On Sunday, athletes from across the region gathered for the highly anticipated Climb to the Castle roller-ski hill climb, hosted by the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) in partnership with the New York Ski Education Foundation (NYSEF). Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway, this event marks an exciting addition to the 2025 NENSA Rollerski Race Series. Participants faced the daunting task of tackling either a long course of approximately...
Any given day at Craftsbury Outdoor Center in the summer is a hive of activity. A sculling camp here, a group run there, and throw a rollerski race in too. Everyone though, comes back to the Center’s porch, eventually. On Friday morning, a group of middle school-aged runners, containing more than a few skiers among them, went out for their morning group run. When they came back around, a few lit into the hushed, excited...
Video Credits: Sovereign 2 SilverStar Ski Marathon April 6 & 7 was a winning weekend for Nordic skiing in North America. The Sovereign 2 SilverStar Ski Marathon (S2S) reminded us that late season snow and great conditions are still possible! The 2-day event featured two distances (21k and 40k), two ski techniques (Classic and Skate), co-hosted by two world-class venues – Sovereign Lake Nordic Club and SilverStar Mountain Resort. The S2S attracted over 600...
It was, “a race people still talk about,” said long-time Stillwater Area High School Coach Bill Simpson when FasterSkier interviewed him in February. Distinctive red and white letterman jackets looked on from the stadium, medals clanging from the giant “S” insignias in the cold Iron Range wind. Giant’s Ridge, just outside of Biwabik, looked like the Hoosiers Field House if the janitor had forgotten to turn the heat on. A pairing of two future stars...
Team Birkie is made up of individuals who are committed to reaching their potential as cross-country skiers. The goal of the program is to support each athlete’s pursuit of domestic and international excellence by providing necessary infrastructure for success in the sport. This infrastructure includes a full-time coaching staff and individualized year-round training program, experienced race service, equipment sponsors and suppliers, physical therapy, access to training facilities, sports performance testing and a rollerski treadmill, a...
SEPTEMBER 21, 2022 BY NENSA photo Paul Bierman This past weekend 114 hearty humans braved the wet weather at the Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, VT and competed in Sunday’s Free Fall Rollerski Race! The FreeFall has become a staple of NENSA’s roller series and always draws a competitive and fun crowd. Open racers were slated for a 15km and juniors a 5km — both utilizing the same full 5km race loop which includes...
Logan Diekmann, Nina Seeman win on the streets of Bozeman, and BSF’s Rollerski races look to harness the momentum of summer training out West. Featuring Results and Video Highlights. BOZEMAN – Jim Bridger was a mountain man. One of those figures born firmly entrenched in the old ways back East, before he split for the Mountain West for something new. A character to chart a theme pervasive through the American vision of the West –...
The 2022 NENSA Summer Series hosted its first rollerski race of the season at the beginning of July. The Lost Nation Roll took place at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center on July 3rd, and by all accounts, was a huge success. Both men and women raced 10 k in an interval start format on the Outdoor Center’s paved rollerski loop. Coinciding with the Eastern Regional Elite Group (REG) camp, around 40 top Eastern juniors boosted the...
What comes to mind when you think of a cross country ski race? Depending on your location and how you choose to interact with the sport, there are likely a variety of answers to the question, but it’s likely that there are some common themes. “Cross country events are pretty much all the same when you boil them down, you know?” said retired US Ski Team member and 2018 Olympian Reese Hanneman. “It’s a test...
Editor’s note: This is the third essay in our series, “Letters to my younger self.” Lauren Fleshman provided the modern locus classicus for this genre, while John Wood and Adam Verrier kick-started the series on FasterSkier. When the private school at which my husband teaches offered him a sabbatical for the 2020-21 school year, we quickly began to fantasize about the ski town(s) in which we’d spend the following winter. A February 2020 trip to...
Just over a month ago, the American cross country ski community descended upon the small town of Hayward, Wisconsin. Skies were clear, the snow was cold and firm, and lycra was everywhere. But one set of race suits stood out, both because of the noteworthy athletes wearing them and for their bold neon colors. It was the MountainFLOW Eco Wax race team of Simi and Sophie Hamilton, Sylvan Ellefson, Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, Erik Bjornsen, Matt...
Nordic-cross is coming to Anchorage! Come watch Olympic and World Cup skiers battle it out in an action-packed event with big air, wipeouts, high speeds, and good times! The spring sun will be out, the festival at the bottom will have fire-pits and gourmet food and drink, and the atmosphere will be fun for the whole family. What: Nordic-cross event (extremely unique; cross-country skiing meets jumps and big air) When: April 2nd, 2022 Where:...
FasterSkier’s American Birkebeiner coverage is made possible through the generous support of New Moon Ski & Bike in Hayward, Wisconsin. While you are at the Birkie be sure to visit New Moon Ski & Bike for all your local expertise. Among the final major races in the ski world in 2020, the Slumberland American Birkebeiner pulled off an event with all the festivities for which the storied event is known. It was pure Birkie fever,...
By Ian Tovell and Rachel Bachman Perkins Find FasterSkier’s coverage of Friday’s freestyle sprints here. Saturday: 10 k Interval Start Classic After another 4+ inches of snow fell throughout the day on Friday, NENSA described the conditions for today’s 10-kilometer interval start race as a “banner day for classic skiing” on the two-lap course at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. The weekend of racing, titled the Henchey Memorial Carnival, included athletes of all levels, was described...
SuperTour racing continued on Friday in Craftsbury, Vermont, as part of the Henchey Memorial Carnival, which also included Eastern Cup and collegiate racing. The three-day event is presented by the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, NENSA, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, and the University of Vermont (UVM), the EISA carnival host school. Racers were faced with snowy conditions for the opening 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint as a winter storm made its way across the Northeast. Friday morning’s grooming report...
By Karen Jenkins On Saturday, January 29, 2022, a field of 77 classic skiers toed the line to stride and glide 30km in the annual Tour of Meissner just outside Bend, OR. While Bend is known as host to the US Ski Team spring training camp on the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center ski trails there are other groomed Nordic ski trails in the greater Bend area. The Meissner Nordic Community Ski Trails are located entirely...
Find coverage of Saturday’s classic sprint, day one of racing in the Lake Placid SuperTour weekend, here. As a Nor’easter made its way up the eastern seaboard, the Adirondack Park in northeastern New York saw a biting cold snap, with overnight lows well below zero and highs barely increasing beyond the single digits. A sunrise Instagram story posted by Alayna Sonnesyn (SMS T2) showed a temperature of -18 Fahrenheit, only two hours before the start...
Here’s a quick results recap from today’s SuperTour 10-kilometer mass start freestyle race in Lake Placid, NY. Stay tuned tomorrow for detailed coverage including comments from athletes. Racing continued at Mt. Van Hoevenberg this morning in what Weather.com called “bitterly cold” conditions. Near-zero temperatures and skate skiing can be a challenging combination for a distance race on a World Cup–level course, but racers nonetheless put together strong performances on the three-lap 10-kilometer course. In the...
By Rachel Bachman Perkins and Ben Theyerl 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...
Here’s a quick results recap from today’s SuperTour classic sprint in Lake Placid, NY. Stay tuned tomorrow for detailed coverage including comments from athletes. Period III of SuperTour racing kicked off in Lake Placid this morning with a frigid classic sprint. Recent improvements at Mt Hoevenberg included a new 5-kilometer World Cup and 1.5k sprint course, where athletes faced off today. On the men’s race, Zak Ketterson (Team Birkie) skied the fastest time in the...