Thanks to Gary Solow for getting some excellent photos from our time-trial last weekend!
Last Saturday we hosted the first Central VT Nordic Co-op event of the winter: classic sprints at Breadloaf! Thanks to Mike Hussey and his crew at the ski center, the athletes had a ~600m loop of manmade snow that allowed us to put on an informal event. Athletes in attendance came from Middlebury College, Woodstock HS, GMVS, Middlebury HS, and Mansfield Nordic Club. Overall we had approximately 40 participants on a day that was a bit soggy. In spite of the non-stop wet snow falling, the conditions were actually very good with athletes either using klister (Rex OI + Swix Silver), or else using “zeroes”.
The goal of the Co-op events is to augment the Eastern Cup / High School race calendar with informal races that promote learning and gaining experience in a setting that is low stress, but still features competitive skiers. Many high school athletes never (or rarely) get to ski in the head-to-head sprint heats, so our Co-op event guaranteed that every participant would get to ski at least 2 heats. By the end of the day, most of the athletes actually skied 3 heats in addition to their qualifier. The Co-op events are coordinated by the coaches themselves (Justin Beckwith at GMVS, Cam Mackugler at Frost Mtn, Nick Mahood at Woodstock and Tim Weston at MNC). We are proud of the fact that these events are nearly always free. The only fee associated with our sprint race over the weekend was the nominal trail fee at Breadloaf.
MNC athletes did great although I was mostly busy organizing and timing. Below are some pictures of our MNC crew, and Gary Solow has another 70-80 photos available at this address:
Will Solow leads a pack of skiers including Kai Richter
Henry and Bill Harmeyer followed by Forrest Hamilton on the descent
Ben Carnahan on the 180* turn
Ethan John rounding the hairpin turn
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