NENSA News

We have a four great events for the weekend ahead! For those just starting in the sport, there is a Learn to Ski Clinic in Concord, NH. For those looking for some low-key racing action, the Caribou Bog Classic Ski Race and the Silver Fox Trot are great options for all ages. Additionally the Caribou Bog Classic Ski Race is part of the NENSA Marathon Series and includes Para Nordic opportunities. We also have the third Eastern Cup weekend, which is combined with the Harvard Carnival hosted at Crafsbury. Click on the blue links below for more details.

Caribou Bog Classic Ski Race

The Caribou Bog Classic Ski Race will take place on February 3, 2024. This race is part of the Part of the NENSA Marathon Series and scored to NENSA Zak Cup and Club Cup. The race is hosted by the Penobscot Valley Ski Club Utilizing the new Caribou Bog Outdoor Center as the race venue that has handicap access, restroom facilities and wax room facilities. The Great Caribou Classic Ski Race has been taking place since the mid 1980s. The race utilizes a 10km loop trough the actual bog and an additional 11.5km loop through more hilly terrain. In addition to the 33km distance, there will also be 21km, and 10km distances available.  The availability of the new Outdoor Center and trail improvements allows the addition of Para Nordic classes to the race for 2024. A 4km distance option is available for Para Nordic classes. 

Silver Fox Trot

The Silver Fox Trot is hosted by the Ford Sayre Nordic team.  This year the event returns to Oak Hill in Hanover!  This is a long running event with strong BKL participation and a large masters field. It is a freestyle race, except for the 1st/2nd graders, who will ski a classic race.  This event is part of the NENSA Zak Cup and Club Cup Series. Folks this will be a historic event. For the first time, machine made snow will supplement the cross country trails on Oak Hill – don’t miss it!

Concord Learn to Ski/Ski the Beav 5K

Local skiers looking to support local trails? Never been on cross-country skis before but curious to try?  Whichever describes you the folks in Concord, NH would love to see you at Beaver Meadow Golf Course this weekend. The event pairs a a free Learn-to-Ski clinic for those new to the sport with low-key freestyle community racing!  This event is part of NENSA’s Community Tours and Event Series. For those more interested in the Learn to Ski Clinic, equipment loans are included and the Clinics are geared towards people 6 years of age and older of all backgrounds and identities who have never been on cross-country skis before. The hosts aim to create a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for people to try a new sport and discover the joy of gliding on snow.

Henchey Eastern Cup and Harvard Carnival

Eastern Cup skiing resumes at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center this weekend! EISA College skiers and junior racers from all over the Northeast will gather to compete in this combined event. The weekend is an all freestyle affair, with interval start races on Saturday and pursuit action on Sunday. REGISTRATION PRICES INCREASE TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT AND CLOSES THURSDAY AT 8PM. Be sure to check out the event schedule for more details.

Day 1:

Saturday morning greeted skiers with still air and a crisp -18C temperature, which rose slightly through the day. It really felt several degrees warmer and the day proceeded smoothly. 389 racers toed the line for Sprint Qualifying in the morning. The afternoon was quite busy with over four hours of Open, U18/U20 & U16 heats. The final climb “Grindhouse Hill” proved to be the decisive moment in many of the heats. However, we saw some of the tightest sprint finishes in an Eastern Cup in recent memory with many groups of four to six athletes battling in the final 150m.

Classic Sprint
Open Women:
1. Renae Anderson – APU
2. Michaela Keller Miller – GRP
3. Margie Freed – GRP

Open Men:
1. Luke Jager – APU
2. Michael Earnhart – APU
3. Julian Smith – Georgian Bay Nordic

Full Results
Rankings
Sam Geissinger Photos
Phil Belena Photos

Day 2:

Sunday proved to be another chilly but wonderful day, with blue sky and lots of sun. Skiers contested the 3.3km loop for the 10km and 2.5km loop for the 5km Mass Start races. To say these are hard is an understatement – these really are grueling World Cup courses with fast downhills. Skiers should be proud that they performed well on them! One of the themes of the day was the strength and depth of the Canadian skiers. Many of them crossed the border to join the weekend’s racing. They proved to be very good classic skiers, providing a good challenge for our New England and New York athletes – which brings to mind our hashtag #SkiingBetterTogether.

Classic 10km Mass Start
Open Women:
1. Alayna Sonnesyn – SMST2
2. Alex Lawson – GRP
3. Margie Freed – GRP

Open Men:
1. Luke Jager – APU
2. Michael Earnhart – APU
3. Hunter Wonders – APU

Classic 5km Mass Start
U16 Girls:
1. Evelyn Davies – Nakkertok Nordic
2. Summer Bentley – Dublin XC
3. Brooke Greenberg – Mansfield Nordic Club

U16 Boys:
1. Owen Siderius – Nakkertok Nordic
2. Evan Rebane – Nakkertok Nordic
3. Lluc Bou – Nakkertok Nordic

NENSA IG (Including full podiums.)
NENSA YouTube

A mainstay event in the NENSA Zak and Marathon Series, the White Mountain Classic flaunted its appeal to skiers 8 to 80 years old with a crisp day, brilliantly sunny skies, beautiful hard wax conditions, and three distance options: 7km, 14km, or 21km.

Skiers gathered for a post-race spaghetti lunch prepared and served by the Jackson Grammar School students, an annual school fundraiser. Overall age group winners were recognized with a selection of prizes from Jackson Ski Touring and White Mountain Puzzles. Results:

NENSA Northeast State Championships

1.       New Hampshire 7 + 1
2.       Vermont 7 + 2
3.       Maine 10
4.       Massachusetts 19 

It was another nail bitter in this year’s team scoring, with New Hampshire and Vermont going to a tiebreak. New Hampshire took the title from Vermont by securing eight (8) first places to Vermont’s seven (7) and their tiebreak being a second-place skier. Maine had strong performances as well, but not quite enough depth to challenge for the win.

One-Day Club Championships

Men:
1.       NWVE
2.       TNR
3.       Gunstock Nordic
4.       SDXC

Women:
1.       NWVE (Only one complete team participated)

This year saw the return of the One-Day Club Championships. Five complete teams competed in this year’s event. Lacking the traditional strong challenge from CSU, NWVE took the win in both categories, followed by solid performances from TNR, Gunstock, and SDXC.

Results
Rankings
Staff Photos

The most recent stop on the NENSA Community Tours & Events series gathered skiers across New England for an Austrian extravaganza featuring skiing through the Trapp Family Lodge countryside, schnitzel, cider, blueberry soup, a vendor expo, raffle, ski demos, and so much more. Co-hosted by Stowe Nordic and NENSA, the Tour de Stowe was a re-imagining of the Stowe Mini-Marathon of years past. Course options for everyone welcomed all generations of skiers.

A hot woodstove and the friendly volunteers of Stowe Nordic welcomed skiers to the Yurt on a very brisk day for registration, warm beverages, and a vendor Expo featuring our good friends from BirdieBlue, Mountain Road Outfitters, and Skida.

The first stop in their annual Tour de Trail, Cross Country Skier Magazine outfitted participants with demo equipment and hosted a raffle benefitting NENSA’s youth programming.

Skiers electing the 12km and 20km courses departed together for a beautiful tour of the Trapp Family Lodge trails, winding through the hillside with stops at the McGovern family blueberry soup station and at the Trapps Cabin for Cold Hollow Cider and Doughnuts.

BKL skiers and families were led by NENSA’s Youth & Introductory Program Director Mackenzie Rizio on a lively 5km ski. They were treated to the McGovern family famous blueberry soup along the route and warmed up in the Yurt afterward with warm cider and doughnuts along with cheese from our friends at Cabot.

A festive party in the Bierhall followed with local brews on tap and a buffet of warm Austrian hors d’oeuvres. All were entered into a raffle drawing for a generous assortment of items from our good friends at Swix.

A huge thank you to Stowe Nordic and all of the volunteers who made such a fun event possible!

Join us at other upcoming Community Tours & Events this season! More information is here:

Expansion of NENSA programming is made possible through the support of our sponsors. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all sponsors, especially NENSA Gold Sponsors Swix, Salomon, Fischer, LL Bean, and Nordic Skater and to those who joined us or supported the event directly: BirdieBlue, Cabot, Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Cross Country Skier Magazine, Mountain Road Outfitters, Skida, and Trapp Family Lodge.

There have been a lot of changes in the Para skiing world with the FIS becoming the new governing body for the various Para ski sports over the last few months. The general theme is to integrate Para and non-Para athletes as much as possible. At NENSA, we have been paying attention to this development and have been encouraging local event organizers to offer Para clinics and races in conjunction with other events they already doing. The more conversations we have had, the more it has become obvious that we need a central resources page for our region. Today we are unveiling this page (click here for the link), which includes information on organizations, events, tools, and some great skiers to follow on social media.

A big thank you to the staff of U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing for been very helpful compiling resources and creating opportunities. We want to encourage anyone with a Para athlete in their life to reach out to our regional and/or national partners for opportunities to become involved or to better support this amazing group of skiers!

Para Nordic Intro Clinic at the Weston Ski Track

The Weston Ski Track and New England Adaptive Sports are coming together to host a Para Nordic clinic for sit, standing and visually impaired athletes.  US Para Nordic coaches and athletes will be on site as well to help introduce new skiers to the sport of Para Nordic Skiing.  It is a one day clinic on January 27^th.  The goal of the clinic is to provide an opportunity to new people in the Northeast to come and try Para Nordic skiing. Click here for more details.