Mansfield Nordic Club
Ski coaching, training and playing in the shadow of Mt Mansfield for all ages and abilities
The Pro Team is hosting an amazing online auction right now with some crazy-cool stuff.
A stay at a cabin in the Methow Valley?
Lodging in gorgeous Sun Valley, ID?
Wonderful paintings, homemade baskets, handcrafted leather belts…there’s unique and fun items far beyond simple ski apparel and gear (though there’s plenty of that too, if interested).
Head on over to the link below to view it all and place some bids! Everything closes up on October 24th, with winners announced at the Halloween Ball.
It’s time for our team orders!
MNC members get special pricing on Toko and Swix products at the beginning of each season, with special thanks to Skirack for helping facilitate these orders.
What to do?
Click on the forms below, and download them OR open/save them in your own Google Drive. We suggest renaming them with your name and “MNC” in the document title!
Submit your forms to Laura at Skirack: laurag@skirack.com
From Laura at Skirack:
There’s nothing like a good team race weekend adventure!
Bright sun, cool nights, and warm days made for one of the most spectacular Climb to the Castle weekends ever over in Lake Placid. Juniors, Masters, and Pro Team athletes all represented MNC across two events: a skate sprint at the rollerski track on Saturday, and a hillclimb up the Whiteface toll road on Sunday.
The club had almost 20 competitors, taking the non-existent title of “most participants” at the races. You know what hurts? That there weren’t more teams taking advantage of this great series of events. I said it last time we were here, and I’ll say it again now (but a bit more up front).
Where was the UVM and St Mikes teams, just a ferry ride across the lake?
Where was the Middlebury team, one short drive over the Crown Point bridge away?
What about the Clarkson and SLU teams, who call this location “home” for their races in the winter?
It was pretty disappointing to not see competitive, motivated teams from nearby showing up. A great opportunity to bring our sport and athletes together was missed, in my view. But enough negativity! I just had to get that out of the way first…
Our sprint morning got underway with a qualifying round that saw everyone giving it their all, even though everyone would get to race the heats. In the top heats were Colin Freed (racing against folks like Ben Ogden and Remi Drolet) and Mia Gorman (racing against folks like Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern). Silvester and Molly, MNC skiers getting acquainted with New England by way of Utah and Idaho, were also stacked against older, tough competition in the 2nd men’s and women’s heats.
New MNC skier Elsa Futch on the chase!
Our U16 boys ended up having many battles between them, with newly-minted U18 skier James Langan looking the best he ever has in a sprint race. Most everyone skied UP or stayed steady during the race, rather than getting knocked down. In these races, winning your heat moved you “up” a bracket, finishing in the middle kept you in the same lane, and finishing at the back meant a drop down. No matter what, everyone was racing in 3 heats.
Pro Team skier Conner Roberts pushing hard
A post-race congrats from Jessie Diggins
Colin skied his way to 3rd overall, and in the women’s race Mia fought against Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, and Shilo Rosseau (a Canadian World Cup biathlete) to hang just behind them in each heat en route to 4th overall and 1st Junior.
After the races were over, the day was still young! It was only just after lunchtime and the sun was shining, so we headed into town to be tourists for a bit. Crepes and ice cream were consumed, bobsleds were tested out, and everyone got to relax a little. We also coordinated with some other club friends to plan for the busy day ahead…
With a large yard at one of the AirBnB houses, a fire pit, and a lot of frozen pizzas we managed to get together the Juniors, the Pro Team athletes who were competing over the weekend, and some friends-of-MNC all in one place for some dinner and stories.
It wasn’t long before the alarms were set for 5:30AM though, because the next morning would involve skiing up a mountain!
The race up the Whiteface toll road, is often cold. It’s frequently cloudy or foggy. It’s occasionally snowy or at least frosty. It’s most certainly always windy…but not 2025!
It was a second glorious day in a row for the climb, and even biking down from the top to capture the race on film (as Perry and I did) didn’t result in frozen fingers or toes.
We didn’t capture many photos, but you can check out some videos here:
The Pugs took the top spot in all the Junior categories! Isaiah, Jorgen and Gabe went 1-2-3 in the men’s short course, while Mia took the win in the women’s category. For the Juniors it was Silvester on top in 4th overall, with Henry in 3rd. Elsa matched that 4th overall in the women’s race behind Jessie, Julia and Shilo, and was the top Junior followed closely by Astrid in 2nd! Without any photos from the race (too much filming) these podium shots will have to suffice!
Every skier got some good experiences out of the weekend. Sophia (from Illinois) was amazed at what ridiculous things New England skiers will put themselves through, Reese took charge of the camera to capture many of the cool photos from the sprint race. MNC masters like Owen, Michael, Ace, and Ford Sayre/MNC/All-Around Masters motivator Rose took on the climb like total champs!
Next up in Lake Placid will be the US National Championships, followed by the World Cup! You can get your tickets at the link here!
U16 men
Junior men
Junior women
U16 women
In ski club terms, 10 years is certainly an “era” if not longer. With coaches in our sport often cycling through new roles, following the coaching path to different locations, or embarking on careers in other fields, it’s extremely rare to see a decade of leadership.
But an era definitely ended today, as Coach Sara heads off to Alaska to explore a career as a physical therapist.
Where do you begin? The fact that Sara was still finishing-up college when we started coaching at MNC together, and now many of our athletes we coached initially as middle schoolers are now out of college themselves? The fact that in those early days, Sara had no car and would take the bus from Burlington to Essex with all her rollerski stuff, and meet me at the bus station where we’d drive up to the Range together?
Those were the days of no wax trailer, no test skis, no vans, no summer training camps, very few athletes qualifying for race trips, only a handful of athletes signed up at all…when you look back, a lot has happened in the past 10 years with this club. It would most definitely not have all happened without Sara’s input.
Sara is the most kind and generous person I’ve ever met. I think the most angry or grumpy I’ve seen her was on a hellish trip back from Fort Kent late in the night, where Sara was driven to the point of absolute madness for someone as calm and reserved as her, represented by *gasp* drinking a RedBull to keep going! There’s way more to that story, just as there’s way more to many stories that are too long and winding to describe here.
I hope to write a book someday, and the experiences Sara and I had while watching and taking part in this club’s growth are going to be central themes…it’s a huge jump into the unknown for me now, because even when I was just starting in my role here, Sara was right there starting on her coaching path too.
In reality, I’ve never been in a leadership role WITHOUT Sara alongside me, and that’s very daunting. Even if she didn’t directly spell these things out to me, there’s a lot I’ve learned from Sara:
Anyone who has met or worked with Sara can attest that there’s nobody more approachable, kind, and helpful! What’s next for the club without Sara? I’m not sure…but what’s next for Sara? Great things, no doubt!
Rollerski racing is a great time, and one of the bigger (and more famous) weekends of rollerski events is happening in Lake Placid once again.
The Keys/Climb to the Castle races involve a skate sprint on the rollerski track in Lake Placid on Saturday, September 20th, followed by a hillclimb race up the Whiteface Memorial Toll Road on Sunday, September 21st.
For the MNC Juniors, this also means a race trip weekend! We have lodging in Keene, NY just down the road from the races, and are looking forward to a weekend on the road…we’ll depart on Friday afternoon and catch the sunset in the Adirondacks, wake up and take a quick trip up the hill to the skate sprint, and compete in the first day’s events.
Then we’ll be able to spend some time in town, check out some local spots, get an afternoon recovery session in, and cook dinner before resting-up for the next day.
On Sunday we’re only a short drive away from the start of race #2! Note that it’s also feasible to do a hike up Whiteface from one of the main trailheads if you’d prefer that to a rollerski race. We will all meet at the summit together!
The MNC team trip includes travel, meals, and lodging (note we’re seeking some additional drivers and/or may do some carpooling) and you can sign up below. The team trip does not include registration for the events themselves, which is handled through SkiReg.
Team Trip: Climb to the Castle Weekend
Keys to the Castle (Saturday Sprint) Reg
Climb to the Castle (Hillclimb) Reg
Keys to the Castle sprint race!
Click through to check snow conditions at Tomasi Meadow in Underhill. These conditions are submitted by on-the-ground reports and are as current as possible. Read More about “Snow Conditions”…
Winter training for Juniors starts right after Thanksgiving and encompasses the whole ski season! Read More about “Juniors Winter”…
Get your MNC race suits and hats on our apparel page! You can buy or rent a suit, or grab a hat or headband to support our scholarship fund! Read More about “MNC Club Apparel”…