Club Blogs

 Taking advantage of great snow coverage due to consistent snowmaking and February storms, the Weston Spring Fling series is being offered on Sunday nights in March while conditions allow. Race one of the series was the "Weston 14k" on March 7th. Racers arrived at the ski track to the fading rays of daylight, making it clear that the longer days of spring are just around the corner. Conditions on the 2.8k race loop were generally fast, with areas of slower manmade […]

The winter 2020-2021 season has been a tough one for ski racing with many events cancelled or moved to virtual formats. Despite the challenges of masking and physical distancing, excellent snow coverage, creative CSU race organizers, and the grooming team at the Weston Ski Track have created opportunities for local skier to test themselves this winter. On Friday, February 12th, CSU hosted the Westonloppet, a timed test of endurance pitting skiers against the clock, each […]

N. Andover, surprisingly, gave me permission to hold the 32nd annual rollerski race in N. Andover this morning, squeezing it in between a snowstorm on Friday and a tropical storm this evening.  A great turnout of juniors.  It was great to see everyone out there racing!  Results and photos below.  Thanks everyone for coming, thanks especially to all who helped out to watch corners and organize skiers at the start and to Lisa and Sarah for timing, giving me a chance […]

Need a quiet break?  Take a short ski on Trail 38 at MSA. Trail 38

It was a beautiful weekend for racing last weekend at Bretton Woods and for taking photos.  I really didn't have a problem hanging out looking at Mt. Washington while I waited for skiers to come by.  Bretton Woods did a good job scraping up the icy snow and setting a track.  The weather was warming fast but no one seemed to have any problems getting kick out of their klister and CSU brought home many age group awards.  Here are several photos of CSUers in action in […]

Jeff Dusek Background:  I started skate skiing in January 2019 after being invited by the Wellesley College Nordic Ski Club to be a volunteer coach (aka drive buses to practice since I already coach/drive the sailing team). I had tried nordic a couple times in the past with the MIT Tri Club and enjoyed it, so I found some older used gear and decided to give it a go. I quickly found I enjoyed having a winter sport that kept me off the bike trainer, and actually […]

A photographer friend of mine, John Lowe, from the Merrimack Camera Club, came by the rollerski race and took a bunch photos and passed some on to me.  Thanks John!  I believe these are from the first lap up the hill.

This year we were provided a beautiful late fall day for the 31st running of the CSU Fall Classic Rollerski Race, a nice change from the blustery weather of the last two years.  We had a great turnout of CSU and Harvard skiers, especially since the crazy weather last week canceled the race up at Trapps.  I want to especially thank Chris Li at Bikeway Source for providing many of the prizes and all the parents who stepped up to volunteer to watch corners and Ann for […]

The CSU Fall Classic Rollerski Race will be held Sunday, November 3 at 9:30 in North Andover.  This is a great opportunity for a tune up race before the season gets going on a two lap course (jrs. can opt for 1 lap if they choose).  I hope many of you can make it!  Prizes of pies and cider donuts and maybe some other stuff.  Entry form below.  Let me know if you have any questions.   Photos courtesy of Chris City The 2019 CSU Fall Classic Roller-Ski […]

Summer camp was a total blast this year, with a couple workout switches that everybody seemed to enjoy, and really good vibes among the team.  Almost everybody arrived on Sunday, and we headed out for a long-ish classic ski, with several speeds. The highlight for some groups might have been the discovery of wild strawberries along the bike path, and sometimes you just need to extend those recovery sections by a bit so that you can pick more strawberries. Priorities. […]

Every year, NENSA hosts a Regional Elite Group (REG) camp, which is by invitation to skiers from New England and NY. The camp was held in Lake Placid this year, and Kathy and Alex were the CSU coaches there. Big group of CSU athletes: Madeline, Shea, Laura, Evie, Sofia, Alex, and Henry. In total, there were 21 REG boys, 21 REG girls, and 7 each of U16 boys and girls who had been invited for a slightly shorter duration camp. The other coaches were Matt Whitcomb, Justin […]

BANG BANG! This past week in tandem with the CSU contingent at REG camp, the first appearance of the CSU Biathletes happened just across the lake at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center! Eva Baumann, Linden Niedeck and EMBK-er Gil Cavalieros joined seven other biathletes from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to train with Algis Shalna, the National Eastern Regional Biathlon Coach. It was a packed-to-the-gills week with some electrifying experiences 😉 .  After […]

A handful of intrepid CSU athletes and coaches (possibly more coaches than athletes, but who is counting?) made the trip to Western Massachusetts for our first adventure weekend of the summer. Since there was a bike race using our usual rollerski route, we gathered at Jiminy Peak to meet up with some of our friends on the Greylock and Mohawk teams, that we know through EHS and U16s on Team Massachusetts. Our roll took us through some lovely countryside on rolling roads, […]

Perhaps someone will write up their Mt. Washington experience for the blog, but here are a few photos.  I missed people because almost no one was in CSU colors, so I apologize for that.  It was a very blustery day on top, but not nearly as dire as the predictions.  Lots of good results with both Gabby and Erik Vandendreis 1st in their age groups, Hannah and Madeline 2nd and 3rd in theirs,  Eliszabeth Anderson 3rd in hers, Tyler 3rd in his, Donna 4th behind CSUers […]

 Today a bunch of our skiers jumped in the  West River Trail Run, an 11 mile race from South Londonderry to Jamaica. About 2/3'rds of the trail is on the old railroad bed (flat and soft) while 3 miles is on a more challenging single track. This is the 7th annual race and it was exciting to see 190 racers at the event. Sierra (head cheerer) They're off 5 km mark Zander gets a feed Gavin, Will and Anna Chip Crossing BMD at 8 miles Down […]

You know that summer training is truly underway once we've done a Wachusett time trial! The purpose of the TT is to get in a hard effort, some vertical feet, and to practice some of your race-day habits. We did a standard warmup, and hopefully everyone was able to do some evaluation on whether that was good for them or they need something different. We'll be doing this time trial again in late August, so you can see how your times compare. The new course is a good mix […]

 We view the spring as a time to prep the body for good summer training. We work on general strength, running technique and base endurance training. We try to get in 2-3 bike rides/week because biking tends to be an easy way to build a base without too much pounding. Towards the end of our spring quarter, we do a 100 mile bike ride. Today was the day and after the cold rainy spring, we were lucky to have a sunny day with temps in the 60's.  We split into 2 groups, […]

At EHS this year, we had five CSU coaches on the roster, and almost all of the athletes. I was head coach, and Maddy and Peter Nichol were also coaching. Doro and Gunther had been planning to come, but Gunther came down with a stomach bug the night before, so they scratched (rightfully so!). Super thanks to all the coaches (Jeff Campbell, Kiersten and Ryan Touponce, Mark Pollard, and team leader Susannah Wheelright) for managing the extra workload - we managed to get […]

Jessie and Sadie in their semi final in Quebec.  March is Championship month for our juniors. Everyone either raced at Junior Nationals, the Eastern High School Championships or the Craftsbury 30 km (our U14's). We had great results in all of these events and then gathered back together just in time to head to Quebec City for the World Cup finals. Sophie in her semi final. We had 9 SMST2 skiers qualify to race in the world cup finals so it was like a homecoming for […]

We just wrapped up some exciting racing at the U16 Championships in Bethel, ME. This place was like a snowy wonderland, with beautiful sunshine on the first two days, mountain views, and a really nice Inn where somehow they let us inside despite not meeting any sort of dress code. CSU sent eight skiers and three coaches to the weekend of racing, and our skiers were an integral part of Team Massachusetts!  I'll highlight some race results, but before getting […]

A few, mostly not so good, photos from last Tuesday's races:

It would be great if someone had a story to add of their Bretton Woods Marathon adventure, but here are some photos of CSU and some CSU Jr. alumni in action.  The waxing was pretty straight-forward since it stayed cloudy throughout the race with occasional snow falling, obviating the need to switch skis (which is allowed).  The race, being at a later date this year, attracted lots of college kids, probably doubling the field for a much more competitive race than last […]

We just wrapped up the final weekend of Eastern Cup racing. It's been a wild ride, and having three races in the weekend was a real test of fitness, guts, and skiing ability. The weekend started at Dublin, with a 3k prologue and a 1.5km prelim, and we had some solid results. Below are some photos, huge thank you to Peter Nichol who captured nearly every skier!  Francesca skied to 12th place in the 3k, and 9th in the 1.5k Shea took 9th in the 3k, and 11th in […]

Wow. What a weekend to be an SMS supporter! We had some great results everywhere we had skiers racing!   Asa charges the hill. In the World Cup races in Cogne, Italy, most of our skiers chose to race just once because of the upcoming World Championship races. The team crushed the sprint with Jessie winning!, Julia in 11th, Sophie 17th, Kelsey 33rd, Simi 4thand Andy 20th. Kyle came off of his sick bed and placed 26thin the 15 km while Julia placed 39thin the 10 […]

Great skiing this past weekend at the Rikert Eastern Cup. Conditions were fantastic, pleasantly warm on Saturday and colder but sunny on Sunday, with a rock hard track. It was a good day for CSU, with skiers posting some speedy times around a very hilly and technical course, that challenges the best of us. Saturday was the second day of the Middlebury carnival, so our juniors got to be in the same race as a lot of our alumni, now racing in college. Those college kids […]

Good day of racing for CSU yesterday at the Massachusetts state qualifier race. This race determined the teams for the U16 Championships and the Eastern Highschool Championships, later this season. Team MA can bring 24 boys and 24 girls to each of these competitions, and CSU makes up a significant portion of the team now! The race was moved on Thursday from Notchview to Prospect, because of dwindling snowpack at Notchview and continued rain and warm weather. Prospect […]

Lots of great racing at Lake Placid 10 days ago. We got hit with a real taste of winter; chilly temperatures on Saturday and a blustery blizzard on Sunday. These races were Supertour races, which means the best skiers in the US were there to contend for Supertour points. CSU skiers had a great showing amidst those top dogs, and the food table as always was a thing to marvel at. I didn't get photos of everyone (totally missed the U16 boys both days), but here is a […]

Last weekend was an exciting one for our club. Our goal is International Excellence and Local Inspiration and we came through in style. On the World Cup, Jessie was our only racer, but she came through with flying colors with a 4thin the 10 km skate and an anchor leg in the relay that moved the USA team up to 5thplace. In Finland at the U23 and Junior World Championships, Julia placed  26th, 12thand 16th, Alayna placed 27thand 23rd in the two distance races and […]

It was a beautiful day on Saturday and not as cold as predicted and with little to no wind, making for a nice day to race.  Because of the torrential rains and the rivers overtopping their banks, the race course had to be modified, starting across the street from usual and 3 laps of the Wave, but there were still buckets of snow so no problem there.  Here are a number of photos of CSUer's in action.  In the team showdown, CSU came in 2nd for Men and 3rd for Women, […]

A beautiful but cold day at the Bogburn and some very nice skiing. Lots of EMBK, CSU Jr. and Sr./Masters out there enjoying Bob's 35 iteration of the Bogburn!  Lots more photos at:  PHOTOS

 We've had a fun and busy week without any updates..here is a quick one while we await the banquet at Senior Nationals. Things started off with a bang with Sophie and Jessie landing on a World Cup podium at the same time!!!!  We then brought seven juniors and a bunch of our SMST2 team to Craftsbury for senior nationals. No pictures except for a couple from today because we started with 2 classic races in tricky waxing conditions :). The races at nationals are used […]

 This morning we had some excellent skiing on our Sun Bowl trails. The 1" of fresh snow on top of a great base made Matt's grooming job turn out perfect skiing.  We started with a warm up and then 15-25 minutes of L3 skiing and then moved to a sprint prelim and 2 heats.  Since our trails are not very wide, we kept the heats to 2-3 people each, but had good competition based on the prelim times.  After our productive fall camps (in British Columbia or Norway), […]

 This morning was our last day of fall camp in Norway so we drove up to Nordseter and took a 2-3 hour tour (there were a couple of variations) and ended back at our cabins. On the map above, we started at the town in the upper left, skied to the top of the map, then down to the pin, then over to the right hand side and down near the bottom before finishing in the bottom center. Sometimes pictures tell more than words...enjoy 🙂

 After the skate race yesterday, we decided to drive up the hill 10 minutes and do a classic over distance ski. After last weeks heavy snow and then the 6-8" of fresh powder over the past two nights, conditions are excellent and the trees are coated.  We skied a big loop that took us 2.5 hours at a leisurely pace :).  There are maps at every intersection with pins to show your location. This is a lucky thing because there are approximately 2,000 (yup thousand) […]

Wyatt at the start.  When we heard that there was a race 800 meters down the road from our cabins, we decided to jump in. Our friend Trond sent in the names and we waited to see the start list that was due to come out last night at 5. Sure enough, at 5 pm, the start list was up. The local race that we had entered had over 850 competitors, all the way from 8 year old kids to senior racers! The races started at 11 this morning and everyone went out sorted by age groups […]

 The last several days in Sjusjoen have been wonderful. We got some fresh snow and the tracks in the picture above are 30 seconds from our cabins :).  This morning we knew it would be a good day when the sun rose over the distant mountains. Oops..this is out of order...dinner the other night from master cooks Clarissa, Sophia, Anna and Nina. We have two cabins and we take turns making dinner for each other :).  We started relatively early because we wanted to […]

      Great sprint TT with the crew from Thunder Bay   Why is this picture significant? It means despite the snow storm our plane is heading to Montreal to pick us up only 20minutes late.  I have LOTS of travel issues with the team.  So it was nice when this trip went smoothly.  It also helps that Montreal is one of the most reliable winter airports in the world! We actaully brought the factory bolt on roof rack with us, 6 bags up top no problem! When […]

 If you look closely, you might recognize some of these fore-runners :).  We were offered the chance to help fore-run and we jumped at it! Everyone found out that these Lillehammer courses are a lot tougher than they look like on TV. The team was able to ski before the women's sandmen's races and then hang out for awhile and try to get pictures with Klæbo and Johaug :).  Sadie gets cheered by head coach Chris Grover.  Looks as if the bibs were just big […]

 For fall camp this year we decided to split up. Matt went to Silver Star with the older boys while George and Sverre ventured to Norway with the girls and younger boys. We arrived in Sjusjoen yesterday and settled into our cabins before taking an afternoon ski and then crashing for a nice 12 hour sleep. This morning we drove down the road to Lillehammer for the world cup sprint races. Our friend Trond Flagstaff has set it up so we can fore-run on Sunday and he gave […]

 It has been a treat to have good skiing here for the past two days. Forecast is calling for 5-7" tonight and cold temps for the next 10 days so it looks as if it will stay for awhile :). Our U14 boys work the hill.  Conor, Zander and Will.  Nina, Sophia, Charlotte and Sage.  Charlotte and Sophia were using old jib skis...they are fun for jumps etc, but were a bit draggy.  Nina looking good.  Sage and Clarissa working on getting their weight further […]

Ben O  Yesterday NENSA hosted their final roller ski race of the season in Stowe. The race started down in the Moscow valley and wound it's way to the finish at the Trapp Family Lodge. November is an iffy time for weather and if you like cold, wet and windy, it didn't disappoint! Temps were in the upper 30's, the wind was howling and a rain/snow mix was falling from above. Charlotte  The race was an invitational so the field size was around 60, a small, but fast […]

 Every year Thetford Academy hosts the Vt. State Meet for cross country running. They have a challenging 5 km course and they host a great meet. Schools are split into 3 divisions based on size and races are run every half hour. We run in the big school division and the northern Vt schools have some good runners so competition is tough. This year the race day conflicted with the NE mountain bike championships so we only entered two runners, Anna and Gavin. They both […]

Gavin and Wyatt cruise around the soccer field.  Fall has come early and cool this month. Training has been going well and everyone is looking forward to the winter! Clarissa Zander, Conor, Will and Mathias during the afternoon ski. Wyatt, Sage, Sophia and Fin Anna and Charlotte Rolling, rolling, rolling...

 This was a bigger week of training for the team and we finished with our uphill run test and a distance skate yesterday, then a 3-3:30 combi OD followed by lunch and  a strength workout today.  In our uphill run test yesterday it was interesting to see 6 PR's, 4 close to PR's and 4 a bit off of PR's. Everyone worked hard and that is the goal. We will look at the training flow and see how people are dealing with the harder period that we are now finishing. The […]

 Fall training continues to go well with a mix of running, hiking, roller skiing, strength and a spattering of running races and mountain bike races.  It is always fun to coordinate some workouts with our SMST2 team, especially when we go to Ball Mountain Dam and the road is closed to cars so we have a private 5 km loop!  Patrick O'B is the master of video :). Nina Anna  Yesterday, Misha Golfman treated us to a rock climbing afternoon. He set up […]

 Yesterday was another busy day for our SMS "nordics". Most of the team went down to Manchester for the BBA running race, while three others did some roller ski intervals and talked physics.  First..the physics question. We all know that not all roller skis are the same speed. On our team we even try to have the slower skiers use faster wheels so they can train in the correct zone(s) while skiing with their team-mates. As we went out for our ski yesterday, we […]

 After the heavy rain yesterday, it sure was nice to have sunny day! Most of our team went to Woodstock for a mountain bike race, but five athletes remained here for a distance skate with specific strength.  Enjoy the pictures..the leaves are changing :).

 We traveled to Brattleboro today for their running race. It was wet (duh).....  ...and FUN!  Since it was pouring, they decided to race boys and girls together. This way everyone could change and get on their way home vs waiting around while they were cold and wet.  It was nice to see the large majority of coaches and athletes embracing the conditions and having fun in the mud.  Our team all ran well with Conor taking the win, Gavin in 4th, Mathias 6th, […]

Anna and Wyatt  This is a recovery week for us, but yesterday everyone either went to a mountain bike race or did some bounding intervals. Here are some pictures from our bounding workout on our school trails. Clarissa Anna Wyatt Sage Anna and Nina Sage Nina  This morning, PG Sophia L got to hop in some intervals with our SMST2 team at Ball Mountain Dam. Enjoy the pictures!

 We finished off our big week of training with three excellent days. On Friday morning we ran our 2 mile uphill test and had a bunch of PR's. That afternoon we worked on classic technique and did strength. Saturday was Peru Fair day so we did our Dorset-Little Rock Pond combi OD (skate/run/hike) and then went to the Fair. Saturday we were treated to a great raft trip by Kroka Expeditions! This is the weekend they release water from Ball Mountain Dam so we rafted from […]