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Vermont Cup #1: Craftsbury, VT

Discerning ski fans do some regular reading of langrenn.com, essentially the Norwegian version of fasterskier.com. Of course, Google translate helps with this process. A few weeks ago an article about a race in a Norwegian snowstorm referred to the whiteout, via translation, as “Jotunheim’s wind balls” and ever since it has been a term that Mike Millar and I use whenever possible. Yes, we are both over 30 years old…

We haven’t actually seen much of this weather this year, except for when it decided to show up right at the start of the men’s classic race this weekend, part 1 of the “Vermont Cup” race series, effectively the Eastern Cup of the COVID season. After a calm start to the day, with only light snow impeding our 4:30AM drive to Craftsbury, Mike and I set up the wax cabin and got to work preparing skis when, soon after, the rest of our awesome coaching contingent arrived.

All was calm…skies and trails alike. Then the snow started. Jotunheim’s wind balls were dumping down at a furious rate, and at 32 degrees it meant think sloppy snow all over the place. Chaos! No klister worked. No hardwax worked. Not even our secret “Blellow” homemade kickwax mixture worked. It was time to make what are called “hairies” and give them a try, along with zeros. We did not use fluoro treatment, but found that the Toko Base Performance spray used over the kick zone had the same effect of reducing moisture/icing and keeping the glide good.

The first group out was the U18 and U16 boys, who raced on these hairies and zeros and had good reports. But then,

Rosie striding up the hill with Lydia in pursuit!

the snow turned to rain and it was back to the klister! The girls almost universally raced on klister, with a few on zeros.

It was a good day to see how our whole group handled this crazy situation…not only was it one of the first big races, it also required a lot of solo efforts because groups could not gather, coaches could not be grouped up with skiers out on the course or helping things along…skiers needed to be very self-sufficient and responsible and I think everyone did a great job! From first-time Eastern Cup racers to seasoned vets, this was a class act of a crew.

We had 29 racers, possibly our largest-ever contingent to an Eastern Cup. In that group we had one skier doing his first-ever Nordic race, and another who is heading to Junior World Championships next month. How cool is it to think that MNC is able to play a role in that whole spectrum?

Taking the WIN in the U16 women’s race was Virginia Cobb, who has been poised for a breakout race like this since the end of last season. I’ve been a part of this club now to have known Virginia since she was basically in a car seat, and seeing her really tap into her diligent training side (in the off-season) and her competitive side (in race season) has been awesome to watch. The U16 girls in general were on a tear, with Julia Thurston following-up in 3rd, Esther Cuneo in 4th, and Rosie Brown in 6th.

The open women featured competition from 5 pro skiers as well as the Junior contingent. Ava managed to sneak ahead of one of those pros, and finish 4th overall behind Alayna Sonnesyn (SMS T2, who then boarded a plane to the Lahti World Cup this weekend), U23 World Champs competitor Alex Lawson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project/Middlebury), and recent UVM grad and current Craftsbury Green Racing Project athlete Margie Freed. All down the results sheet, however, were strong MNC performances including many of these U18 ladies racing in their first 10km distance.

Our men’s team was bolstered by on-break college skiers like Silas Brown (Bowdoin) and Charles Martell (St Mikes) and Geo DuBrosse who looked like a seasoned racer in not only his first 10km but his first Nordic race ever! The U16 squad began what looks like a long-term battle with a contingent of strong SMS U16 boys…this young MNC squad is going places! Brady, Taylor, Anders, Niko, Rye, Carl, Jack…remember those names!

Thanks to all the athletes who competed in this race and showed some great maturity and a continued diligence in COVID awareness and care. Thanks to the parents who helped facilitate a smooth event. And thanks to the coaches who helped make great skis, provide great athlete support, and awesome attitudes.

Next week, we are cautiously approaching the follow-up to VT Cup #1 with VT Cup #2 in Bennington. Stay tuned!

Congrats to MNC Junior Ava Thurston, who was recently nominated to represent America at the Junior World Ski Championships in Vuokatti, Finland next month!

Link to official press release

Last year Ava qualified for the U18 Scandinavian Cup team competing in Falun, Sweden. This nomination to Junior Worlds is yet another step forward, and we believe it is the FIRST time a current MNC athlete has qualified for this level of competition. Way to go Ava!

It was a busy first full week of Junior training, but it already feels so good to be back in the swing of things! Bolton has proven to be a great training center: we basically have the place to ourselves for every morning session, and while it’s quite busy on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, it’s our own club alongside MMU that’s populating the trails…and it’s awesome to see Masters, BKL, and Juniors all skiing around in their little pods and trains around the trails.

Here are some photos from the week!

Timetrial with the Vermont contingent of Ford Sayre! Everyone raced great! 

Silas helping me to set some tracks after training. When the snow is packed hard, the weight of a few bricks just won’t do!

Morning training group…usually a bit smaller than the evening group, but this week getting the benefit of a weird weather inversion that led to peach-colored skies at Bolton’s 2000′ elevation ABOVE the clouds!

That’s not to say the night skiing group doesn’t get cool scenes also…illuminated by the alpine mountain’s glow

This week we’re looking forward to what may be considered the first “real” races of the season, the first round of the Vermont Cup at Craftsbury, followed next weekend by Vermont Cup #2 at Prospect! That’s right, things are happening and races are starting to form…stay tuned!

Hello skiers and parents,

Happy Holidays and great news heading into 2021! We are able to re-start our programming under new VT Guidance issued as part of section 9.1. If you have not done so yet, I encourage you to read that guidance so we all understand the steps and factors at play as we move toward in-person training with groups.

What this means in a nutshell is that we can resume training in groups of up to 25, provided we follow guidance of masks and distancing, along with pretty stringent training structures: we still can’t be hanging out in the parking lot, gathering trailside to chat and congregate, and forgetting our masks at home.

There is also a requirement that each of us fill out a health-screening form the days we attend practice. Think of this as “making your reservation” to come to training that day. This form is linked below: my suggestion is to bookmark it!

MNC Health Screening Daily Form

Now the part we’ve been waiting for: What will training look like? When do we start? I’ll keep this in more direct bullet-point form, with links and notes.

WHEN (GENERAL)

Training will resume officially on January 1st, 2020. The club is taking this next week to roll-out additional information because our club is not just a Junior group: there are a lot of moving parts and we want to be absolutely sure we have all the boxes checked with coaches, forms, locations, etc.

WHEN (SPECIFIC)

We will use a quick form to try and get a handle on schedules and class times for all Juniors.

Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 4-6pm are typically the “MNC Days” for athletes also doing high school skiing, and Bolton (see below) has confirmed that this timeframe can be set aside for the club when the area is open.

While groups of up to 25 are allowed, we will aim to have smaller groups when possible for a better coach:athlete ratio as well as safety. Much like summer training, I will go through the schedules and signups and put together an initial outline which each skier/family can review. With many of our athletes doing the 1-day/wk program, this may be as simple as dividing this group up between a Tuesday and Thursday group.

MNC Junior Schedule Form

Even if you may only be skiing with MNC one day per week, please indicate any available times you have for morning or afternoon sessions in case we need to change plans, locations, or schedules in this wild world of current events!

WHERE

This is always tricky because we have a lot of Juniors coming from a lot of different towns. Bolton was always the intended “home” this winter, even before COVID derailed things. Thanks to the Range shutting out all civilians, we were already making these preparations early-on.

You can sign up for your Bolton season pass here. The updates? We have our new (to us) snowmobile and groomer up on-site and have already used it a few times before this rain. You can check conditions updates on the Twitter page here, and this page is also a feed right on the MNC homepage.

Bolton is still not officially “open”, and they say they will not open until they get a lot more snow. They did give MNC permission to train on the trails whenever we want (for free!) until they open, which is excellent. This means we can have night skiing any time we want! These are all great resources and flexibilities to have in this crazy year.

Sleepy Hollow is functioning with a time-slot reservation system for teams, so please stay tuned to the Junior Doc as we try to coordinate snowmaking access as needed.

SIGNUPS

The club paused signups after the initial shutdown back in November. That registration page is now back open and I am talking with the MNC finance crew on the best step toward pro-rating the missed time this winter.

I will send another email when any adjustments have been made to pricing and how to use possible credit going forward for those that already signed up at the original pricing! Even if you don’t sign up for the program officially yet, please go ahead and fill out the scheduling form so the process of setting up weekly training can begin! Thanks-

-Adam

One final note on group training in general. Skiing as a group is a risk much greater than skiing alone or with a partner. Although WE may all be psyched to get together, the trails we ski on are all public places that others use as well. If I were an older skier and/or a skier with an underlying health condition, I would be quite frustrated (not to mention quite afraid) of my enjoyable outdoor experience becoming a health risk from a large group of young skiers whizzing by and skiing close. 

 

Part of the difficulty of this virus is that it can’t be seen, and in Vermont we’ve had low cases compared to the rest of the country. This makes it easy to let caution slip, but keeping everyone healthy is built on both TRUST and RESPECT even if you yourself may not be in as much danger from COVID. Let’s always remember that when we’re out sharing the trails. 

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