A cold and snowy weekend in the shadow of a former alpine ski resort…there’s not much more you could ask for in terms of setting for a race event.
The team remained separated as we did not gather for any organized travel or lodging, but several athletes came
Emma strides underneath the former ski lift.
down with their families on Friday to ski the trails before the weekend. After a snowless drive through the agricultural belt of Vermont, where condition outside of Rutland had me wondering if there was going to be any snow at all, things got white. Prospect is located at 2,200′ which only just surpasses Bolton (2000′) for the highest elevation Nordic center in the Vermont. You could tell on this day, as the drive uphill on Route 9 was a full-on whiteout of big flakes, cars off the road, and plow trucks furiously sanding up and down.
The parking lot was clearly going to be a struggle, and after skiing we’d spend our fair share of time pushing stranded cars with bald tires back out to the road…but first some of us got to ski in the fresh fresh powder! It was a beautiful situation. The Nordic trails are interwoven with alpine trails which makes it all-too-easy to sneak in some turns to get back to the stadium…but mostly we resisted and instead focused on checking out the classic sprint course for the following day which consisted of two brutally-steep herringbone sections and a long gradual slog before a furious downhill descent back to the finish that was so steep and speedy that you didn’t even need to double pole to the line.
The trailer arrived (thanks Barker!) later that evening and after a Zoom team meeting it was time for Room Pasta (for coach) and mental preparation for the weekend.
More snow continued to fall overnight and everyone woke up to a few fresh inches, some groomed-but-fluffy track surfaces, and TWO sprint qualifiers only 20 minutes apart.
Anders aka Shaun White and The Flying Tomato is out and hammering!
Ginny finished in 2nd place for U16s but the announcer was much more concerned with letting everyone know about her first place snot icicle
Speaking of unique awards, Hanna was also given a brownie from the kitchen after winning the most spectacular crash award when she fell and stabbed a hole right through her ski
It was a good day for sprinting and a great learning experience. Often in sprints if you don’t make the cutoff for the rounds, your day is done. But since everyone got to race twice in a pretty condensed time-frame, it meant racers still got to experience at least one more go at the course. This was great too because it meant skiers could analyze how the first run went while it was fresh in their minds, and try to tackle things even better the second time around.
While the analysis and learning experiences were a key factor, a great results highlight was Virginia, Esther, and Julia going 2-3-4 in the women’s 2nd round!
Things got quite cold Saturday night, and the snow was replaced with sun. The van thermometer read a brisk ZERO degrees when I arrived at the venue at 7am: thank god for the wax trailer combination of electric space heater AND mini propane heater…they were both gunning full bore that morning.
The temps only rose a little bit but the sun was warming the parts of everyone’s faces not covered by a mask (so the upper cheek area) and my gosh this might’ve been the best classic ski conditions we have seen in…years? You could get kick, you could glide, the tracks were harder than iron yet the snow was as smooth as silk.
The 5km for the U16 boys was the first and coldest race of the day, and Taylor (fresh off a win the previous day at a Craftsbury biathlon race) led the way for the MNC crew. In the U16 women’s race, Julia and Virginia went 2-3 and continued what looks to be a continued battle in the overall rankings with SMS’s Miley Bletzer.
Julia has embraced Bliz sunglasses life! Remember, use code “MNC2021” at enjoywinter.com for 30% off!
In the men’s race there were two laps to contend with, but the trails made for ideal striding and it was not the kind of day to feel like a slog. Silas came back raving about the skis, the course, and the conditions, unable to contain his excitement for how good things were out there!
Emma Crum with a huge result in 10th!
Special shoutout to Geo who competed in only his second weekend of ski racing EVER and has gotta be one of the most natural skiers to ever clip into a pair of bindings. The Pugs were also represented by “MNC South” member Dave Johnston who came over from Brattleboro to don the race suit and put some younger racers in their place!
In the women’s race, Ava showed she was ready to fly off to Finland one week from that day with an absolutely staggering win by almost a minute and a half. That is an astonishing margin to pull off in a field with this many strong Juniors.
Rose skied the most consistent two laps of the day, both within a second of one another, to land in 4th place for one of her best classic races ever. Isabelle Serrano, who trains with MNC and Craftsbury, capped a great weekend in 9th, followed closely by new MNC skier Emma Crum with a breakout race in 10th!
A photo of Ava from Justin Beckwith. This was the LAST race of the day and just look at those tracks!
Of course, there were tons of racers out there for the club, as we have quickly become the largest group at these Vermont Cup races. Yes, it’s true…we are the “CSU” of this race league at this point. There once was a time when Sara and I would race in the Eastern Cups ourselves because there just weren’t a ton of kids to wax and work with, so why not just compete too? Now that is unthinkable…there’s just way to much action! The Pug squad is rolling 25-30 skiers deep each weekend and it’s so darn exciting to see. Here are some more photos!
Danny applying binder wax…don’t worry, there are no fluoros to be found although masks are more prevalent than ever!
Finley Barker is ready to rock and now has 2 EC weekends under her!
Coaches in a rare moment of pause
Mackenzie knows that sometimes you get a bloody nose but you just can’t let that interfere with your race
