Nordic skiing is a winter sport, and the equation for finding snow in the East weighs heavy on latitude. As in, the more north you go, the more likely there is to be snow. It’s not a surprise then, that when most of us dream of winter, we dream of that magic land north of the 45th parallel across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Yet, nordic skiers are also known for being a hardscrabble, passionate bunch, and with demographics being what they are, it’s no surprise that there’s hardscrabble, passionate, folks down a little further south in New England.
Enter the Berkshire Hills. Where the folds and ridges that encase the region also neatly package a whole community of skiers. From the longstanding presence of the Williams College ski team to the steadfast leadership of longtime high school coaches, with a few Vermonters that have sneak in from the North too, the Berkshires and Western Mass have always pulled more than their weight in the nordic scene.
On Sunday, that community came ready to showcase the biggest thing it had to offer, Mt. Greylock. Rising nearly 3500ft up from the surrounding countryside, Greylock is a perfect bump rising out of the foothills, which just happens to have a near-perfectly paved toll road stretching 8 miles (~13 k).
In the fourth running of the Mt. Greylock Hill Climb, there was again over one-hundred skiers who took to that course (or a shorter, 4.3 mile (7 k ) course running up that toll road. With its undulations and climb from the hardwoods up to the providence of the pines, the course has a feel to it that a skier can find whispers of winter in, and here, in early November, that is all skiers are looking for. To match the course, there’s been a coalescing of a small, dedicated group of volunteers that represents the kind of focus on accessibility and pride that those who ski in the Berkshires have in their community. When it all went into motion on Sunday, it all was set to go smooth. The course was great. The weather was perfect. The awards of cheese from Cricket Creek farm and bread from Bread Euphoria were plentiful.
The long course race was a wave start, seeing five skiers at a time take to the start line. In the long course men’s field, a two-way split in the first wave produced a battle between Williams College teammates Janne Koch and Keelan Durham. Koch would pull away in the final few hairpins leading to the summit, and ski to the fastest time of the day too, a 47:11. Durham would wind up taking 3rd place when all finishers had crossed the line. Splitting the two on the results sheet was Tom Bye, who broke from the start from the fourteenth (yes, 14th!) wave to take 2nd place in a time of 47:30. Let the Minnesota-born Bye teach us a lesson about wave starts that we could all take to the American Birkebeiner. Though your wave number may be high, your result number does not have to be!
The women’s long course race would offer hints at another trend in this year’s edition of Mt. Greylock. Fresh off many a-Fall sport’s season, our junior racers from across the region joined up with us again. Craftsbury’s Amelia Circosta led the charge, taking a commanding win in a time of 56:30 up Greylock. She was followed by Green Mountain Valley School’s Beth McIntosh in 2nd place, while Williams’ Greta Laesch skied to 3rd place.
The short course continued the Juniors trend, with our U16 juniors taking top honors. In the Men’s race, the winner was Zach Scoponich-Burgel from EMXC, with Mansfield’s Jorgen Pirrung in second place, and Stratton’s Wren Chalmers in third. The Women’s race saw Mansfield’s Astrid Longstreth take the win, with GMVS’ Paige Fieldhouse in second and Stratton’s Aida Chalmers in third.
Rollerskis famously do not handle downhills well. Hence, we do hill climbs. One of the odd quirks that this produce is that everyone must get back down the mountain. In the name of safety, that means a holding pattern at the summit until the Rangers give us the clear to go down. On Sunday at the top of Mt. Greylock, the sun was shining, the air had cooled, and for a more a momentary glance, a whole community dedicated to being in motion on skis was suddenly in stasis with nowhere to go. The results were heartening; old teammates re-connected, present teammates talked things over, and for at least one “freshly back in New England” Race Director, new connections got to be formed too. The bibs got piled up. Ed Despard starting crunching numbers in his truck. Coaches talked to athletes and athletes searched for their coaches. It all felt familiar. All felt like something that we should rejoice in the chance to do again, a lot more, real soon. As one of the signs on Rt. 7 going North from Mt. Greylock directs, THINK SNOW!
It’s going to be a BIG winter.
Mt. Greylock Hill Climb RESULTS
