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Craftsbury Classic BKL Race Recap

By on 2 February, 2021 in BKL Race Blog, Uncategorized

The first in-person, non-virtual, official BKL race of the season was pulled off by the crew up at Craftsbury this past Sunday. What an afternoon for classic! Sunshine, blue skis, packed powdery snow and the excellent trails at Craftsbury were as much as any skier could ask for. The afternoon started with a fun lollipop course which began on the upper soccer field, went over the bumps and ripped down onto the lower soccer field to the finish. Our lollipopper, Bella Altadonna, loved it and skied it really fast!

Bella ready to rip in the Lollipop race.

The rest of the courses all featured everyone’s favorite, Lemon’s Haunt, with some added fun by-passes on single-track “Woodard’s Wheelie” which reminded me of skiing at Bolton! While the 5/6 kids did 2 laps of the featured course, the 7/8’s also got to schuss down Moss Run and run out onto  Dennis’ Menace where they climbed up and over to the second little back country single track section before popping out onto Lemon’s Haunt and finishing around by the cabins on the lower soccer field.

Liam Vile and Anna Brillhart skied the 3/4 race and both skied really well. This was Anna’s first race since she was a lollipopper, so congratulations Anna! Kate Carlson, Ryley Morigeau and Hazel Fasching all skied the 5/6 race and all finished in the top 5.  Jonah Gorman was our sole competitor in the 7/8 race and won it. Fantastic racing by all these skiers!

Anna Brillhart on course.

 

Look how high and forward Kate gets in her double pole! 

 

Ryley Morigeau all “buffed” up!

 

Hazel Fasching ripping out of the start!

Jonah kicking it in to the finish!   

Video(s) of the week

By on 1 February, 2021 in Uncategorized

In order to keep the COVID health screen and other relevant into front-and-center, we are going to post some video content here (instead of the homepage) for a bit. Enjoy two fun little clips from the past week!

 

Great racing, great touring

By on 1 February, 2021 in Junior Blog, Uncategorized

If you could handle the cold temps this was quite the weekend to get out and ski. The Juniors and a handful of Masters racers headed up to Craftsbury for the Kendall Cup on Saturday, a race honoring the passing of legendary timer and New England ski figurehead Tom Kendall.

Once again it was a Vermont-only affair, but we’re blessed to have what might be the most competitive state in the country for Nordic skiers. It’s possible Minnesota or Alaska might argue with that, but when you’ve got a race field of talented and hardworking athletes like we saw on Saturday I bet the Green Mountain kids could tackle any kind of competition.

On Sunday we traded-in the skinny skis for wider boards, and swapped the kickwax for skins as a group of 9 MNC Juniors and coaches took off from Underhill at -6 Fahrenheit.  We chased the sun uphill en route to the Nose on Mount Mansfield via the Teardrop trail. Despite the frigid morning air, the top of the mountain was windless, clear and sunny.

We took our time at the top to snack and change layers, and then scooted a bit down the Toll Road before ducking onto the Bruce Trail. After a steep and sunny descent we found ourselves at the intersection of the Overland trail. It was skins-on again for another uphill journey to Devil’s Dishpan where we were greeted with another sunny, at this point borderline WARM smooth descent down to Stevensville Road.

Approaching the nose, without a cloud in sight

Although there were a few instances of not knowing exaaaaactly where we were, this ski tour had to be one of the most memorable and impactful days I’ve been a part of with the club. The intent had been to simply turn around and go down what we had gone up…but it seemed like the spirit of adventure captured a lot of us, and the day was just too nice. Going up, over, around, and back was a real adventure on a day (and with a gang) that couldn’t have been better.

Hard to underestimate how important it is for a Nordic ski team to go out and have experiences together that AREN’T just Nordic ski training and racing…unfortunately COVID put a halt to a lot of those types of activities…there aren’t trips to pizza places, swimming holes, mini golf, or otherwise. But we learned, hopefully not too late this season, that there IS backcountry skiing!

Strava map from Taylor Carlson

If there’s any indication of the health of skiing in Vermont right now, beyond just the ticket sales and the race results and the club development…just take a drive through Chittenden County and look at the ski tracks and pole marks through every field, hill, and front lawn…it’s awesome to know that skiers in MNC and beyond are just simply getting out on the snow!

VT, or CO?

Not a nordic trail for this training day!

View for days

The skinning uphill at hour 3+ isn’t too bad with this weather and snow

Wax Recommendation: Kendall Cup

By on 27 January, 2021 in Uncategorized

For those racing the Kendall Cup, be prepared for a cold day! With this in mind, the wax recommendation is somewhat basic. That being said, putting 2-3 cold layers of wax into your skis will serve you better than just a single cold layer! So there might be some additional time required.

The key is to have your bases HARDENED against dry friction and static friction. Multiple layers of a cold, hard wax ironed-in and then scraped/brushed will change the consistency of your base and give it a hard, shiny finish. On the final layer, be sure to brush many many times and, if possible, finish with a hard nylon brush scrubbed back-and-forth.

-First, clean your skis of any wax and brush them thoroughly with a metal brush

-Next, iron-in a layer of your coldest non-fluoro glide wax. Good options are:

-Next, if you have a cold, hard graphite such as Start Graphite or SkiGo Graphite, iron this in and scrape/brush. Graphite can be very helpful in cold snow, as this article discusses, but it is not a necessary component. Please do not stress if you are unable to do this step. Your bases being hardened with a few cold layers is still the most important factor. If you do not have graphite, during this step instead apply and scrape/brush a second run-through of your coldest glide-wax.

-Finally, the wax job is finished with your third layer of cold wax. On this layer, when you scrape and brush do so very thoroughly!

MNC will have a wax cabin rented at the lower parking lot. Look for the black upright MNC feather flag! Please do not linger around the wax cabin, enter the wax cabin without a mask (if you can help it, please do not enter at all), or gather in groups at all (including near the wax cabin). However, please feel free to stop by the wax cabin to check-in with Coach Adam about other helpful wax tips like a structure that may be applied to your skis. 

Bolton (and Winter) comes BACK

By on 4 January, 2021 in Uncategorized

If we all wanted to put 2020 in the rearview mirror, nothing has represented turning over a new snowflake quite like the weather and progress that has happened at Bolton in the past week alone since Jan 1!

Only a week ago, we were blogging about a crazy snowfarming effort in the warm rainy weather, without even having any MNC structured programming during the week.

A week later, the temps dropped and the snow finally arrived! With winter in the air, the snow extremely packable and groom-able, and the temps holding below freezing, this past weekend led to a real taste of great skiing. Here’s a picture worth a thousand words: thanks to Steve Crafts for capturing a moment of true Nordic bliss for both skier and groomer!

Be sure to keep on top of the latest Bolton conditions by following our snow report page. You can find this on the right-hand side of the MNC homepage, you can follow this page if you have Twitter, or you can just bookmark the link below!

MNC Bolton Snow Report

If you’re interested in some memories from past Bolton excellence, check out the pages that current MNC coach, current MNC parent, and former Bolton Nordic director Liz Hollenbach sent along: Bolton/MNC BKL in 2010!

 

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