Mansfield Nordic Club

On Sunday we went for a rollerski, as we do on many Sundays…but before the ski workout got underway, we embarked on a different kind of workout over at Tomasi Meadow in Underhill.

Peter Davis grooms these trails during the winter, and the trails are a really nice community resource that all can enjoy. We had some great MNC sessions up at Tomasi last season, in the shadow of Mt Mansfield. With permission from the town, and some tools loaned to us by the Brewster River MTB club, we moved a fair bit of earth in order to make grooming on an off-camber hill easier and smoother.

This should make the skiing even better! Be on the lookout for a fun run event set for the first weekend in November, where folks can participate to raise money to support the trail grooming, land maintenance, and more.

Beginning…

Middle…

…and End! No more slated hillside!

Nothing guarantees the need for a recovery week like school starting up again! Schedules are totally different, stresses aren’t the same as summer, and fall sports add some additional balancing into the mix.

While there were some extra off days for the Juniors this week, we got in several good sessions and are still making the most of our training. The slowly-dwindling light has made for some nice ambiance at afternoon training, and morning training will become more prevalent for some without early morning classes.

A weekend roll through Williston, starting in the suburbs and ending in the country

Doesn’t really look like Vermont!

It was great to see a lot of familiar faces at the Essex Invitational xc race, and as a coach even when it’s not winter nothing gets the energy up like seeing skiers race!

This week will feature two big tests (DP test and Bolton) as well as the BHS Invite, so needless to say the fall is already starting to wind up in a serious way.

Seven and Kate cruising on Cochran Rd

We are making the transition from Summer to Fall with our Junior programming! Here are a few notes:

Registration

You can find registration pages below. Note that Fall Training and Thanksgiving Camp are the final two signups for the ’22/’23 MNC Membership numbers. We transition to the ’23/’24 memberships in the fall, as our BKL and Masters programs gear-up for winter.

The Juniors operate year-round, so the system is a bit odd this time of year, but just know that your upcoming ’23/’24 membership will be used for the upcoming winter, as well as next spring, summer and fall.

MNC Registration Pages

Programming

Fall programming is broken up into different days per week. If you are interested in the MNC Academy option, please note that this combines the full fall training program ($799) with a guaranteed spot at Thanksgiving Camp ($599, registration not online yet) at a slight discount (about $100). If you have some flexibility with your morning schedule, aren’t participating in a fall sport, and are planning on attending Thanksgiving Camp, this is a great option.

Fall schedules (form)

Juniors, please pay a visit to the following form where you can input schedule specifics…do you have a certain morning off each week? As daylight comes at a premium later in the fall, it’s great to know what options exist for group training outside of the traditional 4-6pm window, particularly on days without Range access. Click the link below to visit the short form and input your scheduling notes.

Jr Schedule Form

Keys/Climb to the Castle Weekend

We are making a weekend trip out of the NENSA/NYSEF “Keys and Climb to the Castle” race weekend this September 22nd, 23rd, and 24th (Fri/Sat/Sun). This will comprise our fall training camp for the season, and we are partnering with Gould Nordic for housing and meals. What does that mean?

• Gould has helped arrange a house that sleeps up to 15 people, and they will have a roster of 6-8 athletes
• We are taking our own van, but joining them on Friday for pre-race training, as well as lodging and meals with their crew and coaches. We will depart as soon as everyone is able on Friday afternoon (after school).
• The two teams will combine on meals, with our group contributing some prepared meals as well as snacks and fuel!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll get a sense of who is interested in committing to this trip. The housing should work out to $100 or so per person for the weekend, with small additional charges for food and gas. MNC and Gould will divide-up the final amounts after the trip, taking into account the total participation and costs!

Keys to the Castle info

Climb to the Castle info

Climb to the Castle 2021!

For several years now the MNC Juniors and Collegiate skiers have embarked on a big ski to cap-off the summer season. With a home base at Ferrisburgh Central School and a 20km loop of flat open roads near Kingsland Bay, skiing for a distance of 100 kilometers was often the “target” of the session.

While we’ve altered our event a bit to remove the pressure of needing to complete a whole 100k adventure (especially for our younger Juniors) the excitement around this ski has always remained. We bring tables of snacks, chairs to take breaks on, and there’s always the pull of “one more lap” or “one more out-and-back” just to see how far a skier can challenge themselves.

Relaxing after the first Rollathon (then just the “100km ski”) in 2021

This year, we thought about making this into more of a fundraising opportunity. We took inspiration from events where distance is a goal and participants race funds “per mile” or in this case “per kilometer”. Starting with $0.25 per kilometer as a baseline, skiers reached out to friends and family for pledges of support on a long day.

For a small and lightly-publicized event (for insurance reasons, mainly…more on that below) we had an awesome result, and while the contributions are still coming in and being tallied we look to have raised over $800 for the MNC Scholarship Fund!

The mission begins

Many kilometers in, and Beth and Ava are still having fun!

In future years, we’d love to make this into a real “EVENT” in a broader sense. Volunteers flipping pancakes for a morning snack? Grilling burgers in the afternoon? Prizes for distances, sponsors, and more? The potential is quite large!

In the ski yesterday we had 25 skiers coming together for a total of 1879 kilometers of skiing, or an average of just over 75k per skier. Pretty cool!

You can check out a whole gallery of photos at this link.

Camille displaying the (soon-to-be-iconic?) sticker awarded for skiing 100K…it’s designed after a certain famous car bumper sticker, but this one fits on a rollerski!