Mansfield Nordic Club

It had been high time since the gang had gotten in a real adventure…that is to say, it had been about a week. So it was time for another journey to crash in new places and race in the cold: this time across the pond deep in the Adirondacks.

As the light was fading on Friday evening we piled into two cars and crossed the bridge into New York, cruising through old mining towns and lakeside camps en route to the bustling hub of Chestertown. A town of one stoplight, one Stewarts (it is a mandatory state law that each town in NY is bestowed a Stewarts gas station) and one “Topps” supermarket, our accomodations were a lovely bed and breakfast recently purchased by an older couple from Florida. The decorations were slightly different than our usual East Cost AirBnB rentals, with nice southern charm and even a bowl of oranges waiting for us.

While Aidan, Meredith and I shopped for our remaining provisions at the bustling market, Eli and Julia somehow got a fire going without any paper of kindling, and I admit I had little faith in them and almost purchased a Duralog at the store. But if we’re ever trying to really save on lodging costs (moreso than we already try to) we can rely on those two to get the fire going in our igloo and keep us warm for racing.

After spaghetti, pizza, and salad we played a heated game of spoons and woke the next morning to another frigid cold race day. Kinda used to that at this point. The venue, just 20 minutes away at the base of Gore Mountain, is very new to the ski scene but a really awesome facility. It’s located at the base area of an alpine mountain, utilizing a lot of the former terrain. The base of the first significant climb actually ascends up the outside of an old halfpipe, while at the high point you speed down an alpine trail with only a few V-boards separating the Nordic race from the open alpine area…folks cruising in on their downhill skis must’ve been very amused as both types of skier barreled down the liftline toward the finish.

It was a brutally hard climb each lap though, which follows the trend toward harder and harder courses. It made me realize right away that next summer, we’re going to need to make some tougher timetrial and race courses by “reconfiguring” the loops at the Range when we can, so to speak. It was excellent practice, however, for the daunting Ladies 5km course that the mass starts will be held on this coming weekend in Lake Placid.

The races went well, and although Adam’s super-thin binder job didn’t exactly hold up for the entirety of the women’s race, adjustments were made to get a bit more grab in the men’s skis. The ladies stacked the top-15, and Aidan, Eli, and Cameron also got themselves in the top-15 with Aidan winning the entire race by 30 seconds. It was a nice change of pace from Vermont, and the race was hosted by our “sister” club in NY, the Hudson United Racing Team (HURT) so I was excited that we’d get to support their efforts by bringing more racers to the event.

It has been a while since the Pug Vlogs of old, but I resurrected the tradition to put together a video from the weekend. I hope you’re ready for more lifestyle clips than skiing clips…usually a bit more busy on race day and it’s harder to actually take video!