It is that time of year for our NENSA Auction! We are thrilled to have over one hundred options this year, from Cheese and Syrup to House Rentals, and a historic collection of memorabilia from the family of Jim Rodrigues. Come take a look! Go to www.32Auctions.com/NENSA2020
(new items will be added)
Skiers enjoy the trails at Carter’s X-C Ski Canter in Bethel. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
Maine’s Nordic ski areas are anticipating a busy season this winter, based on the bustle on trails this summer during the coronavirus pandemic.
Spreading out skiers is more easily achieved at Nordic centers because skiers don’t have to congregate on long lift lines waiting to be carried up a mountain. There also is not as much of the apresski culture found in Alpine skiing, where people gather to socialize afterward.
“Avoiding mass gatherings is easier at Nordic centers, where you just put your boots on and go,” said Matt Sabasteanski, communications director at the Pineland Farms Outdoor Center in New Gloucester.
Gabe Perkins at Bethel Village Trails said if the summer traffic on Bethel’s trails is any indication, skiers will be out en masse. The nonprofit’s 15- mile trail systems saw a 25-to-50 percent increase in traffic this year. And that’s in a ski town full of active outdoor people.
Lots of newbies may be drawn to Nordic skiing as an outdoor outlet since it’s easier to learn than Alpine skiing and requires less investment. Generally a daily trail pass at a cross-country ski center costs between $10 and $20, while equipment rentals cost $10 to $25, and season passes are between $100 and $160.
“We think just like we saw this summer at state parks and on hiking trails, people will want to be active outdoors this winter.
We think it will be a huge benefit for Nordic areas,” said Dirk Gouwens, Ski Maine’s executive director.
Similar to Maine’s Alpine areas, the Nordic centers have been building and planning for more expansive check-in areas to allow for social distancing.
Bethel Village Trails plans to move its entire operation outside to allow for curbside pickup for rentals and tickets at The Bethel Inn golf shop, where the Nordic center is based. Orders will be taken online in advance, or through the ski center’s window. The nonprofit is building two shelters that will offer protection from the wind near the trail center.
“We’re all in this together.
We want to make sure people can recreate responsibly as a form of recovery,” Perkins said.
At Pineland Farms, one of the busiest Nordic ski centers in Greater Portland, the idea is the same – with the operation moving outside to a new hut where rentals will be brought out to guests. The nonprofit also is setting up four additional fire pits at warming huts around the 30-kilometers of trails.
The farm’s market food, also, will be sold out on the trail system.
Carter’s X-C Ski Center in Bethel is building a second rental shop so that customers can get boots in one building – and then go to a second building to get skis, poles and snowshoes, to help spread skiers out.
Tickets and rentals will be sold online and attendants outside will help assist patrons.
At Harris Farm in Dayton, owner Dixie Harris said the only big change this winter will be no socializing inside the store, where skiers typically swap stories while enjoying farm fare. As for COVID-19 safety protocols, the farm has been implementing them for months.
“We’ll just transfer those protocols from the farm stand to the ski center,”
Harris said. “We’re getting lots of calls for our ski sale. People can’t wait for winter.”
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD November,16, 2020
Deirdre Fleming — 207-791- 6452
[email protected]
Twitter: @FlemingPph
Craftsbury, VT (October 25, 2020) – If there is anything 2020 has taught us – it’s that we need to focus on overall development and every competition we pull off will truly be a blessing. Three short days ago skiers from across the region competed in the second rollerski race of the summer – the Lost Nation Roll – on the Craftsbury Outdoor Center‘s new rollerski track. The anticipation of winter racing was palpable and this event was a great way to prepare, especially in light of many pandemic-related changes to our race season.
“It feels great to put a bib on, it really gets me excited for the season to come.”
– Julia Kern, SMS T2/US Ski Team
“It’s fun to be here with the team, we get to put on a bib, it is timed, and there are splits. It just feels very real, this is the best way to get ready for the season”
– Jessie Diggins, SMS T2, US Ski Team
Teams competing at the event included the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club, Craftsbury Green Racing Project, Stratton Mountain School T2 Team, Dartmouth College, Ford Sayre, Mansfield Nordic, and the Fort Kent Outdoor Center. While we would have loved to have more teams and individuals represented at this event and missed your presence, we are grateful that this crew was able to come out for a closely controlled, responsible day of racing.
The newly paved course with a fresh surface made zipping through the Craftsbury hills as fun as it gets. Both the men’s and women’s fields were quite competitive with multiple Olympian and World Cup athletes competing from both biathlon and cross country.
Women’s top-3:
1. Jessie Diggins, SMS T2/US Ski Team
2. Julia Kern, SMS T2, US Ski Team
3. Evelina Sutro, UVM/Craftsbury GRP
Men’s top-3:
1. Adam Martin, Craftsbury GRP
2. Ian Torchia, SMS T2
3. Akeo Maifeld-Carruci, Craftsbury GRP
Junior Women’s top-3:
1. Quincy Massey-Bierman, Craftsbury
2. Nina Seemann, Craftsbury
3. Maggie McGee, Craftsbury
Junior Men’s top-3:
1. Finn Sweet, Craftsbury GRP
2. Brian Bushey, GMVS
3. Bjorn Westervelt, Craftsbury
Full results from Bullitt Timing can be found HERE.
And a wonderful photo gallery from the day by John Lazenby.
NENSA is honored to be hosting a season long club-based challenge, the Hall Mark of Excellence. Current Standings.
Thank you to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center for hosting and to all the staff, athletes, volunteers, and coaches who made this event possible by following all necessary safety measures. NENSA is committed to creating safe competitive opportunities for our population – look forward to a Racing Primer on November 1 that will address developments in the Eastern Cup racing schedule.
NENSA and our venues are working tirelessly to produce a schedule of high level races that will keep competitors, officials and volunteers safe during the COVID pandemic. As per our Eastern Cup COVID-19 Contingencies we identified a system that will allow for touchless registration and timing systems. Competitors will purchase a race bib and rent and assigned timing chip. Each competitor’s bib and chip will follow them throughout the season as a NENSA, U.S. Ski and Snowboard and/or FIS number does. This effectively eliminates the need for typical registration / bib pick-up – eliminating a touch and gathering points at events. This purchase will also help subsidize the cost of vetting participants: athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers – including health screenings and adherence to state and county travel guidelines.
These bibs and chips will be used exclusively for the FIS competitions hosted at Craftsbury and all Eastern Cups. In order to compete in these events, you need to purchase your bib (you will keep it at end of the season) and rent your Zone4 chip (returned at your final start of the year). Eastern Cup fields (Eastern Regional Qualifiers) will have unlimited field size. FIS races at Craftsbury will be limited to racers with current FIS licenses and the field size is currently capped at 120 participants. If you intend to race in any of these races you need to purchase your NENSA bib and rent a chip.
Bib purchase and Chip rental ends on December 1st. At this point competitors will be assigned bibs based on List 10 of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard National Ranking List. Bibs will be distributed by Club / individually by mail or picked up at the Craftsbury Season Opener.
Craftsbury Season Opener #1 – December 5th
Craftsbury Season Opener #2 – December 12th
Eastern Cup Opener – Craftsbury – December 19th *(competitors race on 19th or 20th)
Eastern Cup Opener – Quarry Road – December 20th *(competitors race on 19th or 20th)
Craftsbury Race Into The New Year – January 2nd
Sugarloaf Eastern States Cup – January 23-24
Craftsbury Rodrigues Cup – January 30th
Gunstock Eastern Cup – February 6-7
Eastern Cup Finals – February 20-21
THIS WEEKEND!
During the month of July NENSA was thrilled to feature and promote an outstanding virtual event to benefit the Maine Outdoor Wellness Center in honor of Roy Varney, an outstanding Maine athlete who tragically lost his life in a farming accident.
There were 111 participants by the month’s end. Participants ranged across Maine, from York to Camden, across categories, outside of Maine that reach spread out to Yukon a mere 3700 miles, or a 64 hr. drive. That team The Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club nearly passed our own staff here at NENSA. It would be remiss to also not mention Mt.Blue who had a great showing. Torin La Liberté from Clarkson University set a blazing 3:16/km pace for the Rockstar (71.19km) category. Leif Harvey from Cumberland, Me rolled through the 7.1km Rollerski a hair over 21 min, then also took the 1:11:19 distance TWICE at 0:03:02/km!
All of this wouldn’t have been possible without Gloria Varney who chose to make Art is tribute to Roy. You can read her full post HERE, and Thank You Willie for #butterfly
Finally Jenny and Sharon Wilbraham both had a neck and neck amazing times running through over 71k on a bike loop.
You can see results HERE which includes images and tracking data. Weekly prizes included a raffle for SKIDA face masks and special goodies from Untapped Natural Athletic Fuel. These raffle winners were:
Week 1 – Skida Face Mask – Peter Minde, Peru Nordic
UnTapped Maple care pack – Dustin Williamson, Leavitt High School
Week 2 – Skida Face Mask – Ellen Chandler, Jackson XC
UnTapped Maple care pack – Brian Sprague, Mansfield Nordic Club
Week 3 – Skida Face Mask – Emily Cartwright, Cumberland County Nordic Club
UnTapped Maple care pack – Fred Call, Bethel Outing Club
Week 4 – Skida Face Mask – Thomas Lewis
UnTapped Maple care pack – Clara Sandberg
There were six categories in this Virtual Event. Each included generous prizes supplied by our supporting sponsor SIDAS and here are the lucky winners:
Rockstar – Sidas Heated Vest – Jenny Wilbraham
Speedy Repeater – Sidas Heated Gloves – Sadie Skinner
BKL/Rec: Sidas Hat & Buff Combo Pack – Saphrona Stetson
1:11:19: Sidas Custom Insoles – Brian Sprague
Art for Roy: Sidas Drop in Insoles and Gel Products – Gloria Varney
Run/Bike/Ski: Sidas Drop in Insoles and Gel Products – Nico Giangrande
Additionally $888.00 was raised in entry fees to benefit the Center, last week Dustin Williamson accepted a check on behalf of the Maine Outdoor Wellness Center. We especially want to thank all the participants that put in the miles for Roy.
Welcome to the second edition of Throwback Thursday. This week we jump into a Technique clinic article written by our own Peter Hendel titled “Kick Double Pole” published in the late fall of 1997 here is the article from NENN Vol.3 No.2
KICK DOUBLE POLE – BY Peter Hendel, Holderness Ski Coach
A poorly understood and highly underused classic technique is the kick double pole, or stride double pole. One main reason for this is that most skiers do not weight shift properly and so never benefit from the power of a properly weighted kick. This may be true even if they do weight shift well in their normal diagonal stride.
Why the confusion? I think many skiers are confused in kick double pole because they have an image of the kick leg as sliding or moving backwards during the kick phase. In fact we as coaches may contribute to this misconception by having our skiers kick double pole on dryland or in front of a video by sliding their kicking foot back, which in turn forces them to weight their glide ski! On snow this translates into a premature weight shift and poor kick.
In recent years I’ve tried a sequence of drills to counter this. [see diagrams below] First I have my skiers do #7 and #8 of the Nikolai Anikin drills (falling forward with a step and a kick) and then a double poling with relaxed arms drill. Next I have them tie these three together into the kick double pole.They should pole, weight their right foot and kick off, falling forward onto their (left) glide ski. We repeat this several times to get a feel of the dynamic kick propelling us forward.
Now we move outside and try this on skis. The timing of the arms, kick and weight shift is confusing, so I provide my skiers with verbal cues by skiing behind them and yelling “pole/(weight the)left foot/ kick, pole/(weight the) right foot/ kick,” and so on.Our skiers say that the verbal cues help them get used to the rhythm of the technique and that they really begin to feel the power of a properly weighted kick.
This exercise (No.7)will help you feel the proper motion which should occur as you lean forward and transfer weight from L ski to R ski.Do not push off the opposite leg. Instead just concentrate on letting your weight naturally fall forward. Also, pay attention to your upper body position. In the step position, you should not have excess trunk compression. The rotation happens at the ankle, thus little change will occur to your trunk angle.
(No.8) Is the same exercise as No.7 only now add the kick or push phases which will cause forward rotation of your hips and a relaxed, but straiter upper leg. The kick is very, very important. Pay attention to the strait line of the body from the head to the kicking foot. The support or gliding leg must be relaxed and notice it is relatively straight. The hips must rotate up and over the gliding ski; this is obligatory.
Photo: Nikolai Anikin
In honor of the long history of our organization, and our beloved community of skiers across New England we are going to pause and reflect on how we got here. I myself have been reflecting quite often over the past few months because, for most everyone, the future is more undefined than it has been in living history.
A group of families, from the Berkshire Trails Nordic Ski Club (BTNSC), met on July 6th to hike a 13 mile segment of the M&M Trail. Beginning at the Notch in South Hadley, MA and ending at Mt.Tom in Holyoke, MA. This section has been rated by Runner’s World Magazine as one of the top 10 hikes in the US. The range is a series of small mountains close together, so after every decent, there is another climb just ahead – a lot like skiing! Uphill efforts are rewarded by beautiful views.
The lead group, doing the entire 13 miles, was not stopped even by the Connecticut River. An obliging boat owner with the well known name of Thomas Jefferson ferried them across and they continued up Mt.Tom.
Group hiking is a lot of fun. With a little planning, a successful hike has a destination and terrain to match varying abilities. A common starting point, with cars left at one or two intervals, allows everyone to start together, and finish where they want to. The best part of a group hike is that everyone can hook up with someone who goes at about the same speed. All hikers, big and small, should carry their own food and water supply. Have a favorite hiking spot? Send us the location, or plan a group hike and spread the word.
By Penny Molyneux NENN Vol.3 No.1 Early Fall 1997
Adam Terko and his Mansfield Nordic Club are leading the way with innovative programming as we head into a new training season. Athletes were challenged to:
“Run your own uphill test, on foot, as fast as you can. The requirements for this test?
-Race must finish higher than it started: a net elevation gain. No minimum or maximum on the elevation gained…it can even finish just going up your driveway if that’s higher than the surrounding road!” Full Details on Mansfield Site
All told 41 folks took part over three days and representing seven states or provinces, and seven clubs!
A few result highlights:
| Most Elevation | Silas Brown | Mansfield Nordic | 2803 |
| Most feet-per-mile | Theodore Mollano | Dublin XC | 2833.3 |
| Longest run | Andy Grab | Mansfield Nordic | 12.2 |
| Shortest run | Theodore Mollano | Dublin XC | 0.03 |
You can read more and see some fun photos on the MNC website here. Bravo to all – we are adapting and thriving!
Don’t forget we are in the fourth day of the NENSA #25KinMAY Rollerski Challenge – there are currently over thirty competitors and participants signed up – our first goal – to ski 2,500 kilometers together! Competitors have already completed challenges from North Carolina, Michigan, Ontario and throughout New England.
Anyone can join us – Great Prizes including rollerskis and poles from Swix, Swenor, Enjoy Winter and Salomon.
This past weekend at Black Mountain in Rumford Maine, and day two of the Bates Carnival [Day One Recap] skiers arrived for the Chisholm Eastern Cup. The rain had stopped thanks to a biting cold wind that dropped temperatures below zero. As the parking lot filled, and the Racers, from as far away as Lake Placid, warmed up for a blue bird day of great racing, it was time to get skiing. Race headquarters was abustle the minute the doors opened, thanks to the tremendously helpful Chisholm volunteers, Bullitt Timing with the seed/start lists, and a smooth as silk bib delivery. As the course flags whipped, One hundred and sixty-six racers lined up for the start of the Womens 5k Freestyle.
The Middlebury Panthers had the podium at close to a full sweep, as Alexandra Lawson finished with a strong kick, well ahead of team mate Sophia Laukli, followed by as Margie Freed from the University of Vermont, who took third. The U 18 girls were led in by Nina Seemann from the Stratton Mountain School, followed by an amazing tied race for Amelia Tucker and Shea Brams both from Cambridge Sports Union. For the U16 girls CSU took first and second with Sofia Scirica and Evelyn Walton, followed by Hattie Barker from Mansfield Nordic Club in third.[RESULTS HERE]
For the Men, racing a 10k, it was the Catamounts turn to reign, save Peter Wolter of Middlebury, who finished a tight second place behind Ben Ogden, with Karl Schulz in third. The U18 Men were led by Will Koch, from the Stratton Mountain School, Finn Sweet from Craftsbury in second, and Brian Bushey from Green Mountain Valley School. For the U16 Men at a distance of 5k, Jack Lange from The Putney School, Trey Jones from GMVS , and Fin Bailey from Stratton, rounded out the podium for the boys. [RESULTS HERE]
The next day the tide had turned, the wind had stopped and it seemed as though there were even fewer clouds, temperatures picked up and it was as close to a perfect day as possible for the Classic Sprints. It was a slightly more challenging course clocking in at 1.6k.
(photo by John Bernard)
Will Koch, from the Stratton Mountain School, made it look easy, with Jack Christopher, of Craftsbury, along with his team mate Finn Sweet taking the podium. [RESULTS HERE]
Callie Young of Dartmouth took a commanding finish, followed by her team mate Chelsea Moore, then Abigail Streinz of Craftsbury. Evelyn Walton, a U16 from CSU finished only a few seconds after these leaders in an amazing performance.
We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend of racing, we want to especially thank the entire staff at Black Mountain, and the outstanding volunteers from the Chisholm Ski club without whom none of this would have been possible. Extra WARM special thanks to NENSA Sponsor SIDAS for sharing their products with our community and donating heated socks to the winners and heated gloves to their coaches.
