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The calendar turning to September means it’s time to think about stonegrinding and preparing our skis for the coming winter. Each year, we bring a batch of skis down to Putney where Caldwell Sport tunes them into the best possible version of their shiny, speedy selves!

When should you get your skis ground?

• If you compete regularly on the Eastern Cup, you should be getting your skis ground each year unless they are a very condition-specific pair that didn’t get used much. Eastern Cup skis end up seeing a lot of use, abuse, hot irons, and mass starts…What’s more, the margins get smaller every year due to the rising level of competition in New England. This is a great problem to have as a competitive region, but it also means that we can’t cut corners on ski selection and stonegrinding. When in doubt, grind your skis!
• If you are a Masters skier who only breaks out the race skis for a few events a year, you are probably fine doing a stonegrind every other season. Keep in mind that a stonegrind effectively returns a ski base to “new” condition, and is a lot cheaper than a brand new pair of skis (by a factor of over 10 in many cases!)
• If you are a BKL skier, don’t worry about stonegrinding your skis…chances are, you’ll outgrow them soon enough, and we should all be focused on keeping the sport as accessible and budget-conscious as possible for our younger athletes.The one exception at the BKL level is if you are a middle school racer and you find yourself with a pair of skis handed down from a Junior, picked up at a ski swap, or purchased secondhand online. In this case, stonegrinding makes a ski much easier to wax and take care of, as well as making them faster and more enjoyable to ski on. If you can find an old pair of race skis for a great deal, and put a stonegrind on them for under $100, you’ve got a screamin’ good situation!

Our yearly signup form for stonegrinding can be found below. Please fill out this form with your pairs, and communicate with Coach Adam about a dropoff time/date/location that works for both parties.

We’d like to get all skis delivered and complete intake by Tuesday, September 30th

Stonegrind Form

As we exit the transitional spring period and start seeing more structured training, more athletes arriving, and more group sessions, the excitement around the Mansfield Pro Nordic team feels palpable. At least to me.

It may not be breaking the surface just yet, but speaking from the perspective of someone who is now entering their 10th summer with MNC I can say that there’s a different feeling in the air.

When Coach Perry and I sit down each Friday and look ahead to the upcoming week, we are coordinating locations, sessions, and workouts with young Juniors, collegiate champions, and World Cup skiers alike. The conversation is open and productive. “Does it make sense for Juniors to join this one? What is one of the Pro skiers came to this day with the high school athletes? What if we all start from here as a big group?” etc…

This is just the start of something that has potential beyond just competitive Junior athletes…when we need coaches in a pinch for regular sessions OR when traditional coaches are at a camp, we’ve got a rolodex of insanely competent older athletes to reach out to. What about a BKL game day? Certainly cool to have great role models attending. Would the Masters want to have some of the Pro Team share their strength training exercises? No doubt.

But it trickles down much further…we have a chance to expand the visibility of skiing in Vermont and beyond.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have that road sign on Cochran Rd say “rollerskiers” in addition to “cyclists” and “pedestrians” and other athlete users on the shoulder? It seems like having a team of professional skiers, maybe with some Olympic hopefuls or one-day Olympic athletes could help sway a town to make that addition.

Speaking of roads, we’re also in more places at once as a club. Rollerskiing can start to be a more visible part of our communities. We can reach out to other clubs in the running, biking, or youth scene and bring even more to the table. And that’s just the summer…

I hope you’ll consider supporting and engaging with this new team! It is a team FOR the COMMUNITY but it also relies so heavily on COMMUNITY SUPPORT. This is a new part of MNC that we want to grow and nurture!

If you are around on June 20th, check out our kickoff event and meet the team, get in a run if you like, play games, and enjoy dinner at Cochrans!

REGISTER HERE