Fred Bailey

Does all the recent snow fall have you itching to get on skis? Perhaps even eager to jump in a low key race?  Some of our regional partners are hosting events that might check all of your boxes.  JacksonXC celebrates the new year with the Jackson Jaunt – a choose your own pace and start time affair.  Most years this event requires your classic boards to take a cruise through the scenic and undulating Wave trail and Eagle Mountain trails.  The following Saturday the Haydock family host the 39th annual run of the Bogburn.  This is a special event harkening to the early days of skiing in New England, where skiers traverse the woods of central Vermont on old school classic trails.  The Gunstock Nordic Association hosts their annual race the next day.  The smooth flowing terrain of their trails is an excellent way to get ease back into freestyle skiing.  Not to mention they put on a killer lunch menu!

Jackson Jaunt (classic) – January 1st – REGISTRATION

The Bogburn (classic) – January 7th – REGISTRATION

Gunstock Zak Cup (freestyle) – January 8th – REGISTRATION

We know the weather can be a little iffy later this time of year.  Please keep an eye on their event pages for any updates.  These are the kind of events where memories are made.  They allow us intimate experience with nature followed by social time with our community – undoubtedly this includes some good stories to share.  So come out and kick off the New Year at some excellent Popular races, which include some cool prizes and raffle items.

Happy Holidays!

This year’s Silver Fox Trot freestyle race hosted by Ford Sayre at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center was a huge success!  Despite the event falling unusually early in the season, nearly 300 racers showed up to partake of this long-time running Popular competition.  The Craftsbury Outdoor Center did a fabulous job ensuring there was ample snow to ski on, with an undulating 2km race loop, room to warmup  and areas for kids to play on skis.  The enthusiastic crew from Ford Sayre showed up in force and ran a very smooth event.

On the racing side, the participants ranged from Bill Koch Youth Ski League competitors to a healthy contingent of masters athletes, with many collegiate and junior skiers mixed in.  Due to the short loop, this year’s event was run as interval start minimizing course congestion.  A new twist taken for NENSA’s summer rollerski series saw the fastest open athletes being seeded by best U.S. Ski & Snowboard points, regardless of gender – it was very cool to see the men and women mixing it up side-by-side.  Another twist on past events was the masters recognition, where all the age group winners of each gender were brought together to celebrate their accomplishments on the day.  It was quite amazing to see so many pillars of our New England ski community join that ceremony!

M2 – Allison Crocker – Ford Sayre

M3 – Sara Graves – Stowe Nordic

M4 – Jessie Donovan – GMVS

M5 – Amy Caldwell – Caldwell Sport

M6 – Rosemary Shea-Cobb – Mansfield Nordic

M7 – Ellie Bouffard – Mansfield Nordic

M8 – JoAnn Janowski – Craftsbury Ski Club/Rossignol

M1 – Scott Lacy – Crosscut

M2 – Tyler Magnan – NWVE

M3 – Jeremy Huckins – Stowe Nordic

M4 – Eli Enman – NWVE/Rossignol

M5 – Hugh Pritchard – Onion River Nordic

M6 – Phil Lawson – Craftsbury Ski Club

M7 – Richard Costanza – Craftsbury Ski Club

M8 – Rob Bradlee – Freedom Trail Nordic

M9 – Jim Fredericks – Craftsbury Ski Club

In the Open field, the UVM men and women led the way, sweeping both podiums.  A strong contingent of junior racers was close behind trying to make inroads into the pace set by the collegiate skiers.   The Silver Fox Trot also featured the largest masters field to date this season with more than 50 jumping in the event! The day was finished off with Bill Koch races.  Each two-year class group began as a mass start, rocking around the Lemon’s Haunt before climbing back to the upper stadium for the finish.  All totaled nearly 100 BKL skiers competed on the day.

Results

Scoring

NENSA photos

Thank you Ford Sayre and the Craftsbury Outdoor Center for a wonderful event!  Up next racing action moves from Mt Van Hoevenberg, Lake Placid, NY for the Rikert Grand Prix Eastern Cup Opener, hosted by the Frost Mountain Nordic Ski Club on Saturday & Sunday December 17-18th.

Skiers flocked to this year’s Quarry Road Opener to kick off the winter racing season.  Despite no natural snow, the organizers at Quarry Road put together a ribbon of artificial snow for the ski community to enjoy.  Rain on Saturday made way for blue sky and sunshine during the Opener.  This year’s course was very similar to 2021, but was run in the opposite direction.  Racers set out in 15 second intervals in groups of 20 to minimize congestion on the short loop.  It was a dizzying affair of laps, with athletes needing to keep a careful count to ensure they skied the correct distance.

This year’s field of racers surpassed 150!  It spanned all ages and abilities.  There was a large group of collegiate skiers with Harvard and UNH making the longer drive to compete against Bates, Bowdoin and Colby athletes.  It was great to see a growing number of local high school programs including Edward Little, York and Spruce Mountain mixing it up with the likes of Gould Academy and the Quarry Road Ski Club.  New this year was the addition of Para Nordic racers.  Two ParaNordic racers made the trip to Quarry Road to wet their appetite for fast gliding on snow.  The timing of their starts allowed them opportunities to race alongside the able-bodied athletes.

Late in the day the middle school racers had their turn to have their fun in the sun.  The final race of the day saw bunch of particularly speedy lollipoppers cruising around the Quarry Road meadow, with big smiles!

Results

Scoring

flyingpointroad photos

NENSA photos

Up next racing action moves from Maine to Craftsbury, Vermont for the Silver Fox Trot, hosted by the Ford Sayre Ski Club on Saturday December 1oth. Here’s the LINK to register.

This year’s Event Organizer and TD Training Seminar was held over the weekend in Waterville, ME.  We kicked off the seminar with presentations at the Chace Community Forum (housed in Colby’s new downtown dormitory on Main Street).  The content of this year’s presentations was markedly different from years past, with heavy focus on how we work together to be even better event hosts.  Highlights from the presentations include Mary Anne Levins speaking to her experience as a Race Secretary and Ed Despard of Bullittiming on all the new updates in the world of timing.  The key takeaways from these presentations:

“The Race Secretary and Chief of Timing are the problem solvers that keep Timer and Race Jury appraised of the all the event’s behind the scene’s communications.”

“Keep your timers happy, they are under a lot of pressure to produce quality results and they are the first to be blamed when something goes wrong”

“Things always don’t go according to plan at a race – the better prepared your race staff is, the less the public will notice the mistakes.”

We discussed how we include ParaNordic athletes in our events.  The easiest thing we can do is add a category for them at registration.  The next step is to reach out to the athletes that register for that category and have a conversation with them about their goals for the race and invite them to preview the course with you.  As we move toward greater inclusion, think of ways that they can be safely incorporated into the start order so that they have the opportunity to ski with able bodied skiers.

On Sunday our focused shifted to hands on experience at the Quarry Road Opener.  Participants were asked to move around to different tasks and learn at each one.  These included shadowing the Race Secretary, Timer, the start crew, event setup, and observing how athletes navigated the course.  The format of the day allowed for lots of dialogue and the chance to make observations without feeling the pressure of hosting the event.  There were 27 event participants this year, including four timers and several virtual attendants.  Those that attended in person really enjoyed the face-to-face interactions!