Community Races & Events

NENSA Club Relay Championships Recap

Kai Miller · April 7, 2026 ·

The last Saturday in March saw a fun morning of relay racing with skiers from BKL to Masters representing clubs from across New England all coming together for this celebratory end-of-season Club Championship event.

Following the relay races, everyone gathered to share a tasty barbecue meal and acknowledge the top relay teams as well as the season-long racers who finished on top in the Zak, Marathon & Club Cup series.

Congratulations to everyone who came out to race the relays and throughout the whole season! We also want to extend a huge thank you to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center for hosting and to Allagash Brewing and Jasper Hill for providing awesome end-of-season prizes in the form of chalices and cheese.

Relay results

Zak, Marathon & Club cup scoring

Keep scrolling to relive relay day through photos.

Friends, Fun & Food at the Third Annual Tour de Stowe

Kai Miller · March 9, 2026 ·

After a cold weather post-postponement earlier this winter, weather woes continued to plague the Tour de Stowe event directors with forecasted ice and rain. However, after careful inspection of multiple weather forecasts, they decided to move ahead with the event. And with 20/20 hindsight, they made the right decision!

While it was quite icy and raining heavily when volunteers arrived onsite, the von Trapp groomers worked their magic on the trails, the rain slowed, the skies began to clear, and by the time the BKL/youth skiers were at the blueberry soup stop, the sun was starting to come out!

Stowe Nordic’s Tour de Stowe is a true celebration of recreational skiing for all skiers, young to old and new to experienced.

At 10am, after sharing some donuts and cider in the yurt courtesy of Cold Hollow Cider Mill, over fifty people set out on a beautiful tour of some of Stowe’s most picturesque trails which took them past a delicious food stop at the Slayton Pasture Cabin. People could choose their own adventure by skiing the 14km or 22km loop with the longer course wending its way over to the Stowe Mountain Resort trail system.

At 10:30am, the BKL/youth skiers set off on their 5km adventure course which was masterminded by Mansfield Nordic‘s Liz Hollenbach. With three unique activity stations and a food stop with blueberry soup, the skiers had fun challenging themselves both physically and mentally.

The first stop featured a dice-roll agility station where skiers rolled foam dice to determine whether they would ski backwards, do a 360, complete a ballet turn or ski as low as they could go. After some warm blueberry soup, they skied onto their their next station which was tennis ball biathlon! Last, but not least, skiers completed a slalom course before riding the roller bumps into the finish for a lollipop and some tasty Cabot cheese.

The day wrapped up with a raffle and community get together in the von Trapp Bierhall where participants gathered to swap stories and share delicious food and drink.

Thank you to Stowe Nordic and their awesome crew of volunteers, David Rye and the von Trapp Family Lodge & Resort, the Stowe Mountain Resort XC Center, Liz Hollenbach of Mansfield Nordic, Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Cabot Cheese, and our wonderful NENSA sponsors for making this fun, community event a reality for the third year in a row!

Starlight Sprints Shine Bright

Kai Miller · March 2, 2026 ·

Thank you to organizer, Deb Aseltine, for the recap!

The snow was great and the lights were bright Friday night for the second annual Starlight Sprints at Titcomb Mountain in Farmington, Maine. The event was a Kings Court format and each athlete raced the 1.2 Km course in a timed qualifier and 3 rounds of heats. Prizes were awarded to all top finishers as well as a bib draw with items from local vendors.

The overall winners were: William Beale Tate (Quarry Road Ski Club) and Ayla Bodach-Turner(University of Maine Farmington)

The top three winners: Men- 1st place William Beale Tate, 2nd place Damian Wynn(Mt. Blue High School) and 3rd place Damon Rucci (Leavitt High School)

Women- 1st place Ayla Bodach-Turner, 2nd place Elja Partridge (Oxford Hills High School) and 3rd place Abby Dorr (Mt. Blue High School)

Top Masters- Scott Lessard of Wilton and Ayla Bodach-Turner (UMF)

The Farmington Ski Club continues to provide great skiing in western Maine.

Race results

Community Race Update: Hippies, Lunatics, and People from New England! Skiers at the Birkie, MNC Skiathlon, Capital City Ski Day, Stratton Terrain Challenge and…More!

Ben Theyerl · February 24, 2026 ·

Last weekend, outside of New England, the largest ski race this side of the Atlantic took place, with over 10,000 skiers flocking to the Wisconsin Northwoods outpost of Cable for the American Birkebeiner Ski Marathon.

In a new history of the famed “Birkie,” American Birkebeiner: The Nation’s Greatest Ski Marathon, my old local sportswriter Jerome Poling managed to track down the one guy who signed up for the inaugural edition in 1973 and then didn’t finish. His take on who does the Birkie? “Hippies, lunatics, and people from Minnesota.”

Well, it turns out in the motley crew that turned up this year, there were at least some New Englanders in there too. Including, in the half-distance junior race the Korteloppet on Friday, a champion, as Ford Sayre’s Donovan Van Citters took a Main St. sprint finish in Hayward.

Donovan’s set to be back in Birkieland real soon, as a member of Team New England for Junior Nationals 2026, which is also in Wisconsin this year.

Why all this fuss about the Birkie? Well, for one, the hushed little secret about NENSA’s Program Director is that I come from Birkieland, and can’t help but still treat it as the center of the universe.

More importantly though, by outside perceptions, a 10,000 person ski marathon should theoretically be pulling in just about everyone in the frozen little sport of cross country skiing. And yet, back in New England, by fate and by fun, we had the busiest weekend on the NENSA calendar. Perhaps another 1,000 skiers joined together back here, and in as many varieties (or more) of ways as there are fish in Lake Hayward!

From BKLers warming up for this weekend’s L.L. Bean BKL Festival in Jackson, NH, to terrain challenges, sprint challenges, skiathlon challenges, and a paintball Biathlon, wherever in the fields and forests of the East you went this weekend, there was skiers.

So, to the Birkie’s hippies, lunatics, and people from Minnesota, we’ll offer the slightly matched sentiment. Who skis in New England? Well, just about anyone…hippies, lunatics, and at least one person from the Midwest (Wisconsin) too.

Capital City Ski Day – Concord, NH

By: Sam Evans-Brown

On February 8th, the Capital City XC Ski Day returned to the Beaver Meadow Municipal Golf Course in Concord, NH. For the first time in many years we’ve had consistently stellar skiing all winter at “The Beav” and this weekend was no exception, with a well timed storm a new coating for truly spectacular skiing on the day of the event. The day brought together a mix of fun “Queen’s Court” style sprint racing and over a hundred first-time skiers, showcasing the growing nordic community in the capital region.

Queen’s Court Sprints and BKL Action

The morning kicked off with the “Queen’s Court” sprint races, a tournament-style freestyle format that ensured every racer—regardless of speed—got multiple heats of head-to-head competition. Around 30 racers tackled the technical course through the golf course “stadium.” On the men’s side, Junior’s Ben Poole and Madeline Ronci took the top spots, showing their elders that the next generation of nordic racers aren’t to be trifled with! Ryan Kelly was the top racer over the age of 18, and the women’s field saw Amy Dupuis claim the victory.

Full results can be found here.

Immediately following the sprints, the focus shifted to the next generation of skiers. Another 30-ish racers from the Bill Koch League (K-5th grade) took to the trails. From the youngest “Lollipops” to the seasoned 5th graders, the energy was high as families cheered on the kids through winding loops and short, punchy climbs.

Learn-to-Ski: From Kindergarten up!

The afternoon was dedicated to the event’s largest contingent: the Learn-to-Ski clinics. Despite the logistical challenge of matching gear for a massive crowd, the volunteer team successfully put nearly 100 participants on snow—many for the very first time. The clinics saw 110 registrants and an actual attendance of nearly 100 people, who all broke out into groups of ten to twenty participants. Many of the learn to ski instructors were the same racers from earlier in the day!

Under the tutelage of the dedicated team of instructors, the clinics focused on the fundamentals of balance, gliding, and—most importantly—having fun. The “Equipment Team” was the unsung hero of the day, making sure every participant was fitted with boots, skis, and poles. Thank you to the Jackson Touring Center and the Bedford Cross-Country Ski Club for helping to ensure we had equipment for all!

A Community Effort

The success of Capital City XC Ski Day is a testament to the partnership between SkiTheBeav, Concord Parks & Recreation, JacksonXC, and S&W Sports. SkiTheBeav, the nonprofit organization behind the event, continues to advocate for expanded access and reliable snowmaking at Beaver Meadow to ensure the capital region has a dependable place to ski regardless of the weather, the city continues to regularly groom the trails, providing access to free, high-quality skiing to everyone in the capital community, and S&W Sports provides generous financial support and help with day of event logistics and gear support.

MNC Skiathlon – Sleepy Hollow Inn, Hinesburg, VT

New England’s Skiathlon returned after a cold weather delay at Sleepy Hollow. The Skiathlon has historically been a showcase of the diversity and competitiveness on offer in the Champlain Valley of Vermont, and this year was no different. Fresh off a weekend of carnival racing, St. Michael’s Henrik Wist took a win with MNC’s Silvester Williams, and Craftsbury’s standby organizer Ollie Burruss in tow. While MNC’s Mia Gorman took advantage of an off weekend to hop in a community race, with St. Michael’s skiers Keeley Kendricks and Mazzy Connors behind…followed by St. Michael’s Coach Annika Martell.

The Skiathlon gave way to a sunny afternoon of BKL racing, all providing a true club day out for Mansfield Nordic Club.

Stratton Terrain Challenge

The Stratton Terrain Challenge also returned after a cold weather delay from last month. The extra month this winter meant more snow, and more cushioning, for skiers to push the bale jumps and obstacles out at the Stratton nordic center.

The photos tell the story, provided by George Forbes, and found HERE.

Bonus: An Ode to the Weston Ski Track’s Tuesday Night Series by Bill Donahue

Boston Magazine recently featured a personal essay on the inane glory of homegrown racing, penned by NENSA Master stalwart Bill Donahue. A selection, with the full essay HERE.

“We were in the bland hinterlands of Greater Boston, skiing along the ho-hum Leo J. Martin Golf Course—otherwise known as the worst golf course in America. The traffic of I-95 hummed nearby; a passenger train clanged in the darkness. But my mind knew nothing of the setting, for I was at war.We clambered toward a narrow hairpin turn, four Lycra-clad cross-country ski racers so close I could see the dried white spittle on my competitor’s whiskery face. The pack constricted like water through a pinched hose. Then suddenly we were on a wider expanse of groomed trail, snow glimmering under the floodlights at the Weston Ski Track’s winterlong Tuesday Night Race Series (TNR)…” READ MORE HERE

Results and Rankings

NENSA Results | Results on Bullitt Timing

NENSA Zak and Club Cup Rankings

Preliminary NENSA Rankings for the weekend are updated by 12pm Tuesday on the NENSA Rankings Page. A 48 hour protest period is open until 12pm Thursday. There will be no retroactive scoring of races after this per the Zak Cup scoring rules posted here.

Frozen Fun at Last Nordic Skier Standing

Kai Miller · February 4, 2026 ·

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.

Results

Photos