Dear NENSA Community,

What began as a year devoted to celebrating NENSA’s 30-year history and founding vision also became a year that laid important groundwork for our future. Our 2025–26 Impact Report shares NENSA’s work through the lens of a long-term athlete development model, reflecting our mission to serve skiers across all ages and stages of the sport.

Through a year-long “Humans of NENSA” storytelling project, we celebrated some of the people at the heart of NENSA and the community they have helped build. As the calendar turned to an Olympic year, our attention shifted to NENSA skiers competing on the world’s biggest stage. What better prelude to the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Bill Koch League than seeing a half-century Olympic achievement matched by a new generation, by a skier shaped by the very BKL community, and even backyard, where that legacy lives. Shortly thereafter, we said goodbye to our founder, our hearts full of gratitude for his vision and enduring influence.

The year reached a crescendo in Lake Placid at the 2026 FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals, where our region welcomed the world and the strength of the New England ski community was on full display. In partnership with ORDA and L.L.Bean, NENSA helped host events that celebrated both the legacy and future of U.S. cross-country skiing. What made the weekend especially meaningful was seeing the full NENSA community come together to help make a world-class event possible, bringing the same energy, commitment, and community spirit that define NENSA throughout the year.

Against this backdrop, NENSA strengthened the programming that nurtures and sustains an active cross-country ski community for all ages and levels throughout the East, growing both our reach and our impact. We expanded support for coaches at every level, including a full-day Coaches Education conference designed to serve and connect everyone from youth program volunteers to experienced L200 coaches. We also broadened the educational resources available to members through a new virtual speaker series and by developing a library of content that supports coaches, clubs, skiers, and families across our community.

We continued to evolve Nordic Rocks with a focus on stronger community integration, more consistent programming, and clearer pathways for young skiers to stay engaged beyond their first experience with the sport. At the same time, NENSA remained an active contributor to the broader ski ecosystem and national development pipeline, with staff directly supporting national programs and contributing to committees and initiatives that shape athlete development beyond the region.

As we step forward from a momentous year, we look to a future we have the opportunity to build. Recent work to strengthen governance and deepen strategic conversations has laid the groundwork for a new planning process that will guide NENSA’s next chapter. This work is an opportunity to reflect on what NENSA does best, where we can have the greatest impact, and how we can carry the strength and values of this community forward.

None of the impact shared in this report would be possible without the people who make up the NENSA community: our members, donors, sponsors, grantors, athletes, coaches, volunteers, clubs, families, and event and program participants. Whatever your role, you are part of the foundation that has brought NENSA to this point and will play an important part in shaping what comes next.

Thank you for being part of our journey.

With gratitude,

Heidi Lange
NENSA Executive Director

Founded in 1995, the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) is a nonprofit member-supported service organization fostering a vibrant ski community through educational, recreational, and competitive opportunities for skiers of all ages and abilities. From youth programs like the New England Bill Koch League (BKL) and Nordic Rocks to community events such as Women’s XC Ski Day and the Popular Series, we create inclusive, fun environments that inspire a lifelong passion for the sport. We also steward a robust competitive ecosystem, featuring events like the Eastern Cup, the largest Junior National qualifying series in the U.S., and regional training camps for athletes at all stages of development. With over 60 member clubs and more than 9,000 event and program participants, we are proud to be at the forefront of Nordic skiing in New England, empowering lifelong learning, development, and community-building.

Why Cross-Country Skiing?

Last winter marked the 30^th season working towards the original spark which kindled NENSA’s founding; a notion from John Caldwell, among others, that the New England ski community could produce Olympic medalists again. In all that time, New England skiers had pursued that goal as New Englanders – with a stubborn Yankee work ethic that we develop skiers to a level of excellence by creating a competitive community which is itself the incentive to push on. Then in February, Ben Ogden skied to an Olympic silver medal nearly fifty years to the day that Bill Koch had done the same, and that original NENSA vision became realized…and with a backflip too.

As Ben landed, so did his achievement back at NENSA. The same competitive ecosystem he progressed through is one which more skiers than ever are experiencing today. NENSA fosters the grassroots competitive joy found at Community races, and Eastern High School and U16 Championships, and the town hall meeting openness of the Eastern Cup circuit. NENSA also stewards growing skiers as they train and race through the forests and hills of New England and beyond, through Junior Nationals, Regional Elite and Development camps, and national and international competition. Simply put, we pull together a community which is the national leader in skier development.

Former SMS Program Director Sverre Caldwell describes NENSA’s competitive project succinctly as “providing extra levels on the ladder to success.” NENSA’s work in the past year has been to create sturdier rungs on that ladder. The Eastern Cup remained steady as U.S. skiing’s largest junior circuit and continued to build out a growing introductory offering to bridge high school skier’s participation in the regional community. In promoting a year-round pursuit of our sport, NENSA put an increased focus on regional training and development opportunities, which proliferated the number of skiers across New England engaged in high-quality training opportunities.

With these rungs established, NENSA is currently focused on adding to the ladder, with a renewed focus on providing a cohesive experience for athletes at the collegiate and post-collegiate level. Towards this, the winter of 2026-27 will see a collaborative schedule featuring widespread Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) and US SuperTour overlap, with the ideal of development via community borne out across the snow-blanketed hills and valleys which NENSA has always used as its makeshift town hall.

I love the feeling when you cross the finish line and although you are exhausted you feel so proud of yourself like your lungs are empty but, your heart if full!
– NENSA Member

I love the competition and the atmosphere around nordic. Everyone is nice and I have always had fun with the people on my team as well as competitors.
– NENSA Member

We aim to foster a variety of ways for folks to stay active for life in the ski community including opportunities to grow and develop as coaches, event organizers, race officials, and as skiers themselves through both competitive and non-competitive events and programs.

One of the key ways we nurture and sustain an active cross-country ski community is through educational programs and resource sharing. We offer dedicated training opportunities for coaches, race officials, and events organizers, and curate an online library educational materials ranging from athlete and club development to important policies and Para Nordic skiing. We also collaborate with US Ski & Snowboard (USSS) to provide pathways for our coaches to become nationally certified and we take gender equity into account when staffing NENSA camps and trips.

Another key program area aimed at supporting skiers in staying active for life is our Community Races & Events which offer introductory, competitive, and non-competitive opportunities for people of all ages and skill levels. From educational clinics such as our popular and longstanding Women’s XC Ski Day event to competitive masters marathon races, a terrain challenge, and relays, these events connect our community and contribute to a vibrant ski culture inspiring lifelong involvement.

The largest participation growth we saw across all our programs this past year was in our community and educational events. We had over 1,600 unique participants at our community events which was a 29% growth from last year. Due to the size of the Women’s XC Ski Day venue this past year, we were able to accommodate additional participants and the event sold out at 230 participants. Our coach, event organizer, and technical delegate conferences also grew with a 34% increase in participation. We’re proud to share that our efforts to further gender equity in our sport contributed to an increase in the percentage of women and gender diverse coaches at NENSA camps and Junior Nationals with women and gender diverse coaches comprising 59% of the coaching staff. The growth in our community and educational spaces shows an increasing desire to stay involved in skiing as a lifelong pursuit and that NENSA is meeting that need by providing opportunities for this type of involvement.

The 2026 FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals in Lake Placid brought the world’s best athletes to our region and showcased the strength and connectedness of the New England ski community. Throughout the weekend, hundreds of NENSA athletes, coaches, volunteers, clubs, officials, and partners played essential roles in creating a world-class event, demonstrating that international competition is built on the same collaborative spirit that powers local ski programs across New England.

NENSA worked closely with the Olympic Regional Development Authority to ensure the World Cup offered engaging activities and inspiration for ski fans at every level of the sport. We created hands-on experiences through our youth terrain park and community expo, welcomed nearly 300 young skiers to race on the official World Cup sprint course in the Future Stars Sprint, connected aspiring athletes with Olympians, and organized a celebration that saw more than 650 children share the stadium with retiring World Cup legend, Jessie Diggins. These experiences gave young skiers a chance to see themselves as part of the future of the sport while strengthening the connections between generations of athletes, coaches, clubs, and families.

World Cup Finals was a true celebration of our vibrant community showing that when our region comes together, we create opportunities that inspire lifelong participation in cross-country skiing and leave a lasting legacy for the next generation.

It is through your generosity and involvement in NENSA that we are able to create and deliver programming that connects and strengthens the ski community and advances our mission to share the joy of gliding on snow. Your financial support through four key channels – memberships, program revenue, partnerships, and donations – is what covers NENSA’s annual operating expenses, and keeps us running. In addition to financial support, we also want to thank all our incredible volunteers who generously donate their time including our Board and Programing Committee members.

We faced a challenging landscape at the start of our fiscal year with significant uncertainty surrounding tariffs, which was impacting many of our sponsors, as well as data indicating that donor participation was down in the nonprofit sector. The fact that the majority of our sponsors and grantors stuck with us, some new sponsors joined us, and the number of individual donors grew considerably compared to last year speaks to the incredible dedication and unshakeable support of the people, businesses and grantors behind NENSA. We cannot begin to express the gratitude we feel to each and every one of you who come together year after year, through thick and thin to power the New England ski community ecosystem.