The MNC Skiathlon is on Sunday, February 13th this year! Join us for the big race that WE host every year, with races for all ages and abilities!
The BKL races are a main highlight, but with Zak Cup and Club Cup points up for grabs the Popular/Citizen races should certainly be a draw for adults. There is even a “what the heck” race for first-time racers and low-key fun competition!
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact organizer Christine Massey (Christine.Massey@uvm.edu) to help out.
Registration can be found at the link below on SkiReg:
It was a bluebird day with temps in the teens for this year’s Silver Fox Trot held by the Ford Sayer Club at Rikert Touring Center. This is always a fun, well-attended, well-run race and this year was no exception. With a dinosaur leading off the lollipop race and a pair of chickens leading out the 1/2 race the fun factor was high and there were lots of smiling kids! Add to that the post-BKL Citizens Race where you get to watch the juniors, the coaches and maybe even your parents race while you hang out with your ski buddies and you’ve got a fun day in the sun for any BKL skier! Congratulations to Ollie Laber, Finn Laber, Brooke Greenberg, Oakley Crawford, Ansel Sprague, Liam Vile, Dylan Torrizo, Matias Citarella and Jonah Gorman for doing a great job on the challenging terrain at Rikert!
Finn Laber tearing up the hill to the finish line.
Brooke Greenberg skied so fast that she won the 5/6 girls race!
Oakley Crawford pushes hard as he heads out on his second lap.
Ansel Sprague kicks up powder as he rounds the turn.
It was a great Sunday for racing! According to a NENSA post, between the three large citizen/popular races on the schedule in New England this Sunday, a total of over 600 skiers were registered to compete! That’s an awesome stat and a real reason why our part of the country has such a strong skiing culture.
MNC members were mostly split between the two Vermont-based events: The Silver Fox Trot at Riker, and the Craftsbury Scramble at (of course) Craftsbury.
The Silver Fox featured a big BKL field, and races from lollipop competitions all the way to middle school and open races where Juniors and Masters went head-to-head. The bright sun and fast snowmaking loop meant for speedy racing and fun challenging corners.
Start of one of the BKL races at the Silver Fox
Our middle school contingent was well represented by skiers like Brooke, Jonah, Matias, and Dylan. Here’s a short clip of them in action.
The biggest mass start of the day was the Open/Citizen’s race, where a large group of MNC Juniors and Masters took part. Unlike an Eastern Cup, this was self-seeded and so even arriving to the start 5 minutes early was a bit too late for most of the Juniors (and their unaware coach Adam) and so starting near the back made for an extra fun challenge. Mass starts at Rikert are notoriously sketchy (a wide field that narrows quite rapidly, with large trees acting as guard rails) but this provided extra practice for bigger races! The crew skied great, and it is so fun to have races with everyone competing. Special shoutout to MNC’s southernmost racer Dave Johnstone who made the trip up from the Brattleboro area to fly the club colors.
Up north of Rikert, the MNC skiers were teaming up for a partnered relay featuring jumps, bumps and obstacles.
With a slate of funny and clever team names, it’s hard to tell just what kind of MNC speed was in the mix, but we are aware that the team Last One Fast One, comprised of Sara Falconer and Michael Gaughan, took a podium and some great points! Congrats to that quick duo,
Results for the open mied scramble can be found here, and the main page of Webscorer has links to other categories too!
Most of the Juniors will have a week off from NENSA racing before really hitting a big slate of competitions for the rest of the winter. Masters have options ranging from the White Mountain Classic, to the Gunstock Freestyle or Prospect Sprints. Check out the NENSA calendar for links!
Note the date of this race has changed from Saturday (1/15) to Sunday (1/16). You can register for the race here.
Times vary from BKL races in the morning to the open/citizen races after noon.
Temps will be very cold the day prior, with abrasive manmade snow. To prepare for this, put at least two cold layers of wax (Swix CH4, Toko Blue, or other similar cold, hard glide wax) into your skis to harden the base. If you have a cold, hard graphite wax, apply this layer first (scraping and brushing before subsequent layers).
If you have Toko X-Cold powder or Swix CH3 powder, these are good options to put on the skis as a final layer. The preferred method here is to crayon or drip an amount of blue or green wax onto the skis first. Then, before ironing, sprinkle cold powder over the glide zone. Iron the glide wax and cold powder together. See video below for reference. Be sure to brush out skis thoroughly!
Our first BKL race of the season kicked off on Sunday at Sleepy Hollow in Huntington. Sixty-four racers and their fearless parents navigated the somewhat icy roads to Sleepy Hollow for the race. When I arrived, a bit of freezing rain was making conditions a bit tricky for waxing and kids that had them were using waxless skis. Luckily the rain stopped and trusty Toko yellow came through with enough grip to kick up the hills.
The festivities started off with the lollipop race where Daisy Tremble and Ollie Laber easily conquered the loop around Molly’s Meadow. We had a large contingent of racers in the grade 1/2 race: Oliver Tremble, Ben Cross, Ansel Page and Mazzy Merrit all skied the 1 km loop down past the Inn, up Tina Turner and back to Molly’s Meadow. MNC skier Finn Laber and the other 3rd & 4th graders all skied 2 loops of the course and many of them opted to ski over the whale humps on the lap heading out of Molly’s Meadow. MNC Racers Logan Cichanowski, Liam Vile, Ansel Sprague and Oakley Crawford all skied 3 laps of the course and did an excellent job skiing up those hills on Tina Turner in the 5/6 race. Special shout out to Logan who skied an excellent race in his first race ever! Mary Moyer skied the 7/8 race, her first race ever, and did a fantastic job as well! Congratulations to all these MNC skiers!
With the wind whipping around making it a bit cold outside, race organizers opted to forego an organized award ceremony and gave everyone a lollipop or a treat at the finish line. So much thanks to Heather and the folks at Sleepy Hollow for putting on such a fun race!
Ollie Laber with a big smile after the Lollipop race.
Oakley, Liam and Ansel compare notes after their race.
Mary Moyer rounds the turn and heads out for her last lap.
