Author Archive | Adam Terko

Junior Licensing/Memberships

By Adam Terko on 11 November, 2024 in Junior Blog

Everybody’s favorite part about ski racing is most definitely the acquisition and renewal of memberships, right? It’s always a joy to stay on top of which organization to register with, what options to select for racing, and the fees associated!

Hopefully this quick primer will make it easier for our Junior racers (new and returning) to get a handle on what to sign up for, and where to find it.

Note that these registrations apply primarily to those athletes competing in Eastern Cup races, particularly athletes looking to compete in multiple EC races/weekends throughout the season. Some memberships are mandatory to even register for these races, while other membership tiers are only needed if you would like to be seeded/ranked from race-to-race and in the final year-end lists (JN qualification).

NENSA

NENSA is the regional governing body of our sport. All Eastern Cup races are put on by NENSA. The Eastern High School Championships, U16 Festival, BKL Festival, and Junior Nationals are all NENSA series’ or trips.

To compete in an Eastern Cup, you must have a NENSA license. You can find the NENSA membership page here.

Mansfield Nordic Club should be listed under the clubs you can select from the dropdown list. Please select MNC for your club!

US Ski and Snowboard

There are often frequent changes to the US Ski and Snowboard website. The direct membership website is my.usskiandsnowboard.com and this is where racers will need to obtain/maintain an account.

To enter an Eastern Cup race, you will need at minimum a “General” US Ski and Snowboard license. However, to score points and have your results and ranking carry-over to subsequent races, you’ll need the more expensive “Competitor” license. If you are planning to race in multiple Eastern Cups, would like to be included on the JN ranking list, and are considering skiing beyond high school, you should be obtaining and renewing a Competitor license.

Your US Ski and Snowboard account is where your NRL (National Ranking List) points profile will live. All of the NENSA Eastern Cup races are scored to the NRL, but other higher-level races in our area and beyond will also have points that score to this points profile. These NRL points impact your seeding in any NRL-sanctioned race (Eastern Cup or otherwise).

While registering you should be able to select Mansfield Nordic Club as an organization. Please do so…thanks!

Special note if you are a 2nd-year U18 or older, you will be promoted to complete Safesport training in addition to just registering for your license. Please note that this can be a multi-hour process the first time you go through it, and is absolutely mandatory to receive your license. Do NOT leave this until the last minute, as leaving this incomplete could keep your membership in “pending” status and prevent you from competing.

FIS

FIS (Federation Internationale de Ski) is the world governing body of our sport. A FIS license is primarily only required for competitors racing internationally, such as qualifiers for the U18 Scando Cup or Junior World Championships. Some races in the East are FIS-sancitoned, but a FIS license is not required for competition.

Skiers who are Juniors or Seniors in high school may consider acquiring and maintaining a FIS license if they are pursuing a collegiate ski career, particularly on larger D1 schools that often recruit international skiers as this provides as direct a comparison point as you can get in a sport like this.

If you are curious if a FIS license is right for you, reach out to Coach Adam for more information. Most of our MNC skiers do not need to worry about this license.

Tomasi Meadow Trot 2024

By Adam Terko on 11 November, 2024 in BKL Race Blog, Junior Blog, Masters Blog

If you have never been to Tomasi Meadow in Underhill, you owe yourself a visit! It is a beautiful open field with smooth rolling hills right in the shadow of Mount Mansfield. In the summer dog walkers and joggers enjoy the space, which has been conserved by the Vermont Land Trust. In the winter, trails are marked and groomed by Peter Davis with the MNC snowmachine! These trails are totally free for everyone in the community to enjoy.

This Sunday was the third annual Tomasi Meadow Trot, an small “fun run” that raises funds for maintaining and fueling the snowmachine we groom with. Many MNC volunteers helped things run smoothly, as well as Emilie Soisson from the Underhill Rec Committee. Special thanks to the Town of Underhill for lots of important infrastructure like traffic cones and signage.

While the leaves had long since fallen, this year’s TMT was still just as scenic as ever with blue skies and the ever-present mountain as a backdrop. There was a kids race, an open race, and even some trail work after (thanks to Brewster River MTB Club for the tools) to get the meadow in the best shape possible for winter skiing.

They are off!

You can find results and photos from the event below. This event is made possible through a partnership with the Underhill Town Recreation Committee and MNC!

If you are interested in donating directly to the trail system, please use this MNC donation page, scroll down, and mark “Tomasi Meadow” in the comments of your donation in the form. Thanks!

Tomasi Meadow Trot ’24 Results

Tomasi Meadow Trot Photo Album

Getting things ready for winter!

Haunted Greylock Rollerski Race

By Adam Terko on 5 November, 2024 in Junior Blog

It was a spooky weekend down in Massachusetts for the Mt Greylock rollerski race. This is an annual event that is a few years old, but we’ve never given it a try until now. It was a fun trip and something we’d do again, for sure!

The drive down Rt 7 was scenic and the weather was pretty balmy…right on par for this fall, it seems. 3.5 hours is a long journey, but we had an AirBnB rental so the Junior squad for this trip made a weekend of it.

The only problem with our house? There were some serious signs it was haunted.

You see, we try to keep things relatively cheap for trips like this. Nordic skiing is an expensive sport, so when you get the opportunity to stay in a large house for a small amount of money, why not take it? Who cares if this rental was a former homeless shelter? Who cares if there are holes in the back of the closets that lead to torn-apart sections of the building, disconnected showers, and lit up hallways despite no occupancy…

It was all pretty fitting, though, given Halloween was only a few days prior. And it had been some years since I’d cooked any “room pasta” which is a throwback to when we would bring a hotplate and make Eastern Cup dinners on the hotel bathroom countertop (this former homeless shelter did not have a traditional kitchen, as you might guess from such an establishment).

Out for a Saturday run in the Pittsfield State Forest

So, we certainly had some interesting accommodations. Other than that, the weekend was very standard for a ski race trip. We looked up some nearby trails to do a pre-race run at, and woke up early to oatmeal and eggs for an uphill classic race. There were many NENSA teams and friends in attendance, and frost at the top of the mountain. Many were in their winter race suits, which gave a good preview of the season ahead.

Astrid took the win in the short course women’s race, with Jorgen in 2nd place for the men. Liam also completed the short course even with a bit of sleep-deprivation, having gotten up at 4:30AM to make the start. In the long course, Jonah and Lorenzo duked it out in waves with many familiar skiers from EMXC, GMVS, SMS, and more. Seven had an epic race, chasing down skiers and battling through racers one after another.

We had some Masters in attendance, too! Peter Vile and Michael Dillon both raced, with Michael taking a Masters podium in 2nd!

Women’s podium ft. Astrid

Best of all, you don’t have to rely on just photos and stories…Seven made an excellent vlog of the trip 🙂

The Latest from TerkTech in 2024

By Adam Terko on 21 October, 2024 in Junior Blog, Masters Blog

It has been a while since I last shared details on some ski inventions or variations that I’ve cobbled-together.

In college, I made a very simple human-powered grooming device out of lumber and old corrugated drainpipe I found behind the Facilities/Workshop building. My coach referred to this stuff as “Terk Tech” as a play on the actual Nordic company Tidd Tech, maker of snow grooming equipment.

Unlike TiddTech, most of my stuff does not come with authentic craftsmanship. There is certainly no quality control, and often I’m the test subject for a few iterations of a given invention before it is approved for use by the team.

Why do I spend time and money on this stuff?

I think one fun element of our sport is all of the technical elements. When I say I enjoy the technical elements of skiing, I don’t just mean analyzing video of skiers in slow motion or watching extended videos describing ski grind characteristics. Those things are fun in their own way, but when you zoom out from the ultra-techie aspects you can still tell our sport is very diverse in the physical demands required, and the specialized gear to help meet those demands.

TerkTech comes about because:

I like to try and get creative and think outside the box, maybe even just as a personal challenge
Some days you can’t just stare at the computer screen before/during/after training sessions
It’s fun to try and look at tools or exercises from other sports and work out how they may be useful to skiing
A surprising amount of inspiration comes with 30 minutes of wandering absent-mindedly through Home Depot

So…what’s the latest-and-greatest from TerkTech Industries?

Classic Rollerski Slip Mats

This one is best explained through relaying the stream-of-consciousness that led to its creation.

What do classic skis do, despite our best kickwax efforts? They slip. Wax wears off. Conditions change. Skiers get tired. Slipping is normal in classic skiing, and I think we are one of the best classic skiing teams in the East because we work on accepting and handling that. We don’t just try to ski with perfect technique: we try to manage skiing with all types of wax jobs. We never use skin skis. Never ever. We will slog and slip through winter intervals at the Range with crappy kick, no tracks, and steep hills.

What do classic rollerskis do? They kick. They kick every. Single. Time. They kick so well that for years many coaches said skiers might want to skip classic rollerskiing altogether. They kick so well that we spent years never striding on our rollerskis…just double poling on classic days.

But what if you could make classic rollerskis slip? Couldn’t that make things more realistic?

So how do you make classic rollerskis slip? The ratchet wheel always stops. That means you need to make the rubber itself slip on the pavement. The statement above about classic rollerskis kicking every time is actually a bit of a lie…when do rollerskis actually slip? When it’s wet out, and when there’s leaves on the trail.

So for a few years now we’ve had days where I’ll grab a bunch of leaves and ferns from the woods, and spread them on the trail. Then I’d douse them with the water jug.

But what is more slippery than water? Soap. Ok then, soapy water on wet leaves it is.

For a few years this worked. But what about a solution that was guaranteed to be more slippery, and would stay in place during a training session? I thought about fake snow and artificial summer ski surfaces. I also thought about ski jumpers, who train in the summer by jumping and landing on what looked a lot to me like astroturf.

You know where I bet I could get some astroturf…

When Justin Beckwith would set up the wooden ramps for rollerskiing, he used concrete screws to drill them straight into the pavement. You know where I bet I could get some concrete screws…

Ok, part one is done. I can screw some astroturf right into the pavement and have slippery patches for classic striding. But what about making the mats more slippery? Should I just use soap and water again?

Wait a second. What do I use to make skis slippery? Wax.

What kind of wax do you get for cheap that covers a large surface area? Car wax.

Mission accomplished:

So we now have two slippery astroturf mats, that can be installed or removed quickly from the pavement! Nice!

Is there anything else from TerkTech?

Yes, actually! This one is a bit less unique, and actually takes inspiration from hockey and speedskating, along with Sharon Henry inquiring if we’d ever thought about this tool in light of identifying some general weakness with single-leg power among our skiers.

The MNCC is now equipped with a slide board! It does not look quite as nice as the one in this video, but it’s not surprising that with a cheap piece of laminated shelving and some materials left over from MNCC renovations you can make a pretty good simple version!

We’ll get to put this new tool to work during strength sessions on Wednesday.

Stonegrinds for SWAP skis @ Skirack

By Adam Terko on 17 October, 2024 in Junior Blog, Masters Blog

Thanks to our awesome partners at Skirack, we are able to pass along a great deal on stonegrinding. If you purchased a pair of skis at a Vermont ski swap, you can get a fresh stonegrind for just $55!

Skirack offers 3 standard grinds on their Wintersteiger Nordic-specific machine:

XC Cold (0-22F)

XC Medium (18-32F)

XC Warm (28F+)