The NENSA Staff spends a whole lot of time on the road in the winter, which also means a whole lot of time searching for a soundtrack to watch the snow-covered hills of New England roll along out your window. For at least one staff member (hint hint), that means a lot of audiobooks, and also a whole lot of Grateful Dead piped from a Subaru Outback speaker.
As I was driving down a snow-filled I-91 back from a weekend of races in Jackson, New Hampshire Sunday, I was deep into a show (12/29/77 at Winterland, for those interested, great China Cat—>Rider) when the Dead lit out into a jam of “Playin’ in the Band,” and a Deahead fun fact popped into my head. After fifty years of shows, the Grateful Dead’s most played song was this: “Playin’ in the Band.” Played 648 times over the years.
I chewed on that for a minute. Given a choice from what one NENSA staffer (hint hint) believes is the among the best musical catalogues in history, the Grateful Dead returned most often to a song that celebrated the beauty that they were a band, and that they were playing in it. The reason to play music, in other words, was to do it with others, and that was reason enough.
I thought of the weekend of racing in Jackson, and a race out over the crest of the Green Mountains that was happening at Sleepy Hollow, the Mansfield Skiathlon, and thought there was a reason I was fixating on this fact. Nordic skiing is celebrated for its mode of pursuit being one of solitude, even stoicism. A sport for those who like the dark woods and the frozen corners of the world and getting their on nothing but their own volition and a little help from some Swix Extra Blue.
Yet, there were over three-hundred skiers, ages from 10 all the way through to 82, for which time on skis this weekend was anything but that stoic, singular pursuit this weekend. Tucked into the little community center in Jackson, New Hampshire enjoying a post-race lunch served by the 5th graders of the Jackson Grammar School, or huddled up around the wood stove at the Sleepy Hollow Inn yurt in Huntington, Vermont, there skiers skiing together at a weekend of races that included the White Mountain Classic, Jackson Jaunt, and Mansfield Skiathlon.
What’s the lesson of these two successful races? It lies in the basic building block – of our community. The band that plays, simply because playin’ in the band is fun. Our ski clubs and communities that together form New England skiing. What made the weekend of racing a success was the way that folks get together to make deconstruct an individual pursuit into being something that on the surface, it is exactly not. A sport of solitude, done together in synchronicity.
The weekend in Jackson, which included the White Mountain Classic and Jackson Jaunt, intentionally included the United States Collegiate Ski Association’s (USCSA) Eastern League race alongside the NENSA Popular field. The USCSA is a historic ski circuit that celebrates the diversity of formats and ways that young skiers continue to keep skiing. Some of the teams are varsity athletic programs, such as Clarkson and Paul Smith’s. Some are coach-led clubs, such as McGill and Smith’s. Others are student-led organizations that allow skiers to ski, while doing all the waxing, logistics, and support involved in racing as a collective effort. All together, the USCSA is an especially vibrant field, where the simple joy of racing is never too far off from being expressed.
The USCSA joined up with a Popular field that included the extra dynamic of the NENSA Master’s Committee’s annual One Day State and Club Championship race. Designed to celebrate the strong Master’s club presence in New England, an especially close battle in this year’s Classic saw Vermont take a win over New Hampshire, Northwest Vermont win the Men’s Club Championship, and Cambridge Sports Union win the Women’s Club Championship.
All of this combination of associations, teams, and circuits, mind you, is only really discernible when you look hard. It’s like that little riff, tucked deep into a Jerry Garcia jam (it’s tortured, but we’re sticking with the Dead for our metaphors today folks). What the weekend of racing on the surface looked like, was just a plain, old fun race. A cut off the man-made Jackson snow loop sent skiers herringboning up, and a whole lot of shouts of “old-school” from seasoned racers. Cory Schwartz, the newly crowned Dead of New Hampshire skiing (he’s been crowed here) after retirement from 40 years of coaching at University of New Hampshire, stood ready to time the race while also doing some giddy glances at the live timing for the Bates Carnival up in Rumford, Maine. On Sunday, the Jackson XC youth kids took to a race course for the first time ever. It was, in short, a wonderful tapestry of those things that make ski racing feel like ski racing.
If Jackson was a testament to community by amalgamation, then the Mansfield Skiathlon was a testament to community by dedication. The work of one club to put on a race for many clubs, the Mansfield Skiathlon is reflective of the best ideals of the dedicated Burlington area group that puts it on. It’s competitive, it’s community-based, it’s Classic and it’s Skate. It’s, in short, a wonderful thing. The fresh-snow at Sleepy Hollow and the perfect shining sun on Sunday let these ideals shine through just a little bit more.
In short, it was a great weekend of racing in New England. Made possible by the mixture of loose associations we all share as skiers, coming together to jam all together at once.
White Mountain Classic RESULTS | Jackson Jaunt RESULTS
Photosets:
Tom Bartol – White Mountain Classic and Jackson Jaunt
Mansfield Skiathlon RESULTS
