set up a local 3 day event.
The Yellow Shovel for the overall leader-
The Polka Dot Backpack for the fastest on the uphill.
The Green Helmet for the fastest on the downhill sections.
Snoqualmie one day, Crystal and Stevens next two days. or whatever.

I love the concept and have thought before that it could be one heck of an event. For better or worse, it could draw from the population of triatheletes and the burgeoning group of adventure racers who need something to do in the winter. As an organized event, there could be some serious safety/insurance/logistical concerns especially if night ops or overland legs are included, ala the Iditarod, but that would be much of the alure, if you ask me..

The Cascades may be less forgiving of such a concept than some other venues, but we do have the Pacific Crest Trail and other routes that link many mountains and valleys. I have a buddy, now in Utah, Tom Strattford, formerly an Engineer type at White Pass, who lived on 410 near Whistlin Jack Resort. In the winter he would occaisionally trek to work at White by skiing to there, spending the night out, sitting up on a stump in his sleeping bag, never using a tent. He would also ski over to Crystal Mt. He liked that sort of thing and has quads the size of my waist..

Not sure I would actually participate in such a race, but like Scotsman says, it sure would be interesting to follow.

check it out - about as euro as it gets, but I have to admit its pretty damn cool. 
www.pierramenta.com/

What I love too is the fact that 3,000 people went to the summits to watch the racing. Where would this happen here?! That's awesome.

I was thinking that radonee racing needs to take a lesson from the TDF and have multiday randonee racing with different teams over a multi course setting with the coveted" Yellow Shovel" for the race leader and a polka dot backpack for the" King of the Skin Track". Maybe they do already?

The only race of this sort that I've heard of in the Northwest was the 1995 "Multiglisse Traverse" held near Pemberton, B.C.  The race was such a fiasco that they never ran it again. You can find references to the race on the following web page:

www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/subjects/C-info.html#competitions

Here's a summary of the news item that was published in Couloir magazine :

Couloir Magazine, Oct/Nov 1995, p. 18, "Access: The Multiglisse Traverse"

In May 1995, Peter Chrzanowski organized "North America's first-ever ski mountaineering race," the three-day Multiglisse Traverse, in the British Columbia Coast Range near Pemberton. "Most observers agree the Multiglisse Traverse was an organizational fiasco." Of six teams, only one finished the course. Four air evacuations were required, including one for Chrzanowski, who broke his leg. Steve Threndyle, leader of the winning team, said, "In a perverse sort of way, Peter has raised some important issues about the compatibility between skiers, snowmobilers, and land managers and whether timed mountaineering races should really be held. I'm not sure if this is the best showcase for the sport anyway. To most backcountry skiers, racing is anathema."

My brother Carl showed up for this race by himself out of curiosity and to take pictures. He tagged along without joining a team and finished unofficially with Steve Threndyle's group. His most memorable picture was a shot of one of his feet, wrinkled like a prune, after he took off his boots at the end of the trip. Patagonia used it in a humorous ad.

Scotsman's idea of a Tour de France style race (with multiple stages but no camping) is interesting. This is similar to the way hang gliding and paragliding competitions are organized. Each day, the organizers define a cross-country task based on their assessment of what the conditions will be. Something like that could be really fun on skis.

There was a non-skiing, eco-challenge sort of race in the Cascades a few years ago. I recall that there was an accident during that race, but I don't remember the details.

(p.s. Just got home from a two week family vacation away from Seattle. Man it's hot around here!)

I should mention a key requirement of the Multiglisse Traverse was that each team must include an AT skier, a telemark skier, and a snowboarder. That's why it was called "multiglisse." This was a stupid requirement, without regard to what the terrain was like or what the various gliding tools are good for. It may have been a good promotional move, but it was a dumb mountaineering decision. As I remember, the snowboarders had a lot of difficulty and for several of them it turned into a death march on snowshoes.