Our Masters got together on Saturday for a fun and friendly kickoff at Queen City Brewery/Pizza 44! This is a fun yearly event that brings lots of people together and gets us excited for the winter ahead.
Kort introducing the event to our gathered Masters group
It was great to have lots of delicious pizza and some good company! While there isn’t quite snow yet, we are definitely crossing our fingers for a cold and productive winter. We’re also excited to welcome Sara Falconer as our Masters head coach this year…not only is Sara not a Doctor of Physical Therapy, she’s also ready to help put together lots of great programs and ski sessions!
Our “Masters Mini Camp” is taking place on Sunday, December 15th at Craftsbury. Join us for skiing in the morning, video review and lunch, discussions on technique and training, and more skiing in the afternoon. This event is available to all our Masters and is not an additional cost or fee! You can RSVP for the Masters Mini Camp below:
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!
MNC Apparel for Youth and Adults- Orders due online by November 30th 11:59pm
Outfit yourself and your family in a little MNC gear this winter. This order is great for MNC skiers (BKL, Juniors and Masters), families and supporters. Options includes sweatshirts, sweatpants, t-shirts and hats.
*New this year are adult soft-shell jackets- these are a great lightweight training jacket. The small adult sizes should work well for some BKL skiers – check the size charts on the order form.
Orders will be distributed the week of December 9th and in time for being on snow and the holidays.
Use the button below to see all the options and make your order. We are working with Joann’s Uniforms in Colchester.
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.
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.
