One final series of high-level, competitive ski racing…
The very end of March…after everything else has come to a close…
When the thought of more late nights waxing, early mornings testing, and stressful race days is weighing heavy…
Not in the warm spring sun but rather in rain, ice, sleet, and slush…
Doesn’t sound too motivating, does it? All of the above was the setting for Supertour Finals this past weekend in Lake Placid.
This race series rotates around the country, only happening in the East every couple of years. It’s not something we ever take a trip to if it involves a plane flight. But a ride across the lake on the ferry? That’s doable.
Even still, I put this out there not as an official trip but more of a “hey, who is interested and does anyone wanna go and split some of the effort and travel and logistics?”
Anders leading his sprint heat
I was in some ways a bit surprised, and in other ways not surprised at all, to primarily see a squad of U16 athletes take up theidea. We had some seasoned veterans like Anders taking part, and a few other athletes making the trip to watch the action and cheer siblings and teammates. But fresh off a big trip to Junior Nationals, I think the best-case-scenario happened for our U16s…this younger crew got even MORE excited about skiing than they already were. Going into a race series knowing you are tired, knowing the front of the field is literally comprised of some of the best skiers in the WORLD, and grinding out the hardest courses in the country is not usually a welcome adventure many would take up willingly.
Rather than this Supertour “Finals” being the closing of a book, I think this can be viewed as just the ending of one chapter as the page turns to the next. It wasn’t so much “this is the end, finally we’re done” but more like “this is a preview of what the future could look like in my skiing.”
Relay squad of James (CL), Astrid (CL), Jorgen (SK), Mia (SK). Plus #1 fan Bella! Photo by Laura McIntosh
One of the coolest races they include at Supertour Finals is the Club Relay. From the top pros to clubs like ours, everyone gets to toe the start line together. While the front of the field featured epic battles among World Cup stars, there was a whole separate pack [not that far behind] featuring New England teams like MNC, Ford Sayre, Craftsbury, SMS, and GMVS.
Throughout the trip we shared a wax cabin with Ford Sayre, and used radios to communicate across the parking lot to the GMVS trailer: all of our coaches were working together to test different waxes and help prepare skis. It was fun to continue a lot of the collaborations that have taken place over the past few years.
Mid-race carnage for James
We had three Juniors (Astrid, Mia, Anders) make the heats in Friday’s sprint race, as well as epic battles in the 15 kilometer mass start on Sunday.
That last race was something special. It was the longest race for everyone involved, especially the U16 squad who are all high school freshmen. After a year of me holding them back from workouts and races (no 5km project for this age group, shorter timetrials, different structure to intervals, etc) I let go of the reins for this last one of the season. It was epic!
Anders battled a crash that sent him off the course near the same spot where Virginia took a long tumble down through the fencing at JNs last year, while James skied in a pack throughout that featured many of his U16 teammates from Utah like Eli McEnany and Matthew Northcott. On the last 5km lap, he suddenly wasn’t appearing with them anymore…did he hit the wall, I wondered? Was this race too much? Nope, turns out he just had a ski break in half! Sometimes things happen that are just too crazy to be in your control…the good news is that we won’t be needing classic skis for about 8 months or so…
In the women’s race the announcer and Bullitt Timing were keeping track of not only the 40km open race but also the 15km Junior race featuring U20 collegiate athletes all the way through the U16s and even one U14 racer in the field. It was a runaway win for Ally Wheeler, one of the top Juniors in all of the US. Behind was 2024 JN champ and 2025 Eastern Cup overall champ Lea Perreard from Ford Sayre. Other names were rattled off as the splits came in every other kilometer or so…Beth McIntosh, Greta Kilburn, kids from out west, etc…
However as the race went on the loudspeakers started to crackle with the names “Mia Gorman” and “Astrid Longstreth” further and further up the list. These two were charging!
Pros, Olympians, NCAA skiers, you name them. I don’t think there were two skiers racing as aggressively, with as strong technique, or as much sharp energy, as these two skiers at the 15km mark. This clip is from the hill leading into the 10 kilometer mark…twice the distance these two usually raced this season. And they didn’t slow down for the next 5km, either!
With such strong skiing and great pacing, Mia and Astrid moved themselves into 3rd and 5th for the Juniors, a pretty astounding effort in a small but extremely competitive field. But it reminded me of a coffee mug shared in photos by former Norwegian Olympic champion Oystein Petterson. A white mug with small black wording:
I think the key takeaway here is not being super fast as a U16, but being able to race a bit amongst the next level up and know ok, I can do this, and this is what it will take. Not closing the book and accepting the success you already have written, but turning the page and getting a glimpse at how the next chapter might start, if you’re willing to keep reading and working. So that’s the cliffhanger ending to the ’24/’25 season I suppose…
Our friends at Sleepy Hollow BKL host a couple great camps each summer. This year there is an Outdoor Camp and a Ski Camp. Heather LaRocca, director of Sleepy Hollow BKL, has extended her camp invitation to any MNC BLK families that want to join. All the info is below.
Sleepy Hollow Summer Camps 2025
SLAMMIN’ OUTDOOR CAMP: Get outside and adventure in Sleepy Hollow’s 850 acres of forest and trails! We head out on the trails every day to explore the natural world around Sleepy with a new outdoor theme every day, including forest, stream and pond studies. We also do fun outdoor activities every day- hiking, mountain biking, swimming and more! Campers can expect a fun week outside packed with activities, art projects and games.
Ages: 8-12 years old
Cost: $350 per camper
Weeks: July 21 – 25 OR July 28 – August 1
Time: 9:00 am – 3:30 pm
SUMMER SKI CAMP: Spend the week outside at Sleepy Hollow’s 850 acres of forest and trails, with running, hiking, mountain biking, rollerskiing*, swimming and more! The camp is geared towards kids that are excited to try some summer nordic summer training. We get out on the trails every day and do activities, art projects and games too, all with the focus of summer fun outside! *Rollerskis not needed- we team up with NENSA for rollerskiing, and they provide a fleet for us to use.
The legendary Norwegian Birkebeinerrennet race, the ‘Birken’, is rich in tradition. It was founded to commemorate a journey made by two Birkebeiner loyalist skiers carrying an infant over a mountainous course. They were saving the infant prince from death by a rival political group. The young Prince Haakon was brought to safety and grew to be the king who united Norway after hundreds of years of civil war. Great history!
Now for the tough part…. Every participant in the Birken race must wear a backpack with 3.5 kg in it (~8 lbs.) to represent the infant child. Although it did wear on me a bit up the hills, for the most part, I forgot about that baby weight on my back.
Before the final 14K descent into Lillehammer, the racecourse is wide and open as it passes through Sjusjoe n. The course is lined with fans who come bringing furniture, firewood, shovels, food, drinks, music, speakers, and cowbells.
They dig out shelters in the snow drifts and line them with blankets, build fires
blast music, ring cowbells, and scream.
The energy is tremendous. At one point I skied by speakers blasting “Stairway to Heaven”. So appropriate, I thought. As exhausted as I was at that point, I still felt as if I was skiing in heaven.
The descent to Lillehammer was coming up soon. It starts with some fast wide, down hills quickly changing to narrow wooded trails. Having skied the race last year, I knew I’d be in for some steep scraped off chutes. However, I wasn’t envisioning what I actually encountered this year… chutes of glare ice.
There were fallen skiers on both sides of the narrow trail as others zoomed by narrowly missing them. There were also skiers taking off their skis and walking down the more treacherous parts. The only spectators along this portion of the race were the emergency staff at intersections standing with medical sleds.
Flashback to yesterday when we met up with Murray Banks, former MNC director and coach extraordinaire. Although he wasn’t participating in the race this year, Murray skied the descent portion of the course the day before.
His somewhat kidding comment was “You have a 50-50 chance of surviving this.”
“ Murray, do you think we should scratch from the race?”
“ No”, he replied, “You absolutely must do the race!”
We all beat Murray’s comical odds and survived.
The long straight view of the finish line at Lillehammer Stadium, with huge crowds cheering, put a large smile on my face.
The brief portions of “no control on glare ice terror” were tremendously overshadowed by the extraordinary course, scenery, and energy of the Birken. As Murray also stated “No one puts on a race better than the Norwegians!”
I am so grateful to have experienced, now for the second year, skiing, in not only this race, but in the country of Norway where Nordic skiing is deeply rooted in the culture and is a part of day-to-day life.
Our cabin was a short walk to the ski trails as most dwellings seem to be.
We skied in the morning stopped for lunch and skied in the afternoon.
We skied from town to town to cafes and bakeries on impeccably well groomed, trails with breathtaking scenery.
MNC Master Elle Bouffard and I traveled together. We planned our trip to arrive to have one day recovery from traveling before the race and the full week after to enjoy the heavenly ski trails of Norway. Our timing plan worked out perfectly. Doing the race at the beginning of our trip allowed us to ski our hearts out all day every day for the week to come. With the race behind us, we had no concern about pre-race limiting mileage or tapering.
It was fabulous to have so many MNC friends nearby before, during and after race day. MNC was well represented by masters, coaches past and present, as well as MNC junior alumni.
The view from my cabin bedroom window. Ski trails right off our road that connected us to everywhere.
Eliza and I were so happy to see former MNC Director and Coach Murray Banks in Sjusjoen.
Garrot Kuzzy, previous MNC coach, gives Eliza some pre-race tips at the start line. Note all the backpacks on the racers!
Smiles at the finish in the Lillehammer Olympic Stadium.
Post Race waiting to return to our cabins. Six tired but very happy skiers!
Jordan Shuster (Eliza’s SLU collegiate teammate), Eliza Thomas (MNC junior alumni), Karen Alence (MNC master), Kati Christoffel (MNC master and coach), Michael Dillon (MNC master and coach), Ellie Bouffard (MNC master)
The view from Kati’s dogsled ride – the day after racing.
Coach Pennie (Rand) and daughter Annavite, enjoying the trails during the days after the race.
Skiing trails with breathtaking scenery and stopping at cafes and bakeries.
Our growth and improvement is actually predicated on a series of mistakes.
On the outside maybe it looks like our club’s membership growth, racing success, activity involvement, and program depth have been steadily rising.
This is true when you zoom out…and this shows in statistics, ranking lists, notes from former members, and comments from fellow coaches and clubs.
But think of the improvements everyone in this room has made as a skier…were there falls along the way? Maybe a forgotten pair of boots, or a missed wax job? These are the easy mistakes to relate to, but they were important steps nonetheless because they helped show the full range of what this sport brings.
As the achievements and abilities get higher, the mistakes don’t go away: they just appear in different ways and on a similar plane to the level you’re currently at.
Maybe you haven’t fallen on skis in a year, but in a big race you “fall”, in terms of pace or tempo, behind your closest rival on the racecourse. Maybe you have the right wax, but picked a pair of klister skis for a hardwax race. Most difficult of all, maybe you and your teammates all raced to your potential, but you made a comment at the finish line that was taken the wrong way and knocked someone down emotionally rather than physically.
What’s important is realizing that up close our sport cycle of challenges, mistakes, reflection, and new challenges. It’s a wavy line with lots of ups and down, but it trends upward when handled right. When you pan out, that’s when it can look like a steady path forward and upward.
As we’ve grown and changed as a club, we’ve treaded into new territory for achievement and also mistakes. In some ways we’ve never been stronger, more secure, or more successful…but even in our own region I can find examples of clubs and leaders who have been in similar situations and forgotten the value of not just the successes, but the mistakes as well.
Our challenges lies in balancing the same few things we always have, maybe even in the following order-of-importance:
Acknowledging the positives and maintaining them is our core
Improving mistakes is our steady growth
Seeking new challenges is what keeps everyone excited!
Thanks for a really fun year with MNC, and let’s keep moving forward with both the achievements AND the missteps as our guides.
