Tag: peter minde

Bender, Brown Top Balmy Climb to the Castle

The men’s top three finishers at NYSEF’s 2017 Climb to the Castle on Sunday, Sept. 24, at the top of Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, N.Y., with winner Jake Brown (c) of US Biathlon, runner-up Aidan Kirkham (r) of Nakkertok Nordic, and Mansfield Nordic Club Head Coach Adam Terko (l) in third.

(Note: This article has been updated with comments from Adam Terko in regards to rollerski safety.)

WILMINGTON, N.Y. — On what may be the hottest day in memory for the annual Climb to the Castle (C2C) rollerski race, hosted by the New York Ski Educational Foundation (NYSEF) up Whiteface Mountain, Jake Brown and Jennie Bender were fastest to the top. Both have spent at least part of their summer training with the US Biathlon Association (USBA) in nearby Lake Placid, N.Y.

Brown, a 25-year-old USBA X-Team member, finished the five-mile climb up Whiteface’s toll road on Sunday in 39:01.9 minutes, more than five minutes clear of runner-up Aidan Kirkham, a Canadian racer with Nakkertok Nordic, who finished in 44:16. Adam Terko, Mansfield Nordic’s head coach and executive director, placed third in 45:35.7.

Bender, 29, racing under the team name of “The Dark Side”, which she later explained was a joke, topped the women’s race in 48:59.4. She finished 21.5 seconds ahead of 51-year-old (no, that’s not a typo) Sheila Kealey, who skis for XC Ottawa and coaches for Nakkertok. Deedra Irwin of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) was third woman in 51:13.5.

“I had put my name in the registration as ‘Darth Vader’, but they changed it on the other end,” Bender wrote in an email. “When I am in Bozeman MT I train with Bridger Ski Foundation, and when I am in Lake Placid, I train with USBA.”

At the tollgate at 7 a.m., the temperature was already 66 degrees Fahrenheit with clear skies. With mild weather the previous two days, the pavement was dry for 83 skiers who rolled to the start line. At the castle at the summit an hour later, temperatures were upwards of 70, making an already grueling race even more fatiguing.

The men’s and women’s races played out quite differently. According to Kirkham, Brown led “off the start and gapped the whole field.”

Familiar with the territory in and around Lake Placid, which has become an annual training camp for Nakkertok, based out of Ottawa, Kirkham said it was one thing to ski the toll road in Zone 1 and another to race it.

“I wanted to pace it well, and I think I did that,” he added. “I didn’t want to go too hard off the start because there’s no chance to recover on a course like this. … Once I got to the last mile I knew I could try to pick it up a little bit. But I was pretty tired. Just getting to the finish felt good.”

Having completed five or six C2Cs, Terko said experience was his advantage. But he didn’t exactly have a race plan.

“The field can vary wildly,” Terko said of the level of competition. “You’re never really sure how the start’s going to play out. I found myself near the front and there wasn’t a ton of US Ski Team or US Biathlon folks.”

Looking down at the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway, a five-mile toll road to the top of Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, N.Y., as seen on Sunday, Sept. 24, for the 2017 NYSEF Climb to the Castle rollerski race. (Photo: NYSEF)

As recently as a few years ago, the U.S. Ski Team held annual dryland training camps in Lake Placid and competed at the C2C. But that camp has been replaced by an on-snow camp in New Zealand. This year, US Biathlon’s top athletes recently spent several weeks training in Germany.

“Jake Brown was right off the front so I realized that this could be a good day and I might as well try and hang in there,” Terko added.

While Terko skis and rollerskis plenty with his athletes, he says it’s not always adequate training for a race like this.

“As a coach, it’s more about generally making sure the workout is going well for the athletes,” he explained. “I’ve made an effort the last few weeks to get out after practice and ski around in the dark myself.”

(Terko later clarified in an email that he was referring to Mansfield Nordic’s primary training venue, a paved and lit rollerski loop at Camp Ethan Allen in Jericho, Vermont. “Rollerskiing in the dark there is pretty standard as opposed to being in a dangerous road situation which I of course do not advocate!” he wrote.)

As for Brown, a Northern Michigan University graduate student who is currently living and training with US Biathlon in Lake Placid, he had a slightly different recollection of the start on Sunday.

“It wasn’t so much I dropped everyone. It was more like I just slowly pulled away,” Brown said. “Within the first 400 meters, I had a small gap. The gap got bigger and bigger as we went along. Maybe by the first mile, I couldn’t hear anyone behind me.”

Sticking to his own race, he resisted the temptation to look behind.

“I was trying to get a good effort today on the skis,” he continued. “I was hoping that some of the faster junior skiers would have some fast rollerskis and be able to push me, but pretty much right from the get-go I was on my own, so I was just trying to keep the pedal to the metal and make it a good effort, which gets tough at the end. It definitely helps to know the course.”

The women’s top three finishers at NYSEF’s 2017 Climb to the Castle on Sunday, Sept. 24, at the top of Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, N.Y. (From left to right) Jennie Bender in first, Sheila Kealey (XC Ottawa) in second, and Deedra Irwin (SVSEF) in third.

In contrast, the women’s race swapped leaders. Clare Egan, a USBA national-team member and Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) member finished fifth (+5:02.4) after leading early.

“I did lead a little bit at the beginning,” Egan said. “Jennie, Sheila and I were together for the first 1.5 or 2 miles, and then Jennie and Sheila pulled away, and I got caught by Deedra and Zoe [Williams].”

“From doing this race in the past, the order doesn’t usually change so much after the first mile or so,” she explained. “It’s just so hard to make up gaps on this grade. I wanted to try to hang on for as long as I could and stay in front the whole way, but I wasn’t able to do that. So it was very hard work out there, and I didn’t have what it takes to stay with Jennie and Sheila. Respect to them.”

Irwin explained in a post-race email that her plan was to pace off Bender and Egan and stick with them for as long as she could.

“Jennie and Sheila pulled away just around mile two, I think,” wrote Irwin, a SVSEF Gold Team member who was invited to train with US Biathlon (following its Talent ID Camp) in Lake Placid this fall. “My race went really well. I’m really happy with my result. This was my first time doing Climb to the Castle. I didn’t really know what to expect, it’s a tough climb!”

Blue skies and no snow post-race at the castle atop Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, N.Y., at the 2017 NYSEF Climb to the Castle on Sept. 24. (Photo: NYSEF)

As for Kealey, a top-level masters racer on the Canada Cup, she had done the race a few times before.

“Every year I did it, Liz Stephen did it, and it went out really, really fast,” she said of the U.S. Ski Team member who holds the women’s course record of 41:50. “Really hard at the beginning, and then people dropped off, but today’s pace was a good pace.”

Kealey described wanting to keep a consistent rhythm all the way to the top. She spent much of the race trading off with Bender.

“And then I managed to get a gap,” Kealey said. “I had a gap on [Bender] almost until the last 800 meters, and then she caught me. She was hurting, but she put the guns on at the last bit and just pulled away. She skied really well.”

Reflecting on her win, Bender said, “It wasn’t snowing, and it wasn’t freezing, so that was awesome. My V1 has been getting a lot better. It was a small crowd, but I was stoked to feel good for the whole duration. I haven’t done this race in a long time. I did it probably in college, and it’s fun to see the giant progression since then.”

She explained that she’s been working with US Biathlon in Lake Placid more this summer.

“I think in the big picture, it’s fun to see that I’m not just a sprinter,” she said.

On her race plan, Bender said, “The biggest thing, you have to pace it and not go out too crazy. We kind of started splitting up a bit, and I was going back and forth between first and second throughout the race. First with Clare, then with Sheila and then, near the last 200 to 400 meters, that tunnel, which is always so crazy with the wind, we both were like, ‘Oh.’ We were feeling it.”

“I saw someone coming up behind us,” Bender continued. “I thought it was Clare, I didn’t realize it was Jake. And then I sprinted it in to the finish. I was stoked to get in under 50 minutes.”

Bender, Egan, Irwin, and Brown all skied on matched Marwe rollerskis that they also used in time trials, Bender said.

Zoe Williams, the fourth-place woman (+2:18.8) from Nakkertok and Carleton University, said she wasn’t sure what to expect for her first C2C.

“About 15 minutes in, I kind of all of a sudden realized that it was all uphill,” Williams said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, what have I got myself into?’ But it was fun. I was following Deedra for most of it. I was trying to match her tempo.

“The last mile was tough because you can see the castle,” she added. “I really wanted to try to stick with the lead pack as long as I could.”

In the 11th year of the C2C, Margaret Maher, NYSEF’s outgoing head cross-country coach, said this was one of the warmest race days they’ve had.

“We’ve had every kind of weather possible,” she said. “It’s just fun to see everybody out there getting ready for winter.”

“It was really a blessing to have this awesome weather,” Brown concluded. “Normally you come up here and [the castle] is in the clouds, even if it’s sunny down low. It’s cool to do something here with NYSEF and show our support from US Biathlon.”

Results: Men | Women

September 25, 2017
Wednesday Workout: Change Up Your Strength Routine (Videos)

Personal trainer and author Peter Minde demonstrating the rear-foot elevated split squat.

Whether you’re an elite athlete or a master blaster, you want to be strong enough to ski at your fastest in your target event. If strength training isn’t part of your training plan, you’re missing an important fitness component.

“Functional training is considered to be training that attempts to mimic the specific physiological demands of real-life activities.” — Ives et al., Psychophysics in Functional Strength and Power Training (February 2003)

There are many great fundamental movements you can do in the gym. They translate not only to skiing, but also to the functions of daily living.

In addition to traditional moves like deadlifts and squats, single-leg exercises can enhance your fitness in a couple of ways. When you’re classic skiing, you kick and then glide on one leg. All the skating moves are done on one leg. Unless you’re hammering a double-pole sprint or tucking a downhill, you’re on one leg.

“Resistance exercises performed on machines can contribute to [muscle] imbalances unless proper precautions are observed.” – Shirley Sahrmann, Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes

Single-leg exercises will stress the neutralizer and stabilizer muscles in your legs, as well as training the prime movers. And in a single-leg move, bodyweight becomes part of the load. What does this mean? You can get a good training effect with a lower amount of outside weight, reducing the risk of injury.

“In a conventional squat, we strengthen the prime movers and neglect the stabilizers.” – Michael Boyle, Advances in Functional Training

Here are some moves that can enhance your strength and may reduce your risk of injury.

All of these moves have some commonalities: Keep your weight over your stance leg; get those core muscles firing and keep a neutral spine.

The rear-foot elevated split squat (RFESS) primarily trains the quadriceps and gluteus maximus. The hamstrings, gluteus medius and glute minimus are stabilizers. Dig your toe into the box. As with a traditional squat, you want to get your femur parallel with the floor or below parallel. Drive up through your heel.

The single-leg squat is the progression from RFESS. It works the same muscles as the RFESS. Without the support of a bench, all of the load will be on your stance leg. With this movement, you may not be able to move as much outside weight as with the RFESS. Don’t be surprised if it’s more difficult getting your femurs to parallel.

When working with severely deconditioned individuals, I often program a two-legged sit-to-stand. After watching an arena football player doing single leg sit-to-stand with a 20-kilogram kettlebell, I wanted to try them out. This move will train glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and anterior tibialis – an important muscle for dorsiflexion and thus ankle mobility.

You can progress a sit-to-stand by choosing a lower height box in addition to adding weight. The lower the box, the tougher it will be.

Originally, I learned the single-leg deadlift during physical therapy. This move trains the glutes, hamstrings and adductor magnus. Brace your core, and maintain a neutral spine. Use the “up” leg as a counterbalance. Drive up by contracting your glute.

In addition to the latissimus dorsi middle and lower trapezius, rhomboids and posterior deltoids, the single-leg, single-arm row trains the glutes, hips, and the neutralizer and stabilizer muscles that help us balance. To do these, hold the grip in the hand opposite your stance leg. (If standing on your left leg, hold the grip in your right hand) Brace your core and pull, retracting your shoulder blade. Keep your spine neutral. Don’t twist or rotate.

A progression from this would be a single-arm, single-leg squat to row. This move transfers force from the leg through the hip, sacroiliac joint and thoracolumbar fascia to the opposite side latissimus dorsi. This is how force is transferred when we’re running or skiing.

These are just some of the moves I like in the gym. We haven’t delved into movements in the frontal plane (think lateral stepups or lateral lunges) or compound movements. By no means am I suggesting that you ditch traditional squats or deadlifts. But you may find that programming single-leg movements can enhance your overall strength and fitness.

September 20, 2017
Wednesday Workout: Quality Level 3 and 4 for the Working Class

The leaders in this year’s 2015 Climb to the Castle rollerski race up Whiteface Memorial Highway in Wilmington, N.Y. Rogan Brown of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) leads the top men around mile four of five. (Photo: Tim Cowan)

On the day after my 58^th birthday, I raced the Climb to the Castle. Again. It’s an incredible thrill to be on the same starting line as the best skiers in the U.S., even if I finish towards the back. This year, I finished within 6 seconds of my best time. And for the first time, instead of being totally gassed for the final half mile, I had good energy all the way to the finish.

Author Peter Minde nears the finish of the Climb to the Castle in 2011.

During the dryland season, my goal is to do one Level 4 and one Level 3 workout each week. I hate to admit it, but now there are now some days when my body revolts and says, “Enough! You’re not finishing this interval session.” To that end, I try to make sure I’m really rested.

I take into account my work and my family commitments as well as the stuff in the training log. I hate conceding workouts, but nowadays, I’d rather do one really good interval workout rather than two mediocre sessions.

Although I have good terrain for dryland training, I don’t have super long hills. For a Level 4 workout, either running or rollerskiing, I’m going up a hill, back down and repeat. The recovery time is always a little longer than the actual work period. Not best practice, but possibly beneficial at my age.

“I hate conceding workouts, but nowadays, I’d rather do one really good interval workout rather than two mediocre sessions.” — Peter Minde, FS contributor and annual Climb to Castle competitor

Workout 1: 5 x 5 Minutes Level 4, Uphill Running

My bread-and-butter Level 4 workout is five repeats, five minutes, going uphill.

I do this either running or rollerskiing. It’s OK if the pitch varies, but the final few hundred meters should be the steepest. Generally, I run in the woods, and I use trails that aren’t excessively technical.

Warm up with dynamic stretching, then run 15 minutes at Level 1 in rolling terrain.

Then go 5 minutes up your hill at Level 2. Return downhill, and repeat with 5 minutes in Level 3. Finish that, go down, and you’re ready for the main event.

In the Level 4 section of the workout, I focus on starting in the lower end of my heart-rate range and increase the intensity over each interval. At the base of the hill, I moose hoof the first 30 meters before settling in to a run. During each repeat, I focus on positive self talk.

Workout 2: 5 x 5 Minutes Level 4, Rollerskiing

As with the running intervals, look for a long hill. It’s OK if there are rolling or short downhill sections; however, the final section of the hill should be steep enough that you have to check speed – snowplow, traverse, whatever – to return downhill safely.

Warm up as above. Fifteen minutes in Level 1, followed by 5 minutes of Level 2 and five minutes of Level 3.

As with running, my goal is to start conservatively and make the last interval the hardest. In addition to positive self talk, I focus on skiing transitions smoothly. If I’m classic rollerskiing, I’ll double pole a flat section and the base of the climb before changing to striding. If I’m skating, I try to V2 as much of the uphill as I can, or V1 the steep bits and switch to V2 where the grade is easier. Don’t forget the warmdown and stretching.

Workout 3: 3 x 15 Minutes, Running

While I do this on rollerskis, I prefer to run, because I’m able to keep recovery times to 3-5 minutes between hard work periods. Find a loop in the woods that takes approximately 14-16 minutes to run. It should be rolling with some long uphills.

Warmup: Similar to the Level 4 workouts above. Begin with dynamic stretching, followed by 15 minutes of easy running.

Ramp up your heart rate to Level 2 for five minutes, then head onto your loop and crank it up to a controlled pace. In downhills, I pick up the pace to keep my heart rate in the zone. At the end of 15 minutes, a short connector gives me around five minutes of recovery before the next repeat.

Then I run easy back to the car, for 15-20 minutes warming down.

October 14, 2015
New to the Climb to Castle Winners’ Circle: Caldwell and Rose Top Whiteface Race

Paddy Caldwell (black shirt, yellow helmet) of the U.S. Ski Team D-team and SMST2 Team chases Rogan Brown (l) around mile four of five in Sunday’s Climb to the Castle up Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, N.Y. Caldwell won the race, followed by biathletes Russell Currier and Tim Burke in second and third, respectively. Brown (SVSEF) placed fourth and Kyle Bratrud (CXC) was fifth. (Photo: Tim Cowan)

Note: Two photo captions have been corrected to reflect the leader of the men’s race around mile four in the 2015 Climb to the Castle. Rogan Brown of Sun Valley led the pack at the time.

For years, U.S. Nordic Ski Team athletes and their coaches trucked themselves up to the start of the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway, clicked into their rollerskis and allowed an ample amount of time for warming up before ascending New York’s fifth highest peak.

Before it became an official race nine years ago, it was a workout: a five-mile grind to the summit of Whiteface Mountain, 4,867 feet above sea level in Wilmington, N.Y.

Now, for many top-level skiers, especially those based on the East Coast, the annual Climb to the Castle an offseason staple. And if you win, you get a T-shirt and a medal for your efforts.

Mary Rose (SVSEF) leads US Biathlon’s Annelies Cook up the Whiteface Mountain toll road during the annual Climb to the Castle. Rose won and Cook finished second, 32 seconds later. (Photo: Tim Cowan)

“Climb to the Castle was a blast this year!” wrote women’s winner Mary Rose of Idaho’s Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) Gold Team. “My goal going into this race was to have good energy the whole time, focus on technique and hopefully put together a good effort.”

She reached the top on Sunday in 45:15.1 and topped her competition — the closest of which was US Biathlon’s Annelies Cook — by 32.6 seconds.

“It was a fun, tough effort,” men’s winner Patrick Caldwell of the U.S. Ski Team D-team and Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team said in an interview after the finish.

The 21-year-old Caldwell outlasted biathletes Russell Currier and Tim Burke by 5 and 11.5 seconds, respectively. Caldwell won in 37:05.2, Currier was second and Burke was third.

“Right from the start, we stayed pretty much together against a decent headwind,” Burke said after the finish. “I think a lot of us were fatigued at the end of a big camp, so I didn’t really want to push like crazy.”

The US Biathlon and U.S. Nordic teams spent at least the last week training in Lake Placid, N.Y., with biathletes like Burke logging five race efforts in nine days preceding the Climb.

“I decided today instead of going for time, I wanted to go for the win,” said Burke, a defending multiple-time Climb to the Castle (C2C) champion. “So I decided to sit in and push that last half mile.”

Rogan Brown (l) of Sun Valley leads Tim Burke (second from l) and Paddy Caldwell (third from l) and Russell Currier and Kyle Bratrud around mile four in Sunday’s Climb to the Castle up Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, N.Y. (Photo: Tim Cowan)

He said he “did a lot of pulling and got some help towards the end.” Rogan Brown (SVSEF) led around mile four, and Burke explained that five men battled in the lead pack for the last two miles.

“I broke my pole in the last couple hundred meters, that kind of took me out of it,” he explained.

Caldwell took the blame what he called an “unfortunate incident” in the final 200 meters. “I broke Tim Burke’s pole,” he said. He did so when Burke made his final attack toward the finish.

“Aside from that, it was a good, solid race,” Caldwell said.

“It’s a good way to end it,” Burke said after 10 days of hard training.

Currier, who placed second, called it an “entertaining race” with five men contending throughout.

“For a rare change I was able to be on the better side of tactics and consistently stay in the back of the pack,” Currier wrote in an email. “On the other hand, the final 100 meters came up a lot earlier than I expected and didn’t give much time to react. The pace picked up and Tim Burke lost a pole tip. The next thing I knew there was an opening for the lead. I’m not much of a sprinter and didn’t do much to challenge Patrick, but was I was still pleased to break out of the back of the pack just in time for the podium.”

A former US Biathlon (USBA) B-team member, Currier, who trains with the Maine Winter Sports Center, was not renamed to the team this spring and is working towards making the cut via a series of trials ending in October.

“The status for the National team is still very unclear,” he wrote. “… All I can do is make the best of every training session and go for better results. The second round of trials is coming up in October. A couple of good enough results there should help my cause for the coming race season.”

Brown placed fourth in the men’s race, 4.3 seconds from the podium and 15.8 seconds after Caldwell. Brown edged Kyle Bratrud of Central Cross Country (CXC) by 0.3 seconds, and behind them, another CXC skier Duncan Douglas placed sixth.

USBA’s Sean Doherty and Lowell Bailey finished seventh and eighth, respectively, Miles Havlick (SVSEF) was ninth and developing biathlete Max Durtschi finished 10th of 61 men.

The start of the women’s race at the 2015 Climb to the Castle up Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, N.Y. (Photo: Peter Minde)

In the women’s race, Rose and Cook pushed each other to the top. Rose recalled it being just the two of them shortly after the start. A perennial contender, USBA’s Susan Dunklee had some pole issues at the very beginning, Rose explained in an email.

“I knew I needed to break away about 1/2 mile to the finish because I can’t beat [Cook] in a sprint,” Rose wrote. “I fought pretty hard through the ‘wind tunnel’ and I think that is where I broke away.”

Overnight rain left the toll road wet, and wind dried out its lower sections. From about the halfway point to the finish, skiers pushed through mist on wet pavement and faced a steady wind blowing 10 to 20 miles per hour throughout the race. After starting in temperatures around 47 degrees Fahrenheit, they met temperatures in the mid-30’s at the top.

“It sounds weird to say it aloud, but I actually had fun doing the climb to the castle,” Cook wrote in an email. “Mary and I skied together the entire time and switched leads back and forth. I usually get bored doing the climb and lose focus and switching back and forth with her kept me in the game mentally.

“She got me at the last turn right before the finish when I suddenly flooded with lactic acid and had no chance,” she added. “But I don’t really think of myself as a climber and so it was fun to be the two people leading the race. That doesn’t happen too often! Of course, the usual suspects were not there and that obviously made it difference.”

With the exception of Paddy Caldwell, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) skipped the Climb this year for the first time in years.

“As hard as it is to miss it because it is a fantastic event, it just didn’t play well athletically for the needs of the group,” USST Head Coach Chris Grover said on the phone last week. “We wanted to do more sprint-specific training and short intensity as opposed to giving up a whole workout or two to do the Climb to the Castle.”

The USST camp was also only a week long, compared to the two weeks the team usually spends in Lake Placid this time of year. On the other hand, the largely Lake-Placid-based US Biathlon team did either time trials or Level 5 (race-pace) workouts for last 10 days.

“I had my personal best by quite a lot and I felt strong skiing,” Cook said of the Climb. “It felt good to end a really tough ten days on a good note. … I think we are all pretty glad to be done.”

The Climb marked the end of a two-week training block for Rose and her Sun Valley teammates, who were in Stratton, Vt., with the SMST2 team for the first week.

“We had some super hard intensity sessions over the past two weeks and all were very productive,” Rose wrote.

USBA’s Hannah Dreissigacker, who placed third, 2:05.9 after Rose, explained in an email that the women’s race broke up quickly.

“Mary and Annelies started off a little faster than I really wanted to be going, and I tried to hold on for a bit but then gave up pretty quickly and lost contact,” Dreissigacker wrote. “My goal in the Climb to the Castle is always to not start too fast and then blow up. Then I skied with Susan for a mile or so and then slowly inched ahead of her a bit. Eventually we skied into a cloud and I lost sight of Annelies and Mary and just skied the whole second half by myself.”

She finished 1:10.9 ahead of Dunklee, who placed fourth, while wearing a figure-skating tutu she wore the first time she did the race.

“The lacy elbows really allowed for added breathability and the rhinestones gave me some extra motivation on those long hard stretches when I was all alone,” Dreissigacker wrote.

Another biathlete, Clare Egan finished fifth, Paige Schember (SVSEF) was sixth, Erin Perryman (St. Lawrence University) was seventh, Jackie Garso of the local New York Ski Education Foundation (NYSEF) was eighth, St. Michael’s assistant coach Silke Hynes was ninth, and Stratton U16 skier Anna Lehmann was 10th of 25 women.

Results: Men | Women

September 21, 2015
Push for Homologation at Williams’ Prospect Mountain

Every two years, the Williams College nordic team hosts its Winter Carnival 20 miles north of Williamstown, Mass., at Prospect Mountain in Woodford, Vt. By 2016, it could have a five-kilometer ski loop up to International Ski Federation (FIS) standards.

A scene from the Williams’ College Winter Carnival at Prospect Mountain in Woodford, Vt. (Photo: Jason Lemieux)

“It started with my coach, Bud Fisher,” said Williams senior Will Wicherski. “He’s been at Williams forever.”

Williams’ associate director of athletics, Fisher suggested that Wicherski study Prospect’s trail system to determine whether a homologated trail would be feasible.

“Within the EISA [Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association], there’s more and more of a move to get all our races on homologated courses,” Fisher said. “We’ve been thinking about it for some time, and we’re taking a probably a little bit more conservative, slow-paced approach to it.”

Wicherski characterized some of the EISA race loops as “really uneven,” pointing to Dartmouth’s Skiway at Oak Hill as an example.

“The climb is way too big and not that wide,” he said. “Our course at Prospect is kind of unfair. It’s old-school, not wide, and there isn’t a lot of climb. We can’t really have mass start races there.”

Homologating race trails evens the playing field, he explained. “Among the coaches, there’s more of a desire to hold races at homologated race sites. They know what they’re getting. There are more schools that want to host carnivals.”

Some New England schools already hold their carnivals on homologated trails, including the University of New Hampshire (which hosts in Jackson); the University of Vermont (at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe), and Middlebury (at Rikert) and Colby (in Waterville, Maine).

The course will combine existing trails with new sections. Much of Prospect Mountain’s trail network is on U.S. Forest Service land, where the permitting process makes large-scale alterations difficult. As a result, Williams wants its race loop to include minimal new trails.

Ultimately the college would like to create a course that will accommodate interval-start freestyle and classic races as well as team relays. Mass-start skate races require wider trails than interval starts, and Fisher said that while it wouldn’t be impossible to make them happen, it would be “very difficult.”

Interval-start freestyle, classic, and relay events require trails 5 meters wide. Even for interval-start homologation, some sections of trail — all on forest service land — would need to be widened.

Wicherski described southern Vermont/northwestern Massachusetts as “being on the edge of consistent snow,” adding that if the homologation project works out, the college may consider snowmaking in the future.

“Getting the course homologated is the first step towards snowmaking,” he said.

According to Williams’ Nordic Head Coach Jason Lemieux, snowmaking is a “long term goal/dream … it’s a battle we’ll wait to fight until the completion of the homologation project,” he wrote in an email.

Prospect Mountain’s ski roots trace back to 1939, when it started as an alpine-ski area with a rope tow. At 2,250 feet above sea level, its base elevation is the highest of any ski area in Vermont. In the 1970s, Prospect’s owners cut cross-country ski trails to enhance their business, and in 1992, Steve Whitham and Andrea Amodeo purchased the area after its previous owner abandoned it. Instead of reopening the lifts, they focused on cross-country skiing.

At 2,250 feet above sea level, its base elevation is the highest of any ski area in Vermont.

Getting Up is Half the Battle

One of the biggest challenges was designing an appropriate downhill from the main climb. Running under the old lift line, the A-climb diagonally crosses the alpine hill, ending up on a trail called Shay’s.

“We know where the A-climb is, but we don’t have a way to get down off it,” Fisher said.

This summer, they plan to build the descent. Williams will test it this coming winter, after which they plan to finish work on the trail.

The other challenge exists at the opposite end of the course. Prospect’s trail system is bisected by a forest-service road that sees heavy snowmobile traffic during the winter. During Williams’ last Winter Carnival, course workers had to stop snowmobiles 17 times during the races. “It’s a dangerous situation,” Fisher said.

To avoid the road, Williams would need to construct a short connector trail on forest-service land. They’ve applied to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) both for this and to widen trail sections where necessary. The carnival trail falls into the forest service’s small-projects category, which requires less time, ecological compliance and money than a large-scale endeavor.

Pending USFS approval, construction will start with trail work this summer.

We haven’t actually gotten an FIS [inspector] in yet,” Fisher said. “We wanted to get all the homologation parameters met before we do that. We launched into the project and came up with a number of ideas to us where show we get an A-climb and a B-climb.”

Lemieux estimated the project’s cost to be “easily more than $15,000.”

Approval will give Williams a 10-year permit. If the downhill from A-climb works, they’ll continue work on the land the following summer. At that point, they would bring in a course inspector from the FIS for any tweaks.

July 9, 2014
Whiteface Road Work Could Impact Climb to Castle

The Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway, where NYSEF’s Climb to the Castle has been held for the past seven years in Wilmington, N.Y., as seen in 2011. The toll road is undergoing construction this summer and fall.

There’s a race each year scheduled in line with the end of the U.S. Ski Team’s fall camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. You might have heard of it: the Climb to the Castle. Hosted by the New York Ski Education Foundation (NYSEF), the freestyle rollerski race starts at the entrance to a paved toll road, the Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway, and stretches five miles up with an average 8-percent grade. The finish is marked by the castle at the top of New York’s fifth-highest peak at 4,867 feet above sea level.

Try to rollerski up there now, however, and you’ll likely run into some heavy machinery.

Construction has already begun on the eight-mile highway as part of a larger project to completely resurface the road over the next several months. The Adirondack Daily News reported Thursday that the upper, toll portion of the road — where the Climb to the Castle (C2C) takes place — will be closed weekdays during May, June and September, but open on weekends. It will be open on weekends and two holiday Mondays during these months: Memorial Day, May 26, and Labor Day, Sept. 1. Throughout July and August, the road is scheduled to be open during daytime hours, with work taking place at night.

US Biathlon’s Tim Burke (l), and U.S. Ski Team members Kris Freeman (c) and Noah Hoffman (r) lead the 2011 Climb to the Castle race in Wilmington, N.Y.

According to Chris Grover, the U.S. Ski Team will hold its Lake Placid training camp from Aug. 25-Sept. 8. So while there’s a chance construction could impact it, there’s a better chance the toll road will be open on Saturday, Sept. 6, when NYSEF scheduled the race.

Margaret Maher, NYSEF’s head nordic coach and C2C organizer, wrote in an email to FasterSkier last week that they were “trying to figure out how the road work will influence the race. Hoping we can still have C2C!”

In all, the highway is expected to be closed 54 days from this week until the end of the season, and open 88 days over the same period, according to the Enterprise.

While the toll road has been patched periodically since it was opened in the 1930s, it has never been completely resurfaced. Whether rollerskiing, cycling, or running to the summit, it’s riven with frost heaves and cracked pavement. Regardless of what state the road is in this year, its sure to be a superior surface for rollerskiing next summer.

Rifenburg Construction, based out of Albany, N.Y., will resurface the entire eight-mile length of the road, from the four-way intersection in the center of Wilmington to the summit. They’ll also rehabilitate rock walls and make repairs to the castle.

The men’s start of the 2009 Climb to the Castle.

Rifenburg earned the project with a $11.2-million bid, and the company expects to complete the work by the end of 2015.

Project manager Russell Huta said that the goal is to have a base layer of new pavement from the tollgate to the castle by the end of this fall. In 2015, the toll section will be finished, and all work on the section from Wilmington town center to the tollgate will be completed.

“Each project has its own set of unique challenges,” Huta told FasterSkier, when asked about the difficulty of working in the narrow confines of the toll road. When road work is in motion, the toll road will be closed to traffic.

In September, Huta said, his company will have “full access” to the toll road Monday through Friday – except for Labor Day. “By the end of the day Friday, there will be a paved surface for [use by] cars, buses, pedestrian traffic” until Monday morning. “On Monday morning, it’s ours again.”

If for some reason, the C2C isn’t possible this year, Grover wrote in an email that it won’t be the end-all of camp.

“We typically run a sprint or team sprint time trial along with the Climb to the Castle,” he explained. “If the Climb is not ready this season, we will employ other alternatives.”

Before the C2C, a time trial was previously held up Gillespie Drive, now a warmup for athletes. The event is entering its eighth year. USST veteran Liz Stephen won the women’s race the last three years, setting a new course record last year in 42 minutes and 4 seconds. US Biathlon’s Tim Burke won the 2013 men’s race in 37:13.

May 16, 2014
An Earth Sculptor, Perkins Reflects on 38 Years as Jackson’s Executive Director

Jackson’s former executive director, Thom Perkins enjoying the Wildcat Valley Trail in Jackson, N.H., in 2013. (Photo: Kathy Bennett)

“When I look at a trail, I look at it as a big earth sculpture,” Thom Perkins said in a recent phone interview.

It’s the old joke: what do you do with a fine-arts degree? For Perkins, the recently retired director of the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation (JSTF), degrees in sculpture and photography led to sculpting land.

JSTF’s longest-tenured executive director after spending the last 38 years in Jackson, N.H., Perkins sounded like he was still on the job. His passion for the ski center — and skiing — came through clearly.

And Perkins has done way more than develop Jackson. He organized and skied the first traverse of the White Mountains’s Presidential Range, from Randolph to Crawford Notch, in 1983. In 2008, he collaborated with John Morton to homologate the Wave trail to International Ski Federation (FIS) specifications. At the time, it was one of only three FIS homologated trails in the U.S.

He’s been chief of competition at multiple New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship events, as well as trials for the 1986 World Championships team. JSTF president Kevin Killourie credited Perkins with securing a bid for the 2017 NCAA Skiing Championships.

Perkins was recently nominated for induction into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. In 2010, SkiNH presented Perkins with its Al Merrill award for contributions to cross-country skiing. He’s also a board member emeritus of the Cross Country Ski Areas Association. The National Ski Journalists Association gave Perkins an award for lifetime achievement.

In an animated discussion covering Jackson’s history, community, and trail building, Perkins discussed Jackson and his future plans, veering off topic to provide background information, and coming back, all without needing to catch his breath.

Long before the JSTF, people skied in Jackson. Perkins has a photo of a woman skiing on what is now the golf course, taken in the 1880s. A New England Ski Museum timeline mentioned the Jackson Ski and Outing Club. Formed in the mid-1930s, it provided ski instruction and organized ski races, dogsled races, and jumping meets. John Morton won a race at Jackson during his career at Middlebury College. A man named Bradford Boynton, proprietor of the Wildcat Tavern, cut and marked a ski trail behind his establishment. This information came from a monograph attributed to – you guessed it – Perkins.

An Economic Engine: Jackson President on Perkin’s Legacy
“Thom Perkins created an economic engine that didn’t exist,” Kevin Killourie said on the phone.A local real estate agent and JSTF’s president, Killourie has worked closely with Perkins for the last three years.”People come to Jackson to ski,” he said. “Half of those people wouldn’t come if it wasn’t for Thom’s dedication in developing the [trail] network and JSTF into what it is today.“When Thom started, we had to borrow money to buy a snow machine,” he explained, describings JSTF’s beginnings as “three rigs, a shovel, and a lot of ambition. Forty-three years ago, local business owners saw the value of non-motorized recreation.”Characterizing JSTF as a nonprofit operating in a weather-dependent business, he added, “We had to budget conservatively. We figured out ways to make our trail network adaptable to low snow conditions. That’s something Thom recognized, and that we’ve worked on for the past decade.”“Recreation is paramount in Jackson. That’s why people come here. Thom Perkins developed a network that allowed that to continue and prosper. Everyone that is a property owner or business owner in Jackson and the surrounding area benefits from Thom Perkins’s work over almost four decades.”

With more than half of the trail network on private land, Killourie credited Perkins’s influence on private landowners as a big reason for JSTF’s success: “Those landowners allow us to use their land so that everyone can recreate. That’s a really big deal.”

“Thom saw the bigger picture,” he added. “He used to say all the time, ‘Without land, there will be no skiing.’ And he’s right.”

Over time, JSTF worked to widen and level trails for grooming in low snow conditions. “All those things cost money,” Killourie said, adding that the community donated more than $50,000 dollars to the foundation. “That’s the culture in Jackson. That’s why [people] buy a house here. Thom put the foundation in for all those things to happen.”

Breanne Torrey has been named JSTF’s acting director. According to Killourie, Perkins recommended Torrey as a good person to succeed him as director.

Starting out as a ski patroller, Torrey bootstrapped her way to become director of operations, becoming ski patrol director and doing “almost every job except giving lessons.” She will collaborate with Dave Kinsman, a local businessman and avid skier. Kinsman has been named JSTF’s transition coordinator.

“A lot of really good things going that Perkins planted the seeds for will bear fruit over next year to 10 years,” Killourie said. “The future is very bright in Jackson.”

Jackson’s first executive director was Avery Caldwell, Perkins said. Caldwell wrote the proposal that locals approved to start the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation in 1972. Caldwell resigned in the summer of 1973. According to Perkins’s monograph, “The winter had gone sour with the lack of snow and with not enough skiers paying the $0.50 trail support donation.”

In 1976, JSTF was in its fourth year as a nonprofit that promoted skiing. Perkins was a ski instructor in Connecticut and the artist-in-residence at a private school.

At the time, former Olympian Jack Lufkin was working at the Jack Frost ski shop. He assumed the role of executive director from 1973 to 1976.

“After he left, the board put out a call for resumes,” Perkins said, explaining they received 100 applications for the position. “They interviewed 10 people and hired me.”

Asked about the choice of a nonprofit model, Perkins explained it evolved that way because of land-ownership issues. “The Jackson trail system utilizes a lot of private land,” he said. “Landowners are much more agreeable to allowing the use of their land for charitable purposes rather than profit. I don’t think the model would have worked had it been a profit-making business as well as it does as a nonprofit.”

If the ski center owns all the land where its trails are located, a nonprofit might not be the best business model. “But in Jackson’s particular case, it’s the smartest thing,” he said.

“Most people think skiing is all about the snow. In cross-country skiing, it’s about land,” Perkins added. “You can have all the snow in the world, but if you’re not allowed to go on it, it’s worthless. A huge effort goes into landowner relations. That’s one of the background things that people don’t see when they come in to ski.”

At the outset, Perkins said the trail system used logging roads and “convenient trails” with some 125 kilometers of terrain.

One hundred twenty-five k? Even back in 1972?

“A lot of those were hiking trails, and they were very minimal,” Perkins said. “Cross-country skiing back then was a lot different than it is now. Grooming was primitive; people didn’t expect the kind of grooming we have today. [People would ski] a hiking trail into the backcountry for a long day trip.

“Most of the trails, when I arrived, were either overgrown or very narrow, and all of them were poorly surfaced,” he added. “There were rocks, boulders, stumps and holes… you needed a lot of snow to open a trail.”

In the beginning, trails were cut, rather than built. Just enough trees came down to open a trail through the woods, “without branches flopping in your face.”

As Jackson evolved, many of the original trails were discontinued to comply with the national-forest permit process. “Now that we have 150 k of trails, it’s not that we’ve just added 25. We’ve added a lot more than 25, because we’ve replaced trails as well,” Perkins explained.

“Our emphasis today at JSTF is to make the trails modern, make them smooth, make them wide enough to be groomed, groom them so they’re pristine. Not just a trail of convenience, but a trail that’s designed to ski.”

He explained that the Foundation spends a “third of a million dollars” on fewer than 5 k of trail.

“Trails today are constructed, they’re not just cut. They’re sculpted into the landscape. My degree is in fine arts. When I look at a trail, I look at it as a big earth sculpture. We’re sculpting an experience into the landscape when we design a trail.”

A Natural Setting

Although some other New England ski centers have installed snowmaking, it’s not on Jackson’s horizon at present. Perkins believes that Jackson can give skiers a great experience without snowmaking.

“Because the trail system is so large, we can provide reliable snow in upper elevation plateaus that historically get very good snowfall,” Perkins said.

In some winters when Jackson was dry, there were still 18 inches of snow and 15 to 20 k of trails available without snowmaking.

“Our emphasis was to make sure those trails were available, accessible and groomable with very small amounts of snow,” he said. “We’ve probably got upwards of 50 k of trail we can groom with 4 inches of snow on the ground. And when we started, we maybe had five k. Maybe eight k, if we’re lucky.”

Jackson is perhaps best known for its annual 30 k marathon, but Perkins explained that the White Mountain Classic explores a small portion of the trail system. One of his favorite events is the Dave Duncanson Memorial Groomed Trail Challenge.

“Our challenge is simple: try and ski all the trails in one day. I dare you,” he said. “Only three people have done it. Dave was the first, and a very good friend of mine. He died of cancer last year and we renamed the event in his honor. There could be 115 k of trails open.”

When JSTF started, their forest-service permit was a free permit. Until 1980, there was no charge for the use of National Forest Service land. In 1980, JSTF transitioned to a fee permit, which offered revenue flexibility.

“It was a tough nut to swallow because in 1979, 1980, we didn’t have any snow,” Perkins said. “Nobody had any snow in the East. ‘Now you have to pay us,’ and we didn’t have any money. It was very slim pickings in the ’80s. We operated on a budget that was microscopic.”

Asked about working with the National Forest Service and private landowners, Perkins reminisced, “Back in 1970s, the [national forest] district ranger Swede Olsen and I and a couple of his staff would go walking in the woods. We’d hang flags and Swede would look at it and say, ‘This looks really good. This will be great for skiing. Go ahead.’ And that was the approval process. Walk in the woods, cut the trail. And now, the approval process is probably two years, and $10,000 for paperwork. What’s really interesting is the end result – the trail that we built with the science and without the science is exactly the same.”

And the entire forest has a mileage allotment for new trails for all uses. “Everyone’s fighting for something like 10 miles of new trail, forest wide. I’m not sure of the exact number, but there’s a small allotment of trail.”

To get around that, JSTF offers to abandon trails that don’t work for them in order to build better trails elsewhere, which doesn’t increase their total miles of trails.

As for private landowners, each one is different, Perkins said. “We have 65 individual landowners. Some are extremely amenable if you suggest something. Others are wary of the use of their land and will say, ‘No, I like it the way it is’ or, after a lot of talking, planning, a lot of handholding and consulting, they will agree to make the changes.”

Asked if Jackson had a desired balance between groomed and backcountry trails, Perkins said they don’t have a ratio or percentage goal in mind. “Certainly JSTF is big enough to accommodate all types of skiing. That’s what Jackson does, is accommodate all skiers.

“It’s a matter of understanding the market,” he continued. “As the market evolves, the percentages may change. And you say, ‘We’re doing OK with this, we need to improve that.’ Right now, JSTF has 17 major projects on the five-year plan. Three of those were accomplished last fall. There are 14 left to do in the next four years. And they’re all doable. The foundation is not going to wait around. It’s a very active organization. It just wants to be better all the time.”

Perkins spent the last 35 years seeking access to a high-elevation plateau called Prospect Farm. Last year, he finally received permission from “very generous landowner” to build a parking lot on the land. Four days after getting the go-ahead, the construction company JTSF hired was cutting trees, and a week later, the parking lot was finished.

Improving the Alice’s Alley trail was another project. “We rebuilt it,” Perkins said. “We resurfaced, widened, pulled a bunch of rocks out of the way, rerouted one section, and improved the drainage. That trail went from requiring two feet of snow to a trail you can ski with four inches of snow.”

The White Mountain Classic included that trail this year because of the work done in the offseason. Last year, Alice’s Alley wasn’t used in the race because of snow conditions.

A Labor of Love

A quick glance at Perkins’s blog suggests he’s living the life: skiing every day, kicking back in the sun. The reality of his work was different.

“I spent more time providing the skiing than doing the skiing,” Perkins said.

Between October 15 and April 1, his average workweek was between 70 and 77 hours. Some weeks were even busier, like the White Mountain Classic Week, in which he worked up to 100 hours.

“Every single day, I was dealing with marketing and staffing and all kinds of stuff,” he said. “The foundation is a major economic engine for Jackson in the wintertime. The variables that happen every single day, if you’re not on top of it, you won’t know what hit you. Every single day, you have to pay attention.”

“I spent more time providing the skiing than doing the skiing.” — Thom Perkins, Jackson Ski Touring Foundation executive director for 38 years

Would it have been easier financially to operate as a for-profit business?

“It wouldn’t work,” he said. “The community spirit that’s been developed in Jackson is extraordinary. There are a couple places across the country where that’s been emulated. The people in Jackson are very protective of the trails. There are municipal ordinances protecting the ski center because the townspeople recognize the importance of what we do. No one can conceive of Jackson without cross-country skiing. Jackson IS cross-country skiing.”

While he may be retired, Perkins doesn’t plan to sit around. He plans to remain in the vicinity of Jackson. He’ll be sailing – he’s a certified merchant marine captain, and has sailed off the Maine coast for 30 years. An accomplished musician, he and Kathy Bennett will be touring New England this summer.

“I’d like to go to the Quebec Winter Carnival, ever since I saw it in National Geographic in the 1950s,” Perkins said.

And he’ll stay connected to skiing. “I’m looking to offer my expertise to other cross-country ski areas on a consulting or a short-term basis so they get more of what Jackson does, so that the sport will grow,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that believe cross-country skiing is a special sport. And I would like to see other cross-country ski areas be the best they can be, so the sport itself grows.”

May 5, 2014
New York City’s Lincoln Tunnel to be Converted into Ski Mecca

Workers build a wall in the Lincoln Tunnel during its construction from 1934-1937. (Photo: NARA)

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced today that New York City’s Lincoln Tunnel will be converted into cross-country ski tunnels, expected to open on April 1, 2015.

Port Authority Director David Samson explained a press conference that the tunnels’ ongoing woes have prompted transportation officials to rethink the importance of driving in and out of the city by vehicle. The Lincoln Tunnel stretches for 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) beneath the Hudson River to connect Midtown Manhattan to New Jersey.

The New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, as seen in January 2008. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

“The tunnels have had their share of emergency repairs, and it’s evident, something needs to be done,” Samson said. “People are fed up, and frankly, with all the problems vehicles create in the first place — from road rage to depression to obesity — the Port Authority’s feeling is, let’s get skiers in there.”

The initiative has to be OKed by both the municipalities of Weehawken, N.J., and New York City, but the latter should be easy enough to convince. New York’s been known for trending toward healthier lifestyles with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg banning cigarettes in bars, trans fats from restaurants, and requiring fast-food chains to post calorie counts. The final piece is exercise, and an influx of fit skiers from all over the world is expected to boost tourism, as well as spirits.

“With three 2.4-kilometer-long tunnels under the Hudson River, the new ski tunnel will be the biggest ski tunnel in the world,” Samson explained. “We expect skiers from all over the country to come to New York not only to train, but also to shop.”

A bird’s eye view of the Lincoln Tunnel, from the New Jersey entrance, a.k.a. the Helix, circa 1955. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

One tunnel will be dedicated to classic skiing; one tunnel will be freestyle. The third will have a biathlon range on the New York side of the river.

According to Samson, a skiing enthusiast by the name of Nat Herz submitted a proposal for ski tunnels before moving to Alaska in 2013.

“After getting bored roller skiing a thousand laps around Central Park, Mr. Herz submitted a detailed proposal to the Port Authority to convert the Holland Tunnel to ski use,” Samson said. “We chose the Lincoln Tunnel because it is in need for a redesign, and its original designer was Norwegian-born engineer Ole Singstad [who also designed the ventilation system for the Holland Tunnel].”

The stalled Xanadu Mall project in Secaucus, N.J., with an indoor ski slope, will be the snowmaking venue for the tunnels. Only seven miles from the Hudson River, it should be easy to haul snow to the Lincoln Tunnel, Samson said. The International Ski Federation (FIS) has already entered negotiations to hold a point-to-point sprint race in the tunnels, finishing atop the helix in Union City.

Samson announced his immediate resignation from the Port Authority three days ago, but his “pet project” could put him back on top of the totem pole. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie asked him to stay and believes Samson did not play a significant role in the George Washington Bridge scandal last September. This blog post is about former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to ban smoking in bars but allow vaping brands such as air factory . These are just two of the many ways that this controversial mayor was able to change New York City for the better. He has been criticized for not doing more, and he has also been praised for his accomplishments.

“It’s time for new beginnings, and I think putting the focus on skiers is the perfect way to ease the tension and start anew,” Samson said. “This is public-works project will generate jobs and spurn creativity, and maybe shift the international perception of what New York life is all about.”

What?

April 1, 2014
Douglas, Delaney Win Rain-Soaked Harry Eldridge Classic; Freestyle Race Canceled

NYSEF’s Harry Eldridge 7.8 k men’s race, with competitors heading towards the top of the big manmade climb leaving the stadium at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: Laurel Minde)

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Riley Douglas, a junior at Honeoye Falls-Lima High School, and Colin Delaney of the New York Ski Educational Foundation (NYSEF) won the women’s and men’s 7.8-kilometer Harry Eldridge Memorial classic races on Jan. 11 at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid.

Both men and women skied three laps on the 2.6 k slushy-yet-snow-covered rollerski loop, primarily used by U.S. biathletes in the offseason. The classic technique race was a Junior Nationals qualifier for Mid-Atlantic skiers, as well as a U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association (USSA) national-ranking list race.

Mike Wynn of Peru Nordic in the Harry Eldridge 7.8 k classic race on Jan. 11 at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: Laurel Minde)

Douglas won in 26:14, five seconds ahead of Mackenzie Rizio of the Stratton Mountain School. Autumn Eastman of Champlain Valley Union High School was third.

Delaney’s winning time was 21:31. St. Lawrence University skiers Will Frielinghaus and Calvin Swomley finished second and third respectively.

That the race occurred at all was a minor miracle. Rain had washed away the snow at Mount Van Hoevenberg, leaving only the 2.6 k loop of manmade snow at the ski jumps. Race day temperature was 46 degrees, and it began to rain on and off 30 minutes prior to the men’s start at noon. Starting at 1:30, the women raced in an unrelenting downpour.

Although there were dirty and icy patches, the track was solid, and the downhills were fast. A huge puddle covered the track at the base of the big climb leaving the stadium, and the returning descent. Continuous shoveling by Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) employees and volunteers kept a narrow lane open in each direction. An ORDA employee said he saw someone try to make a move around another skier through the puddle, only to faceplant.

The weather led NYSEF to cancel Sunday’s freestyle race.

Results: women | men

January 14, 2014
Pisten Bully and Lodge Renovations: Changes at Mt. Van Hoevenberg

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.

Mt. Van Hoevenberg trail map (Photo: ORDA)

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.

December 26, 2013
Peter Minde

My first encounter with skiing was when friends took me to an alpine ski area, where I was nearly decapitated getting off the lift, and pretty much fell all the way downhill to the lodge. By comparison, cross-country skiing was more fun… although I learned the hard way that one can fall while going uphill.

I began contributing to FasterSkier during a period when I stayed home with our daughter, because I wanted to give back to the ski community.

After I earned my bachelor’s degree in history, a mentor suggested that I “spend time in the real world” before going to graduate school. That led to 27 years in the wine business. Three years ago, I leveraged my athletic experience with scientific knowledge to become a personal trainer. I specialize in functional strength and corrective exercise; and I’ve helped people lose weight too. Whether skiing, trail running, or cycling, there’s an adventure out your back door: you don’t always have to drive for it.

From the wilds of north NJ, I ski for Peru Nordic. On Twitter @PeteMinde or at www.oxygenfedsport.com.

October 2, 2011