Kai Miller

On Friday morning at 10am at JacksonXC, 36 hardy souls pushed off the start line to begin skiing 10k every hour on the hour until only one skier was left.

White Mountain Ski Co.’s Last Nordic Skier Standing event is a new format for the NENSA community and a wonderful opportunity to test personal limits in a supportive and enthusiastic community environment.

Ski conditions for the event this year were top notch. The large volume of natural snow and skilled grooming by JacksonXC made for perfect skiing. Skiers were also greeted by a very bright and nearly full moon as they skied into the cold night. And speaking of cold, cold may have been the most challenging factor of the event this year. With a high of 8F, a low around -12F, and some pesky wind, staying warm was a significant challenge for skiers and support crew alike.

Back at the start-finish area located near the JacksonXC Ski Center, the race directors and volunteers did a heroic job of keeping the walled event tent a bit warmer than the great outdoors. In addition to giant heaters, they also had hot drinks and snacks for skiers to refuel and rewarm with between laps.

Photos: Joe Viger

As most skiers know, cold, fresh snow is not fast snow and, coupled with evening re-grooming, the course slowed, challenging the 23 skiers who remained as dusk fell.

At 6:45pm the Last Woman Standing, Zoe Eisenberg, completed her final lap totaling 9 laps and 90k skied. Zoe also won the women’s cash lap much earlier in the day, clearly not burning all her matches in that effort.

Photos: Joe Viger

By 5am, only 2 skiers remained and at 7am, the Last Man Standing, Peter Phelan, headed out on his final lap alone to ski a total of 21 laps and 210k. It is worth noting that Peter was also the men’s cash lap winner whose effort, like Zoe’s, clearly didn’t tire him out too much. By 7:45am on Saturday the event had come to a close a whole 24 hours earlier than last year’s event – most likely due to the intense cold.

As a matter of fact, this NENSA staffer participated in the event and will now take a moment to share some things that I experienced firsthand and particularly appreciated:

• The event format gave me an opportunity to chat with others whether on course or in the rest tent.
• Safety was paramount, especially in light of the cold, and skiers actively checked on each other while out on course.
• Everyone had personal goals going into the event but one common theme I heard over the weekend was that many folks planned to ski as long as they were having fun.
• The experience level of the field was incredibly wide from folks relatively new to the sport to people who’d been skiing since they were three years old.
• The event brought together people from a wide range of sport backgrounds beyond skiing including triathlon and ultra running.
• The restarting format meant that there almost always someone to ski with.

If this event has peaked your interest, stay tuned for next year’s rendition! And if this has you excited to try some longer distance races, you can check out the NENSA calendar here for some spring marathons coming up this March.