Wow, we have SNOW and things are looking awesome for the Skiathlon on Sunday. This is a classic race, followed by a skate race, all together (switching skis in the “exchange zone” in the stadium). It can be overwhelming, but the weather looks stable and perfect for nice classic skiing and smooth skating.
Be sure to start with clean skis: that means glide zones, too! Make sure to use a dedicated glide zone cleaner (not to be confused with a more potent chemical kick wax cleaner).
With bases all cleaned, a great paraffin layer would be Toko Red, Swix 7, Rode R30/40, or any other simple mid-range glide wax. If using a Toko or Swix spray, put this on the night before and let it sit until race morning, then scrub with a nylon brush.
For kickwax, it looks to be hardwax in the purple/red range. Start with a hardwax binder like Toko Base Green ironed in, and then feel free to stop by the MNC bench for help with the wax of the day…coaches will be testing and helping application.
The end of one year/start of a new year is often thought of as a time for family, friends, and gathering away from sport. Unless you’re a nordic skier or biathlete, that is. For those groups, the holidays signal “trials season” where athlete from across the country gather to race for spots on championship teams like World Juniors, U18 Scandinavian Cup, Junior IBU Cup, and more.
As MNC has grown, more and more of our athletes have made long journeys over this timeframe. Not to mention all of our alumni competing for various colleges and post-grad programs that also continue to race.
Biathlon trials took place in Soldier Hollow, UT where Seven Bowen earned the chance to compete in Poland and Germany this January in the IBU Junior Cup! She’ll do 6 races in 11 days, and travels out across the ocean in a short week’s time. Pat Frazier also competed for the Pugs out in Utah, where familiar faces like Taylor Carlson and Virginia Cobb were also making waves!
Right after biathlon trials ended, US Nationals began in Anchorage, AK. If you’ve ever been to Alaska, you likely haven’t forgotten it…if only for the immense amount of travel required to get there. Can you believe that Alaska and Florida both exist in the same country? It’s actually a bit wild to think about.
Anyway, MNC is represented on this trip by Jonah Gorman and Emma Crum. Emma is an MNC alum who currently races for Bowdoin, but as that team is not making the journey, we were happy to take Emma under our wing (paw?) for the races. We also teamed-up with Ford Sayre for the second year in a row, making a New England powerhouse squad!
Before the racing started, we dove a ways outside of the city to Hatcher Pass for what was, personally speaking, the best Nordic skiing experience of my life! Bright sun, tons of snow, an epic mountain pass with the sun rising between the peaks to bathe us in golden light, and Pisten Bully-groomed trails through an abandoned turn-of-the century mining ghost town…it was mind-blowing.
Naturally, we actually classic skied for about 20 minutes, and then spent over an hour blasting through powder, whooping with joy, and filming it all:
And then we eventually did have to start racing…a lot! Jonah made the Junior rounds in the classic sprint, which is an awesome accomplishment for a first-year U18. And with one race to go Emma Crum is in contention for U23 World Championships! Ford Sayre athlete Annie Hanna qualified for the U18 Scandinavian Cup, and everyone on the trip has at least a race or two they felt really good about.
Back home, there was great local racing at the Bogburn, and soon all of our Juniors will turn their attention to the second Eastern Cup in Lake Placid, NY!
Jonah and Taylor (who is doing a PG year at Sun Valley)
MNC alums Emma (Bowdoin) and Ava (Dartmouth) both kicking butt!
Brooke Greenberg, who moved to Utah when her dad became the new boss of Salomon USA…but is still a Pug at heart!
Some snow has fallen in the hills, and it looks like moderate temperatures for the Bogburn on Saturday.
Just a quick note, however, that this wax recommendation is coming to you from 5F and dark Anchorage, AK so please take all notes as a “best guess” scenario without knowing the actual snow condition. MNC coaches never apply kickwax for a race before the morning of the race itself, when we’ve had a chance to size things up!
Look for the MNC tent and team area with coach Liz, coach Sara, and coach Kristen on race day up at Rikert!
The snow report indicates very little new snow from the recent storm system. Therefore expect a mostly machine-made/transformed base with temps in the 20s, meaning snow could start icy and become sugary.
For glide wax, a simple warm/mid-range option like Toko Red or Swix HS8 would be safe. For kick, klister could very well be involved so please hold off on applying a hardwax binder. Coaches will likely be able to apply a quick spray klister or roller klister binder job if it is called for.
What a busy few weeks! Early snow has made a lot of great things possible…from bluebird days at Craftsbury to rainy intervals at Sleepy Hollow…we’ve experienced all types of winter and snow conditions thus far. What will 2025 bring?
Here’s a quick recap of three cool stories from recent weeks…
1) Masters/Juniors intervals @ Sleepy
We have a very speedy group of “Onyx” level Masters skiers. They are always looking for a challenge, and Coach Sara suggested to me that maybe we could coordinate a joint Master/Junior interval session one evening. There was a HS ski race earlier in the day, which means a large portion of the MNC Juniors already got in their intensity. However, the addition of a squad of 6-8 Masters in the evening meant that the Juniors who didn’t race earlier had the same size group…everybody got to push each other, the groups mixed quite well in terms of speed, and it said a lot about the cool things a club like MNC is capable of!
Nighttime doesn’t make for the best photos but…they are off together!
2) Eastern Cup 1 @ Craftsbury
As I told our team during our evening meeting on Saturday, after the conclusion of the first EC race (a classic sprint)…different skiers, new names others might not have heard before, and a much younger team on the whole…but we picked up right where we left off!
It was an awesome first Eastern Cup weekend, with too many highlights to fit into one blog post. How about Mia and Astrid qualifying for the open heats as U16s? Or Seven winning the Junior Heats, followed closely by MNC alum Elsa Sanborn (freshman at Bates)? Or Anders making a return to the Pugs with a 4th place overall again the stacked college field? Jonah and Niko made the open heats and finished as 3rd and 4th U18s. Oh yeah, then at the end of the day Jorgen won his first U16 Eastern Cup in the first event of the season!
Gabe, Acadia, and Sylas also raced their first Eastern Cups ever, and Charlotte returned to the mix after a totally epic running season that ended in Portland at the Nike Nationals. James and Isaiah had their first top-10 races on Sunday.
And on and on…it was a fun time, and great to have things close-to-home to kick off the season. Thanks to our awesome coaching staff with Sara, Kristen, Tom, and Danny! Next up is Lake Placid in January.
3) Bluebird winter break skiing
It’s hard to beat sunny skies and sparkling snow. Our intervals on Thursday were pretty darn amazing, with images and videos that look worthy of the biggest-budget ski movies out there.
Special thanks to Meredith who joined us to help out! Now with warm temps and rain threatening our nice snow it may be back to snowmaking loops for a bit…
