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Bolton Questions Answered

By on 19 November, 2020 in Uncategorized

Note: whenever you are skiing at Bolton, please stay safe and socially distance, and abide by any current VT guidelines for COVID-19. Thanks!

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With a lot of new activity and skiing opportunities at Bolton this winter, now is a good time to address some questions. Hopefully this post will provide some key info and point readers to new helpful resources!

When can I ski at Bolton? Do I need a pass?

The requirement of a pass technically does not begin until the resort opens. The alpine and nordic operations begin in tandem: that is, the Nordic skiing will not be officially “open” until the alpine skiing is.

Until then, you can ski at Bolton without a pass requirement, however understand that you are assuming any and all risk.

Where can I get a pass? What does it include?

All MNC Members can purchase discounted passes for Nordic, Backcountry, and Uphill skiing.  Bolton is offering our club a special $93 (incl. tax) weekday pass or a full week pass at the pre-season rate of $161 (incl. tax), either of  which can be purchased on our registration page. Input your MNC Membership number and select either the midweek club discount pass, or a full week season pass.

MNC programs that take place at Bolton (BKL, Juniors, Afternoon Masters) have a registration option to purchase the pass bundled with programming, or just programming itself if you already have purchased your Bolton pass.

Where do I see conditions?

Before you email, text, or message coaches, take a peek at the Bolton Snow Report on Twitter.  This account is maintained by MNC coaches who will make every effort to keep updates current. You can also find this report as a feed on the right-hand side of the MNC homepage.

Bolton itself maintains a condition report page, but do not rely on this to always reflect the most current or accurate conditions.

You can view alpine webcam from the base area and top of Vista lift here.

How do the lights work?

First off, thanks again to Green Mountain Electrical Supply for the materials and expertise involved with lighting an entire 1.4km trail.

The lights are powered by a generator and they are not on a set schedule until MNC programs begin and/0r the resort officially opens.

Always have a headlamp if you are skiing after dark, lights notwithstanding.

Operation of the lighting system is limited to MNC lead coaches, Bolton Valley Nordic staff, and coaches from teams training at the facility. When night skiing is in full effect, plan on the lights turning off around 8pm.

Before the resort opens, we will announce on the Bolton Snow Report Twitter if we will be offering night skiing on particular days. If there is snow and skiing to be had, remember to check that page!

Who does the grooming?

Bolton does not own a snowmobile or Nordic grooming equipment for use with a snowmobile (funny for a Nordic center, right?) but they do have access to large Pistenbully groomers. These large Pistenbullys are great, but they cannot groom without at least a foot of snow.

MNC sled and groomer, new (to us) for 20/21

To fill the gap in grooming quality and consistency, MNC is purchasing a snowmobile and Tidd Tech groomer and tracksetter for this season. It is currently being worked on but should be operational by the first significant snows. MNC will be doing all grooming at Bolton when the snow is at low levels. We are able to groom not only the low-snow-enabled and lighted Picnic Loop but other trails as well. Please note this is all done on a volunteer basis by Coach Adam.

Our aim is to groom as much as possible, regardless what day of the week it is. We want Bolton to be a great Nordic center for everyone at any time! However please realize that Coach Adam and other possible groomers are all coaches first and snowfarmers second, but we will do our best to create awesome skiing conditions.

 

 

BKL Parent Meeting Post-Poned and BKL Challenges Coming Soon!

By on 16 November, 2020 in BKL Race Blog, BKL Training Schedule

Because we have had to suspend our program indefinitely, I think it is wise to delay our Nov. 24th parent zoom meeting until we know when we can start our programs in person again. Keep your eye on the MNC e-blast for the latest updates.

Starting on Dec. 1, I will be posting weekly challenges for all the BKL groups on the BKL Training Schedule page. There may be challenges, technique drills, videos or other activities. Stay tuned!

MNC BKL COVID Guidelines

By on 16 November, 2020 in BKL Race Blog, BKL Training Schedule

All our BKL programs are on hold right now, but we will be getting back to skiing sometime this winter, we hope. We have developed the following guidelines for our BKL programs, so please read so you are ready to go when we get word that we can hold our practices again. Until then, be safe and get out there and ski when the snow flies!

 

MNC BKL COVID Guidelines:

Risk is inherent whenever you go outside your home in these times of COVID 19. Our goal with these guidelines is to minimize the risk of anyone transmitting the virus at our ski practices. We are lucky in that our sport is low-risk because it’s outside and it’s possible to social distance while skiing. We have developed the following guidelines to keep our practices safe. We ask that all our participants read and agree to them. Parents should read the relevant sections to their children. 

 

Monitoring for Symptoms

  1. All kids and their families are asked to diligently self-screen for symptoms of illness. 
  2. No child or parent should attend practice if feeling at all sick, even if illness is suspected to be allergies or a mild cold. This includes: Temperature of 100.4F or above, cough, chills, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, congestion or runny nose, sore throat, new loss of taste or smell, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. 
  3. If coaches notice a child showing symptoms of illness, we will contact a parent and ask that the child leave practice. 
  4. If you have been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19 and are in quarantine, please stay home. 
  5. All families should be aware and follow VT Travel Guidelines and restrictions that can be found HERE. 
  6. If you are in quarantine for another reason, please stay home. 

 

Contact Tracing

  1. Coaches will be taking attendance and keeping lists of who is in each group each day to aid in contact tracing. If you cannot attend practice, please email Coach Rosemary so we know what your situation is. 

Groups

  1. We have set our program limits to allow for smaller group sizes of under ten people total. 
  2. Within their groups (Penguins, Jack Rabbits, Arctic Foxes & Racers), kids will be broken up into smaller groups to make a 1:8 coach to child ratio. Kids will stay in these groups throughout the season. 
  3. We hope to have one additional parent volunteer accompany each of those smaller groups. If you can be this volunteer, please contact Coach Rosemary! 

 

Distancing & Masking Guidelines

Everyone must wear a mask at ski practice. 

  1. When you ski fast and hard, it’s difficult to breath through a mask. We will let kids take off their masks when we are skiing hard and can maintain a minimum 6’ distance between each other. 
  2. When we play games or gather for directions, we will put on our masks. A mask that can hang around the neck when pulled off and be pulled back up easily is ideal.

 

Arrival & Use of Indoor Space

  1. Please do not carpool to practice with other families. Infection can easily spread in an enclosed space like a car.
  2. Ski From Your Car. Although the Sports Center will be open, there is a 30 person limit on the number of people allowed inside and it’s safer for us all if we don’t go inside.  Plan to leave gear and extra clothing in your car.  Dress children warmly because we will not be going inside to warm up, except in an emergency. Kids will meet all coaches outside.
  3. Waxing on classic days will be done outside. 
  4. The bathroom inside the Sports Center will be available for use but kids will need to be able to go in by themselves or be accompanied by their parent(s).  We will not have an indoor volunteer monitoring children indoors as in previous years.  Everyone will need to wear a mask if they go inside for any reason. 
  5. Parents should carry hand sanitizer in their car. It’s a good practice to sanitize kids’ hands both before and after practices. 
  6. Leave promptly at the end of practice. Don’t hang out or let your kids hang out in the parking lot or elsewhere to socialize. Communication with coaches & others can be done electronically. Arrive, ski and leave. 

 

Parent Presence

  1. All Penguins need to be accompanied by a parent on skis (or snowshoes if skis are not possible). 
  2. In Jack Rabbits, any child that can not take his or her skis off and on needs to be accompanied by a parent. Likewise, if your child needs to be accompanied and assisted to go inside to the bathroom, a parent needs to accompany the child. 
  3. Arctic Foxes and Racers should be able to put on their own equipment and handle going inside to use the restroom by themselves, so parents need not accompany them. However, parents are encouraged to ski themselves, do our masters program or tag along with us if they’d like (you can pick up some great ski tips!). 

 

Program Changes

  1. Practices will be a little different this year. We will do more agility and skiing and fewer games. 
  2. We are working on some non-contact games that can be played while maintaining some social distance while still wearing masks. We will use soft foam balls during tag-like games and use lines drawn in the snow instead of hand relay tags. 
  3. We will still teach and coach technique. We can easily do this with masks on and when we are 6 ft away from participants. 

 

Competition (Races)

  1. Individual starts. All our races will be individual start instead of the usual mass start age group waves. 
  2. Inter-club competitions. We will have these when the state guidelines allow. We may do our competitions as “matches” with one other club at a time. 
  3. Time trials- we will be able to have our own club only time trials.
  4. Be flexible and open. We plan to be as resourceful and creative as possible but things are evolving day to day and we must all be ready for last minute changes. 

Thurston named to National Elite Group

By on 16 November, 2020 in Uncategorized

Congrats to Ava Thurston, who recently added to her impressive Nordic resume with a nomination to the US Ski Team’s National Elite Group!

This recognition and nomination (also achieved by MNC training partner Quincy Massey-Bierman, who races for Craftsbury) was awarded to 4 male and 4 female New England athletes and is based on winter race results and standardized summer testing conducted remotely in June and July.

You can read more about the group, as well as other athletes, on the NENSA press release page.

Ava racing in Falun, Sweden last year during the U18 Scandinavian Cup

Quincy Massey-Bierman

Ava Thurston

Bolton Lighted Loop COMPLETE!

By on 16 November, 2020 in BKL Jackrabbits, BKL Race Blog, BKL Training Schedule, Junior Blog, Masters Blog, Uncategorized

It’s about time for some good news…the future is BRIGHT

We are happy to report that the lighted loop at Bolton is completed! The 1.4km Picnic loop includes some fun downhills, curved flat sections of “hero skiing”, a challenging climb, and a rolling series of gentle hills.

Oh, and it is fully lit by efficient LEDs pumping out 5,500 lumens powerful enough to give you low-grade blindness if you accidentally gaze directly at them.

Certain sections already have new names, such as the A-Climb, which may or may not actually meet FIS standards for climbing height and distance. Or Little Amsterdam, the section approaching the end of the loop that features an intricate canal and culvert maze for drainage, which necessitated about 1 ton of dirt moved by Mike Millar’s lone shovel.

MNC Juniors ascending the “A-Climb” a few weeks ago during some early snow

The entire operation is currently powered by a large generator, which has now been safely encased in some soundproofing material. In subsequent years, the plan is to wire the lights directly in to Bolton’s power grid at the Nordic Center. We could not have done any of this without the help of Nate Laber, Lionel Welch, and the folks at Green Mountain Electrical Supply. When we had first learned of the costs of installing lights, we almost wrote this project off…then Nate realized what we had been thinking of and jumped into action. I think it’s the fastest anything in MNC has ever gone from idea to reality! We also could not have done any of this without the collaboration of Bolton Valley allowing us to modify and bring these trails up to speed.

I went back through emails and it was about September 24th when Nate first reached out with the proposals that suggested GMES would be able to help with the lights and that it could all be possible. And here we are before Thanksgiving with a fully-operational light system…WHOA.

The final steps? Lights turned on, adjusted to perfect angles, errant branches and shrubs removed for maximum light coverage

Early-season, low-snow grooming will be handled by MNC as we work with our new (to us) sled and Tidd Tech groomer and tracksetter to lay out the best trails we can. The work done on Picnic loop, where the lights are, was over 250 volunteer hours of bridge building, brush-cutting, rock removal, delimbing, raking, and grading.

Getting rid of any and all branches

If you want a good idea of just how goes into making a loop “low-snow viable” take a stroll over to the Maple or Spruce trails on the other side of the network and compare the ground cover, overhead cover, general trail width, and flatness of the surfaces. As proven with the special treat of an early-November storm, these trails were in great shape with only about 4-6 inches!

 

The goal is to take this even further next year, as we explore connections in the excavation world to remove a few key rocks that are too big for human hands/prybars, level out serious grade changes, and plant grass and clover that can be mowed and maintained to create a low and even more snow-friendly ground surface.

We have also done some preliminary walks on Valley Loop, which potentially extends the potential for the loop by a

little under a kilometer. A washout from Hurricane Irene currently makes that trail and out-and-back, but we have identified a route that could loop it back up to Picnic as a nice expansion. We will save that for summer 2021…

For now, we look forward to enjoying solid skiing and grooming at Bolton in a year when we could all use some great outdoor time. We plan to groom with regularity during the week regardless of whether or not organized MNC sessions/gatherings are happening. When the snow is deep enough, the Pisten Bully can make the snow even better, but until then the bridges we installed will mean a snowmobile and groomer can take care of the trails when in previous year they would have laid dormant until midwinter snowpack.

While the future remains uncertain in terms of MNC programming, outdoor activities done solo or with members of your household are not forbidden. As of now (11/16) high school sports sanctioned by the VPA are also still fair game. We hope that even if the loop cannot be enjoyed by our club in a traditional group setting, other users can still get enjoyment and benefit from the work and the progress. Whether this means a single skier training under the lights after work, high school racers able to get on snow with a lit training loop, or our own club able to once again hold practices and sessions in our new home, it all adds up to a great community resource that continues to build the awesome sport in our area!

You can find an updated album of trail work and infrastructure upgrades HERE

You can find photos from our first real ski days on the loop HERE

Bolton…the future is BRIGHT

 

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