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Mt. Top Paintball Recap

By on 30 January, 2019 in BKL Race Blog

 

Kate takes aim at the Mt. Top Paintball Race

Nine MNC BKL racers made the trip down to Mt. Top in Chittenden, VT for the annual Paintball Biathlon race. This race is always a blast and the folks at Mt. Top do a fantastic job hosting it.  It follows a traditional biathlon format: racers ski a loop, stop to shoot five shots at the range, ski another loop, shoot five shots, etc. Your age class determines how many loops you do and how many times you shoot, ranging from the 1-2’s who ski one loop and visit the range once (five shots), to the 7’8’s who ski 3 loops and visit the Range 3 times.  Music, an announcer, the “hotdog special”, and a paintball range situated right outside the Nordic Center all help to make this a fun event for racers and spectators alike.

Temps were in the twenties when we arrived, but a fierce wind was blowing and it started snowing just before the race got underway, making shooting conditions a little challenging. The MNC parents were prepared and everyone got their kids to the Range while it was open for rifle practice. There is a lot going on for kids in this race. Not only do they need to learn how to site and shoot the paintball rifles, they also have to decide things like “Should I take off my poles to shoot, or not put my pole straps on at all?  Should I actually try to aim and hit the targets or just shoot as quickly as possible?”  Everyone needs to figure out what is going to work the best for themselves and make a plan!

Shooting the paintball rifles is a little different than shooting a  .22 biathlon rifle. “I aimed and one of my shots hit the roof! When I didn’t really aim, I hit 4 (out of 5)!” said Taylor, one of our biathletes. Taylor actually was the MNC sharpshooter, hitting 8 out of 15 shots. Our biathletes: Liam Vile, Virginia Cobb and Taylor Carlson were all amongst the top shooters in their age classes, so it definitely helps to have some experience with biathlon.

Great job to all our racers!

Kate heading out on course. She was on fire today!

 

Tessa all bundled up against the wind.

Pippa decided to ski without her pole straps so she didn’t have to spend time getting them on.

Dylan did a great job tucking the downhills today!

Virginia shows how to keep warm while waiting in line for your start.

Taylor skiing the extra loop that made the 7/8 course a longer distance.

Great Conditions at the Silver Fox Trot!

By on 20 January, 2019 in BKL Race Blog, Uncategorized

 

Dylan Torizzo on the course.

It is always a treat to race on the beautiful trails at Rikert Touring Center and this past Saturday was no exception. Conditions were perfect and the course was well marked for both the BKL and Citizens races. It was a bit on the cold side (single digits), but the lack of wind made it very tolerable.

Kate and Ryley show us one of the most important pre-race rituals: getting your face glitter on!

Everyone agreed that the race courses were very challenging. The race was held on Rikert’s homologated course which was made for Division I college races. The uphills are substantial and the downhills are fast with lots of turns. Our MNC skiers definitely rose to the challenge, conquering the uphills and ripping the downhills! Congratulations to Ryley, Astrid, Ripley, Tessa, Kate, Pippa, Niko, Dylan, Gillian, Esther, Julia, Virginia, Mia and Carl who all looked strong and did a great job racing.

Special kudos to Astrid Longstreth and Ripley Boyden (above)  who both did their first race for the year- way to go guys!

Congratulations to Kate, Niko and Esther who all won their age class races!

Riley, Kate and Pippa getting ready for the start.

Special “Shout-out” to Pippa who decided that her race goal was to put on a surge up the last hill and sprint to the finish.  Holy cow, did she stick it! She was in fifth place at the bottom of the hill, turned on the steam, and finished in third! Way to go girl!

Just before the Citizen’s race, the Ford Sayer Chicken Race got going. Most of us Citizen Skiers had to miss it because we were warming up, but I heard that skiers had to don chicken suits and race to collect eggs- what a hoot!

The MNC Masters had a strong showing in the 10 km Citizen’s Race and may of them proved they could hold their own skiing against the young and the fastest.  The race started in one big mass start: U16’s, Seniors, Masters, Women and Men.  Coaches Rosemary, Tom Thurston and Emilie Dillar all raced along with MNC Masters Steve Crafts, Mike Millar, Michael Gaughan, Michael Coleman, Andres Torrizo, Joanne Hanowski and Jim Fredericks. Many of the kids stayed to cheer us on and just as we finished, the snow started falling. Results below.

RESULTS

 

Bogburn BKL: Cold & Snowy

By on 13 January, 2019 in BKL Race Blog

Ten fearless MNC BKL skiers braved the cold temps for this years Bogburn Classic!  If you’ve never been to the Bogburn, it’s a classic race on old-time classic style trails at the Haydock Family farm in Pomfret. The race features a single classic track running on narrow trails that wind through the woods with lots of up and lots of down, including some very tight turns where you forget about your form and just try to stay upright on your skis. Because of the cold temps this year, grades 1-4 did a 1.2 loop and grades 5-8 did a more difficult 3.3 course through the woods.  With the wide trails and often banked turns at the Range, Craftsbury and Rikert, skiing on narrow trails with tight turns and whalloping downhills is a rarity for us and it’s really good practice! We want our kids to be able to ski anything, so skiing the Bogburn is a really great thing to do. Thanks to Kari Cuneo for taking all these pictures in the cold!

Kate was our only 1-4th grade racer and she did great, winning her age group and a coveted Bogburn ski hat!

Brady had a good ski in the 5/6 race, pulling in an impressive 3rd. Look how bundled up he is!

Niko showing us how to keep warm while you wait for your start- parka over the shoulders! He pulled out a good one in the cold – finished 2nd!

Taylor showing perfect classic technique! He is going up a slight uphill and his body is in just the right place!  Hard to do at the end of a difficult classic course!  He was our only 7/8 boy skier today.

Gillian is a first year racer and I think she’s getting faster with every race she does. She lost her hat out there, but kept on going!

Virginia did 2 races: the 7/8, then the U16 and she learned a little about pacing today. She also learned not to bundle up too much- she wore her parka for the U16 race (she planned to ski it more slowly) and had to stop and take it off during the race because she got too hot!

Carly has been doing a lot of classic skiing recently and you can tell. She’s got a quick stride and has really learned to shift her weight quickly from ski to ski.

Rachel kicked in right behind Carly with smooth technique that has really improved from last year.

Finley Barker, one of our MMU buddies, came down and skied the race too. Look at that big stride!

Esther waiting to start her U16 race. Esther is quite an athlete. Her first sport right now is swimming, but she is also a great skier and has beautiful classic technique. She skied well today!

Greta Kilburn swooped in and skied the U16 race today too. Unfortunately, I did’t even see her and we didn’t get a picture of her. Next time Greta!

Bogburn Wax Recommendation

By on 10 January, 2019 in BKL Race Blog, Junior Blog, Masters Blog

It is looking like excellent classic conditions for this year’s Bogburn! Temps will be cold overnight, and combined with new snow this week that means harder glidewax and green and blue kickwaxes.

Glide Wax

It is important, in cold snow, to have “hardened” bases. Putting a few layers of green or blue glide wax in your skis (as opposed to just one) will make the base noticeably more shiny and harder, which keeps it faster when the snow crystals are new and sharp.

-Begin by “hardening” your glide zones with 2 layers of CH4, CH5, Toko NF Blue, or your favorite colder glide wax. Scrape and brush between layers.

-Final layer is a blue glide wax of your choice: Toko NF/LF/HF Blue, Swix CH/LF/HF 5 or 6, Holmenkol Racing Mix Cold, etc

-Scrape off and brush VERY thoroughly! If you have a nylon or horsehair brush, polish back and forth until the bases have a nice shine

Kick Wax

A binder will be important for this race. To watch a video on how to best apply a hardwax binder, see the embedded clips on the bottom of this page.

One of the best and easiest binders to use is Toko Base Green. However, for a cold race such as the Bogburn and colder kickwax (for example Swix V30) can be used as an ironed-on binder.

-Begin by roughening up your (cleaned) kick zone, and ironing in a THIN green base binder

-Feel free to check-in with Adam on race day, but to start with for kick a good bet it one or two thin layers of Toko Blue, Swix V40, or other blue hardwax, covered with one or two layers of Toko X-Cold, Swix V30, or other green hardwax.

BKL at Metro Rocks!

By on 4 January, 2019 in BKL Race Blog

What do we do when there’s not enough snow to ski on at the Range? Spend practice climbing at MetroRocks, that’s what! About thirty BKLers and a large handful of coaches ascended on MetroRocks on Thursday afternoon for a fun afternoon of working on our upper body strength and conquering any fears of height.  We used the auto-belays, did lots of bouldering, played twister bouldering and had a little hang-out time with our BKL friends. Certified belayers Coach Kristina and Maise Frankie also belayed kids on non-auto belay climbs. It was fun to see kids climbing a little higher and reaching a little further each time they climbed. It was great fun for everyone. Thanks to MetroRocks for giving us a discount to climb! I think everyone wants to go back sometime soon!

For more photos, see our Flikr album. Thanks to Emilie Diller for taking most of the photos!

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