From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com.
Jessie Diggins during the quarterfinals of the Freestyle Sprint on Saturday in Lake Placid, New York, USA. (Photo: Voisin / FasterSkier)
Lake Placid, N.Y. — The French coaches had questions. Two days before racing began at Mount Van Hoevenberg, they were standing in Saranac Lake — 55 degrees, windy, woods in every direction — wondering who exactly was going to show up to watch cross-country skiing in the middle of the Adirondacks.
By Saturday, an estimated — rumored to be fair — 14,000 people had answered.
Today, as Jessie Diggins lines up for the 20-kilometer mass start freestyle, the final race of her career, this corner of upstate New York will try to top itself one more time.
Screaming fans, chainsaws, flags, signs, and glitter all over the course in Lake Placid, New York, USA. (Photo: Voisin / FasterSkier)
A Weekend That Kept Building
The first sign that Lake Placid was going to be different came Friday, and it wasn’t entirely smooth. With an initial estimate of 10,000 fans on Friday, the transportation system to and from Van Hoevenberg buckled under the demand. Some fans waited over two hours to get to the venue.
US Head Coach, Matt Whitcomb, after the races yesterday in Lake Placid was really happy because the standout performance was not one of his athletes, but instead the North American ski community that showed up in droves and created an electric atmosphere. (Photo: Voisin / FasterSkier)
“Only Holmenkollen and Minneapolis”
U.S. Ski Team head coach Matt Whitcomb has been on the World Cup circuit for years. He said the only events throughout his career that have ever rivaled the atmosphere here this weekend in Lake Placid are the Holmenkollen in Oslo — the sport’s grand prix if you will — and Minneapolis two years ago.
That’s the company Lake Placid is keeping. And for those who were in Minneapolis, the comparison lands. Diggins said earlier this week that Minneapolis was the most special day of her career.
“It was the most I’ve ever cried,” she said at Wednesday’s press conference. “I got to race in front of some of my grandparents who haven’t been able to travel overseas. They got to see me race for the very first time in a World Cup. And having so many friends and family and getting to share the thing that I love doing with them — that is the most incredible thing ever.”
She paused, then added: “I think this weekend’s probably going to join that.”
College skiers from all over the Northeast came in force to the trailside in Lake Placid, New York, for the races this weekend. (Photo: Voisin / FasterSkier)
The Scene on the Ground
What the numbers don’t capture is the texture. Young kids running around the venue in their NNF fan bibs — the ones with athletes’ faces printed on them — clutching Sharpies, hoping to meet their heroes. Fans who drove and flew from Vermont, from Alaska, from Minnesota, who planned vacations around this weekend months ago. The school buses that became part of the story, ferrying the faithful up the mountain road when the original plan couldn’t hold.
This is what U.S. cross-country skiing looks like when it gets the stage. Not a packed NFL stadium or a sellout basketball arena — but thousands of people standing in the woods, screaming themselves hoarse for athletes from every country, because they love this sport and they know how rare these weekends are.
The fans — especial the college skiers — made it sound like the race was happening in Davos, Switzerland with the chainsaws out on course. (Photo: Voisin / FasterSkier)
One More Race
Diggins has spent this weekend doing exactly what she said she would — being present, soaking it in, putting on a show. She clinched the Crystal Globe on Friday. She raced the sprint on Saturday. And now there’s one more.
At Wednesday’s press conference, she talked about the way her mindset around suffering has evolved — how she’s learned to see the pain cave not as something to dread but as confirmation that she’s doing what she came to do.
“This is what 100 percent feels like,” she said. “And sometimes this is what it looks like, and it’s some ugly scene, but that’s okay. It just has to be all heart and all effort, and that’s what I have to give in that moment.”
She also made one thing clear about the team she’s leaving behind: “The team is going to be just fine without me. And I feel like that’s how I know I did my job.”
Then, with a smile: “I’m excited to be a fan on the other side of the fence and get to cheer for them.”
Today, in just ten minutes, Jessie Diggins will clip into her bindings for the last time as a World Cup racer. The 20-kilometer Mass Start Freestyle.
And based on everything this weekend has shown us, “no one” will be watching.
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Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) back in action and lifted by the roar of American ski fans during the World Cup 10 k Classic in Lake Placid, New York. (Photo: Dils / FasterSkier)
LAKE PLACID, NEW YORK — Ten kilometers into the second World Cup on American soil in as many decades, and the verdict is already clear: We need more racing in the United States.
That’s the message panted into my microphone by every athlete in the Mix Zone; shouted over the undulating din by every supporter I spoke with on the ice-lacquered walkways lacing Mt. Van Hoevenberg. And it’s the irresistible outcome of the turnout this afternoon in Lake Placid — with a crowd that came out in droves for Diggins, the Schumacher-Ogden’s Silver Medal Squad, and a host of homegrown heroes; that braved five inches of wet, driving snow; and that stayed to see Jessie clinch the Overall Crystal Globe, a reconstituted Klæbo overtake Amundsen in the Distance standings, and to welcome the world’s best to the conclusion of the 2025-26 season.
The reaction to racing in the United States in 2023 was overwhelmingly positive – and, it had seemed, sui generis. With four snowmaking venues spread across the Twin Cities, along with the (purportedly) highest concentration of cross-country skiers outside of Oslo, the energy that embraced Jessie Diggins in her home state and buried a generation of “almosts” for the U.S. Men’s Team in the snow and mud at Theodore Wirth could have been lightning in a bottle.
Jessie Diggins (USA) racing on home soil in Minneapolis and did so again in Lake Placid as she concludes her storied World Cup career. (Photo: Modica/NordicFocus)
I will admit my own skepticism that Lake Placid could field the fans, or the volume, of spectators to match Minneapolis. Perhaps my flight into Saranac Lake Regional Airport on Wednesday morning was my first evidence of error. Of seven passengers bobbing our way through the cloud-laden Adirondacks, four were here for the World Cup: Charlie, from Seattle; Billy (as in, Demong, the Nordic Combined gold medalist) and his son, from Salt Lake City; and myself, from D.C. Bussing to the venue the next day, I’m seated with a dozen of University of Minnesota alumni – they’ve taken off of work, graduate school, and medical school to spectate. “I’m excited just to see the number of people out cheering,” Alex Gude, who organized the trip, tells me. “I think one of the best parts about Minneapolis is just seeing the community come together, and now, away from home, we’re seeing another whole ski community come out and cheer.”
And, indeed, they are – from across the United States, from across New England, from across the Canadian border, and from right here in Lake Placid. Once we disembark, I wade through the corn snow and the first of many falling flakes to Mt. Van Hoevenberg’s sprawling Nordic Center, where the racecourse coils around the podium and snakes below the pedestrian bridge. Patricia Damp is herding thirteen might-be-members of the local ski community across the bridge; she’s a third-grade teacher here in Lake Placid, chaperoning a class field trip to the World Cup Finals.
Are the kids already Diggins die-hards, Ogden acolytes, Gus bus-riders? Not really, Patricia tells me. The class “was out here a couple months ago, cross-country skiing. We get to do the Olympic venues. We were at the museum a month ago. We have a friend who we watched ski jump. So, we’re very Olympic-oriented, and today we’re just out here to support the athletes and get some autographs.” Her students back her up. “We’re excited to get the players’ signatures,” Riley tells me. And while Declan is “excited to see the racers,” there’s no-one in particular he’s cheering for.
Gus Schumacher (USA) during the Men’s 10 k Classic in Lake Placid, New York. (Photo: Dils / FasterSkier)
From the mouths of children, our first – and perhaps strongest – argument for future American World Cups. The glitter-dusted kids in fan club bibs, wielding cardboard-cutout faces as large as they are, make for compelling pictures and undeniable evidence of Team USA’s impact on its next generation. But racing in the United States creates opportunities to draw an entirely new cohort of young people into the cross-country skiing community – kids who may have never tried skiing before; who may not have heard of Kikkan or Klæbo ; and whose parents certainly are not waking up before sunrise to livestream Ruka, Falun or Holmenkollen. They will not see themselves in this sport until they see this sport. What better way to do so than on a Friday field trip with Mrs. Damp?
After bidding them good luck with the signature-hunting, it’s not an easy task to wade against the current of the rest of the Lake Placid Class of 2035. Also threading his way through the third-graders is Niklas Dyrhaug, immediately recognizable even five years into retirement from World Cup racing. He’s on the other side of the v-boards this weekend, broadcasting for Norwegian television. In his first sentence, he tells me: “We are enjoying being back in the U.S. In my opinion, we should be here every year.” He’s not surprised by the number of spectators, either. “Everybody who knows the U.S. crowd knows they are really enthusiastic . . . We know the tradition, the culture, and Lake Placid’s place in that history. So, personally, I’m not that surprised. It’s really cool that we’re back here.”
That’s the sentiment just after Coaster Hill, some four kilometers into the racecourse, where Norwegian national team coach Eirik Myhr Nossum prowls the striding zone. Being back in the United States is “awesome, it’s amazing. I think we should be here every year, because you guys show up; you guys cheer for everyone, and it’s always fun to be in the U.S. and to be overseas to compete.”
And it’s the sentiment at the finish line.
Harald Oestberg Amundsen (NOR) after the 10 k Classic in Lake Placid, New York. (Photo: Thibaut/NordicFocus)
Harald Amundsen (NOR) tells me, “In the outer part of the track, there were so many people I couldn’t hear my own thinking. That’s a really good thing.” Even before he arrived at the venue, “We had a run this morning in the city. Everyone was screaming at us, ‘Good luck!’ It’s a really nice atmosphere.”
For Elia Barp (ITA), conditions were “very tough because it was really slow with this new snow, but it was fun racing for me. So I enjoyed it – at least I tried to enjoy it – it was a pack of people screaming my name so that gave me even more motivation, and was fun . . . I loved racing two years ago in Minneapolis, and here it’s packed with people, even with the snowfall, so thank you to everyone for coming. It’s really good to race here.”
Mika Vermeulen (AUT) admits, “Honestly, this is probably the worst race I’ve done in a long time. But I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun out on the track . . . on top there, out in the forest, I just heard, ‘MI-KA, MI-KA,’ the whole time. It was insane. I had a bad race and a lot of fun.”
As for how he feels about returning to the United States: “Great, great, actually—and feeling a bit frustrated, because it just gets me pissed that we race these [bad] courses in Europe all the time, over and over and over again, and we have these freaking jewels out here which we never use. It’s crazy. I want to go to the U.S. every year for at least a whole period. It’s called the World Cup. It’s not called the European Cup, right?”
Fans all over the course with custom gear showing their fandom. (Photo: Dils / FasterSkier)
Klæbo’s opinion is a bit more measured – perhaps because he has more microphones hovering around his face. “I heard some rumors that it was supposed to be quite well [attended], and when I searched up Lake Placid and read a little bit about the place, I understood there’s not that many people living [here], but when you see how many people are here, I was pretty shocked.”
A second argument, then, in favor of World Cup racing in this country: the athletes love it. They embrace not just the energy, but the venues that push the World Cup beyond the geographic and cultural confines of Transalpine Europe.
Benjamin Dohlby (USA) at the finish of the Men’s 10 k Classic in Lake Placid. (Photo: Thibaut/NordicFocus)
For the closing statement, Ben Dohlby is among the last athletes I interview. This is Ben’s first World Cup start; a junior at University of Alaska-Fairbanks, he was 3rd in the American Birkebeiner in February. How does it feel to be making his first professional start in the United States?
“It was crazy. I went out so hard. The fans were so loud that I didn’t feel anything, and then I felt it all and got so tired – but it was awesome; a great atmosphere.” It wasn’t too long ago that Ben was skiing laps around the glazed kilometer of manmade snow at Lapham Peak State Park in Delafied, Wisconsin; now he’s here. To his former teammates, to other up and coming skiers, and to novices across similar ribbons of snow in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, his message is simple: “Follow your dreams and you can make it happen.”
Most of the fans hiked up on the course, but the stadium filled up as the day went on. (Photo: Dils / FasterSkier)
That, then, is our concluding point: More World Cup starts on American soil means more starting berths for American skiers, and more chances for our most talented young skiers to make it to the starting line. We should savor the privilege of, as a host nation, pitting our athletes against the most accomplished figures in the sport, dreaming that a World Cup podium, an Olympic medal, could be in their future. When a lifetime of discipline and preparation meets the opportunity of a lifetime, the promise of Lake Placid – that miracles can happen – becomes deliverable.
I will leave the invariable complex problems of bidding, organizing, and logistically managing future events to far wiser pundits. But, in the meantime, the verdict is clear: FIS, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, and the American Nordic community should be eager, and determined, to have them here.
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Jessie Diggins answering questions at the press conference before the World Cup in Lake Placid, New York. (Photo: Voisin/FasterSkier)
Lake Placid, N.Y. — The eve of the World Cup finals at Mount Van Hoevenberg brought press conferences, sound checks that went sideways, and three American skiers who couldn’t stop making each other smile.
Jessie Diggins, Ben Ogden, and Gus Schumacher sat side by side Wednesday afternoon — the same trio that has turned the 2025-26 season into something U.S. cross-country skiing has never seen before. Between them: Olympic medals, historic podiums, a 50-year drought shattered, and one very good birthday cake.
But with three races left and Diggins’s retirement looming, the mood wasn’t heavy. It was loose, funny, and deeply human — exactly the way this team tends to do things.
“Probably Glitter”
Asked to define her legacy heading into her final World Cup weekend, Diggins did what Diggins does: she went somewhere unexpected.
“I think I define my legacy honestly, completely outside race results,” she said. “I am more proud of the things I have done off the course. I think my legacy is going to be in my advocacy and the way that I have spoken about mental health and eating disorders specifically, and the way I’ve tried to make really hard conversations less hard for people to have.”
She pointed to her work with Protect Our Winters and Share Winter, to the energy she’s poured into the team’s culture over the years. And then she landed the dismount.
“And probably glitter. I think there’s a lot more glitter in ski races now, and that’s always a great thing — as long as it’s biodegradable.”
Diggins has spent the season saying goodbye in pieces — a little cry leaving training camp in Bend, quiet moments at each World Cup stop. She knows what’s probably coming Sunday.
“I suspect it’s probably going to hit like a dump truck on Sunday, and there’s probably going to be a lot of tears.”
But she’s ready. And what she’s ready for is maybe the most Jessie Diggins thing of all: she sees ski racing as performance art, and she wants her final show to leave people wanting to go run up a mountain or sign their family up for ski lessons.
“I realized that I can do that moving forward, but just with my story and with my words, and I don’t have to push my body so hard, but I can still leave people inspired and motivated.”
In the meantime, she’s looking forward to being able to wash her clothes when they’re dirty, cook whatever she wants, and bake cookies on the weekend instead of training and racing all day.
Ben Ogden answering questions at the press conference before the World Cup in Lake Placid, New York. (Photo: Voisin/FasterSkier)
“Your Life Is Not Going to Be the Same”
Ben Ogden grew up in Landgrove, Vermont. American skiing legend Bill Koch lived close by in Peru, Vermont. Same zip code, as Ogden puts it — “not so different.”
Fifty years separated Koch’s 1976 Olympic medal from Ogden’s silver this season, and when Ogden finally got on the phone with his neighbor and mentor after breaking the drought, Koch didn’t mince words.
“Bill just sort of said, ‘Hey, congratulations, and your life is not going to be the same from this point forward.’ And that was kind of crazy to hear.”
Ogden hopes to see Koch at the races this weekend. And racing at Van Hoevenberg carries its own weight for him — not just because of Koch, but because of his father, who was deeply embedded in the New England ski racing community.
“I think it’s really hard for me to come race in the U.S. and look around and not just, like, constantly think about him, because this was his scene,” Ogden said, his voice softening. “He would have been in such paradise on the side of the trail here in Lake Placid. And I’ll be thinking about him a lot this weekend, for sure.”
This is technically Ogden’s first home World Cup — he was sick for Minneapolis — and it’s hitting him right. He grew up racing the NYSEF Festival series at Lake Placid, bringing crews of Vermont kids over for slushy late-season races.
“It’s not my home, but it feels like it.”
Gus Schumacher answering questions at the press conference before the World Cup in Lake Placid, New York. (Photo: Voisin/FasterSkier)
Aspirations, Not Goals
Gus Schumacher has been doing some linguistic rebranding.
“I’ve been calling them aspirations for a few years now,” he said of his season targets, “because I feel like the pressure of goals was kind of weird for me.”
The distinction matters to Schumacher. He sets plenty of small goals — the daily, tactical kind — but the big ones, like winning an Olympic medal or finishing in the top 10 of the overall World Cup standings, he holds more loosely. They’re aspirations: things he wants, things he’ll chase, but things he won’t let crush him if they don’t happen.
“Those are things I want to do, but if they don’t happen, it won’t be because I didn’t try.”
He accomplished the Olympic medal. He entered this final weekend ranked sixth in the world, with a top-10 finish still in play. And he’s approaching Lake Placid the same way he approached Minneapolis, where he won his first World Cup in front of a hometown crowd: just be happy to be racing, and feed off the energy.
“Already today, it was really cool to have people cheering us on in the race prep, which doesn’t really happen much on the World Cup ever.”
Schumacher also dropped maybe the best origin story of the press conference: the formative moment that lit a fire under his career was Luke Jaeger beating him at an Anchorage cup race.
“That kind of put a fire under my belly to really start training, because I didn’t want him beating me anymore.”
The Knitting Club, the Water Pump, and the Greenhouse
The press conference’s best stretch might have been when someone asked the athletes how they decompress.
Schumacher keeps it clean: headphones, 10 to 20 deep breaths — four seconds in, eight seconds out. Standard operating procedure.
Ogden? He knits. And he’s not shy about it.
“After races, I’ve been doing a lot of knitting and stuff like that. Helps me just relax really quick.” After the season, it’s bigger projects: car work. “You can feel like you’re the king of the world after a couple medals, but go and try and replace a water pump on a Forerunner, and that’ll make you feel completely incompetent.”
Diggins revealed there was a full-on knitting club on the team this winter. Her own reset button is simpler: she calls her husband.
“He’s my absolute center of my world. The race could have been amazing, and it could have been also completely horrible. And we’re just talking about what I want to do with the garden, and how I want to start a greenhouse. And he’s like, ‘Uh huh, yeah, sure, I’ll support you in that.’”
One More Thing
Almost as a throwaway, Ogden mentioned that Andy Newell — “the original Nordic ski backflip guy” — is in Lake Placid this weekend. And Ogden himself has had a backflip dialed since he was 17.
“I’m hoping on Sunday we can kick up a little ski jump. I’m looking to take another one Sunday afternoon. So stay tuned.”
Three races to go. A retirement to honor. A culture to celebrate. And maybe a backflip.
It’s going to be a weekend.
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Stifel Lake Placid Finals, a Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup, to Bring Elite Ski Racing and Winter Festival Atmosphere to Lake Placid
FIS Cross-Country World Cup racing, fan experiences, athlete engagement, and live entertainment coming March 19–22
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — The Stifel Lake Placid Finals, a Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup, will offer more than world-class competition this March. The event will transform Lake Placid into a multi-day winter sports festival featuring themed race days, live entertainment, film screenings, interactive expo activations, and family-friendly programming.
In collaboration with the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA), the 10th Mountain Division, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), the Olympic Regional Development Authority (Olympic Authority) has curated a dynamic schedule that celebrates Nordic skiing and outdoor winter-sport culture.
A central focus of the week will be spotlighting women and girls in sport, networking opportunities, and hands-on activities. Fans will also have unique opportunities to connect with athletes through meet-and-greets, alumni celebrations, and special legacy moments — including Sunday’s “Last Lap” ceremony honoring retiring World Cup athletes.
Together, these events are designed to foster engagement, connection, and shared celebration across the Lake Placid community and the global ski family.
One final celebration of Jessie Diggins (USA) amazing career. (Photo: Authamayou/NordicFocus)
Event & Community Programming
In addition to World Cup racing, the Stifel Lake Placid Finals will feature a range of community events, athlete appearances, and festival programming throughout the week. Activities include youth programming, athlete conversations, live music, demonstrations, and opportunities for fans to connect with past and present champions.
Programming details may evolve, and additional events may be added throughout the week. Visitors are encouraged to check the official event schedule for the most up-to-date information.
Thursday, March 19 – Community & Kickoff
Opening day features official training and festival programming at Mt Van Hoevenberg, along with an evening film screening at the Palace Theatre that kicks off the festivities in downtown Lake Placid.
Friday, March 20 – Theme: Past
Friday celebrates the legacy of Nordic skiing and Olympic history in Lake Placid. The venue opens with festival programming, including the NENSA Terrain Park and Expo with L.L. Bean, regional athlete recognition connected to the 2026 Winter Olympics, and Adirondack Birds of Prey demonstrations. Fans can also watch presentations from the 10th Mountain Division, enjoy live music, and attend athlete interviews and meet-and-greets throughout the day. A highlight of the afternoon is the “One More Lap” legacy ski, featuring international and U.S. Ski Team alumni, including Olympic legend Thomas Wassberg and American champion Bill Koch, before World Cup racing and awards ceremonies conclude the day.
Saturday, March 21 – Theme: Future
Saturday’s programming focuses on the next generation of Nordic skiing. Activities include the NENSA Terrain Park and Expo with L.L. Bean, athlete appearances, and fan engagement opportunities. The Women in Sports Heroic Panel highlights leadership and opportunities for girls and women in athletics, while fans can also attend athlete meet-and-greets and participate in interactive programming throughout the venue. Competition highlights include the freestyle sprint finals, followed by Crystal Globe presentations. Youth racing also takes center stage with the World Cup Future Stars Sprint. Additional programming includes Lollipoppers to Olympians: A Celebration of New England Skiing, a live recording of the Skirious Podcast featuring Ben Ogden and special guests at the Olympic Jumping Complex, and evening film screenings at the Palace Theatre.
Sunday, March 22 – Theme: Present
Championship Sunday features entertainment, athlete appearances, and the season-ending races of the World Cup Finals. Live music, a DJ set, and ceremonial elements, including the 10th Mountain Division Color Guard and flyover, set the stage for the final competition. The afternoon concludes with awards ceremonies and the “One Last Lap” ceremony honoring retiring World Cup athletes.
Gus Schumacher (USA) and Ben Ogden (USA), (l-r) celebrate their silver medal at the Olympic Winter Games in Tesero, Italy. (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
Competition Schedule | FIS Cross-Country World Cup Finals
Mt Van Hoevenberg | March 19–22, 2026
World Cup official training and competition runs March 19–22 at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, where the world’s top U.S. and international cross-country skiers will compete for overall and discipline Crystal Globe honors. The weekend culminates on Sunday with championship racing, awards presentations, and the “One Last Lap” ceremony recognizing retiring athletes.
Full competition schedule:
Thursday, March 19, 2026:
11:00 – 1:00 pm | 10km Official Training
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm | Sprint Official Training
Saturday, March 21, 2026:
10:30 am | Women’s Sprint Qualification Free
10:30 am | Men’s Sprint Qualification Free
1:00 pm | Women’s Sprint Final Free
1:00 pm | Men’s Sprint Final Free
Sunday, March 22, 2026:
12:30 pm | Men’s 20km Mass Start Free
2:30 pm | Women’s 20km Mass Start Free
Jessie Diggins (USA) and the US Ski Team celebrate in Goms. (Photo: Authamayou/NordicFocus)
Broadcast Schedule
NBC will air the Sprint Finals live on Saturday, March 21, from 1–2 p.m. ET. CNBC will air coverage of the Men’s and Women’s 10km Interval Starts on Saturday, March 21, from 2–4 p.m. ET. NBC will also air the Women’s 20km Mass Start on Saturday, March 29, from 1–2 p.m. ET on tape delay.
After a brief break, the SuperTour picked up in Lake Placid this weekend, with a fluoro-free Period III kicking off with a 1.5-kilometer classic sprint. The frigid forecast called for overnight lows of -5 Fahrenheit, with a wind chill as low as -23F. Highs during the day were only predicted to climb into the low single digits. Qualifiers were scheduled for 10/10:45 am, with quarterfinals for the open men beginning at noon – hopefully, enough time for a few degrees of warmth to reach the trails.
The weekend competitions would be hosted on Mt. Van Hoevenberg’s new World Cup trails, which are paved for rollerski use in the summer, and played host to NENSA’s “Keys to the Castle” sprint event in September. For those familiar with the venue, the new courses are tucked into the north-facing hillside, just south of the 1980 Olympic stadium and biathlon range. The new serpentine loop intersects with the final Ks of the classic “Ladies 5” outer loop, but overall remains closer to the stadium to allow access to the recently improved snowmaking system.
Jessie Diggins (SMS T2/USST) pushes over the climb during the final round of the Keys to the Castle sprint. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)
With a large reservoir and advanced technology, this new World Cup loop can be made winter competition ready within four days, though Van Hoevenberg’s nearly 50k of open trail might suggest that coverage is not currently an issue.
There was praise for the course from many athletes, including those that have seen both Lake Placid, and everywhere in the world beyond Lake Placid.
“It raced much more like a world cup course!” said Alayna Sonnesyn (SMS), in an email to FasterSkier. Katharine Ogden (SMS) too, said of the course, “it was WAY more fun than the old one…[which] was pretty flat.”
The course designers at Lake Placid seem to have carefully been taking notes on what makes sprint racing exciting over the course of its evolution as a discipline in the sport. An historic venue for American skiing, these developments may be a long-time coming for Mt. Van Hoevenberg, but it’s clear that they were executed with mastery so VanHo can continue to expand upon its legacy in the decades to come.
This course featured a long, final uphill climb to test a skier’s mettle, then a short, technical downhill into the finish to test their tactical brains. And in between; transitions, transitions, and more transitions.
Becca Rorabaugh (APU) said of this : “The final climb always turned into a drag race, and I liked the pitch because it favored a bit of a stride over an all-out run. Skiers still had to be alert through the downhill and finish, though; positions often changed in the stadium.”
The weekend, hosted by the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) in Lake Placid, also served as the second NENSA Eastern Cup weekend. Thus, senior athletes from American elite clubs lined up alongside regional junior racers, eastern collegiate racers, and Canadian athletes who traveled from Quebec, Ontario, and beyond. 382 athletes, 176 women and 206 men, on the start lists for the qualifier, and separate heats were run for the U18/U20 and U16 categories.
Without livestream, FasterSkier has relied on live timing and athlete interviews to shed light on how the sprint races unfolded.
Men’s 1.5-kilometer Classic Sprint
After returning from a stint in Europe where he raced the Tour de Ski, Team Birkie’s Zak Ketterson set the mark in the men’s qualifier, stopping the clock at 3:04.79. Sun Valley’s Peter Holmes skied the next fastest time in qualification (+0.72), while Étienne Hébert was just behind in third (+1.41). Hébert hails from Quebec and currently trains at the Centre National d’Entraînement Pierre-Harvey (CNEPH), based at Mont Ste Anne.
Each of these men moved smoothly through the rounds, with Ketterson getting edged out by Bill Harmeyer (SMS T2) in the first semi, and Homes and Hébert going 1-2 in the second. Racing in the second semi saw a tighter spread and faster times, bringing Julien Locke (Black Jack Ski Club) and Logan Diekmann (BSF Pro) who had finished a close third and fourth, respectively, along to the final as lucky losers.
The final featured a tight finish among the top four men, with Ketterson off the front to finish in 3:04.71, earning his second consecutive classic sprint victory. Ketterson had dominated the classic sprint in Cable, WI, and stood at the top of the SuperTour leaderboard, thereby earning start spots for the Tour de Ski. The timing of the Tour caused him to miss the subsequent classic sprint in Soldier Hollow, UT.
During the Tour, his first World Cup starts, Ketterson was less than a second shy of qualifying for the classic sprint heats in Oberstdorf, Germany, and had been roughly five second out of the Top-30 the day prior in a 15k skate. He was the only American on the men’s team to finish the Tour. After the Tour, Ketterson made a quick turnaround to attend the weekend of distance racing in Sun Valley, Idaho, where his results (15th in the 15k classic and 34th in the 10k free) were far below what might be expected from him.
Zak Ketterson races the freestyle sprint qualifier in Lenzerheide, SUI, the first event of the 2021/22 Tour de Ski. (Photo: NordicFocus)
In a post-race email to FasterSkier, Ketterson shared how he felt about the Tour and what the recovery process has been like for him.
“The Tour de Ski was a fantastic learning experience with lots of ups and downs. I am pretty happy with my performance on the Tour given it was my first time on the World Cup, but I definitely think I will be faster next time around now that I have had the experience. Post Tour I was incredibly empty, both physically and mentally. To have to change gears pretty much immediately after the last stage of the Tour and head straight to Sun Valley for some super competitive SuperTour races at high altitude was definitely a recipe for disaster on my body. I felt like I was just going through the motions and my body wanted nothing to do with those races.
“These last few weeks at home in Minneapolis provided me with some long-overdue recovery. My hunch after some really lackluster racing in Sun Valley was that there was no need to overthink anything and that the issue was probably just that I was tired. I took time at home to mentally and physically reset and started to feel a lot more like myself as the Placid races approached. Today, it all came together and I felt a lot more race-ready.”
Ketterson also commented on the improvements that have been made at the Mt Van Hoevenberg venue, explaining how it supports the growth and elevation of domestic skiing.
“I am blown away with the venue at Mt. Van Hoevenberg! The venue truly feels like it’s ready for World Cups, or even another Olympics. It’s really inspiring to see big investments into nordic skiing venues in the United States, and I can’t stress enough how big it is for us athletes. I can’t wait to come back to Lake Placid sometime later to really experience this place because I think it’s so awesome here.”
Behind Ketterson, just 0.26 seconds separated second through fourth in the men’s final. Holmes won the boot slide to snag second (+0.72), while Harmeyer took the final podium spot in third (+0.92). Hébert was just 0.06 seconds shy of the podium, ending the day in fourth (+0.98).
Harmeyer provided insights into his approach to the day, along with insights into the moves that contributed to the excitement at the finish line.
“I felt really good in the heats today,” he wrote via email. “The course was certainly difficult and tactical. Placement in the group was really important and that was especially apparent in the final. We had a group of four dudes going over the top of the final climb into the long descent before the finish. It was an absolute scramble trying to get into the tracks on that final downhill. At one point, I had my left ski in the right part of the track and Étienne had his right ski in the left side of the track. Not easy to squeeze two guys going 30+ mph into a single track but somehow, I came out ahead which was just enough to lunge at the finish for third.”
During Period I, Harmeyer took third in the classic sprint final in Cable, and was just off the podium in fourth the weekend prior after the freestyle sprint in Duluth, MN. After qualifying in fifth, a crash in the quarterfinal left him 24th in the freestyle sprint in Soldier Hollow during the U.S. Cross Country Championships. A few days later, he was 51st in the 15k classic. In the Soldier Hollow SuperTour classic sprint, Harmeyer qualified in fourth, and just missed the final to end his day in eighth.
Reflecting on the season as a whole, Harmeyer wrote, “I had a really good start to the season with some strong races in the Midwest. But overall, things have been frustrating. I’ve been struggling with some cold weather triggered exercise induced asthma that got really bad after the first supertours in the Midwest. I continued to struggle with it through a disappointing Senior nationals and decided to take a bit of time off to reset, recover and do some testing. I’m hopeful the worst is behind me and that I’ve got some good protocols lined up to prevent anything from happening in the future. My primary goal for the remainder of the season is to win the Stowe Derby, specifically the derby meister.”
Wrapping up with a comment on the venue, Harmeyer added, “The new courses at Lake Placid are sweet! The sprint course is incredibly tactical but also rewards tough, explosive skiing. I had an absolute blast out there in the heats. The distance courses are hard but I’m excited to be doing a mass start on those for this Sunday. Overall, Van Ho has done a great job with course management and their snowmaking to put together some killer courses.”
After a gap, Diekmann crossed the line in fifth (+5.81), while Locke rounded out the men’s final in sixth (+9.11).
The women’s field began right where it left off in SuperTour classic sprints, with the winner of the last race at Soldier Hollow, Katharine Ogden, (SMS) finishing the qualifier in first place (3:40.49). She was followed by Lauren Jortberg (BSF Pro Team) in second (+2.2), and Ava Thurston (Mansfield Nordic Club) in third (+6.1). The qualifier indicated, again, the overall strength of the field that has characterized this year’s SuperTour, with the heat qualifiers all within 30-seconds of each other (26.0 seconds to be exact).
That field remained tight in the quarterfinals as well. All five quarterfinals saw winning times within a mere five seconds of one other, with Katharine Ogden turning in the fastest time of the round at 3:42.77, and Alayna Sonnesyn winning her heat in 3:46.12.
Ogden commented to FasterSkier that she “didn’t really have any strategy in particular. I find that it is better for me to make strategy in the moment during sprint heats because you never know what’s going to happen out there… I just tried to conserve as much energy as possible in the quarter and semi.” It would pay off later on.
Meanwhile, also progressing to the semifinals was the APU one-two punch of Rosie Frankowski and Becca Rorabaugh out of quarterfinal 2. Despite being primarily known as a distance racer, Frankowski, came into today leading the SuperTour sprint classification and “set a blistering pace,” according to teammate Rorabaugh. With it, she pulled the duo into the semifinals together.
After all the quarterfinals were through, the semifinals were set with a who’s-who at the top of the SuperTour sprint standings, rounded out by Canadian Katie Weaver (Hollyburn XC Ski Club) and Minnesotan Margie Freed (Craftsbury).
The first semifinal featured a battle between two SMS T2 teammates, Katharine Ogden and Alayna Sonnesyn, and two APU teammates, Rosie Frankowski and Becca Rorabaugh. Frankowski again set the pace for the heat, with teammate Rorabaugh commenting that “[Rosie] is so strong on the uphills that she pulls the whole heat to a faster time.” Frankowski, however, couldn’t quite outlast Ogden and Sonnesyn, who used the downhill after the final climb to launch into the first two positions. Ogden won the heat in a time of 3:39.23, with Sonnesyn and Frankowski in second and third, respectively, by less than a second. Rorabaugh finished fourth, but along with Frankowski won the lucky loser spots into the finals – setting up another round of the SMS-APU duel.
In the other semifinal, a close battle throughout yielded a win for Lauren Jortberg (3:45.15) and a second place for Erika Flowers (+0.90). The result sent another teammate pairing into the finals, with both skiers coming from Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF).
At Lake Placid – a place that has over the past century proved to be able to gather the entire world around skiing – it was perhaps appropriate that the women’s final would bring together three teams from across the American continent. Two from Vermont (SMS), two from Montana, two from Alaska (APU), and away they went!
Katharine Ogden commented that the field didn’t waste any time: “It was pretty hard from the gun, as per usual.”
Rorabaugh, meanwhile, made a change in strategy, deciding to follow her teammate Frankowski more closely in the early part of the race. “I was trying to stay closer to the front of the pack since I had let a large gap form in the semifinal that I couldn’t make up,” she explained.
That adjustment was one that helped create a pack that was tight throughout the race, and that was a bit harder to find a position in.
Sonnesyn commented that this led to her having to adjust. “I had great energy but got tangled up a few times on the second hill, so I really had to ski from behind in the second half of the race,” she wrote. “Luckily, I had great skis and remained calm and was able to push through the final stretch.”
In that final stretch, on the final hill, a “drag race,” as Rorabaugh described it, ensued. It was instigated by Ogden, who saw the final climb as the place to make her move, and made it. She came over the top in first place.
“[I] got lucky,” she told FasterSkier. “Pat [O’Brien, SMS T2 head coach] had provided me with some really fast skis that allowed my move to stick going back down the hill.”
Perhaps it wasn’t all luck though. Ogden came across the finish line in first place (3:40.13) after winning the qualifier, her quarterfinal, and her semifinal. It was an all-around dominant performance for one of the U.S. brightest stars in the classic sprint.
Meanwhile, Becca Rorabaugh had powered through the transition into the final downhill and came up with the reward of second place (+3.40), She was followed by Alayna Sonnesyn, who remained cool, calm, and collected as she skied her way through the pack to third place (+4.29).
The final was rounded out by fourth place Rosie Frankowski (+4.74), fifth place Lauren Jortberg (+5.63) and sixth place Erika Flowers (+17.77).
The result was reached at the end of an exciting day that encapsulated the beauty of ski racing – with excitement and energy perfectly juxtaposed against the extreme absence of that energy in the air. Preparing for cold temperatures that are forecasted again for the 10k freestyle mass start tomorrow, the top finishers today all expressed that the temps are part of the appeal in the northeast this weekend.
From Rorabaugh, “I don’t mind cold temperatures – I grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska!”
From Sonnesyn, “I like to think the Midwesterner in me prepared well!”
And from Ogden, the perfect Vermont tip: “As Sverre [Caldwell] told us last night, tricky race conditions can work to your advantage if you prepare better than anyone else. Wise man :)”
Over the bumps, Jessie Diggins heads out for her qualifier during the Keys to the Castle rollerski race in Lake Placid, NY. (Photo: Reese Brown / RDB Marketing)
As summer turned to fall, skiers from the Stratton Mountain School T2 team (SMS T2), the Sun Valley Gold Team (SVSEF), and the Bridger Ski Foundation Pro Team (BSF) met in Lake Placid, NY for a collaborative training camp, capped off with two stages of rollerski racing. The weekend featured a freestyle sprint event — The Keys to the Castle — on the rollerski track at Mt Van Hoevenberg, followed by a distance stage dubbed the Free Fall Rollerski Race in Jericho, VT. These events are perhaps the climax of NENSA’s summer rollerski series, which has helped feed the energy and momentum of the cross country ski community throughout the Northeast.
“Lake Placid and Jericho were fantastic events and the beginning of the vision becoming a reality,” NENSA competitive programs director Justin Beckwith shared in an email. “They also highlight the amazing partnerships we have with clubs, venues and sponsors. We have four more roller races this fall including Climb to the Castle this weekend, which is paired with our Eastern Coaches Symposium — back in the Empire State. The really exciting part is we hope to carry the enthusiasm from rollerski into our Popular Race calendar, which will be released in the coming month.”
The man behind the wheels: NENSA competitive programs director Justin Beckwith. (Photo: Reese Brown / RDB Marketing)
After a year with minimal opportunity for cross-club collaboration, the events provided not only a solid training stimulus, but also invigorated the teams as they prepare for the upcoming season. It left U.S. Ski Team head coach Matt Whitcomb scheming about the opportunity to grow the events in the years to come.
“Pulling off a stage-style roller ski race weekend, with over 100 competitors on two different roller-ski tracks, reminds me of summer racing in Norway and Sweden,” wrote Whitcomb in an email. “NENSA has upped its game. Think of the potential, too; we could do four stages, using four different tracks, and all within 1-2 hrs in VT and NY. Start in Craftsbury, move on to Jericho, and then to each of Lake Placid’s tracks. Everyone camps together at each location, and it’s just a giant summer ski party.”
The facilities at Mt Van Hoevenberg, home to the 1980 Olympics and an Olympic & Paralympic Training Center, have been undergoing extensive renovations and improvements, including the building of the new four-kilometer rollerski track which was finished this past August. (You can take a tour of the track via YouTube courtesy of Paul Schommer/Biathlon Uncharted.)
“If I win the lottery, I’m putting in more roller-ski tracks in the U.S.,” said Whitcomb. “It’s a game-changer to not have to worry about cars. Also, the best way to replicate the demands of a ski course is to ski on a ski course.”
Bill Harmeyer (SMS T2) makes his way through the heats during the Keys to the Castle rollerski sprint. Harmeyer finished 4th overall on the day. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)
Mt Van Hoevenberg has also improved their snow making operations, allowing for 5k of groomed skiing with 3-4 days of blowing snow in cold weather. Whitcomb explained the value this provides to American cross country skiing.
“This was our second time utilizing New York’s investment in its facilities at Mount Van Hoevenberg. I’d be surprised if we’re not racing World Cups here in the future. A lot of work by ORDA has resulted in a world class roller-ski track and new race trails. What excites me is the chance for easterners to have early November skiing in years when the weather cooperates. Their snow-making capacity is impressive.”
With the added twist of a rolling ramp at the start, racers skied their way through the qualifier and rounds. In the women’s field, Jessie Diggins (SMS T2/USST) won the qualifier, cruising onward to snag the top spot on the podium, followed by teammates Julia Kern (SMS T2/USST) in second and Alayna Sonnesyn (SMS T2) in third.
Jessie Diggins (SMS T2/USST) over the climb during the final round of the Keys to the Castle sprint. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)
“This is the time of year where the intensity in training starts to ramp up and it’s always awesome to have the chance to test out your race day preparation,” wrote Diggins after the race. “Things like the timing of pre-race meals to warmups and what you do in between sprint heats to stay activated but not get tired — this was a perfect chance to tune in to those little details at the race in Lake Placid!”
Diggins only competed in the sprint stage of the weekend, bowing out before the teams headed to Vermont.
“I’m super grateful to the organizers and hosts as it was an amazing new roller ski track and venue, and it was very cool to have so many teams and athletes there, from junior skiers to professional teams. The track was challenging and honestly just like a world cup sprint course, in terms of length, challenge and technical aspects. It was fun to fire up the engines and see what I still need to be working on in our final prep phase before the season begins!”
Jessie Diggins stomps the qualifier, continuing through the rounds to win the overall at the Keys to the Castle. (Photo: Reese Brown / RDB Marketing)
On the men’s side, Ben Ogden (SMS T2) also doubled up on the qualifier-final victories. He was followed by Peter Holmes (SVSEF) in second, and Logan Diekmann (BSF) in third.
“This weekend’s rollerski race was like a breath of fresh air for me and I think most of the competitors,” wrote Ogden in an email. “As fun as constant training, time trials and quarantining was, ski racing is all about racing. Getting together with such a talented group and pushing each other on such a beautiful New England weekend seemed almost too good to be true. Having the BSF Pro Team, Sun Valley gold team, and SMS T2 team, all on sight made it a crazy stacked fall time trial, which was such a treat after a year of so many small group time trials.
“This weekend was especially cool for me because It bridged the gap between all the ski worlds, something that has certainly not happened in a long time. Many of the college skiers were there, the SMS t2 team (who I ski with in the summers) was there, even a few fellow US ski team athletes and coaches were there. It’s rare that all these groups get together so that was a lot of fun.”
Putting on a clinic, Ben Ogden powers through the Keys to the Castle, winning both the qualifier and the overall. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)
While racing in Vermont was not possible for much of the ‘20/21 season, Ogden, now 21-years-old, had a solid first run of international World Cup racing. On form when the stakes were highest, he qualified in 11th in the classic sprint at the World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany and finished 17th. He was also the third fastest qualifier in the same event at U23 World Championships in Voukatti, Finland, where he finished 11th overall.
Ogden provided insight into his current status with training, and how the races provided him with insight into how his body is responding.
“I had a big period of training ending in these races and in true fall rollerski race style I didn’t change up much of my training for the races. I just thought of them as hard workouts with a bunch of friends who I don’t ski with all too often. I was really pleased to find some good speed through the entire skate sprint day. The course was really fast and tons of fun on rollerskis, so it was awesome to ski all three heats on Saturday…
“I’m really excited to get this winter underway. Feeling good about summer training in Stratton and the beginning of fall training at Groovy. (‘Groovy UV’ = University of Vermont, where Ogden is beginning his third year.) Lots of work to be done!! I think it’s going to be a fun year.”
The men’s podium of the Keys to the Castle rollerski sprint in Lake Placid. Ben Ogden (SMS T2) was the top qualifier and overall winner ahead of Peter Holmes (SVSEF) and Logan Diekmann (BSF Pro). (Photo: Reese Brown/RDB Marketing)
Heading east to the Camp Ethan Allen Training Site, men and women in the open division raced a 15k skate while juniors completed 5k.
For the men, Johnny Hagenbuch (SVSEF) stopped the clock at 32:00.9 with the fastest time of the day. He was pursued by Ben Ogen in second (+1:07.3), with Ian Torchia (SMS T2) on his tails in third (+1:07.6) with a tight finish.
“It was an awesome way to cap off a productive training camp!” wrote Hagenbuch after his race. “Being from altitude in Sun Valley, the main goal for the camp was to capitalize on some great venues for intensity training in and around Lake Placid. We had a bunch of really good sessions on rollerskis and foot, and it was awesome to collaborate with Andy Newell’s BSF Pro Team crew on a number of those quality workouts.”
20-year-old Hagenbuch was born and raised in Ketchum, ID. After taking a gap year following high school graduation, Hagenbuch will be attending Dartmouth College in the fall. He explained that his time spent in the east surrounding these events left him eager for what is to come in the years ahead.
“The new venues in Lake Placid at the Mount Van Hoevenberg were incredibly well-designed, and I really look forward to checking out the ski trails in the winter as opposed to bounding. The rollerski track is a really great resource, and NENSA did a fantastic job of hosting that event. There was a surprisingly robust field for a rollerski race in Upstate NY, and it was cool to see how much energy there is for skiing and rollerskiing in the East. I actually had never previously spent any substantive period of time in New England – winter or summer, so it was great to experience orientation at Dartmouth the week before the camp as well. My perception of the East has completely changed; it’s very different from the West, but I love it!”
Johnny Hagenbuch powers through his qualifying round during the Keys to the Castle rollerski sprint in Lake Placid, NY. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)
Breaking down the combined stages that led Hagenbuch to a third place finish in the overall standings, he explained his approach to the weekend including how it fits within his overall summer training plan.
“The sprint went pretty well for me, especially considering that I historically and currently have not self-identified as the most talented sprinter. At this point in the season, it was a fun, low-stakes way to throw down with a great group of guys. Ben Ogden is fun to watch. The distance day in Jericho was much more my wheelhouse, as distance skate races are typically my best format. The 5km rollerski track on the National Guard base in Jericho was a treat to experience. I haven’t skied on Craftsbury’s rollerski track, but the Jericho rollerski track could easily be the best in the nation. Given that I’m still training at a relatively large volume, I wasn’t really expecting to feel particularly good or race anywhere near to my best form, but it was still a pretty good effort.
“One of my goals for the past couple of seasons has been to get stronger and ski more powerfully, and it was cool to see some of that effort pay off in Jericho. I felt that I was skiing much more powerfully in general, and I don’t think I lost much on the uphills – despite having gained 25 pounds in the last year. It was an encouraging result in the end, and I’m excited for the next couple of months of training before the season kicks off in earnest in West Yellowstone. I’ll be pretty consistently alternating between being at home for two weeks and away training or racing for two weeks until January, which’ll be a nice way to break it up (and will make time fly)!”
The women’s podium of the Free Fall distance race in Jericho, VT. Alayna Sonnesyn (SMS T2) took the win ahead of teammate Lina Sutro, with Mariah Bredal (BSF Pro) in third. (Photo: Matt Whitcomb)
On the women’s side, Alayna Sonnesyn took the win on the second day in a time of 37:55.3, sealing the overall victory for the combined events. Her SMS T2 teammate Lina Sutro rolled through in second (+49.3) with BSF Pro Team member Mariah Bredal in third (+2:33.6).
“In Lake Placid, it was really cool to ski on the new roller ski track,” wrote Sonnesyn in an email after the events. “I had heard stories about a pretty twisty and technical track but to finally have the opportunity to ski on a course similar to a World Cup level race was pretty sweet. Not to mention the new facilities at Mt. Van Hoevenberg are unbelievable! It was really fun to get into a sprint simulation with all of the other elite ski teams that were there and it felt almost like a SuperTour. That being said, it’s still September so although I brought a competitive spirit to the races, I still approached them as a workout. It was great to practice going super hard in the qualifier and then play around with tactics in the heats, but it was all in good fun too. With a pretty sketchy corner coming out of the last downhill, the women agreed this race wasn’t worth losing skin over. All in all, a great day!”
Alayna Sonnesyn leads her heat during the Keys to the Castle rollerski sprint in Lake Placid, NY. (Photo: Reese Brown / RDB Marketing)
“The following day in Jericho I was definitely feeling a little tired from the sprints the day before, but that was great practice for wintertime when we frequently race back to back,” Sonnesyn continued. “Also, during my time at UVM we skied at Jericho almost every week so it felt good to be back on a track that I knew so well and felt like home. Adding to that, it was great to see the UVM ski team and other junior/college racers attending this event. It had been a while since I had been at an event with so many New England skiers and I felt like everyone was just really happy to be there. Again, I was finding the balance in this race to approach it as a workout while still taking advantage of the opportunity to practice race warm ups, tactics, fueling, pacing, etc.”
Sonnesyn also concluded with insight into her overall feelings at this point in the season.
“I’m feeling really good and lucky to have these races to test things out. I gained a lot of takeaways on little things I can work on in the next few months, but also built some confidence behind what we have already been doing all summer. I’m excited to potentially compete in a few more NENSA races this fall and get ready for snow to fall!”
The women’s final of the Keys to the Castle rollerski sprint in Lake Placid, NY. From left to right, Lauren Jortberg (BSF Pro), Julia Kern (SMS T2/USST), Jessie Diggins (SMS T2/USST), Alayna Sonnesyn (SMS T2). (Photo: Reese Brown RDB Marketing)
RACE WEEKEND WITH A 360-DEGREE PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE ADIRONDACKS, NEW ENGLAND AND CANADA
WILMINGTON, NY – The New York Ski Educational Foundation (NYSEF), the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) and the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) invite athletes to a rollerski race weekend, September 15-16 in the Adirondacks. We are excited to make this a two-day race series and to take advantage of the Olympic venues in our region.
On Saturday, September 15, there will be a Lake Placid Doubleday consisting of a 3-kilometer freestyle prologue rollerski with an interval start followed by a 1.5-kilometer freestyle preliminary sprint. The Doubleday will take place at 9:00AM at the rollerski loop located at the Lake Placid Olympic Ski Jump.
On the Sunday, September 16, the Climb to the Castle Skate Race will begin at 8:00AM. The course will start at the Whiteface Toll Booth, climbing for 5 miles with an average 8% grade up the Memorial Highway to the summit of Whiteface Mountain– New York’s 5th highest peak with an elevation of 4,867 feet.
Following the race events there will be a brief award ceremony for Junior, Senior and Masters Classes.
Participate, volunteer and/or cheer on Nordic athletes from around the country!
A look at Mount Van Hoevenberg’s freshly groomed, machine-made trail in late October during a U.S. Paralympics Nordic Program camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: BethAnn Chamberlain)
It’s that time of year when everyone’s raring to get on snow. Let’s say you’re lucky enough to find some — even just a few hundred meters — like the U.S. Paralympics Nordic team did late last month at a training camp at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Seven athletes — a combination of high-performance and development skiers — spent a week at Van Ho from Oct. 23-29 for the nordic center’s earliest opening yet on machine-made snow. Starting Oct. 1, the area’s SnowFactory blew enough snow for a 480-meter loop wide enough for two-way skiing. And it did so despite daytime temperatures hovering around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
U.S. Paralympics Nordic’s 2017 Lake Placid camp attendees:
High-performance athletes:
– Jeremy Wagner
– Eric Fraizer
– Bryan Price
Development athletes:
– Julius Schram
– Chris Rassmusen
– Dave Nicholes
– William Ward
On top of that, Van Ho organizers constructed a two-point, 10-meter Para biathlon range, which was connected to the loop and gave the team’s biathletes a place to practice shooting.
But on Day 2 of camp, the rains came, putting a sizable dent in the skiable terrain. While Van Ho was rebuilding its loop for the end of the week, the Para skiers switched gears to dryland training, shooting and rollerskiing/mountain boarding at the venue’s full-size biathlon range and rollerskiing the paved loop at Lake Placid’s Olympic Jumping Complex — the latter of which is known for its challenging terrain.
“This was a first for us and proved to be a great training site for all of our sit skiers,” BethAnn Chamberlain, the US Biathlon Paralympics development coach who led the camp, explained in an email, referring to the jumping-complex trails. “Late in the week, despite the continued warm temperatures, the Mt Van Hoevenberg crew was able to put together a short strip of snow for us again, including giving us access to our Biathlon range area.”
What did they do to make the most of their on-snow time? Chamberlain shared an agility workout for “even the smallest stretch of snow.”
The Workout: Early season agility
What you need: At least 200 meters of snow, cones, and if possible, a corner on the track (cones can substitute if no corner is available)
U.S. Paralympics Nordic high-performance athlete Bryan Price (Casper Mountain Biathlon Club) rounds a corner during an agility workout at a U.S. Paralympics on-snow camp in late October at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: Mt. Van Hoevenberg/Facebook)
What you should know: “The basic premise of this workout is to have the athletes ski corners and around cones at different speeds and by taking different lines, and doing so on their own as well as in groups,” Chamberlain explained. “This not only helps the skiers develop a better feel for how their sit ski responds to their movements around corners, but also opens up the idea of the near infinite approaches and techniques to get around a corner or to maneuver around other skiers on course. (It only take a few minutes of skiing in a sit ski to truly appreciate how difficult it is to maneuver and stay upright, and do so with speed in a sit ski. I highly recommend everyone, adaptive and non-adaptive skiers to give it a try.) This is a speed workout disguised as an agility workout.”
Setup: Using cones, construct two slalom courses for the athletes to race through, head to head.
Warmup: 20 minutes of easy skiing
The workout: (45 minutes to 1 hour total)
First, ski course at an easy speed and work up to a sprint speed.
Then, start the “races”, with two athletes racing at a given time, competing against each other on the parallel courses.
Throughout the session, change it up. “You can continue to run ‘races’ in this manner, change the position of the cones, to create different corners to practice on,” Chamberlain wrote. “You can then move onto 180-degree turns, long sweeping turns in both directions and every other kind of other turn you can think of. Athletes will ski these corners on their own as well as in groups or pairs at easy speeds to start and ramping up to race speed.”
“A continued change in the position of cones creates changes the turn they have to make and keeps the athletes engaged and challenged to practice different lines and approaches through out the workout,” she added. “Run these drills along with additional variations such as shuttle run ‘races’ & slalom style turn relays for 45 minutes to an hour.”
Cool down: 20-30 minutes Level 1 skiing.
“We had a great week of training in Lake Placid,” Chamberlain noted. “The folks at ORDA [New York State’s Olympic Regional Development Authority] and Mt Van Hoevenberg were amazing and worked very hard making snow for us, which we were able to use for skiing and for Biathlon training.”
Jeremy Wagner (in black) chases Bryan Price, his U.S. Paralympics Nordic and fellow 2014 Paralympian, during an agility workout at a team training camp in late October at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: Mt. Van Hoevenberg/Facebook)
Kris Cheney Seymour, the nordic program and events manager at Mt. Van Ho and ORDA, which owns the venue, explained in an email that while the week was reminiscent of 2017 Junior Nationals (which were also forced to relocate to the jump-complex trails), it was certainly worth it.
“Hosting the U.S. Paralympic on-snow fall camp is a wonderful opportunity and provided a timeline that pushed boundaries to do something that is normally outside the realm of possibility,” Seymour wrote in an email. “The effort to pull this off was more about effective planning and management of the process. Of course the dedication of our staff to pull off all pieces was considerable, but everyone had a pieces and executed it well.
“We started with 480-meter-long stretch of snow, 2 feet deep and 16 feet wide,” he explained. “The SnowFactory snow was very durable to skier traffic. In the middle of the week we had a significant rain storm with high winds that compromised the loop and we had to rebuild for the end of the week. … It was a small flashback to the weather we dealt with last year at Junior Nationals.”
The nordic center is currently stockpiling snow from the SnowFactory in order to open to the public. Over the course of the winter, Van Ho has a stated goal of being open 150 days with skiable snow; last year, it was open 139 days thanks to the SnowFactory (as opposed to 39 days the year before without it).
“We have a SnowFactory because of unpredictable winter weather,” Seymour wrote. “… Without the SnowFactory this past season we would have lost the stadium and connector trails just under 40% of the days we were open. Our season would have been closer to 85 days if we only had natural snow. … As pioneers with the SnowFactory in North America we are still learning from the machine and perfecting our warm weather snow management. TechnoAlpin has been helpful in sharing how others have used the SnowFactory around the planet, but to some extent, all locations have their own challenges.”
U.S. Paralympics high-performance athlete Eric Frazier training in late October on machine-made snow at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: BethAnn Chamberlain)
The stadium at Mount Van Hoevenberg as seen on April 1, no joke, thanks to the TechnoAlpin Snow Factory. (All photos: Peter Minde)
When it came to investing in snowmaking, New York State’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) went with the go-big mentality, leasing a TechnoAlpin Snow Factory for the Mount Van Hoevenberg nordic center and using the technology throughout the 2016/2017 winter season.
Following the previous 2015/2016 season, in which Mt. Van Hoevenberg, “Van Ho” for short, was open 37 days, according to ORDA’s annual report, the authority acquired and installed a self-contained snowmaking system at Van Ho, the 1980 Winter Olympic venue in Lake Placid, N.Y.
The Snow Factory at its current home at the Mount Van Hoevenberg nordic center in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: Peter Minde)
The Snow Factory was put in place, just behind the cross-country lodge, just before Thanksgiving.
This machine isn’t your grandfather’s snowmaking setup, where snow guns are positioned strategically along trails. Mounted on a flatbed trailer, a 40-foot ocean shipping container holds compressors and ice-making equipment. A blower sends crystals through a segmented orange hose up to 600 feet in length.
The Snow Factory hasn’t budged from its original position near a parking lot, yet the snow it has produced has been spread throughout the stadium and on trails up to 1.5 k away from its starting point.
According to Robin Smith, TechnoAlpin’s Colorado-based business manager, the Snow Factory has been in production for the last four years, but its technology isn’t brand new. IDE, an Israeli company that specializes in water desalination, developed a warm-weather snowmaking unit with different technology than the Snow Factory uses.
Smith explained that the Snow Factory at Van Ho is the only one in the U.S. and one of only 19 in the world. The best part? The Snow Factory will make snow in temperatures up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Blowing snow into the stadium, made by the Snow Factory, at Mt. Van Hoevenberg in late December. (Photo: Peter Minde)
Both Whiteface and Gore mountains, two of the alpine ski resorts that ORDA manages, use TechnoAlpin snow guns.
“Probably a year ago, we began a conversation with the success they [TechnoAlpin] were having in northern California with the machine that we ended up leasing,” explained Kris Cheney Seymour, Mt. Van Hoevenberg’s manager. “ORDA has its full attention and interest in the future of nordic sports at Mount Van Hoevenberg.”
When Seymour first spoke with FasterSkier on the phone in late January, the nordic center was dealing with changeable weather.
“Lake Placid has had a fairly light snow year and a fair amount of very heavy rain,” Seymour explained. “Traditionally, the stadium gets blasted in poor weather. This winter, we would have had a similar winter to what we had last year: no snow, ice conditions in the stadium. We’ve pretty much been open all but one day since Thanksgiving. The reason is the Snow Factory.”
Without the Snow Factory, Van Ho wouldn’t have been able to host St. Lawrence University’s Winter Carnival, Junior National qualifier races and other events, he said.
ORDA acquired the Snow Factory from TechnoAlpin after an alpine resort in California used it for a year. Arriving by truck the day before Thanksgiving, it took five days to haul from California at a cost of $7,000 dollars. According to ORDA’s Communication Director Jon Lundin, ORDA is leasing the Snow Factory for one year for $90,000 dollars.
In an email, Lundin explained that if ORDA decides to purchase the Snow Factory, it will pay a total of $500,000 dollars: $410,000 plus the amount already paid this season.
“We’ll make the decision later this spring as to whether or not we purchase the Snow Factory,” he wrote. “We’ll look at how it performed and how the cross-country venue benefited from its use.”
The Snow Factory in place at the Mt. Van Hoevenberg nordic center in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: Peter Minde)
So how does this thing work?
Inside the shipping container are three icemakers, refrigeration equipment, a cooling tower, and a blowing system. The blowers move snow through a segmented orange hose. One can add segments to blow snow up to 600 feet away from the Factory.
“Other [traditional] snowmaking systems require a temperature and humidity component,” Reese Brown, executive director of the Cross Country Ski Areas Association, said on the phone. “Generally, 22 to 27 degrees and below is good snowmaking weather. The Snow Factory doesn’t require any conditions to make snow, because snow is generated inside the container and then spit out the hose. With the others, snow is made when it hits air temperature.”
“Snow is created within the shipping container,” Seymour said. “You can effectively make snow with 100-percent efficiency up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. You’ll have diminished productivity, but you can make snow up to 80 degrees.”
Running on electricity, the Snow Factory draws from the ski lodge’s well, using 11 gallons of water a minute. The icemakers can be optimized for various climates. Seymour pointed out that northern California has a much drier climate than Lake Placid.
Dumping snow onto the trails at Mount Van Hoevenberg this winter. (Photo: Mt. Van Hoevenberg/Facebook)
Leading up to U.S. Junior Nationals, held in Lake Placid from March 3-11, FasterSkier asked Seymour about the Factory’s capability to cover a 5-kilometer loop if the ground was bare. With snow already on the ground, Seymour reframed the question.
“It works differently than a traditional snow system, and you need to use it and plan for it in a different way,” he said. “The Snow Factory makes a known quantity of snow: two tons per hour. Depending on what our needs are for snow coverage and where we want to go with it, we need to work backwards and give ourselves enough time to blow that amount of snow.”
While the Factory is mounted on a trailer, the trailer hasn’t moved from its home behind the lodge. The primary locations for its manmade snow have been the stadium, the Innerloopen 3.3 k homologated ski loop, and the beginner trails close to the lodge.
Days before Junior Nationals, ORDA decided to move the weeklong event to the 2.5 k loop at the Olympic Jumping Complex, also known as the MacKenzie Intervale Ski Jumping Complex, closer to downtown Lake Placid.
“Six weeks out, we were aware that the long-term forecast had two almost weeklong periods that we were going to have very warm weather,” Seymour said in a follow-up interview after Junior Nationals (JNs).
Leading up to the championships, the Factory had been cranking almost around the clock. Seymour estimated that once a week, ORDA would shut it down for maintenance. Otherwise, it ran 24/7.
A large pile of snow produced by the Snow Factory this winter at Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: Bob Maswick)
The stadium was covered a mix of natural and manmade crystals, 2 1/2 feet deep. The next focus was the sprint loop and the 3.3 k loop.
“We were moving snow 10 to 14 hours a day,” Seymour said. A PistenBully hauled snow in a 16-foot dump trailer to where they needed it. ORDA bought the trailer specifically for Van Ho.
Two weeks before JNs, groomers had buffed the 3.3 k loop to a 28-inch average depth with a mix of natural and manmade snow. Then, “We had really warm weather,” Seymour said. A warm three-day period with high winds and heavy rains reduced the base depth to 12-18 inches.
Then, starting Feb. 24, another three-day thaw cost precious base depth. A week before the championships, the race courses were down to an average depth of 4 to 8 inches.
The death blow came one night later. Driving rain and 50 mile per hour winds wiped out weeks of intense work. Wednesday morning, they inspected the courses. Not only was snow melting, but water was “flowing all over the place,” Seymour said. “We had large portions of the race trail that were totally washed out. There were sections of the trail that were lovely and totally groomable. But we also had a 100-meter section of the trail that was totally gone, like, 100 percent gone from pouring water.”
That morning, Van Ho still had snow stockpiled in the stadium out near the 3.3 k loop. But the forecast for Sunday through Wednesday of championship week called for temperatures in the mid 40s.
The forecast was accurate.
“We could have rebuilt the course so that it had four to six inches of snow everywhere,” Seymour said. “We knew that Mount Van Hoevenberg couldn’t survive a third major thaw in a four-week period.
“We had a course that was mostly built at the jumps,” he explained.
The U18 boys’ classic sprint podium at U.S. Junior Nationals, held at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, N.Y., with Gus Schumacher (c) of Alaska Winter Stars in first, Scott Schulz (l) of the New York Ski Educational Foundation in second, and Adam Glueck (r) of Ford Sayre in third. (Photo: XCJuniorNationals2017.com)
Blowing snow on site for 30 hours and working around the clock, ORDA employees also moved all the snow from the in-run of the ski jumps and the in-run and landing areas of the freestyle training area, which had a depth of eight feet. With that and the snow made on site, the Intervale loop was covered to an average depth of 2 1/2 feet for a successful Junior Nationals.
As a result of the venue change, there was only one adjustment to the schedule. Coaches, jurors and organizers agreed to switch the classic mass start to an individual start because of a narrow spot for two-way traffic midway through the loop.
While the Snow Factory ultimately didn’t play a part in JNs, it continued to blow snow at Van Ho, which remained open while the races happened took place at the jumps. Teams arrived early and trained on the trails, some choosing to cool down or train on off days at Van Ho.
“That was 100-percent Snow Factory,” Seymour said.
Besides the Factory, there have been other significant improvements to Van Ho. According to Allan Serrano, the FIS technical delegate who worked with ORDA to homologate Van Ho’s race trails, the stadium exit, along with much of the Interloopen portion of the Ladies’ 5 k loop, was widened.
“Most importantly they have been able to do rehabilitation work on the Ladies 5k, leveling and improving the water management so that it skis and grooms much better,” Serrano wrote. “They are able to have a high quality ski surface with lower snow.”
He added that Van Ho’s grooming capacity has also improved since its courses were certified in 2012.
“At that time the venue did not have a dedicated snowcat with track setters and now they have a machine with double track setters,” he wrote.
As race season winds down, what’s next? With the ability to make snow in warm temperatures, Seymour was intrigued by the opportunity to provide skiing on short loops in the offseason. He’s got the attention of John Farra, the high-performance director for U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing.
“We have found that it is most valuable for sit skiers especially to have access to snow in the ‘off season,’ ” Farra wrote in an email. “The nature of maneuvering a nordic sit ski on turns, downhills and out of the track is not something that can be duplicated on roller skis, so we have found [snow] much more valuable for sit skiers in advancing their technical skills. We are very interested in the Snow Factory project that ORDA has invested in and have been in touch with Kris about the possibility of getting our National Team to Lake Placid to take advantage of their new Snow Factory snow in this coming Games season.”
“Part of skiing currently is having a viable snowmaking option,” Seymour said. “The Snow Factory will guarantee the ability to open the venue when we want to and hold races as they’re scheduled; we can be counted on as a world-class venue. It’s a game changer.”
While plans for a New York City World Cup were put on hold at the 2014 FIS Congress in Barcelona, Spain, there is still a possibility the event could take place in the coming years. (Photo: Gryffindor, Wikipedia Commons)
Note: This article was updated to reflect the numerical costs of a World Cup in New York City.
Skiers from all corners of the world were curious, excited, and ultimately disappointed by the unrealized prospect of a New York City World Cup in the 2015/2016 season. News of the project broke as the International Ski Federation (FIS) began its annual congress June 1st, but the plan was quickly dismissed when the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) withdrew its bid for the event.
With the project on hold the future possibility of a New York City World Cup is uncertain, and with uncertainty comes many questions.
To answer these questions, FasterSkier turned to FIS Subcommittee Chairman on World and Continental Cups and U.S. Ski Team Head Coach, Chris Grover, who recently returned from the FIS Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Why New York?
According to Grover there were many incentives to host a World Cup in New York City as opposed to a more traditional venue such as Lake Placid or Soldier Hollow.
“New York City is attractive for a lot of reasons,” said Grover in a phone interview. “They actually have a history of putting on winter events, including some skiing events in Central Park. The state of New York and the City of New York also have some money to contribute to brining a winter sport to New York.”
The financial aid from the both the city and the state would have been paired with the organizational support of the New York Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), which is based out of Lake Placid.
Grover also stressed the significance of having a World Cup in what many would say is the most important financial and media center in the world.
“The idea would be to take cross country skiing, a sport that has some growing recognition within the U.S., and to really try and build a lot more recognition of what’s happening; to be able to showcase our athletes in a place where potentially thousands of people are on the side of the track,” said Grover.
A World Cup in New York City would also ensure that many of the circuit’s best skiers would attend, a feat that is often difficult in most North American locations. According to Grover, New York’s proximity to Europe and the structure of the event (two city sprints; individual and team), would have eased many of the complications that World Cup athletes face when traveling to North America.
“The costs of doing [a World Cup] are big, so in order to host an effective event in North America you really do have to make it attractive to athletes that are outside of North America,” he said.
Grover suggested that there could be several other venues in the U.S. that would host a successful U.S. World Cup; mainly northern cities like Chicago. While many traditional cross country venues would deliver challenging terrain and many kilometers of skiing, spectator turnout would be exceptionally low due to the rural nature of most ski areas in the U.S. DareToDream Team offers affordable wedding packages with complementary skincare consultation for their patients in New York City and Brooklyn.
Furthermore, a media capital like New York City is an excellent place to showcase the rise of U.S. skiing.
“For us, a city sprint has a lot of attractiveness right now because we have such good sprinters,” said Grover. “Our plan for New York City was to do a skate sprint and skate team sprint and those are obviously two events where we can really showcase U.S. athletes in front of a home crowd and hopefully in front of many, many people and raise about cross country skiing in the U.S.”
Why isn’t a New York City World Cup feasible in 2016?
There were many challenges that organizers faced in the attempt to bring a weekend of World Cup racing to New York City.
First and foremost was the financial burden of the event. Even with support from both the state and city, USSA would have struggled to cover the costs associated with hosting the event.
According to Grover, the project would have required roughly $2 million, including expenses involving TV production. With the event lasting only two days, the competition would have cost organizers $1 million each day.
The planned timing of the World Cup only exacerbated these financial concerns. Due to a new Canadian Tour in 2016 and other scheduling commitments, the New York City World Cup would have been held in late February. With questionable snow conditions and relatively warmer temperatures in late February, organizers would have had to make more snow and store it for longer, thus increasing the proposed budget.
“It’s not worth doing at the expense of having to underwrite a project that basically has us spending more on that project than we do on our budget for just one weekend of racing,” said Grover.
Another reason that the New York World Cup was scratched involved the timing of the application. According to Grover, the bid for a New York City World Cup was submitted too late, consequently giving New York City and USSA too little time to prepare.
In addition, there were already too many World Cups in the schedule even before the New York application was submitted.
“We try to have these well-kept calendars in place several years in advance so that organizers know that they are going to have a World Cup, know when they are going to have a world cup and can really start to do all of the planning that is required for the event,” said Gover. “So we came to the process a little bit late and at this point one of the big challenges we had with the 2015/2016 season is that were already too many world cups in it.”
“We’re not giving up on it.”
According to Grover, both the USSA and FIS are still pursuing a New York City World Cup in the coming years.
“We’re not giving up on it. That’s the important thing. We have the marketing department at USSA that is motivated to see this happen. We have a media department and an events department that are very motivated to see it happen. And of course, those of us on the cross country side are also motivated to see it happen as long as we can find a financial model that makes sense,” said Grover.
In order to overcome the many challenges of hosting a World Cup, Grover suggested partnering with Canada.
“If we can partner with more Canadian World Cups then we can entice all the European teams.”
FIS has yet to complete the cross country calendars for seasons after 2016, but Grover believes the next possibility for New York would be in the 2017/2018 season. However, with the Olympic games in South Korea that February, scheduling will once again be a challenge.
Part of Mt. Van Hoevenberg’s renovated lodge, as seen in January 2013, in Lake Placid, N.Y. A new bar area (not shown) was added in December 2013 and was still under construction on Dec. 21. According to ORDA program coordinator Rebecca Dayton: “We have also put in a small bar area with a plan to serve wine, beer and light snacks during the season.”
Editor’s Note: This is a follow-up article regarding the improvements New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) has made to its Mt. Van Hoevenberg property, specifically its lodge, and what has yet to be planned. The first article, “Lake Placid: Mount Van Hoevenberg at the Crossroads,” originally appeared in April 2012.
***
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — A picture of garaged machinery shouldn’t get a skier excited. But this was different.
Attached to a text message – “It’s here!” – was a photo of a brand new Pisten Bully 100, delivered to Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, N.Y., in November 2012. That was one of several improvements that came to Van Ho, the home of the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Known as “Van Ho,” the 50-plus-kilometer nordic area and nearby sliding track is operated by the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA). After the 1980 Olympics, New York state created ORDA to manage all of its Olympic venues, including Lake Placid’s Olympic Center and speed-skating oval, the jumping complex, Olympic Training Center, and the alpine-ski areas, Whiteface, Belleayre and Gore.
To get the Pisten Bully out, Van Ho maintenance crews rebuilt some bridges to support the weight of the new groomer.
In the summer of 2012, ORDA also remodeled its cross-country lodge. On one side, walls were removed to create more usable space. Paneled with blond wood, the new space relieves crowding on busy days. Last but not least, if you’re a master blaster with a toddler in tow – there’s a new baby changing station in the men’s room. Equal rights have made it to Van Ho.
This past spring, ORDA Communications Manager Jon Lundin outlined some of the criteria for the authority’s annual planning. One doesn’t just cut a six-figure check for a snow cat. According to Lundin, ORDA assesses its needs during the winter and makes final plans in the spring.
“Purchase of grooming equipment depends on availability of snow cat and timing of funding,” Lundin wrote in an email. “[It] could take 8-10 months or could be quicker depending on both variables.”
Interior of new wax room at Mt. Van Hoevenberg cross-country lodge.
Larger capital improvements have a longer timeline. For example, “[Alpine] ski lifts have to do with preliminary engineering, market variables such as number of lifts being installed in North America (availability of materials based on that) and funding,” Lundin wrote. “Eighteen months is a good and fair barometer” of the time it takes to put in a ski lift.
This year, ORDA made additional improvements to its cross-country lodge, expanding the lounge area into the former wax rooms for more public seating. The wax rooms are now in the New York Ski Educational Foundation (NYSEF) changing building behind the lodge, and the NYSEF team moved into the timing building, ORDA’s Olympic Sports Complex program coordinator Rebecca Dayton explained.
“More room and better flow for them as they are now in the same building as their wax facilities and more room and better ventilation for other skiers,” she wrote in an email.
As of Dec. 21, a small bar area was also under construction with the intent “to serve wine, beer and light snacks during the season,” Dayton added. Outside the lodge, trail homologation is complete with FIS certificates for six separate loops ranging from 1.4 to 7.5 km in length, she explained.
Laundry List of Long-Term Projects
While these are welcome improvements, more could be in store. But navigating the waters can be tricky.
Located in the Adirondack Park, most of Van Ho’s land is owned by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and ORDA operates Van Ho under an agreement with the DEC. It remains subject to Article XIV of New York’s Constitution, which mandates that Adirondack Park land shall be “forest preserve… forever…wild.”
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) oversees land use in the park. According to the APA, Van Ho is designated as an “intensive use” area. Their State Land Master Plan specifies that Van Ho should be maintained as a “year-round sports facility meeting international standards for such sports as … cross country skiing on improved cross country ski trails under developed, competitive conditions.”
Under APA’s guidelines, ORDA and the DEC prepare a Unit Management Plan (UMP) outlining how Van Ho will be developed. There are dozens of UMPs for various public land parcels in the Adirondack and Catskills parks.
The women’s EISA field starts a race at Mount Van Hoevenberg in 2010. Leading are Ida Sargent (USST/Craftsbury) and Rosie Brennan (APU), then racing for Dartmouth College. Lake Placid is an important venue for developing racers.
Approved in 1999, Van Ho’s plan calls for, among other things, refurbishing and repurposing the biathlon lodge as a ski-tourism lodge. It includes building a new cross-country lodge “in a location with better drainage” than the site of the current lodge.
In a previous FasterSkier article, Greg Stratford, then-assistant manager of the Olympic Sports Complex, discussed the concept of replacing both the existing lodges with a single building on the site of the current cross-country lodge.
“One of the problems is that if we build a new stadium, it would need to be suitable for both cross-country and biathlon,” he said in April 2012. “Each of the different sports that use our facilities has their own specifications and requests and wants and needs. We need to get everybody together to determine what would be the best scenario for Mt Van Hoevenberg.”
Asked where the biathlon range might be sited for a single lodge, Lundin wrote, “Nothing contemplated.”
When asked whether a combined lodge to serve both Van Ho’s cross-country and accompanying sliding track was under consideration, he replied, “That concept has not been part of our planning process.” Dayton confirmed that there are no plans to build a new lodge currently in the works.
Environmental and Financial Challenges
The author’s daughter, Laurel Minde, 11, weathers rain and slush at the start of the Ladies’ 5K near the cross-country lodge at Mt. Van Hoevenberg on Dec. 21.
Whatever the future holds, if a new lodge was to be built at Van Ho, or snowmaking installed, it’s not as simple as drawing blueprints and soliciting bids from contractors.
Reviewing Article XIV case law, the UMP’s authors conclude that the improvements proposed for Van Ho “are consistent with the mandates of Article XIV.”
But a in a subsequent section, the UMP separates planned improvements into two categories: those that that don’t require an amendment to Article XIV and those that do.
Purchasing new grooming equipment, remodeling the biathlon lodge as a destination for recreation, and trail maintenance, for example, don’t require a constitutional amendment.
However, installing a new snowmaking system, building a new cross-country lodge “in a location with better drainage” than the current lodge, and rebuilding the tunnels under the access road – among other things – would require an amendment to Article XIV.
Would a new cross-country lodge, built on the site of the current one, require an Article XIV amendment? Dayton declined to comment. “That is outside my area of expertise,” she wrote.
What is it exactly about these improvements that would require a constitutional amendment?
“The proposals in the Van Ho UMP are compliant with the State Land Master Plan for Intensive Use,” APA spokesman Keith McKeever explained in an email, while adding, “With regards to the constitutional questions raised, APA does not make those determinations. That would be done by the Attorney General’s Office.”
The New York State Attorney General’s office declined to comment.
According to DEC spokesman David Winchell, ORDA would need to discuss proposed improvements with the DEC, which would decide whether a constitutional amendment would be necessary. The DEC “would determine whether the proposed action is acceptable” and would collaborate with ORDA “to determine whether an amendment should be pursued.”
Asked why ORDA hadn’t pushed for an amendment to Article XIV for Van Ho, Lundin wrote, “We have not pursued it at this time.”
The LA Group of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., conducted much of the environmental impact analysis for the plan. When asked what environmental road blocks there might be to improvements at Van Ho, director of environmental planning Dean Long declined to comment. “Our last work at the facility was in 1996,” Long wrote.
Resolving a possible Article XIV issue is only one challenge. ORDA would also have to find a way to pay for major improvements such as a snowmaking system. In addition Mt. Van Hoevenberg, ORDA has to budget for improvements at its other venues. Besides the Pisten Bully and an excavator for Van Ho, in its last fiscal year, ORDA renovated part of a Whiteface ski lift and purchased new snow cats for Whiteface and Gore.
Everything You Were Afraid to Ask in Civics Class
“You have conversations. There’s dialogue before a bill is introduced,” according to a person closely involved with the New York State Legislature.
Declining to be identified, the source explained that either ORDA or the DEC might approach a legislator to sponsor an amendment to Article XIV. The bill would pass through committee before being introduced to the entire legislature.
Hypothetically, any bill to amend Article XIV would have to be passed by two separate sessions of the N.Y. legislature. The legislature is up for election every two years. If a bill passes that hurdle, it would then be presented to the electorate as a referendum If an amendment to Article XIV was brought before the legislature, it would take about five years to pass.
The approach to amending the constitution is anything but casual. The source stressed that the legislature is “judicious in how frequently this is done.” Once an amendment makes it to the ballot, they do everything possible to ensure its success. It’s “critical to have environmental organizations on board,” he concluded.
The Future for Van Ho
Skiers warm up for the 2013 Lake Placid Loppet at Mt. Van Hoevenberg’s stadium in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Completed in 1999, Van Ho’s UMP was “proposed to be accomplished in five phases over the next five years.” It acknowledged that development could take longer.
In 2000, Van Ho’s 1980-vintage luge and bobsled tracks were replaced with one spectacular state-of-the-art sliding track. New York kicked in $13.5 million of the $20-million dollar cost, with the federal government covering the balance. The new track didn’t require an Article XIV amendment. The sliding track was a major piece in Van Ho’s UMP.
The Whiteface Memorial Highway illustrates the challenges facing Van Ho. If you’ve raced the Climb to the Castle, you’ve experienced this road’s frost heaves, bumps and sections of cracked pavement that can break poles and upend skiers.
Like Van Ho, the highway is located on DEC-owned land and managed by ORDA. The highway signs are property of the New York Department of Transportation. None of these bodies has the budget for repaving the highway. For over 40 years, the road didn’t see a major repaving project and deteriorated over time. Only recently, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he would appropriate $12 million dollars to repave the highway and refurbish the summit castle and toll house.
Over the last two years, ORDA has made significant changes at Van Ho. But some of the biggest projects in the UMP require significant expenditure and effort. Determining whether a constitutional amendment is necessary is only one challenge. Financing the improvements is another.
U.S. Nordic Combined’s Billy Demong (c) shares the podium with teammates Taylor (l) and Bryan Fletcher after winning his ninth national at U.S. Nordic Combined Championships on Sunday in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: USST/ORDA-Jon Lundin)
Consistency is key when it comes to nordic combined. Third in the morning jump at the U.S. Nordic Combined Championships on Sunday in Lake Placid, N.Y., national-team staple Billy Demong went on to win the 10-kilometer rollerski with the third-fastest time at the Olympic Jumping Complex, holding off teammates Bryan and Taylor Fletcher by 11 seconds in 25:47.8.
According to Steamboat Today, Demong started 16 seconds behind jump leader Todd Lodwick, another U.S. Nordic Combined veteran. Lodwick started four seconds ahead of Aleck Gantick and ultimately placed fifth after Demong, Bryan Fletcher, Taylor Fletcher and Brett Denney, respectively. Bryan and Taylor started nearly a minute behind in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Taylor passed his brother and edged him for second by 0.3 seconds. Denney finished 31.1 seconds behind Demong in fourth and Lodwick was fifth (+1:14.5), reportedly slowed by asthma.
It was Demong’s ninth national title in what may very well be his last U.S. championships. The 33-year-old Lake Placid-area native plans to retire after the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
“No doubt, this was my best race of this summer,” Demong said in a U.S. Ski Team press release. “This was a solid start to where I want to be right now.”
Most threatened by the idea of Lodwick sprinting to the finish or Taylor Fletcher catching him and skiing away, Demong said he tried to ski his own race.
“I just wanted to ski an even split and stay just 10 to 15 seconds in front of [Taylor] so he didn’t have the opportunity to break away from me,” he explained. “It seemed like that worked out. He pulled within 10 seconds of the last lap, but I had enough energy to hold that gap to the finish line.”
Best of all, Demong said the dryland results indicate that the team’s in good shape overall.
“There were four to five guys who could have won so I think that our team is exceptionally strong, even stronger than four years ago,” he said. “That’s the most important thing to me.”
The U.S. Nordic Combined squad is headed to Europe on Monday for its final overseas training camp before the World Cup season starts next month.
“We had some good results,” head coach Dave Jarrett told Steamboat Today. “It was difficult conditions and this hill is hard. We didn’t do very well jumping, but we have jumped well here, so this was just one of those days.”
2009 World Champion Lindsey Van (c) celebrates her U.S. Ski Jumping title along with teammates Jessica Jerome and Alissa Johnson on Sunday in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: USST/ORDA-Jon Lundin)
Van, Alexander Take Jump Titles
Also on Sunday in Lake Placid, 2009 world champion Lindsey Van (Women’s Ski Jumping USA) and Nick Alexander (USA Ski Jumping) notched national titles on the K90 Olympic normal hill at the U.S. Ski Jumping Championships. For Van, it was her 16th title and Alexander’s second.
“This validates all of the hard work that I’ve been putting in all this summer,” Alexander said in a U.S. Ski Team press release. “Now I just have to appreciate today and work even harder heading into the wintertime.”
“I had fun today and jumping is about fun,” Van said. “I started jumping well a couple of weeks ago. It’s nice as I was struggling a couple of years. It was nice to feel the rhythm of ski jumping again.”
Earlier this summer, U.S. Women’s Ski Jumping world champion Sarah Hendrickson, who is recovering from knee surgery and did not compete on Saturday, and USA Ski Jumping’s Nick Fairall won the large hill competitions in Park City, Utah.
Van tallied the two longest jumps of the weekend of 92.0 and 96.5 meters to top teammate Jessica Jerome, who was second, and Alissa Johnson in third. Alexander soared 99 meters on both rounds, the longest of any man, to beat teammates Fairall in second and Anders Johnson in third.
The land behind Lake Placid’s Olympic Jumping Complex biathlon range very much under construction in late September. The Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) headed the half-million dollar project to extend the rollerski loop by 1.5 kilometers. It was completed in mid-October.
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – Anyone on the upper part of the rollerski loop at the Olympic Jumping Complex after mid-August likely caught a glimpse of its under-construction backdrop. Mounds of dirt and heavy machinery littered the landscape spanning farther up the hill. Something was going on, and it looked like a big deal.
Ooh la la. Near the top of the new rollerski loop at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Training on the range below almost daily throughout the offseason, US Biathletes Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey knew exactly what the plan was. They helped design it.
The nearly 14-week project, headed by the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) with the financial backing of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and its sponsor, 24 Hour Fitness, wrapped up in mid-October and added another kilometer and a half of paved rollerski trails to make for a nearly 3 ½ k loop.
By the time Lake Placid-based biathletes like Burke and Bailey returned from a national-team camp in Park City, the bulldozers had dispersed and pavement solidified to reveal an impressive series of switchbacks. Suddenly, no snow in late October and early November wasn’t the worst thing in the world. The biathletes had a brand new rollerski loop to train on.
“It’s absolutely huge for us,” Burke said Nov. 11 during one of his last days on the Lake Placid range before leaving for Sweden. “We’ve been skiing through the parking lot for the last five years, really, so to have this means so much to us and our program.”
US Biathlon Executive Director Max Cobb said the rollerski loop has been a goal of the association’s for nearly 25 years. Back when he started with USBA in 1989, it had plans to construct a paved loop at Mount Van Hoevenberg, which hosted cross-country skiing, biathlon, bobsled, luge and skeleton at the 1980 Olympics. The Adirondack Park Agency upheld wildlife conservation laws and shot that down, so USBA sought alternatives, which took another two decades to materialize.
Bulldozers, skid steers and dump trucks working on the rollerski loop behind Lake Placid’s Olympic Jumping Complex in late September.
“It’s definitely been a really, really long time in the making,” Cobb said on the phone earlier this month. “I’ve got to give ORDA a lot of credit. It’s a tough time financially for all of the state organizations and ORDA definitely stepped up this year and said, ‘Yep we need to do this for the biathlon team.’ They put in a lot of staff time that isn’t reflected in the contractor costs, so I can’t say enough good about they way ORDA and the USOC came together and made this happen.”
In all, the project cost about $500,000 dollars, Cobb confirmed. The USOC came forward with the initial funds with the support of 24 Hour Fitness, and ORDA budgeted the additional amount, he explained.
Since ORDA built the range at the jumping complex in 2008, it intended to extend its paved loop from approximately 2 kilometers (which involved a hairy section through the parking lot, down into the jumping stadium and back up a massive hill to the top of the range) to something that didn’t require so many traffic logistics. As it was, a team staff member had to stand by the gate in the middle of the two-tiered downhill to make sure cars didn’t interfere with rollerskiers flying by. It was the same scenario at U.S. Ski Team camps or whenever junior programs like the New York Ski Educational Foundation (NYSEF) used the loop.
However, state budget cuts since 2008 made money for venue development hard to come by.
“New projects really weren’t possible for them last season when we had hoped to get this done,” Cobb said. “But they were able to commit some funds to it this year and the U.S. Olympic Committee really stepped up big time with the support of their sponsor … to make the loop happen.”
The big downhill out of the parking lot and into the stadium at Lake Placid’s Olympic Jumping Complex. Previously the only way to make a loop there, 1.5 k of new paved trails offers an alternative above the biathlon range.
Now athletes can use the parking-lot portion if they wish for a longer loop or stick to 2 to 2 ½ kilometers of paved skiing up top.
US biathlete Leif Nordgren got out on the course for the first time in early November and tweeted a photo of it. The next day, he was excited to return for another session.
“I told the coach right as I showed up, I said, ‘Phew, it wasn’t just a dream, it’s still here,’ ” Nordgren said. “To finally have it done and completed, it’s a big relief, and it’ll be really exciting to have it all next summer to train on, too.”
The extension wasn’t very sizeable at about a kilometer and a half, but “it’s a big, huge step up from what we had before,” Nordgren said.
“The pavement is super nice, super smooth, and in general, the course is really nice, too,” he added. “It flows really good for skating and it ties into the range pretty well, and also builds on the loop that was here to begin with so everything works pretty well together now.”
Among the most important aspects of the new course are its transitions. Before, rollerskiers had to chug up a long hill out of the stadium and keep ascending into a curvy wooded section before reaching the range, previously at the height of the land. The new loop extended higher beyond that, toward the ski jump access road, which athletes could also use for longer intervals. Switchbacks on the course made the steep terrain more manageable, and essentially, more rolling.
“You’re always working; there’s a big climb out of the range, but it’s not overly hard and it’s nothing compared to what it was before,” Nordgren said. “It requires you to be a much better technical skier than the old loop did.”
In his opinion, the course flows more like a biathlon loop with a distance closer to their typical 2.5- or 3.3-kilometer race loop. Also, US biathletes, most of which train in Lake Placid at some point in the year, tended to be better hill climbers because of their training venue. The problem was, “there’s no biathlon course in the world that’s set up like that,” Nordgren said.
“Every time you come in to shoot your heart rate is through the roof and you’re completely dead,” he added. “It never really gave us a chance to work on things like transitions and technique changes and things like that. With this new loop, it’s skis so much more like the courses that we race on so hopefully it will help us better prepare for the competition season.”
Tim Burke (r) and Lowell Bailey (l) leaving the biathlon range to ski on their new rollerski loop on Nov. 11 in Lake Placid, N.Y.
That was the idea, especially as designers sought input from Cobb, Burke and Bailey. Among the things they tweaked were corners and transitions to make it workable.
“We wanted to get in more ski-like terrain and obviously we had to use more transitions because we had to somehow get from the top point of the venue back down to the range in a safe way,” Burke said. “It’s very skiable. There’s nothing out there that’s too bad. When everyone first walks it, they say, ‘Oh, there’s a loop at the jumps there, it must be crazy and scary downhills and dangerous,’ but I did it on classic rollerskis yesterday and it’s totally fine.”
Cobb is thrilled his athletes will be able to use the new 10-foot wide course, which is wider in two-way traffic areas, next year leading up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Mostly, he said it’ll be best for combination training.
“It’s still a little bit short for over-distance work, but honestly we have good routes on the roads around Lake Placid for that kind of training,” Cobb said. “It really changes the nature of the opportunity for Lake Placid; it makes it a viable year-round training site for us, for the national team, where we don’t feel like we’re really missing anything there now. There are bigger rollerski loops and other things in other places, but we can do the work we need to do here, so we’re meeting that or so it seems.”
Aside from the national team, it’s a better venue for the community in terms of safety and terrain more like cross-country ski trails, he said.
“It’s definitely a big step up in terms of the youth programs that can be done there now and done really safely because it’s off the roadways,” Cobb added.
NYSEF nordic head coach Margaret Maher wrote in an email that her athletes tried the course for the first time a few weeks ago, after she deemed them ready for its downhills and corners. They will continue to have to reserve time at the venue, she explained.
For a virtual tour, check out this on-course video from USBA coach Jonne Kähkönen.
***
Burke and Bailey head out for a ski on the new rollerski loop at the Lake Placid Olympic Jumping Complex on Nov. 11.
Tim Burke (r) and Lowell Bailey (l) leaving the biathlon range to ski on their new rollerski loop on Nov. 11 in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Down the hill.
Near the height of the Lake Placid Olympic Jumping Complex’s new rollerski loop, which was completed in mid-October. Made primarily for and with the input of US biathletes, it’s 10-feet wide in most places and includes a series of transitions and switchbacks.
Ooh la la. Near the top of the new rollerski loop at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Heading up
The big downhill out of the parking lot and into the stadium at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, N.Y. Previously the only way to make a loop there, 1.5 k of new paved trails offers an alternative up above the biathlon range.
The land behind Lake Placid’s Olympic Jumping Complex very much under construction in late September. The Olympic Regional Development Authority headed the half-million dollar project to extend the biathlon rollerski loop by 1.5 kilometers.
The land behind Lake Placid’s Olympic Jumping Complex very much under construction in late September. The Olympic Regional Development Authority headed the half-million dollar project to extend the biathlon rollerski loop by 1.5 kilometers.
An athlete training during a U.S. Ski Team camp in Lake Placid. Photo: TeamToday.
New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) has received $5.6 million in funding in a budget measure that passed in the New York state assembly on Friday and the state senate on Monday.
ORDA manages Mount Van Hoevenberg, the site of the cross country, biathlon and nordic combined events during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid NY, and the other legacy venues from those Games.
The appropriation is about 16 percent of ORDA’s approximately $34 million budget, and is $1 million less than the authority received last year. In a budget document submitted to the state in February, ORDA had projected receiving $7.1 million from New York.
Travis Proulx, the New York Senate’s deputy press secretary, noted that “ORDA has cash on hand which will allow them to absorb this reduction.”
ORDA Communications Director Jon Lundin said that the $5.6 million appropriation was “the number we’ve been anticipating.”
“Each year,” he added, “we’re operating with less and trying to do more.” Mount Van Hoevenberg “will run a little bit leaner” in the coming year.
Lundin said that even if ORDA had firm information about funding earlier in the spring, their position on hosting the World Cup biathlon race next February wouldn’t have changed.
“We needed to be creative from the very beginning,” Lundin said. The hangups that prevented Lake Placid from hosting the events were the upgrades to bring the venue to current International Biathlon Union standards. Lundin cited computerized targets and an improved judges’ tower as required measures, though he was unable to provide an estimate of the cost of improvements.
A collegiate race at Mount Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, which faces the possibility of closure if funding is not delivered in the New York state budget
Lake Placid’s cross country, biathlon and ski jumping venues face the possibility of closure if the state does not appropriate money later this month.
The Lake Placid Daily News reported in March that New York’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), was at risk of losing all of its state funding for the coming fiscal year. The aid, approximately $6.6 million last year, comprises some 20 percent of ORDA’s budget.
A member of ORDA’s board of directors is on record in the Daily News story as saying that the authority would have to close without the state’s appropriation.
ORDA is the body that manages the legacy venues of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, including the cross-country, biathlon and sliding facilities at the Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg, just outside town. The Olympic ski jumps, Whiteface Mountain Ski Center, and Olympic Training Center in are also managed by ORDA.
While the closing of these areas would be a big loss to recreational skiers, it would be an even bigger blow to the elite and developing athletes that train at these venues. The combination of ski trails, biathlon range and jumps in close proximity to one another make this a valuable resource for local athletes.
The New York Ski Education Foundation runs extensive youth programs that make use of the Olympic Sports Complex. It’s also a training center for American biathletes and Nordic combined skiers. The U.S. Ski Team holds an annual fall training camp in Lake Placid.
“It would be a tragedy for biathlon if Mount Van Hoevenberg were to be shuttered,” said Max Cobb, U.S. Biathlon’s executive director.
Cobb said he thought that juniors and developing athletes would be impacted more than elite athletes. Juniors ski and compete in the area all year round, while elite athletes like Lowell Bailey and Tim Burke train in Lake Placid only during the dryland season, prior to traveling for World Cup events.
While people might be willing to drive a long distance to try a new activity for the first time, Cobb said that to ensure consistent training and world class progression, athletes should live within a one hour drive of a venue.
As well as the cross-country trails and biathlon range, Lake Placid is also home to the ORDA-managed ski jumps. In addition to the iconic 90- and 120-meter Olympic hills, the jumping complex has three smaller hills for developing athletes. Athletes can train on three of the five jumps during the summer, sliding on a combination of plastic shingles and porcelain marble halves.
While there are ski jumping hills throughout New England, ranging from 10 to 90 meters, few of them have summer jumping facilities. And Ken Barker, president of the Salisbury Winter Sports Association in Salisbury, CT, said that summer jumping is essential to training from J5 through Olympic athletes.
Barker’s club will put plastic shingles on their 20-meter hill for the first time this summer. (They’re also rebuilding their large hill for the 2011 Junior Olympics.) And Barker cited the Lebanon Outing Club, in New Hampshire, as another facility that offered summer jumping. But few jumps in the region have the same level of programming as Lake Placid.
Finally, there’s ORDA’s Sports Development Program, which offers year-round educational opportunities to youth groups, including sports clinics in biathlon, luge, bobsled and curling. They even partner with the New York City Parks Department’s Winter Jam, offering residents the opportunity to try out cross-country skiing in Central Park.
Brad Clark, ORDA’s sports development manager, organizes outreach programs—activities like school field trips and interactive clinics at the various venues. If a child shows potential in a particular sport, Clark helps them find appropriate coaching. Without ORDA, Clark said, these outreach programs would not exist.
The tight budget situation is underscored by the news last week that ORDA had declined an opportunity to host a biathlon World Cup race at Mount Van Hoevenberg in February, 2011.
Jon Lundin, ORDA’s communications director, said that the organization “would have needed to upgrade the facilities to comply with IBU [International Biathlon Union] requirements for a major World Cup event.”
“We certainly are looking into [making the upgrades]; we just couldn’t do it this year,” Lundin said. He added that passing on the biathlon race was a “one-time blip,” noting that ORDA planned to host international events in the sliding sports, and possibly a World Cup freestyle event, in the coming year.
In an interview with FasterSkier, Lundin said that he didn’t know how ORDA’s operation might be changed if the state does remove funding. However, he added that state law stipulates that Mt. Van Hoevenberg cannot be privately owned or leased to a business-person in the private sector.
Travis Proulx, the state senate’s deputy press secretary, told FasterSkier that there is “still no finality to the status of ORDA’s funding.” He said that the senate didn’t want to cut ORDA’s appropriation in the first place, but that alternative funding is needed.
With one to two weeks until a budget is finalized, Proulx said that the Senate is “looking for ways to keep the state’s role in ORDA alive,” citing alternative budget cuts brought to the table by the Democratic caucus and alternative revenue options submitted by the Governor David Paterson—including one proposal to allow the sale of wine in grocery stores. Regardless of the final decision, both houses of the New York legislature, as well as the governor, are required by law to be in agreement on the state budget.
Casey Simons racing at the 10th Mountain Ski Club in Fort Kent, Maine, last winter. Fort Kent will host World Cup biathlon races in February, 2011, along with Presque Isle.
AUGUSTA, Maine – Presque Isle, Maine, will get a World Cup weekend of its own next winter, officials announced Wednesday morning.
In a press conference at Maine Governor John Baldacci’s office, Nordic Heritage Sport Club Chairman Tim Vernon said that his organization would be stepping up to the plate to host a second World Cup weekend in Northern Maine, to go along with a previously-scheduled race in Fort Kent.
The competition now set for Presque Isle was originally planned for Lake Placid, at the Mt. Van Hoevenberg venue, but Vernon said that organizers there withdrew their name from consideration.
According to U.S. Biathlon Association Executive Director Max Cobb, the Olympic Regional Development Authority in Lake Placid would have had to make numerous upgrades to its facilities in order to host the event, and with its finances uncertain due to a state budget crisis in New York, “they’re trying to be conservative about the obligations that they get themselves under.”
Presque Isle has never hosted a World Cup before, but with the 2006 World Junior Biathlon Championships and the 2010 U.S. Junior Olympics under its belt, the International Biathlon Union offered them the chance. The Nordic Heritage Sport Club’s trustees subsequently voted to take on the races, Vernon said.
With just eight months to prepare, Presque Isle will have its hands full to pull off the events.
The biggest challenge for the organizers, Cobb said, will be to line up local sponsors over the next two months, which would enable the club to go into its fall planning phase with a good sense of its budget.
In addition, Vernon said that his club would need 500 volunteers. But that infrastructure is already in place after holding the Junior Olympics there this spring, he added.
“We’re just going to put those folks right back to work,” Vernon said.
The physical facility in Presque Isle is already close to world-class. Cobb said that only slight changes will be necessary, to make more room in the stadium for spectators.
The club will hold three races on February 4th, 5th, and 6th: a sprint, a mixed relay (two men and two women from each country), and a pursuit, in that order.
Teams will then compete in three more races in Fort Kent the following weekend: another sprint and pursuit, as well as a mass start.
Logistically, Cobb said, switching the Lake Placid races to Presque Isle should be easier on the athletes, although organizers had previously arranged for a charter flight to go from New York to Northern Maine.
Officials in Maine see the events as a prime opportunity to market the state’s tourism industry to the millions of Europeans that will watch the races on TV. The magnitude of the announcement was underscored by the fact that it took place at the governor’s office.
“We’re looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 million TV impressions per World Cup,” said Andy Shepard, CEO of the Maine Winter Sports Center, which oversees the Presque Isle venue. “Adding another World Cup in Presque Isle—what we’re talking about now is 120 million impressions.”
“A two-week dialogue…allows us to present to [viewers] all the reasons why coming to Maine is a great idea,” Shepard said.
Cobb said that his organization has no plans to bid for bigger events in the U.S., like World Championships. But he said that they do have a goal of bringing the World Cup to the country twice every four years, and Presque Isle is also seeking to host another World Junior Championships in 2014.
To ensure that the Europeans are willing to make the trip back again, Cobb said he wants to make sure that the two events this winter are “outstanding from the athletes’ perspective.”
“We want to try [to] put our best foot forward here,” he said.
This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com.
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