NENSA News

Carter’s XC Ski Center hosted the first of their Moonlit guided tour for this season. This is the second event in NENSA’s Community Tours & Event Series. The tour was led by Jes Carter, a second generation touring center operator and 7th generation steward of the property. The group enjoyed learning about the Carter’s connection to the land, how they came to operate the touring center, along with great colorful stories. Participants also enjoyed the wooded trails at night – looking for animal tracks and marveling at the dark shapes of giant conifers. The tour reached the bank of the Androscoggin River, who’s black and glassy surface flowed quietly by.

One of the best experiences of the Moonlit Tour was how quiet the woods are at night. No cars or planes could be heard, just the muffle of the powdered snow and light breeze through the trees. It was a great change of pace from our busy lives and an easy way to disconnect from our electronic devices for a couple hours. Even better was the opportunity to share this experience with other skiing enthusiasts! After the guided tour there were delicious locally made pastries and cookies. Carter’s XC Ski will be hosting a second Moonlit Guided Tour on February 10th. If you’re headed to Bethel for the Flying Moose Race, this Tour is great entertainment the evening before. For more details HERE.

In fits and spurts, winter is making its way to New England. While coastal areas may have the bulk of the new snow, some did fall in the mountains which should see far greater amounts during this week’s storm. With many skiers getting in classic skiing today on fresh snow, it’s the perfect time to look to this weekend’s offerings. Whether you’re a coach looking for excellent technique advice, a racer looking to partake in one of the region’s favorite long-running events, or wanting a guided low key ski adventure, there’s something for you. Gather your family or friends and enjoy the long weekend’s activities! Click on the blue links below for more details.

The 48th Annual Geschmossel Classic Ski Race – 1/15/2024

The Geschmossel is in its 48th year!  This has long been on the NENSA calendar and a favorite of master skiers. This Popular race is a mass start classic on the undulating trails of the Bretton Woods Nordic Center. The long loop and scenery of the venue are spectacular. This event is part of the NENSA Zak Cup and Club Cup Series.

XC Ski and Snacks Tour – 1/15/2024

XC Ski & Snacks Tour hosted by JacksonXC is a casual group event for individuals, friends and families who want to have a little fun on snow and ski to the Cocoa Cabin together. There will be guides to lead groups and help with “break out groups” along the way as skiers’ settle into their own comfortable pace. The turn-around goal is the Cocoa Cabin, making for a 5km round trip.  There will be one “extra credit” group who can ski an 8km (3km extra) round trip for skiers who reach the Cocoa Cabin ahead of schedule.  We will have marshmallows to roast along with cocoa at the Cabin (of course); and each skier will get a carry-your-own snack pack at check-in. Plus we are working on some toasting treats to enjoy at the firepit upon return to the Touring Center.

Nordic Team Solutions – Virtual Technique Talk – Coach Opportunity – 1/11/2024

NENSA and Andrew Newell of Nordic Team Solutions are excited to provide NENSA coaches with a virtual technique talk as we head into the heart of winter. This is a cool opportunity to learn from 4x Olympian, BSF Pro Team head coach and NTS business owner about technique review. The talk includes: “How do you talk to your athletes about technique?  Internal versus external cues.  How to analyze video and what to look for.” This continuing education opportunity is free to all current NENSA members.

The Silver Fox Trot – rescheduled

The Silver Fox Trot has been rescheduled from 1/13/2024 to 2/3/2024, with the event taking place at the newly renovated Oak Hill Trails in Hanover, NH.

NENSA is pleased to offer a free one year coaches membership to a deserving high school coach in each of the New England states.  This provides greater access to coaches education, course access at our events, our newsletter and other NENSA member benefits.  One of the benefits is access to a webinar hosted by Nordic Team Solutions – this is Andy Newell’s coaches’ educational programming, which is run in collaboration with many other sport experts.  Members will also be entered into a raffle for a Nordic Team Solutions membership.  For more background information please check out their website.

This year’s winners were selected from a pool of nominees by popular vote among each state’s high school coaches associations.  The goal of this year’s program is to promote professional development for newer coaches who take a highly active part in our skiing community.  And the deserving winners are:

Massachusetts: Hillary Greene of Mt. Greylock High School

Vermont: Ross Scatchard of Stowe High School

New Hampshire: Alyssa Krause of Sunapee High School

Maine: Casey Spenser of Maranacook High School

Congratulations to the year’s winners.  We look forward to seeing you in action on the trails this season!

This year’s edition of the Jackson Jaunt was run on the Wentworth Golf course rather than the usual Wave Trails, due to no natural snow. JacksonXC’s staff worked hard to fabricate a 1km loop of machine-made snow for all to enjoy! During the awards Ellen Chandler noted the crew put in 50 hours of snowmaking and 25 hours of grooming to make the loop. For the first time in several years there were nice classic tracks for the event, which was really nice to see.

Skiers from all the New England states, New York and even Arizona gathered to enjoy the event. This included BKL, high school, college and masters skiers, including a solid group of M7s. Skiers were tested by relatively flat terrain and lap counting. There was little rest to be had and plenty of double poling. A couple skiers found the lap counting challenging – but they retraced their steps and finished the correct number and had a good laugh at the end of the day.

Given the shortage of snow, JacksonXC elected to run the race with starts between 7:30-8:30am, with the race effectively being done by 9:00am. This left lots of time in the day for racers to get more time on snow and for the non-racing public to get their fun in the sun and snow. The racers took advantage of the event to do plenty of social skiing on either side of their race. The field gathered in the lodge around 10am for awards – highlighted by a goodie table and group photo of the age group winners.

Results

Zak & Club Scoring

Photos (unedited or filtered)

NENSA was thrilled to collaborate with WinterKids on their Welcome to Winter event last week at Lost Valley Ski Area in Auburn, ME! WinterKids helps children develop healthy lifelong habits through education and fun, outdoor winter activity by creating opportunities for children to be active, vibrant and healthy in the outdoors. Their Welcome to Winter event is an annual celebration of fun ways to stay active in winter. Originally created to welcome new Mainers to winter, the event has expanded to allow all members of the community to come and try out healthy ways to remain active outdoors during the winter months. This free event offered a chance to try snowshoeing, cross country and downhill skiing, snowboarding, tubing, snow sculpting, and more while enjoying hot chocolate and s’mores. 

NENSA ran a cross-country skiing station with a fleet of snowboot binding skis from our Nordic Rocks program (courtesy of Madshus, Lost Nation R&D, the Share Winter Foundation, and the Killington World Cup Foundation). It was awesome to see so many young people trying new winter activities and having fun outside in the snow, in spite of the challenging early winter conditions on the day of the event. We were thrilled to also connect with our long time sponsor and supporter, LL Bean, who was running the snowshoe station next door.

WinterKids is doing truly outstanding work getting kids outside and active during the long Maine winter, and we’re grateful to collaborate with them in working towards our overlapping missions! Check out their website HERE to learn more about what they do.