Due to the unfortunate weather, Craftsbury has closed-up for the season. We’re sorry to announce that our end-of-season party has also been called-off.
Any attendees who have already paid via the website will be refunded directly through PayPal.
Please stay tuned for additional/alternative season-ending events for our programs in the coming weeks.
MNC and Team Vermont had a great time at the NENSA U16 Championships!
Hosted by Gore Mountain, a challenging venue in North Creek, NY, this event is held every year to bring together the top U16 athletes from New England (24 from each state). MNC had a handful of athletes helping Vermont bring home the overall trophy, and everyone raced great despite some tricky conditions and mixed weather as an absent winter made a furious return partway through these races.
Charlotte, Astrid, James and Henry with the CUP!
Coach Sara was the trip leader for all of VT, and helped everyone push their hardest and feel their best. Vermont often takes the win not only because of fast skiing, but everyone having a great time and enjoying every moment. It’s very likely that some friendships formed at this championship will endure for entire ski careers.
Sara with just a couple pizzas for the team
It was the first U16 Championship for three of our athletes, who are actually all 8th graders fresh off graduating at their final BKL Festival…Astrid, James, and Henry all had standout races competing against many skiers in their freshman and sophomore years of high school.
Astrid stole the show for Team VT, taking home a podium in every race: 3rd in the 5km freestyle, 3rd in the 5km classic, 2nd in the freestyle sprint, and helping VT take 2nd place in the relay. That’s a serious display of ability across all sorts of events!
Astrid 2nd in the overall rankings, breaking up the NH sweep 🙂
You can check out the results on Underdog Timing. Congrats again to all of the athletes and coaches!
Junior Nationals week is here! Racing kicks off tomorrow (Monday) with individual start skate races. You can find a schedule of events, link to livestreams, and more below.
MNC is excited to have 10 athletes representing out club, the most ever! We have athletes in every age group and race, so the action will be happening for the Pugs all day long!
While our Juniors are preparing for the post-season events like JNs, U16s, and EHS, it’s time to recognize our latest class of BKL graduates who are now officially Juniors themselves!
The snow was slushy and the skies were (mostly) grey at Rikert over the weekend, but the energy was still amazing at the BKL Festival. With over 700 young skiers it was the biggest festival ever! MNC had the most skiers of any club in the 7th/8th grade group, and everyone skied great.
Many of these skiers participated in Mini Mtn Camp over the summer. From that experience, as well as the great overlap and organization with Coach Kristen taking on this Devo group alongside the Juniors, it feels like I know this group and better each year.
James giving a good display of the “East Coast” conditions
The classic relays on Saturday were won in strong fashion by MNC teams on both the girls and boys side! Mia started
Mia in the classic relay
gaining a lead about 100m into the start of the girls race and never looked back extending it by a wide margin and tagging off to Astrid who only increased the margin. In the boys race, Matthew Northcott (Southern VT) double poled on skate skis, meaning a fast downhill start and flatter section. But when the trail went uphill, James closed the gap significantly. Henry then made the charge past the second skier from that team and came in for the win!
The skate individual day belonged to Mia and Astrid, with Mia a scant 1 second ahead. It was strong skiing through some of the slushiest snow I’ve seen, with standing water in places. Isaiah had a standout race and finished fifth, and it was a grouping of MNC all near each other with James, Oakley, Liam and Ansel all pushing hard through deteriorating snow.
Isaiah climbing into the finish in his trademark orange hat
While some of these skiers are 8th grade U16s (Brooke, Astrid, Henry, James) and many of the 2nd-year U14 skiers got to try out their first Eastern Cup race this winter, the fact that they are in middle school and get to participate in a final BKL Festival, complete with a graduation ski and send-off, is really nice.
These skiers have officially capped-off their BKL careers, but I’m sure they’ll take lots of great memories with them!
The weather has turned very spring like in the last week and it seems the season is wrapping up pretty quick. The Range still has a little snow on the snow making trail. This will be our last week of practice at the Range Tues + Thurs. Penguins will have their last day and Awards on Tuesday. All our other groups will have an Awards Celebration on Thursday from 4-5pm.
Thanks to everyone that rented equipment through MNC this season. If you have MNC season lease ski equipment or a season lease race suit feel free to return at practice this week or keep a little longer if you think you want to ski or race more. All the info and details about return is here.
Tuesday 3/5: Penguins, Jack Rabbits, Arctic Foxes & Racers *** Practice cancelled ***
The Range has cancelled all skiing today. Check back here for updated plan for Thursday.
Location: The Range
Details: Skate, bring rock skis if you have them. We’ll do some adventure skiing on the Airplane snow making loop.
Classic for Penguins and Award Day, hot chocolate, edible medals and new Penguin BKL pins. This is Penguins last day.
Devos check out the Junior training doc
Thursday 3/7: Penguins, Jack Rabbits, Arctic Foxes, Racers & Devos
*** We are on for Awards Day – Penguins can come too***
Location: The Range from 4pm-5pm
Details: Awards Day for Penguins, Jack Rabbits, Arctic Foxes, Racers + Devos
Wear running shoes or snow boots and we’ll start with a big game. We’ll have Hot Cocoa and do awards at the Walker Building. We have paper plate awards, edible medals and new BKL pins for every skier. (We have a GF edible medals please email if you want one for your child and I’ll make sure their coach gets it to hand out. bkl@mansfieldnordic.org)
Click through to check snow conditions at Tomasi Meadow (Underhill) and the Range (Jericho). These conditions are submitted by on-the-ground reports and are as current as possible. Read More about “Snow Conditions”…
Our spring 2025 registration is open for Junior athletes! Click through to visit the info page, learn more about programming and schedules, and register now! Read More about “Spring”…
Masters athletes…are you looking to build strength and train with friends and teammates? Join us at the Mansfield Nordic Community Center on Wednesday nights! Read More about “Masters Strength @ The MNCC”…