FasterSkier · December 7, 2006
With so much hype over the Yellowstone “Skiapalooza” Thanksgiving Camp, I figured a story about one of the “other” Thanksgiving camps might be of interest.
Since I'm not really among the nation's elite level of Nordic skiers, I just couldn't justify making a long trip from my home in Los Alamos, NM, all the way up to West Yellowstone. It may only be two states away, but that is some serious geography (and in this case, topography…) to cover.
The camp itself is run by the very capable staff at the CB Nordic Center. There are clinics with video analysis for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels for both classical and skate, all taught by the CBNC certified instructors and/or Olympians and World Cup skiers such as Ingrid Butts and Rebecca Dussault, and the coaches of the Western State College Nordic ski team, Jesse Crandall and former DU Nordic skier Hennie Kashiwa (son of Alpine great Hank Kashiwa). Other events include a women's only skate clinic, a fun general clinic for “Grey Hares” 50+ age group, a wax clinic sponsored by Fast Wax, an avalanche awareness clinic, a dinner party and auction with live music, and of course, the Sunday races. This year's version of the races, which are usually run as two separate 5 km events for both skate and classical, was a consolidated and slightly longer classical-only race due to the new snow they received and logistics of the course. There are also local lodging deals for folks attending the camp.
As we all scrambled around to get in a bit of a warm-up and figure out what wax to use on the newly fallen sticky snow, Jesse mostly took care of his team. I couldn't believe it when I saw him peel out of his coaching garb to line up for the race himself. I laughed inside as I listened to the half-joking nervous chatter among the young college kids, especially the women. The women nervously traded places because they were afraid they would get run over by each other if they didn't double-pole fast enough. Guys are never honest enough with themselves to do that. Ironically, I think the young woman who was most adamant about her lack of double-pole ability ended up winning the race for the women. I also think she must have been a freshman.
On the guys' side, the race took off fairly fast with the front group consisting mostly of WSC skiers. I did my best to hang on the back and not get into anybody's way, but I know I must have annoyed a couple of the guys in the back by skiing too closely in the double-pole sections and ending up on the tails of their skis when they started kicking again. It's early season and I was a bit rusty, but the race was fun and I was reminded of how hard this sport is and why I do it in the first place.
Our group split up and of course, I was at the back. I scratched my way up to a couple of the WSC suits ahead of me at the top of the course and I saw that Jesse Crandall was one of them. He's a fast guy and I was happy to be anywhere near him. I suspected he must have been pretty wiped out from the week's events, but I didn't care and just did what I could to hang on. At the finish he started a long sprint to pass one of his guys and stepped out of the only fast track on the course into a soft, much slower track. As I passed him, I looked over and it was like seeing a piece of paper getting thrown out the window of a fast-moving car. I felt bad for him, but again, it meant I did better so I didn't care…anything to help my fragile ego…
Crested Butte Thanksgiving Camp. It snows so much around there that people almost have to, just to get around. The culture and tradition of it is deeply rooted in the area's history, and it has only grown with time. The Nordic Center is a community owned and operated affair that is seemingly supported by everyone. In addition, Gunnison is home to the Western State College Mountaineers division I ski team, with Wisconsin native, Jesse Crandall at the helm as head Nordic coach.</p><p>Another great aspect to Crested Butte's Nordic camp is that there is a pretty solid guarantee of snow. With several different areas at various elevations, the CB folks can potentially be xc skiing for 8 months out of the year — no exaggeration. This year was one of those years where they've had snow since mid-September (see Jesse Crandall's previous reports on FasterSkier.com), but lately (early-mid November) it's been warm and dry, so they didn't have quite as much of their usual stuff around town open for skiing. Even with that, they provided campers with a world-class alternative trail with world-class scenery on what would be considered great snow anywhere else.</p><p><BR><center><img decoding=)
 and how a few of my friends had faired. </p><p>The race is a mostly local affair, with a few of us “out-of-towners” there to spice things up for the event that allows the WSC ski team to stretch themselves a bit with some competition before the real collegiate stuff kicks off. Nevertheless, it is a race in the early season and everyone is a little nervous, especially since it feels like you've forgotten how to do this and if you ever knew how to do it at all in the first place.</p></div><div class=)