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the finish at the 2018 World Cross Country Championships in Davos, Switzerland in December. Photo by Reese Brown.
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More than just a race uphill, ski mountaineering events like this one at Bolton Valley Resort have become a way to work out with friends.
5 The Start Heart and Grit
What sets apart our 2018 Athletes of the Year?
6 Great Outdoors News Briefs
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New backcountry ski trails and a new backcountry hut; Vermont's new hiking app and more.
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13 Health
According to nutritionist Jamie Sheahan, even elite endurance athletes need to watch what they eat. Here's why.
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11 Winter Reads
5 Books to Snuggle Up With
This winter, Vermont authors put out some great reads.
14
Gear The News on Helmets
A new study from the University of Vermont looks at helmets' effectiveness on the slopes. Here's what you should know and which ones to look for.
18
Feature Skating, Away
Four places where you can discover the magic of open-air skating this winter.
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Feature Going Uphill Fast
Meet the people behind the Vermont's growing skimo racing scene. Plus, the gear to get you started.
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Feature The Athletes of the Year
These 7 Vermonters put in some amazing performances in 2018.
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42 Endgame
This Buck Doesn't Stop
One man's plan to make winter trails accessible to all.
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4 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
THE START
HEART AND GRIT
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO EXCEL IN A STATE WHERE EVERYONE’S A STAR ATHLETE?
I
n a state like Vermont, it’s not easy to choose the "Athletes of the Year." Vermont has a disproportionate number of athletes who are among the best in the nation – if not the world – in their sports. In 2018, of the 244 athletes in PyeongChang, more than 16 were from Vermont or had trained here. Given Vermont’s population, you could deduce that 1 in 38 folks in the Green Mountain state were Olympians in 2018. This past year was not unusual: over the years Norwich has turned out 11 Olympians and Burlington, Stowe, Killington and Stratton, maybe more than that. In 2018, Stratton Mountain School alone sent nine to PyeongChang. Each year, Vermont Sports recognizes a handful of athletes who have turned in exceptional performances. We don’t discriminate against transplants, such as Jessie Diggins, a Minnesotan who owns a home in Stratton and trains here the five months of the year that she’s not traveling the globe and Nordic skiing on the World Cup. And we give preference to athletes who currently reside here. Hilary Gerardi, the woman who finished second overall in this year’s Migu SkyRunning World Series was raised in St. Johnsbury but the fact that she lives in Switzerland took her out of consideration. It’s difficult too, to compare say the stellar performance of an alpine racer such as Ryan Cochran-Siegle who competes in an established field of top international talent with the accomplishments of say, West Fairlee’s Tara Geraghty-Moats who is breaking ground and winning in the nascent sport of women’s Nordic combined. In the end, what we look for is just what coaches look for: exceptional examples of heart and grit. Heart and grit are what Jessie Diggins is known for, being able to dig in past pain at a time when others slow down. Heart and grit have also propelled Peru’s Sophie Caldwell to become one of the top three Nordic sprinters on the World Cup in 2018. In the case of Geraghty-Moats, here’s a woman who has been competing at the highest level in three sports —ski
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jumping, Nordic skiing and biathlon— for close to 15 years. Not for medals, not to make a team but simply because she loves these winter sports. Now that Nordic combined is finally being recognized by the FIS, she’s at the top of the podium and while she may never be able to compete in the Olympics in that sport (the only winter event that is not open to women), Geraghty-Moats is working to inspire other young women in the hopes that they might. Heart and grit are also what have sustained duathlete Karen Newman as she’s battled cancer and, at the same time, continued to win her age group in national championships. It’s what inspired Vera Rivard, age 14, to become the youngest person to ever swim the 25mile crossing of Lake Memphremagog. This year we also recognize the lifetime of contributions Kyle Ebbett made to mountain biking—from competing on the downhill circuit to building some of the most iconic trails and features in the country—before he died in October at 45. Next time you ride Kingdom Trails' Knight Slayer, or your kid hits the park or a pump track in Essex or Bristol say thanks to E-Bot, as Ebbett was known. —By Lisa Lynn, Editor
Hooch To Go
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JAN./FEB. 2019 | VTSPORTS.COM 5
NEWS BRIEFS
A Backcountry Blit This winter, skiers chase powder on new lines in the Willoughby State Forest, the fruit of the first sanctioned glading on state land. Below, the Vermont Huts Association's newest backcountry cabin opens to the public this spring in Huntington. Photo (above) by Maria Young, photo below courtesy the Vermont Huts Association
NEW BACKCOUNTRY SKI ROUTES, CHAPTERS AND HUTS
The Northeast Kingdom Backcountry Coalition, an affiliate of the Catamount Trail Association, has announced the fruits of its two-year collaboration with the Vermont Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation to expand backcountry ski trails in Willoughby State Forest. On December 17, NEKBC announced that new ski lines have been added on Bartlett Mountain and to Moose Haven in the East Haven Zone. Over the next several years, the agency and nonprofit will enhance and add to an existing 12-kilometer network of groomed cross-country ski
6 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
and snowshoe trails in the state forest. The project, similar to the Brandon Gap glades which were built on National Forest Land, is the first of its kind to provide access and manage vegetation for backcountry skiing and snow sports on state lands. NEKBC began working with VFP&R in fall 2016 to design winter backcountry recreation opportunities in the Willoughby State Forest. The plan includes proposed ski lines on Mount Hor, Bartlett Mountain and off of the CCC Road. It also includes a network of uphill skin tracks to connect the improved lines with a parking lot on Route 5A and existing trails. The Vermont Huts Association has also announced a new backcountry hut in Huntington, Vt., located on privately owned land off of Camels Hump Road. The new cabin—which is insulated, has a woodstove and sleeps four—is located just off the Catamount Trail. It is expected to open for reservations in early 2019. On December 7, the Mad River Valley Backcountry Coalition hosted its launch party. The new group of backcountry users and advocates is a chapter of the Catamount Trail Association and will focus on enhancing opportunities for wintertime backcountry recreation in the Mad River Valley. Though the group has yet to announce projects, its bylaws state that it will “assist where requested or appropriate, through information gathering, education and public service, in the management of glades and trails.”
THE LONG TRAIL GOES DIGITAL
Here’s a good new use of technology: as of December 2018 hikers in the Green Mountains can now navigate and track their adventures using their smartphones. The new service is part of the Green Mountain Club’s new digital map service. It allows users to purchase and download maps directly to their smartphone. Once downloaded, the information is available even when
cell service is not because it relies on GPS technology, meaning users can take photos, mark waypoints and track their progress on a trail. So far, 12 of the state’s most popular hiking areas are available for download and purchase at avenzamaps.com. Matt Krebs, operations/publications coordinator for the GMC says the organization hopes to have the entire Long Trail available digitally in time for hiking season in spring 2019. “This new program helps the GMC as well as hikers. We’re hoping that volunteers will go out and gather data for us and report things like blow-downs or needed trail maintenance using the app’s GPS waypoint storage system,” says Krebs. Essentially, a hiker could now go out on a trail, see a problem, mark its GPS coordinates, return home and upload or send that information to Krebs who could then disperse it to the Green Mountain Club’s network of volunteers and trail stewards. However, Krebs doesn’t expect the app will eliminate the need for paper maps. “Paper maps should still be thought of as a requirement when you’re in the backcountry,” said Krebs.“They don’t have batteries that die and give you a much broader visual of where you are than a phone screen.” [ C o n t i n u e d . . . . ]
Hiking in Vermont? As of December, there's an app for that. Photo by Matt Krebs
JAN./FEB. 2019 | VTSPORTS.COM 7
NEWS BRIEFS
The historic pastures on the summit of Tucker Mountain offer 360-degree views of the White Mountains and Green Mountains year-round Photo by Hollis Munson
TUCKER MOUNTAIN PRESERVED AS TOWN FOREST
On December 13, the Town of Newbury, Vt. made sure that 636 acres of iconic farm and forestland will be preserved and open to the public as a new town forest. Located in the Upper Valley, the new Tucker Mountain Town Forest includes most of the 1,690-foot Tucker Mountain, along with the town’s highest point, Woodchuck Mountain, at 1,742 feet. The property was purchased in the early 1970s by Phil and Ginny Leach with an eye to protect its high pastures and woodlands as open space. When the Leaches died, their family decided to
sell to the Vermont Land Trust for just $384,500, about half its appraised value. On December 13, 2018, the Newbury Selectboard voted to contribute $25,000 toward the purchase of the town forest. The project was also funded by grants from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, the Open Space Institute’s Community Forest Fund, the Upper Connecticut River Mitigation and Enhancement Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the National Fish and the Wildlife Foundation, Fields Pond Foundation. Additionally, more than 115 donors from the Upper Valley contributed close to $100,000 to complete the purchase
and endow a dedicated stewardship fund for the property. A stewardship and management plan is in the works. The property offers 360-degree views from its pasture summit and has since the fields were first cleared in 1810. Under the Leaches’ ownership it was frequented by hunters, hikers, crosscountry skiers, snowmobilers, mountain bikers, horseback riders and ATV riders. An opening celebration will be held this spring and until then, visitors should go to newburyconservation.org to learn about access to the property and permitted uses.
CAN TALENT SKATEPARK MAKE A COMEBACK?
When South Burlington's legendary Talent Skatepark and Shop closed its doors this past August, skateboarders across the Champlain Valley and beyond mourned. The shop, founded by Hannah Deene Wood in 2001, launched pro skaters such as Chris “Cookie” Colburn, Jordan Maxham and Collin Hale over its 17 year tenure. Deene, who owned and operated the business with her husband Dave Wood, offered lessons, camps and clinics to cultivate the next generation of young skateboarders, longboarders and inline skaters. It also provided a place for kids to roam free
and get indoor exercise year-round over its 8,300 square feet of terrain. For one group of parents, that service was invaluable. When Talent shut its doors this past August, citing lower rates of participation and sales at its shop, the parents teamed up with the goal of reopening the skate park as a nonprofit. “We weren’t done working with our community,” said Deene in early December. “But the world changed and the convenience of online shopping pulled away loyal customers. Regardless, there is still a huge population of skateboarders who need a place to hone their skills, as well as a safe haven that they can consider a second home.” Deene, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2001, just before opening Talent Skate Park, is a huge advocate for helmet use. She’s been a keynote speaker at the Vermont Brain Injury Conference, hosted by the University of Vermont. Though the skatepark won’t reopen this winter, the group is hosting its first fundraiser, the Talent Family Reunion at Arts Riot in Burlington on Jan 12. Local bands will be featured, including Rough Frances and stand-up comic Richard Bowen. For more information visit gofundme.com/talentskatepark — Abagael Giles
E X P E R I E N C E WINTER IN THE KINGDOM Burke, Vermont is a beautiful winter playground for fatbiking, skiing and snowshoeing in a warm and welcoming community. Don’t miss Vermont’s biggest winter bike event, the Winterbike Fatbike Festival on March 2. Come visit Kingdom Trails and experience it for yourself.
www.kingdomtrails.org
8 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
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BOOKS
5 BOOKS TO SNUGGLE UP WITH
THIS PAST YEAR HAS SEEN A BUMPER CROP OF NEW BOOKS FROM VERMONT ATHLETES AND ADVENTURERS. HERE ARE OUR FAVORITES BY ABAGAEL GILES
M
ystery, adventure, elegies to nature and the beauty of the Green Mountains: This winter there are more reasons than ever to tuck in by the fire with a good book. Here are five new books (or releases) from some of our favorite local authors.
BLACK DIAMOND FALL, BY JOSEPH OLSHAN
of snowboarding in southern Vermont and why it’s stuck, this book is for you. It’s an entertaining read and a thorough look at the characters, inventions and stories that made snowboarding what it is today. One of the best anecdotes is from Steve Hayes, one of the first pro snowboarders, about poaching Stratton in late Seventies. “[We’d] come Snurfing down to Snowbowl lift and jump right on in and tell the lifties ‘it’s all good. The ski patrol told us it was OK for us to ride the whole mountain… And then we’d get spotted, and they would send out a chase committee.”
Black Diamond Fall is set in the fictional Vermont town of Clareton, a literary tribute to Middlebury, and follows the mysterious disappearance of a college student who has been having a secret affair with an older man, a local poet. Interspersed in the mystery narrative are glorious scenes of skiing in the Green Mountains, including on Black Diamond Fall, a fictional, death-defying ski descent somewhere near Clareton. When protagonist Sam watches his friend Mike ski the terrifyingly tight line, “Sam can hear whoops of pleasure–making virgin tracks, as though writing words on a blank tablet. And then, ever so faintly, ‘Awesome!’ floating back up to him,”— something anyone who has skied in the backcountry can relate to.
SNOWBOARDING IN SOUTHERN VERMONT: FROM BURTON TO THE U.S. OPEN, BY BRIAN L. KNIGHT
Snowboarding got its start in Vermont, where Jake Burton Carpenter first began crafting boards and convinced Stratton Mountain to let people ride there. If you want to dive into the rise
end of the state to the other via the Catamount Trail. It reads like a love song to our state’s rugged and relentless topography. Don’t look to Tonino’s book for glowing reminiscences of face shots; look to it for the necessary grit that makes backcountry skiing in New England both epic and grueling at times. He likened pulling his sled from Bennington to Jay to Sisyphus’ fated efforts to push a boulder to the top of a mountain–only to have it roll back down for eternity. “You go and you go, and all you earn is the desire to go more, which is not desire but love, an abiding love of getting out, of going, of grabbing your boulder, pushing hard, chasing it back down the hill to start anew in the home that holds your life.”
deep into the browns and violets of the broad, flat horizon of the Chang Tang of Tibet, I thought, what a way to spend a transitional birthday, on the salt route to Tibet, crossing the Himalayas on my own. I was joyous, and satisfied. The wind was now blowing about forty miles an hour, and we had to brace ourselves as we worked our way into it and down the glacier, me arcing telemark turns.”
THE SNOWY, BY DAVE SCHNEIDER
THE GLASS SUMMIT, BY JAN REYNOLDS
THE ANIMAL ONE THOUSAND MILES LONG, BY LEATH TONINO
This is Vermont writer and Vermont Sports contributor Leath Tonino’s first book, and its essays are beautifully crafted tributes to the Green Mountain state. In “Seven Lengths of Vermont,” he writes about the toil and beauty he experienced skiing from one
There are few things that Stowe adventurer Jan Reynolds hasn’t done. A former member of the U.S. Biathlon team, she’s outskied bullets shot at her while crossing the high mountains of Tibet and did the first circumnavigation of Mt. Everest, hiking and skiing. She climbed and skied 25,000-foot Mt. Muztagata in China and crossed New Zealand on skis. Many of her adventures were in the 1980s, when few women were pursuing such expeditions. The Glass Summit chronicles Reynold’s adventures through the Himalaya, New Zealand and other high country terrain and you can’t help but be left in awe of all she has accomplished. Reynolds herself is in awe of the landscapes she encounters and describes them beautifully: “As I looked
Dave Schneider, a former collegiate ski racer, has coached many junior skiers in his day–a few of whom have since made the U.S. Ski Team. Now, the Vermont resident and Green Mountain Valley School honorary trustee has written a young adult sci-fi fantasy novel. In The Snowy, four young skiers wander into a hidden wormhole while sneaking out of bounds at their home mountain—which sounds a lot like Sugarbush. The book follows their efforts to get back from the darker, snowier world it transports them to. The other world is like a skier’s version of The Upside Down from the Netflix series "Stranger Things." Snow pillows house monsters with gaping mouths and foul breath and snow snakes are real serpents that lurk in powder stashes. The best ski scene comes just before they are swallowed by the wormhole: “At the top… Sparky whispered, ‘First tracks,’ then plunged into the soft, deep white. Cold fluff billowed into his mouth, up his nose, over his goggles and swirled past him.’”
JAN./FEB. 2019 | VTSPORTS.COM 11
FEATURED ATHLETE
Snow swimmer and published author Sandra Dee Owens takes a wintery dip in Sunset Lake. Photo by Emma Cotton
SANDRA DEE OWENS Name: Sandra Dee Owens Age: 58 Lives In: Benson, Vt. Family: Husband Bill Owens, daughters Shannon Sirjane, Tamzen Brosnan Sport: Snow swimming
S
andra Dee Owens, a grandmother of four, spends almost every day adventuring outdoors, despite—and because of—her severe scoliosis. Last summer, she rode both Appalachian Gap and Lincoln Gap in one day, and this winter, she will continue her goal to complete the Catamount Trail on skinny skis. In between, Owens swims in Sunset Lake, even when it’s partially frozen over. Owens’ self-published book, called Should, can be found at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vt. and on Amazon.com.
How did you start snow swimming? I live a mile and a half from Sunset Lake, one of the most beautiful lakes in the state. During the summer of 2017, I started swimming in it every morning, before the sun came up. But in midOctober, it was too cold. It shortened my swim. I had already been planning to go to Castleton College and spend the winter learning how to swim laps. But I got out of the lake that morning, thought about the chlorine and the indoors, and my spirit sank. So I came home and went rifling through my closet. I pulled out my spandex ski leggings, I found a short-sleeve surf shirt. Dressed in those two items, I waded in and immediately thought, ‘Yes! This is it!’ I couldn’t believe how much they protected my skin and gave me a few more minutes in the water. What makes you want to jump into a frozen lake? I am just on fire with this. It’s given me a “tweeny” sport. I’m also skiing the length of Vermont on the Catamount Trail over multiple winters. Sometimes it’s January before there’s enough snow to get up there. I’m a backyard adventurer, so I just go with whatever Mother Nature gives out for the day. I’m not waiting for a season, a temperature, or anything like that. I’m just riding her tail.
12 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
Keith Woodward, laying out trails at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, where he's help tend trails since 1976. Photo courtesy Keith Woodward.
How late into the season do you swim? Last year, the last day I went was Dec. 24. There was a 10-foot ice shelf, about a half-inch thick, coming right from the beach. I fist-punched my way through the channel and swam parallel to the ice shelf, along the shore. I was able to stay in 11 minutes. How do you stay safe while winter swimming? I live in the most amazing place to play outdoors safely, as long as I’m strategic. We don’t have natural predators; what we have is weather. By December, I was wearing neoprene gloves, neoprene socks, a three-millimeter wetsuit, goggles and earplugs. Cold water in your ears is no fun. One day I forgot my goggles, and when I opened my eyes, it was instant brain-freeze. Snow swimming requires joyous enthusiasm and courage. The courage part was not listening to other people tell me that I shouldn’t do this. I knew I was okay. You’ve struggled with scoliosis. How does your condition impact your level of activity, and vice versa? This is a 30-year journey for me. I had some dark, dark times. After I had my kids, starting at age 21, I started experiencing chronic back problems. I
wound up in the emergency room two or three times with a back that locked up. I would reach over to pick up a shirt and turn into stone. My husband had to pick me up and stick me in the back of the station wagon because I couldn’t afford an ambulance. When I was 24, it got really bad. I wasn’t able to drive, and I wasn’t able to stand and talk to people. I felt like I was 80. I didn’t have health insurance, but I had to go to the doctor. He told me I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was 40. One day, standing in my driveway, I saw one of my kids’ little Strawberry Shortcake bikes. I walked over to it, and with my foot, I kicked up the bike and got it underneath my legs. I coasted down the driveway, and then another mile down my road until I reached an intersection where the pavement flattened out. The intersection was a tremendous mental and physical symbol for me—I was feeling this tremendous anxiety, because the farther I went away from home, the harder it was going to be to get back. But I thought, ‘I can’t live like this. I’m not even 30.’ So, very slowly, very painfully, I willed myself to peddle that little thing. I made it another mile away, and then I had to get off and walk home. A year later, I did my first century ride.
How is your back now? My spine is just as twisted and messed up as it ever was, because it’s never going to untwist itself. The most recent problem I had was about five years ago. I had an accident on my bike, and I started having a lot of issues with the nerves in my legs, and thought I might have a herniated disk. I didn’t want to go see a specialist, but I let a girlfriend talk me into it. I’m in his office, and I see all these posters of Olympic athletes that they treat, so I’m like, ‘If they can help them, they can help ‘lil ol’ me.’ He comes in, and he just looks dejected. I asked if I had a herniated disk, and he goes, ‘I wish you had a herniated disk, because then I could help you. You don’t have a herniated disk because you don’t have any disks. Your spine is bone on bone. You just need a new back.’ I was so heartbroken. I came home, I looked out the window, and I was like, ‘You know what? I have been here before.’ I put my sneakers on, and I went outside. In six months, I developed a way of running on my toes that didn’t impact my spine. I don’t have that problem anymore, and I’ve never gone back to another chiropractor. The solution always seems to be very simple: A pair of sneakers and my own backyard. - Emma Cotton
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JAN./FEB. 2019 | VTSPORTS.COM 13
GEAR
THE NEWS ON HELMETS
A NEW REVIEW FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT SAYS MORE SKIERS AND RIDERS THAN EVER ARE PROTECTING THEIR HEADS—AND WITH GOOD REASON. HERE’S HOW YOU CAN DO IT IN STYLE THIS YEAR BY ABAGAEL GILES
A
new review by a team of doctors at the University of Vermont, among them Dr. Nathan Endres, set to be published in Sports Health in 2019, takes a look at skier injuries over the last half decade and uncovers some interesting findings about helmet use. Surveying several studies, Dr. Endres and his colleagues found that while skier injuries overall have declined over the last 35 years and helmet use is on the rise, the rate of serious traumatic brain injuries sustained by skiers and riders remains constant. This begs the question: How effective are helmets at keeping our brains safe? Between 1995 and 2012, the percentage of skiers at American ski areas who wore helmets increased from 8 to 84 percent, according to a study published in 2015 in the Journal of ASTM International. The authors of that study found that over the same period of time, the prevalence of head injuries decreased from 8.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Of 10 observed skull fractures, only one occurred while a skier was wearing a helmet. Despite this pattern, head and neck injuries still account for 13 percent of all skiing and snowboarding-related injuries nationwide. According to Dr. Endres, that figure has remained relatively constant over the years, despite increased helmet use. According to his review, so has the frequency with which skiers and snowboarders die from traumatic injuries, of which brain injuries are the most common. Further, the rate of serious traumatic brain injuries remains constant. “Overall, the data indicate that increased helmet use most likely reduces the risk of minor and moderate head injuries and potentially serious head injuries but does not decrease the overall incidence of fatalities. There is no indication that there are any adverse effects of widespread helmet use,” writes Dr. Endres and his colleagues in the 2019 review. Dr. Endres says that although helmets have their limits in crashes involving high speeds and concussions, “based on what we know, there really is no good reason not to wear a helmet when you ski.” As the market for helmets has grown dramatically over the last 20 years, so has the diversity of offerings. You
14 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
Giro Range MIPS Mountain
Anon Echo
Smith Quantam MIPS
Giro Range MIPS Freestyle
Specialized ANGi Sensor
Anon Auburn
Anon Invert
can now opt for a helmet with builtin earbud pockets, adjustable vents and any number of styles, designs at colors. Across the cost spectrum, most are lightweight and just about all are tested against a consistent set of standards set by the American
Pret Lyric X
Society for Testing and Materials (look for a small sticker on the helmet’s interior that reads “ASTM-Certified”). For an extra cost, you can purchase a helmet outfitted with MIPS, or MultiDirectional Impact Protection System technology, a feature that aims to
protect your head against the rotational forces that many researchers believe cause concussions. MIPS is essentially an elastic layer that allows the shell and liner to slide relative to the head and rest of helmet upon an angular impact. So which helmet should you choose?
A NEW CRASH SENSOR? Specialized ANGi Sensor ($50.00): This winter, Specialized came out with a new gadget that combines the functions of ride tracking, crash detection and safety beacon into one 10g package that attaches to their helmets and syncs with an app on your smartphone. Though the technology is designed for road cycling, it has a lot of potential for use on ski helmets and for fatbiking. ANGi works by detecting a potentially dangerous helmet impact and notifying the Specialized Ride app, which then notifies your emergency contacts and sends them your most recent GPS coordinates—if you don’t indicate that you are OK within a customizable window of time. The sensor can be mounted to any helmet but all of Specialized's 2019 models will come equipped with an ANGi-specific mount.
According to Dr. Endres and other medical professionals, the best helmet is the one you will wear consistently, that fits you properly and that makes you want to wear it. If you can splurge on MIPS technology, it’s probably a good choice, but if you can’t, don’t sweat it. These days, helmets generally differ in cost according to features that make them more comfortable, stylish and easy to use. A more expensive helmet may get you built in earbuds and adjustable vents, but it’s not clear that it will make you (or your brain) dramatically safer. However, all helmets currently on the market are designed to take a single impact, says Burton helmet designer and engineer Dave Connery. You should replace your brain bucket if you take a fall and see an imprint of the liner in its foam interior. Furthermore, if your helmet is more than five years old, its strength may be compromised even if you haven’t taken a major fall with it. In either scenario, it’s time to shop for a new helmet. We talked with a few local experts from Skirack, Outdoor Gear Exchange and Burton’s Anon to get their top picks for the best new gear. Here’s what we learned. HELMET PICKS FOR 2019 Just like with boots, if you’re buying a helmet, it’s worth taking a trip to your local ski shop to get fitted. It’s also a good idea to replace your ski or snow-
board helmet every five to ten years. “By the time you get to 15, 20 years of use, it’s like skiing in an old Styrofoam cup,” says veteran Skirack bootfitter Doug Stewart. Anon Echo and Omega MIPS ($189.95): This is Dave Connery’s top pick and what he tours with. It features 15 vents, is an in-mold helmet, is lightweight (it weighs less than one pound) and has a magnetic lock closure for the strap. You can save a little by opting out of the MIPS model. “I wear it for side country tours because the venting system is comfortable enough that I can wear it while moving uphill,” says Connery. Anon Invert MIPS ($159.95): While it may not come with adjustable vents, the Invert stands out for its comfort and fit. Anon’s Auto-Adjust Fit System makes it easy to fit the lightweight inmold construction to just about any head shape and the magnetic locking chin strap and earbud-compatible features help too. Giro Ledge MIPS ($80): If MIPS is important to you, Giro’s Ledge model offers the added protection for just $80 in a hard-shell construction with fixed vents, something Stewart says is just about impossible to find. “It’s at the $100 price point that you start to see features like adjustable vents,” says Stewart. Giro Range MIPS ($250): “Giro is a part-owner in MIPS, which means that you can often get the technology in their helmets without the premium you see in other brands,” says Doug Stewart, Skirack’s expert bootfitter and a longtime ski instructor. This helmet comes with a two-piece shell that allows the skier to tighten or loosen the entire shell of the helmet, instead of a narrow band in the back. Pret Lyric X and Haven X MIPS ($120): At 395g, this is a lightweight but affordable helmet perfect for touring. It features a closed vent but effective in-mold design, MIPS technology, a magnetic chin strap for easy removal and a liner made of blended wool and recycled fleece. Smith Quantum MIPS ($299): This MIPS helmet features a lightweight, breathable AercoreTM interior, made of a super strong honeycomb material called Koroyd, in addition to traditional EPS foam. It comes with 22 adjustable vents, a BoaA fit adjustment dial and a magnetic strap buckle for one-handed adjustments on the chairlift.
SOUTHWESTERN VERMONT MEDICAL CENTER
ORTHOPEDICS
Fresh Powder. New Knees. Athletes at all levels rely on Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s Orthopedics team to restore their competitive edge. Through our team-based approach and Dartmouth-Hitchcock affiliation, you have access to board-certified, fellowshiptrained specialists. Whether you need care for a sports injury or a fracture or a complete joint replacement (or two), our goal is to get you back to the activities you love as quickly—and painlessly—as possible.
PA R T N E R S H I P I S P O W E R F U L M E D I C I N E 16 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
(Left to right) Paul Donovan, DO; Katherine Kelleher, FNP-BC; Amy Wheaton, PA-C; James Whittum, MD; Suk Namkoong, MD; Jessica Moses, FNP; Kendra Isbell, PA-C; Matthew Nofziger, MD; Samuel Smith, Jr., PA-C
TM
332 Dewey St, Bennington, VT 802-442-6314 | svhealthcare.org
NUTRITION
Skating, Away IT’S THE TIME OF YEAR TO HUNT FOR THAT EPHEMERAL WINTER GOLD—BLACK ICE —OR TO PLAN A TRIP TO ONE OF THESE DESTINATIONS WHERE TRACKS ARE GROOMED ALL WINTER ON WILD, NATURAL ICE. BY ABAGAEL GILES
At 7.8K in length, the Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa holds a Guinness World Record for being the world's largest naturally frozen ice rink. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site that sees more than one million visitors each year. Photo courtesy Ottawa Tourism
18 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
Each year, the Squam Lakes Association grooms a skating loop and hockey rink in Piper Cove. Every so often, a loop around the entire lake will miraculously appear overnight. It's a local mystery as to who grooms it. Photo courtesy Squam Lakes Association
hen I think of skating in Ottawa,
W
But there was no treat so satisfying as
I still think of the light. In the
hot poutine. After skating for eight miles
long and early golden hour, the
in negative 20-degree weather, we felt
Canadian city and its opaque ice take on a
we’d earned a heaping portion of hand-cut
sort of rosiness. It's cold and the days are
French fries loaded with melting cheddar
short, but the magic of being able to move for
cheese curds and topped with hot gravy.
miles through an urban landscape on skates
They disappeared fast. Post poutine, with frozen toes and warm
is infectious. Come late December or early January,
bellies, we returned our skates and searched
the Rideau Canal, which runs through the
for a pub in the late afternoon light. When we
heart of Canada’s capital city, becomes the
found one a few blocks away from the canal,
Rideau Skateway. For three months, the
it was packed with revelers and hockey fans.
city grooms the ice at night so its residents
After a round of Canadian beers, we walked
can skate for fun (or commute) by day. At
back to our car to head back to campus. Our
7.8 kilometers in length, running from
faces were rosy and we felt like we’d made the
downtown to Dow’s Lake (which you can
most of a blisteringly cold day. My roommate
also skate) the canal currently holds the
had discovered she could still land an axel
record for the world’s largest natural ice
and I had only fallen once trying to keep up
rink.
with her on my hockey skates.
I first discovered canal skating as
The skating was so good, that I made a
a student at St. Lawrence University in
point to return annually for Winterlude, a
Canton, N.Y. My friends and I used to make annual skating trips to Ottawa, which was about an hour and a half’s drive from school,
At Lake Placid's Mirror Lake, you can skate for free on ice that is groomed regularly and tested to ensure it is at least six inches thick. Try the two-mile long loop around the lake. Photo courtesy lakeplacid.com
festival that celebrates Canadian culture and winter. Much of the festival takes place on the skateway or just off of it. Highlights
Though I’m no expert skater, I loved gliding
more than 2,000 people skate the canal
for 2019 include the International Ice
Often these trips coincided with the
through Ottawa, watching the city pass by.
each day. Along the canal vendors sell hot
Carving Competition, where you can watch
coldest days of the year. Stir crazy and
We passed skating parents pushing kids
waffles and poutine along with coffee and, in
carvers create massive ice sculptures of
undaunted by sub-zero temperatures, we
in sleds, grandparents pushing stabilizing
some places, beer. I still remember trying a
insects, mythological creatures, castles
happily donned three pairs of socks and
carts, young people laughing with their
beaver tail, one of Ottawa’s signature treats
and monsters. There's also a skate-ski-run
wrapped ourselves in scarves, sweaters
friends and people hopping on and off the
on my first trip to the skateway. Deep fried
triathlon on the frozen canal, an ice Dragon
and coats to spend the day outdoors. It was
frozen canal as though they were getting
in hot oil, it’s a decadent pastry that is soft
Boat Festival and an on-ice hospital bed
always a welcome treat during the depths of
off at a bus stop. At some point our fingers
on the inside and crispy on the outside and
race. This year’s festival will run from Feb.
a north country winter.
would get cold and we’d stop at an on-ice
made with whole wheat flour. It’s typically
2 to Feb. 19.
coffee shop for a hot drink.
sprinkled with butter and sweet toppings
Skating through Ottawa turned me on to
like cinnamon sugar, jam or honey and
the sport. The motion of pushing and gliding
occasionally maple syrup.
across ice for miles at a time is both relaxing
across the St. Lawrence River.
After
renting
skates
and
stashing
our street shoes at the canal’s downtown
Skating is a big part of the culture of
Rideau entrance, we would glide for hours.
Ottawa. On average, Ottawa Tourism reports
JAN./FEB. 2019 | VTSPORTS.COM 19
When he sets out to skate on black ice, experienced wild ice skater Bob Dill will often wear a dry suit and life jacket to ensure that he stays dry and afloat if he falls through. He never leaves shore without a pair of skating spikes and has skated across Lake Champlain, from Vermont to New York and back again, several times. His favorite place to skate is inner Malletts Bay. Photo courtesy Bob Dill
and exhilarating. I found there was really no comparison between skating outdoors and skating indoors on an oval rink and I began to look for other destinations where I could skate in the wild. While November and December can turn up some of the best wild black ice, there are not many places that actually groom all winter for skaters. Here are a few that do:
LAKE MOREY, FAIRLEE, VT. It’s morning. The air is crisp and cold, and snowflakes are just starting to fall. As you strap your skates on by the shore, a groomed path of pristine ice stretches before you on Lake Morey in the Upper Valley. Skates on, you push and glide out onto the lake as clouds part briefly for a view of the neighboring mountains. For the last 12 years, dedicated locals have used four-wheelers to clear snow and groom a 4.5-mile skating loop around the lake’s perimeter, along with a series of hockey rinks. The Lake Morey Resort
FINDING WILD ICE January and February can offer terrific skating in the northeast. If you are savvy and know where to look, you can sometimes find Vermont ponds frozen so strong and so clear that you can watch aquatic plants move beneath your feet. This is black ice, usually the first layer to form for the season. It’s smooth and glassy and spooky, and it’s ephemeral. According to veteran Vermont skater and ice boater Bob Dill, it can appear over a night or two and disappear in a day. Dill, who uses his engineering background to analyze, forecast and blog about Vermont’s lake ice (at lakeice. squarespace.com), says that contrary to what you might think, the first lakes to freeze are typically at low altitude. “In the Champlain Valley, we generally get black ice on ponds early in the season. Typically, it happens in early December,” says Dill. Black ice requires calm weather and sustained freezing temperatures over two or more days without snow to develop. Dill says those conditions are more likely to occur in Vermont’s valleys than in the mountains because higher elevation lakes and ponds are more likely to see snow when the temperature drops, and snow ruins the quality of black ice. Near Burlington, Colchester, Shelburne, Deerfield, Monkton
and Bristol Ponds are all excellent early season skating sites. For more advanced skating that requires reading ice for weak points, Dill says that Lake Champlain typically freezes south of the Lake Champlain Bridge, which goes from Addison, Vt. to Crown Point, N.Y., in late December or early January. Skaters should be advised that there is a current there and thin ice can appear seemingly out of nowhere. A few years ago, Dill hiked to Sterling Pond on Stowe’ s Spruce Peak after seeing a promising weather forecast. “We were hiking and happened to have our skates with us. We found black ice thick enough to skate on, and it was incredible,” said Dill. He and his skating partner made rounds on the pond’s glassy surface as snow began to fall. “It’s this high mountain lake and the views that surround it, the setting, was really special.” It was too snowy to skate the next day. If you’re looking to get outside and skate on wild ice in a more regulated setting, these early season skating venues could be for you. For ice forecasts and trip reports visit www.lakeice. squarespace.com. For more information about Dill’s group Vermont Nordic Skaters, as well as outings and workshops this season, visit. www.nordicskaters.org.
took over grooming about 10 years ago and now partners with the Upper Valley Trails
out on the ice,” says Christine Cecchetti,
touring the lake on Nordic skates, which are
Alliance to maintain the trail. Skating on
director of business development for Lake
available for rent onsite along with figure
the groomed loop is free and open to the
Morey Resort. “It’s really cool to look out
skates and hockey skates. “Natural ice is
public. It typically opens in late December
after school and see the kids out playing
very different from indoor ice. There can
and runs through February.
pick-up hockey,” she says.
be bumps and bubbles, even in black ice,
“On a beautiful Saturday or Sunday, it’s
Skating at Lake Morey can be either
and these skates glide over cracks really
common to see upwards of 1,000 people
solitary or social. Cecchetti recommends
effectively and are meant for traveling
20 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
longer distances.” Cecchetti says distance skating is a great workout. “It’s phenomenal for your glutes and quads and it’s a great cardio workout. Plus, skating outdoors is invigorating,” she says. “It gives you a real sense of life, of accomplishment. Snow conditions may be
iffy, but at Lake Morey, we always seem to
always travel in groups of more than one At Lake Morey, skaters circumnavigate the lake on a groomed 4.3-mile-long track. It's a great place to see bald eagles early in the morning and skate rentals are available at the Lake Morey Resort. Photo courtesy Lake
have ice. We like to boast, ‘Don’t hibernate, celebrate winter.’” Events on the lake for this winter include the 15th annual Lake Morey Skate-a-thon (Jan. 20), where skaters
Morey Resort
challenge themselves to skate as many laps
person when skating this way. squamlakes. org
MIRROR LAKE, LAKE PLACID, N.Y. In the depths of winter, New York’s
in a day as they can and the Vermont Pond
Adirondacks are rugged, cold and beautiful.
Hockey Championships from Feb. 2-3, as
And at the heart of the Adirondack town
well as Winter Carnival on Feb. 17, which
of Lake Placid lies Mirror Lake, a small
includes a large open-air, on-ice market with
but picturesque body of water that freezes
New England craft goods, food and beer.
over regularly. Because of its location in
lakemoreyresort.com
the village, it’s historically been popular with cross country skiers, snowshoers and
SQUAM LAKE, SANDWICH, N.H.
pond hockey players. Skating has been
Just below New Hampshire’s Sandwich
documented there for more than 100 years.
Range lies Squam Lake, a nine-mile lake
Since
2013,
the
community
has
marked by tendril-like inlets as well as
maintained
coves and islands. Beyond its rocky shores
circumnavigates the two-mile-long lake.
rise the tall peaks of the White Mountains.
Through a local fundraising effort, the
Much of the skating here is wild, except for
community raised money to purchase high-
a set of hockey rinks and a groomed loop
end outdoor grooming equipment, which
maintained by the Squam Lakes Association
allows them to clear snow quickly and keep
(through President’s Day) in Piper Cove, the
the track groomed for extra smooth ice. The
bay that houses the town of Holderness.
equipment requires at least six inches of ice
According to Rebecca Hanson of the
a
skating
track
that
to operate, which means the skating season
Squam Lakes Association, the start of
typically starts in January.
skating season typically depends on the
The town also grooms a few hockey
weather, but is often sometime after the new
rinks near the town beach. All skating
year. However, the lake is known to develop
facilities are free and popular. On a given
early season black ice. Each February, the
day, dogsleds, cross country skiers and
Squam Lakes Association hosts Winterfest,
skaters all share the lake’s surface. Skaters
an open-air festival that features open pond
get the track to themselves. Skate rentals are
hockey scrimmages, groomed skating, a
available at Lake Placid Skate Rentals, next
chili competition and on-ice mini golf in
to the Golden Arrow Hotel on Main Street.
Piper Bay. This year’s event, the 21st annual,
The Mirror Lake loop is the perfect place
will run on February 17. “It is a super family-
to try open air skating on a surface that is
friendly affair,” says Hanson. “We draw a
solid and safe, but still offers a high mountain
couple of hundred people every year, and it’s
skating experience. The surrounding region
always great to see people get outside in the
offers plenty of wild ice, but much of it is
winter.”
either remote or difficult to assess for safety
Most of the skating at Squam Lake is on
or both. At Mirror Lake, you can skate
wild ice, where skaters should assess the ice
against the backdrop of some of the tallest
thickness and safety for themselves. It's a
peaks in the East and still be within walking
good idea to have ice claws, a test pole and
distance of downtown Lake Placid’s cafes,
a throw bag any time you set out to skate on
bars and restaurants. lakeplacid.com
wild ice. If you are new, go out with someone more knowledgeable than you are and to
THE GEAR YOU NEED Bob Dill’s advice to anyone heading out on lake ice is to “use your head and carry the right equipment: a throw rope, ice claws and poles. You should also wear some flotation.” Ice claws are small hand-held plastic grips with stainless steel spikes that protrude from one end. They are connected by a strap that is typically worn around the neck while skating. They allow you to gain traction to pull yourself out of the water should you fall through the ice. A throw bag is a rescue device with a length of rope stuffed loosely into a bag so
it can be thrown to a swimmer from shore or thicker, more stable ice. Nordic test poles (Dill recommends an eight-foot ash ice pole for skating) can be used to test the thickness of ice before you skate on it. He also recommends using Nordic skates to skate on wild ice. “Nordic skates are just so much more efficient,” says Dill. “They have a longer glide, so it’s easier to go faster than on a figure skate or hockey skate. It’s a real efficient way to move across the ground, like riding a bicycle. It’s just got a nice feel to it.” The boots are also comfortable because they are standard Nordic ski boots that can be fitted with blades. After removing the blades, you can drive, hike and walk around
A backcountry NNN binding and boot mounted on an Isvidda Nordic Skate. Photo by Ben Prime
on solid ground in them and, unlike hockey skates, cut through about six inches of light snow without catching an edge. For newcomers to the sport, Dill recommends a trip to Nordic Skater in
Newbury, N.H. Owned and operated by Ben Prime, the shop was the first importer of Nordic skates in the U.S. 19 years ago. For new skaters, Prime recommends an Isvidda Nordic skate blade and platform. Traditionally, the skates feature a blade and Nordic skate ski binding; however, Prime says he sees more and more and more skaters using NNN backcountry touring bindings and Nordic touring boots. “Those are popular because then, you can use the same boots to ski into a backcountry destination and then swap your skis for skates to skate a lake.” For more information about equipment, visit nordicskater.com.
JAN./FEB. 2019 | VTSPORTS.COM 21
Going Uphill Fast AS UPHILL SKIING GROWS ACROSS VERMONT, A GROUP OF ELITE SKIMO RACERS ARE WORKING TO BUILD COMMUNITY AROUND COMPETITION. BY ABAGAEL GILES
For some, skimo racing is about competition, but for others, it's about moving quickly so you can get more our of your backcountry tour. Here, racers take a prework lap at Bolton Valley. Photo courtesy Kevin Duniho
22 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
get people outside and exercising together on weekdays. “Two years ago, we averaged about 35 racers per night,” says Maino. “Now, we’ll have nights where 80 people show up.” That growth mirrors a trend across the state. At Magic Mountain in Londonderry, president Geoff Hatheway estimates he sees 30 people a day making use of Magic’s uphill touring policy, which requires skiers pick up a free uphill pass before using ski area trails but rewards them with a free lift ride for their next run once they reach the top. “Ten years ago? It would have been half that many people. Alpine touring equipment has made it that much more accessible,” says Hatheway. And across Vermont, the winter is packed with uphill races, from the snowshoe-friendly Winter Wild Series to USMA races like the NE Randonnee Series.
Racers take off uphill from the start at Mad River Glen's base lodge for the 2015 Mad River Valley Ski Mountaineering Race. Though this race no longer takes place, others appear to be taking hold. Photo by John Atkinson
I
n the parking lot at Bolton Valley Ski Area, shortly after sunset, a group of skiers gathers in the growing dark. Pulling packs and skis from their cars, they make small talk as they strap skins to skis, shaking hands and feet to ward off the cold. Someone, somewhere, is playing the Grateful Dead from a small portable speaker. Headlamps bob. Some folks are clad head-to-toe in tight, bright Lycra racing suits, hands clasped around skinny, feather-light skis. A few women are wearing purple and pink tutus. One guy is wearing a pair of beat up jeans and leather boots. His skis have three-pin telemark bindings. Eventually, the crew of about 50 splitboarders, telemark skiers and randonnee skiers lines up. A race organizer calls out the start and the ragtag crew moves as one up the gentle slope under the Wilderness lift. A few tutu-sporting folks on fat DPS touring skis straggle behind the rest. The goal? To reach the summit as quickly as possible, remove your skins, tighten your boots and ski down to the bottom and do it again. This is the scene on any given Tuesday evening at the Green Mountain Skimo Race Series at Bolton Valley. Skimo—or ski mountaineering—racing involves moving as fast as possible uphill and across varied terrain on randonnee skis using climbing skins. Technically, a skimo race has to follow rules set forth by the International Ski Mountaineering Federation. The Bolton series, like
MountainOps/Dynafit Skimo Team member Caitrin Maloney skins across the Monroe Skyline in the Mad River Valley Ski Mountaineering Race in 2015. Photo by John Atkinson
many races in New England, is best categorized as an “uphill travel” race, rather than a sanctioned skimo competition. It’s an open race for splitboarders, skiers on alpine touring gear, telemark skiers and anyone with a metal edge. Skimo racing in its purest form involves challenging racers to navigate mountainous terrain as fast as they can using skis and crampons. Races involve mandatory bootpacks, require that you have a helmet rated for multi-directional impact, releasable skis, crampons and more. A relatively small number of serious competitors (likely fewer than a thousand people across the United
States) participates in sanctioned skimo races to earn points on the national and world circuits. In Vermont, most sanctioned races draw 30 to 40 competitors and have for the last ten years. In 2017, the United States Ski Mountaineering Association was formed. The same year, the International Olympic Committee announced that ski mountaineering will for the first time be part of the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2020. Greg Maino, communications director for the Catamount Trail Association started the Green Mountain Skimo Race Series in 2014 as a casual way to
THE DENIM GHOST (AND OTHER CHARACTERS) In 2016, Milan Kubala was about as far from donning a spandex suit to run up a mountain on his skis as a person could be. The former professional tennis player and Stowe resident skied in his jeans and was proud of it. Today, he’s a major advocate for the skimo community. In fall 2017, he founded Vermont’s only sponsored skimo team with the help Stowe’s MountainOps shop owner Don Allen, also a rising star on the New England circuit. In March 2018, Kubala won the New England Randonnee Series’ Bromley race after taking first in the series’ race at Magic Mountain in January. He consistently finishes in the top 10 in larger regional races like those hosted as part of the SkimoEast series. Kubala, who is the Director of Tennis at Stowe’s Topnotch Resort, runs or bikes to work every day. A former professional tennis player and member of the Czech Republic national team, he came to uphill racing with a 12-year habit of skinning up Mount Mansfield before work on a pair of narrow fish-scale skis with metal edges, three-pin bindings and leather boots, something he picked up when he moved to Vermont in 2004. “I’d go up and ski with my dog in my jeans,” he said. A life-long athlete, Kubala became fascinated by the possibility of covering long distances by ski. He’s skied the roughly 20 miles from Bolton Valley to Smugglers’ Notch in a day and completed other long
JAN./FEB. 2019 | VTSPORTS.COM 23
tours in the state. “For me, skimo is about connecting to what skiing used to be in the old days—a really physically demanding sport,” he says. When he started showing up to the Green Mountain Skimo Race Series in 2016, Kubala earned the nickname “The Denim Ghost,” says Maino. “It’s dark when everyone starts and he would show up at the start line with his leather boots and three-pin bindings and jeans and just take off. We joked it was like we weren’t sure if he was ever there.” At that series, Kubala met Waterbury-based triathlete and trainer John Spinney. The two, along with another racer, John Wulff, started training together—and racing in their jeans. “We decided to show up to race in jeans at SkimoEast’s annual race at Mont Tremblant in 2017,” said Kubala. “We sewed some Dynafit patches to the back pockets. The sport is much more established in Canada and we really stuck out amid all of the speedsuits. We still didn’t really have skimo gear,” said Kubala. They ended up finishing in the top 10 (Kubala took second place) and earning the attention of the regional Dynafit rep, a relationship that paved the way for the sponsored team they launched in 2017. Today, the team has eight members, two of whom are women. They travel and compete and Kubala, who sits on the board of the United States Ski Mountaineering Association and is dedicated to promoting the sport in Vermont. He hopes skimo racing will someday be an Olympic sport. Building an athletic base in the United States is key to doing that. However, Kubala says, “I’d like to show people that you don’t have to have the lightest gear and be dressed in Lycra from head to toe to get out and do this,” he says. “Plus, there are real applications for backcountry touring and it’s a crazy workout.” A FULL-BODY WORKOUT Dr. Kevin Duniho, a.k.a., Dr. Skimo, is a former collegiate Nordic racer, lifelong alpine skier and passionate skimo racer. In 2017, he skied Colorado’s Grand Traverse, a 40-mile race in the Rockies between Crested Butte and Aspen at elevations of up to 13,000 feet. He’s also a physical therapist who specializes in treating skiers. Duniho lives at the base of Bolton Valley’s backcountry zone where he logs more than 100 days per year on skis. Last spring, he did a 26-mile ski from Timberline at Bolton Valley, up and over to Trapp Family Lodge, up Mt.
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Ian Clarke was the only American to compete in the 2017 Skimo Junior Championships in Italy. Photo courtesy Ian Clarke
Above, clinic participants practice kick step technique at the 2018 Catamount Trail Association Skimo Boot Camp on Dec. 15. Below, P.T. Kevin Duniho competes in Colorado's Grand Traverse in 2017. Top photo by Greg Maino, bottom photo courtesy Kevin Duniho
Mansfield and down through Smugglers’ Notch. “At 9,000 feet of vertical, it’s actually more climbing than the Grand Traverse,” says Duniho.
“That’s the great thing about Vermont. You can go for miles on challenging terrain with lightweight skis without ever encountering avalanche terrain.” According to Duniho, who has treated Vermont athletes such as Skimo World Championship competitor Ian Clarke and Aaron Rice (who logged a record 2.5 million vertical feet in one year), uphill skiing is just about the best workout an outdoor athlete could ever get. “It works a couple of muscles that a lot of other sports don’t hit as intensively,” says Duniho. “Almost all of us athletes have constantly atrophying gluteous maximuses and abdominal muscles. This sport
is by far the best thing I’ve ever done that targets those two muscles specifically,” says Duniho. Like running and cycling, uphill skiing works your hamstrings and quadriceps. On the way up, skiers tend to engage slow-twitch muscles and get an aerobic workout. Then, when they descend, they get an anaerobic workout and work fast twitch muscles. “Everybody I’ve talked to in the fitness world has so much stoke about how good of a workout uphill skiing is. It works everything and it’s complete, from head to toe.” Duniho contrasts it with Nordic skiing. “Elite Nordic skiers have been found to have some of the highest VO2 maxes in the sports world,” says Duniho, referring to an athlete’s ability to retain oxygen. “I’d argue that skimo racers possibly have even higher VO2 maxes. Our races are more intense and longer and we go up steeper hills.” Duniho sees a lot of endurance runners entering skimo races. “It’s a great workout for runners who put in a majority of their miles on the flats. Runners classically have underdeveloped gluteus maximuses,” he said. They also tend to have overdeveloped hip flexors. The tension between the two can cause injury and pain. “Uphill skiing is great at correcting that.” It may come as no surprise that three-time Sky Running World Champion and mountain legend Kilian Jornet is one of the top skimo racers in the world. Duniho did warn against overuse. “I do see a lot of knee injuries among skiers and one risk factor is having a weak gluteous medius, which helps stabilize your knee and protects against injuries
to your ACL or meniscus,” says Duniho. He warned to watch out for pain on the inside of your knee as a sign of overuse. IT’S ALL IN THE TRANSITION Humans have been traveling through the mountains on skis for a long time, but modern skimo racing with its Lycra suits, low-tech bindings and ultralight skis, has its origins in Europe. In the Alps, racers compete in multi-day epic tests of mountaineering skill, ascending and traversing massive mountains in avalanche terrain and foul weather. Perhaps because of the influence of certain historic races, like the Patrouille des Glaciers, a ski mountaineering race organized by the Swiss Armed Forces and part of La Grande Course, an annual race series that is the pinnacle of the sport, races are designed to be a test of skill and physical ability in the mountains. According to Kubala, the most competitive skimo races are won and lost in the minutiae of transitions. These are the periods between sections of a race where a skier has to switch their gear from uphill touring mode and ski downhill or get ready to hike or navigate a snowfield with crampons and an ice axe. In Vermont, bootpacks are rare and most transitions involve removing the sticky mohair or synthetic skins skiers use to ascend. Proper technique involves first dropping your poles on the ground, then bending down to tighten your boots and put them in ski mode, switching your bindings to ski mode, then ripping your skins off of the bottoms of your skis and stuffing them in your Lycra onesie for the descent. The best racers do all this in about 20 seconds, an impressive feat to anyone who’s ever waited around at the top of a run for a friend to remove their skins and get into ski mode on a backcountry ski tour. This is much easier said than done, as was evidenced in the clinic Kubala cotaught with Spinney at the Catamount Trail Association’s AT and Skimo Camp on December 15. At first, skiers were falling over sideways trying to rip their skins off, while the instructors did so in one clean motion, a combined hop and rip. However, by the end of the day, most participants were removing their skins from their skis without taking their skis off their feet. This was a victory. “Imagine you’re on a 20-mile tour,” Spinney told participants. “My partners and I will sometimes have a 10-point rule we use. We each get ten times to stop and fiddle with something, whether our pack, your skis, your bindings. When you can transition without stop-
Today, Milan Kubala, a.k.a. "The Denim Ghost" mostly races in a Lycra suit as a member of the MountainOps Skimo Team, but he still trains in his jeans. Photo by Greg Maino
Skimo racers take off at the first Green Mountain Skimo Race at Bolton Valley. According to Kevin Duniho, uphill skiing is one of the most balanced full body workouts around. Photo by Colby Yee.
ping, you save energy, you get time back to take a photo, you get to eat, you get to stay warm and more than that, you get more laps in.”
THE UPHILL SKIERS Vermont’s skimo community is an interesting crowd. The sport draws competitive endurance athletes, backcountry powder junkies and everyone in
WHERE TO TRY SKIMO RACING If you’re interested in giving skimo racing or uphill skiing a try, renting or demoing gear to skin at a resort is a great way to do it. Nearly every Vermont ski area has an uphill policy that allows some form of access for skiers and riders. Be sure to read the restrictions, as some do charge a small fee and require that skiers obtain a pass and a signed waiver. Bolton Valley has a complete backcountry rental and guided touring program and regular Tuesday night races. Magic Mountain also has a rental fleet of AT gear and actually gives you one free lift ride for skinning to the top of the ski area. Ascutney, though it has installed a new t-bar, is essentially a backcountry/uphill travel ski area. If you want to try your hand at classic alpinestyle skimo racing, sign up for NE Rando Race Series' "The Sun" at Bromley on March 16. The course includes steep bootpacks, on and off-piste dowhills, moguls and whatever else they can throw at you.
between. As Kubala’s training partner John Spinney says, “Uphill skiing is not easy. And when you’re really pushing yourself, it can hurt. But you’re also getting out there in the mountains and the trees in the middle of winter. It takes a certain type of person to like that.” Jonathan Shefftz has been doing competitive skimo racing in Vermont since 2005, when he first entered Jay Peak’s Skimo Challenge, once one of the state’s longest-running events comprised of a grueling nine-mile race with 5,250 feet of climbing through moguls and off-piste terrain around the ski area. Eleven years ago, he founded NE Rando Series, an annual five-race series across three New England States. He’s the treasurer of the U.S. Ski Mountaineering Association and is passionate about making skimo an Olympic sport. “Our races are the equivalent in the skimo world of what the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association is for alpine skiers.” Skiers register and win points to compete on the national circuit. Winning races helps you qualify for the National Championships, typically held out west, where skiers can qualify to compete in the World Championships. So far, only one American has ever podiumed in the World Championships. Nina Silitch of New Canaan, N.H. took silver in the sprint at the World Championships in Pelvoux, France in 2013 and gold in 2014. “It was a perfect way to combine my passion for mountaineering and alpine skiing with my background as an endurance athlete,” she says. She is an ultrarunner and frequently podiums or wins the NE Rando Race series in the women’s division. Killington resident Ian Clarke went
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GEARING FOR UP to the Youth World Championships in 2017. Clarke, who is also a sponsored Cannondale cyclist, started showing up at NE Rando Race Series events in alpine touring gear when he was in high school. Schefftz noticed that the former alpine racer was beating people with much lighter ski setups than his and helped him get a sponsorship to access race gear. Clarke loves the outdoor community he’s found in skimo racing and is interested in building a youth racing league in Vermont. “Over in Europe, skimo is like what basketball is for us. Racing there, you get to the top and there are fans and spectators watching, cheering.” Still others, like the Catamount Trail Association’s Greg Maino, got into randonnee skiing as a way to stay fit in the winter. Maino, an ultrarunner, prefers skiing uphill to skiing downhill. “I think a lot of people from the trail running community are looking at it as a way to stay in shape and be outside in the winter. It’s a great alternative to running on the road.” Caitrin Maloney, a member of the MountainOps Skimo Team and the top female racer in the state says, “I have skied my whole life and I like to get out and push myself. But at the start line for these races, even if you have butterflies in your stomach, it is the most welcoming scene—even in the competitive races. People are just happy to have a community around moving fast uphill and being outside.” Maino pointed to the egalitarian nature of the sport as a reason for more Vermonters to get involved. “Even in the really big races in Europe, you have the top athletes in the world competing on the same course as recreational racers who are just out there to be in the mountains, to have the experience and to push themselves in their own way.” Maino’s co-race organizer, Scott Berkeley, echoed that. “What a lot of people love about skimo racing and why so many of these races have become popular is that you can feel part of this really cool athletic event without caring if you’re in 12th place or 150th. You still get to push yourself in your own way in a beautiful place—and it’s definitely better than watching Netflix on a weeknight.”
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WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A TOURING SETUP THAT WILL GET YOU STARTED IN RANDONNEE SKIING, OR YOU’RE A SEASONED VETERAN LOOKING FOR THE NEWEST, LIGHTEST GEAR, VERMONT’S TOP SHOPS HAVE YOU COVERED. Black Diamond Icon
If you’re looking to try skimo racing or update your current setup, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re buying equipment that will allow you to race in USSMA-sanctioned races. That said, there are plenty of events where you can get uphill on whatever gear you have. We asked experts from shops around the state for their recommendations. Whether you’re looking for gear at the top of the line to maximize speed in on-piste fitness touring and racing or you’re looking for a legal racing setup that doubles as the mainstay of your backcountry quiver, here's what to look for.
Pomoca Race Pro 2.0
1. PICK YOUR BOOTS
“The first place to start if you’re looking to lose weight in your ski setup is your boots,” says Aaron August, a ski technician at Outdoor Gear Exchange in Burlington. For a more basic setup that can double as a lightweight, off-piste backcountry touring setup, August recommends the Scarpa F1 Ski Mountaineering Boot ($700). At 1,260g, it’s got a tech toepiece. “If you are looking for a setup that will be lightweight enough for you to be competitive and comfortable when doing fitness laps at a resort but that could also handle backcountry terrain, this is a great setup,” says August. For lightweight backcountry touring and fitness laps at a resort, Summer Reed, General Manager at Killington’s Base Camp Outfitters, recommends the Dynafit Hoji Pro Tour ($799). At 1,450g, this popular touring boot was developed as a partnership between pro freeride skier Eric “Hoji” Hjorleifson and Low Tech binding inventor Fritz Barthel. “It’s our most popular boot,” says Reed. If cost is no obstacle, commission a pair of custom boots from Pierre Gignoux ($4,000) or try the French manufacturer’s Race Pro Carbon Ski Boots ($2,000). They weigh in at just 500g.
2. CHOOSE YOUR BINDING
For skimo racing and randonnee skiing, “most people at the top use what’s called a ‘low-tech race binding,’ which is much lighter than a regular tech binding and has only one rising mode,” says August. That can make them less ideal for traditional touring, where a higher heel riser can allow you to maximize your grip while navigating a steep skin track on backcountry terrain. For a lightweight binding that will double as your backcountry touring setup, Don Allen,
Dynafit Hoji
Dynafit PDG Ski
owner of Mountain Ops in Stowe, recommends the Black Diamond Helio 145 ($499) binding, which weighs in at 290g per pair, is made of stainless steel and has three heel riser positions for added uphill traction. For a world-class setup, Pierre Gignoux currently makes the lightest low-tech binding on the planet, a springless, full-carbon binding called the U 77 that weighs in at just 77g and costs $569. Designed for racing, these probably wouldn’t be the most comfortable option for rowdy backcountry descents.
3. GET YOUR SKIS
According to August, the most important thing to consider when picking a pair of randonnee skis is that they have a small notch at the front tip of the ski called a “speed skin tip.” This makes them compatible with racing skins and
can save you “oodles of time on your transitions because it allows you to take your skins off without stepping out of your binding.” That said, a true randonnee ski will be narrower underfoot, have less of a sidecut, be much lighter and generally ski very differently than a modern alpine ski. In general, the lighter you go, the easier the uphill and the more challenging the descent. For a ski that can double as a solid touring ski and a moderately light racing ski, choose any model from Dynafit’s Speedfit series (Dynafit’s Speedfit line includes a boot, binding and ski that August says together make a great entry-level, versatile skimo racing setup). The Dynafit Speedfit 84’ ($500) together weigh 1,350g, making them a little easier to handle in icy conditions than an ultralight ski. August has used this setup himself and reports that it
CAMP Speed Comp
Dynafit Speedfit 84' Tour Nanotech Automatic
Camp Skimo Total Race
Leki CC 300 Light & Motion ImJin
Pierre Gignoux U 77 Scarpa FI Ski Mountaineering
is sturdy enough to allow you to enjoy a steep backcountry descent. If you are truly ready to race for speed, consider Dynafit’s PDG Ski ($700). At 161cm long and weighing in at 790g per pair they offer super lightweight uphill mobility and are a little softer and lighter than the Speedfit series on the downhills. “It’s a great, industry standard racing ski,” says Allen.
Across the board, August recommends the Pomoca Race Pro 2.0 ($144.95). “They offer the perfect combination of durability and lightweight material and have the best glide on the market.” For racing, Allen suggests the full mohair version pre-treated with water-repellent to prevent ice build-up, called the Pomoca Mohair Climb Pro skins ($209.95).
4. FIND SKINS
The International Skimo Federation requires that all racers wear “dual-impact-certified” helmets, so if you plan to race for points in sanctioned races, a climbing or bike helmet won’t cut it. Allen recommends the CAMP Speed Comp Helmet ($119.95) for those on a budget. Weighing in at 356g, it meets both skiing and climbing safety certifications, is ISF-sanctioned and has plenty of ventilation to keep you cool.
“First and foremost, you want speed tips,” says August, referring to the notch on skis where you attach skins. “And for skimo racing, you really want mohair skins. It’s a plush, natural material (the same used in sweaters) that gives you maximum glide. If you’re used to a nylon skin, which is what most AT skiers would use, this will feel really different to you.”
5. PROTECT YOUR BRAIN
August recommends pairing this helmet with the Light & Motion Imjin 800 ($189) mountable headlamp for descending on skis in the dark. This rechargeable, 800-lumen light mounts to a GoPro mount and kept August going through the 8.5 hours of darkness he skied through to win the 2017 12.5 Hours of Bolton race. It’s the light of choice for night tours among OGE staff and has a beam designed for mountain bike and ski descents. For skinning up, Kip Roberts, co-owner of Onion River Outdoors, recommends the Black Diamond Icon headlamp ($99.95), a 500-lumen light that doubles as a good headlamp for fatbiking.
6. GET A GRIP
If you plan on venturing to New Hampshire’s White Mountains or participating in an ISMF-
sanctioned race, expect to bootpack. In many races, crampons are required. For recreational use, Camp currently makes the lightest steel crampon in the world, the Tour Nanotech Automatic ($239.95), which weighs in at 645g, has ten points of contact, is compatible with larger ski boots. For racing, he recommends the Camp Skimo Total Race ($199.95), which weighs in at 350g.
7. PICK YOUR POLES
For general touring, Roberts recommends G3 Via Carbon Two-Section Poles ($124). “They are nice and long and adjustable with this great ergonomic handle that has a nice shelf on the tip to help you pull up your heel risers,” says Roberts. If you’re looking to race and go fast, August recommends carbon Nordic racing poles, like the Leki CC 300 ($99.95).
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ATHLETES
THE
Stratton resident Jessie Diggins, digging deep. Photo by Reese Brown
OF THE
YEAR
WHO MADE THE NEWS—OR MADE HISTORY—IN 2018? HERE’S A LOOK BACK AT THE OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO SPORTS ATHLETES FROM AROUND THE STATE MADE THIS PAST YEAR.
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E
ach January, we look back at the previous calendar year
folks who did well later in the year, too. We looked for outstanding
and ask: who really stood out? We queried coaches,
performances that were of a national or world caliber. We also looked
organizers and yes, you, our readers for nominations. This
for remarkable feats by Vermont residents or significant contributions
year it was particularly hard to narrow the field. There
to outdoor sports and recreation. In the end, these athletes made the
were many Olympians from Vermont, but we also wanted to consider
cut. Meet our Athletes of the Year for 2018.
JAN./FEB. 2019 | VTSPORTS.COM 29
ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
Peru's Sophie Caldwell sprints to a silver at the Davos World Cup in December, 15, 2018. Photo by Reese Brown
NORDIC’S GOLDEN GIRL: JESSIE DIGGINS “Here comes Diggins! Here comes Diggins!” For anyone who watched the women’s cross-country team sprint at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, those words are forever etched in our brains. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” screamed NBC analyst Chad Salmela, a Middlebury College graduate, into his mic as Jessie Diggins, with teammate Kikkan Randall, secured the U.S. team’s first ever Olympic gold medal in cross country skiing. It was the highlight of Diggins’ career in a season that was exceptional. Beyond her gold-medal performance, Diggins had best-ever finishes in every Olympic race, taking fifth in the skiathlon and 10-kilometer freestyle races, sixth in the classic sprint, seventh in the 30k free, and she anchored the 4 x 5km relay to finish fifth. (Until the 2018 Olympics, the best finish for the American women had been Sophie Caldwell’s sixth place in the freestyle sprint at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games). In 23 World Cup races last season, Diggins finished in the top 10 twenty times, putting her in second place overall, just 40 points shy of claiming the overall crystal globe trophy (Heidi Weng of Norway won). So why is Diggins, who hails from Afton, Minnesota, one of Vermont’s Athletes of the Year? Because for
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the last six years, the 27-year-old has trained in the Green Mountains and owns a condo in Stratton. Diggins moved to Vermont in the summer of 2012. She had just finished a successful first season on the World Cup tour, taking second in what was only her third World Cup race (a team sprint with Kikkan Randall) and regularly earning points. In spring 2012, she learned that her two coaches on the CXC Elite team, Jason Cork and Gus Kaeding, were leaving—Cork to the U.S. men’s team and Kaeding to his alma mater, Stratton Mountain School in Vermont. Sverre Caldwell, SMS’s Nordic director, was about to launch the SMS T2 team, a post-graduate team of elite skiers with their eye on World Cup competition. Caldwell’s daughter, Sophie, was on the team, along with World Cup sprinters Andy Newell and Simi Hamilton. Kaeding would be their coach. To Diggins, 21 at the time, it looked like a good fit. “Most kids go off to college, so this was sort of my version of, OK, I want to try something new,” said Diggins. Still young, Diggins knew it was important to stick with a coach whose style of training worked for her. “That was a really big important thing to have that trust already there,” she said, “to not start over with someone new.”
She also liked her new teammates. “I was like ‘Wow, this is awesome, their strengths and my strengths are very different things, which is what you need in order for everyone to raise the level,'” she explained. “For example, if you get a ton of people who are all really good at classic distance, you don’t improve in freestyle sprinting. So, it’s really cool that we all brought something new to the table.” The change of scene worked well for Diggins. After her first season training with the SMS T2 team, she became a world champion, along with Randall, on the team sprint. Diggins has come to love her adopted home. Outside of race season, she spends about five months a year in Vermont—minus travel for training camps and for sponsor obligations. One of her favorite workouts is level 3 skiwalking up Stratton with the younger skiers on the SMS team. “It’s really fun to have that much uphill,” she said. “You go up, and yes, we do have to jog down, but just having that much hill is really fun. It’s a beautiful view at the top, it’s a very rewarding workout. Then you see all these people from the area hiking, which is also very cool. There are so many people enjoying being outside.” Diggins can also be found rollerskiing and running along the quiet paved roads around Stratton. One
summer Diggins mapped out a marathon-length route on the Appalachian Trail. The route crossed four 3,000-plus-foot peaks and took 6 hours, 45 minutes—and ended up being closer to 30 miles. “To be able to run up and over mountains, it was such an empowering feeling,” she said. And during the summer leading up to the 2018 Olympic Games, she roller-skied 100 kilometers—“because if you can ski for six-and-a-half hours straight, you can do anything,” she said. —Peggy Shinn
BUILDING THE CROSS-COUNTRY LEGACY: SOPHIE CALDWELL It’s hard to single out any two members of a team that, as a whole, has been rocketing upward in the rankings. But along with Jessie Diggins, this past year, Vermont native Sophie Caldwell sprinted her way to multiple World Cup podiums. A scion of Putney’s legendary family of Olympians (her grandfather, John Caldwell literally wrote the book on cross-country skiing; her father, Sverre Caldwell, runs the SMS T2 team, and her cousin, Patrick is also on the U.S. Team) Sophie had a year that started off with two World Cup bronze medals in the sprint finals and team sprint finals in Dresden,
ATHLETES OF THE YEAR Germany on January 13 and ended with World Cup silver in the sprint finals in Davos, Switzerland on December 15. And in between, Caldwell, 28, earned a World Cup gold in Seefield, Austria last January 28 and finished second in the SuperTour sprint at Craftsbury Outdoor Center last March. She was part of the team that placed fifth in the 4x5 relay at the PyeongChang Olympics and eighth in the sprint finals, just two places behind Jessie Diggins. Caldwell earned enough World Cup points to finish third overall in the sprint standings—only the second American to finish in the top three at the end of the sprint season (the other, Kikkan Randall, has done so four times.) Going into her Davos races this past December, Caldwell was nursing a cold. After winning her silver medal, she felt differently. As she wrote in her blog: “As my teammates and sports psych and coaches reminded me, hard work doesn’t just disappear in a week or two weeks and things can turn around really quickly. Often, all it takes is one bad race, or a cold, or a fall to lose your confidence. It’s important to remember that, conversely, all it takes is one good race or one good feeling or one good corner to gain your confidence back.” —Lisa Lynn
FREESKIING PHENOMS: MAC FOREHAND AND CAROLINE CLAIRE
was one of three skiers to lead the Faction Skis team to a silver in the team event at the Dew Tour. “Mac is really in his element now,” said coach Jesse Mallis, who has been working with Forehand since he was 13. Forehand, a former weekend skier from Southport, Conn., moved to Vermont with his family to train and attend Stratton Mountain School. Now 17, he’s made the U.S. Ski Team’s Rookie Freeski and Slopestyle team and is poised to become one of the team’s anchors in skiing big air, an event that will be part of the 2022 Olympics. Last March, Forehand placed eighth in the World Cup in Quebec and has been putting in wins or strong finishes in Nor/Am Cups in big air. Forehand’s former teammate at Stratton Mountain School, Caroline Claire has also had a stand-out season. Claire, who lives in Manchester, Vt., has been on skis since she could walk and at 18 (she turns 19 in February), is in her third year on the U.S. Ski team. Claire, who trains at Mount Snow, took the bronze in slopestyle at the World Cup in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., last January, beating one of her idols,
Devin Logan (who finished ninth). After that, Claire was invited to join the Olympic team. In PyeongChang, she finished 23rd in slopestyle but came back to the World Cup to win gold in slopestyle at Seiseralm, Italy in March. Both Claire and Forehand have been working with coach Jesse Mallis and training at Mount Snow’s Carinthia parks. It seems to have paid off. —L.L.
A PIONEER IN NORDIC COMBINED: TARA GERAGHTY-MOATS This last year was a year of frustrations for Tara Geraghty-Moats, but a year that paid out big in recent weeks. In September 2017, the ski jumper from
West Fairlee, Vt., fractured her elbow, an injury that led to three surgeries, the most recent in March, 2018. It also sidelined her during an Olympic training season. She finished fifth in the Olympic Trials but after fourth-place finisher Nina Lussi, tore her ACL, it looked like Geraghty-Moats might make the Olympic team. However, when it came time to choose the squadron headed to PyeongChang, the U.S. Ski Team chose to take only three female ski jumpers. Geraghty-Moats was left home. But that did not stop her from training or looking ahead. You see, the sport Geraghty-Moats really wants to pursue is Nordic combined and the light
Above, the Stratton Mountain School dream team: Mac Forehand, coach Jesse Mallis and Caroline Claire. Below, Claire on her way to winning World Cup bronze at the 2018 Toyota Freeskiing Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain, Calif. Top photo courtesy Jesse Mallis, below Sarah Brunson/USSA
On November 23, as a crowd of 40,000 gathered to cheer on Mikaela Shiffrin at the World Cup races in Killington, another Vermonter stood on the World Cup podium in Stubai, Austria. Winhall’s Mac Forehand, 17, opened his second run at the slopestyle event with a switch left double cork 1260 mute. In plain English: he started down a steep slope backwards, hit a huge jump, twisted 1260 degrees, grabbed his skis and landed. From there, it was more jumps, flawless landings, rails, air and more landings— all good enough to earn him a silver. His previous best finish at the World Cup level had been an eighth, in big air, and in August, he won the Junior World Championships in Cadrona, New Zealand. In 2018, Mac was the FIS NorAm Cup Overall Champion, USASA Men’s Open Class Slopestyle Champion and the Junior National Champion in both Slopestyle and Big Air. And in December, he
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ATHLETES OF THE YEAR DUAL DOWNHILL DEMON: MAZIE HAYDEN
West Fairlee's Tara Geraghty-Moats is leading the new women's Nordic combined events. Courtesy photo/
at the end of the tunnel was the hope that the International Olympic Committee would finally include a women’s Nordic combined event in the 2022 Games. Nordic combined (ski jumping and cross-country skiing) is a sport Geraghty-Moats seems made for. Growing up in West Fairlee, Vt. She started competing in Nordic races at age eight and ski jumping at age nine. By age 15, she was a multi-time medalist in the junior cross-country nationals and was jumping well enough to be named to the USSA Visa Development Team. At 16, after tearing her ACL, she gave up jumping and became a biathlete but soon was back among the top five ski jumpers in the U.S. An all-around athlete, GeraghtyMoats has maintained her crosscountry skills even as she’s been traveling the globe competing on the World Cup ski jumping circuit. However, in July, when the International Olympic Committee announced the addition of seven new events for the 2022 Olympics, a women’s Nordic combined event was not on the list. It is the only winter sport that does not have a competition for both men and women. GeraghtyMoats, though disappointed, channeled her energy into competing in the sport's first season with sanctioned Federation International du Ski (FIS) events and is looking forward to a 2019/2020 World Cup season for Nordic combined. And how’s that going for her? On August 19, 2018, racing on roller skis, Geraghty-Moats tied for first in the inaugural FIS Ladies Nordic Combined Summer Grand Prix in Oberwiesenthal,
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Germany, which drew 11 competitors from six countries. It was an historic event in that it marked the first time that women have been able to compete at the international level. In December, Geraghty-Moats won the first women’s Nordic combined event on U.S. turf, a Continental Cup in Steamboat Springs, handily beating Gyda Westvold Hansen of Norway and Russia’s Stefaniya Nadymova, with whom she had previously tied. So far, she's at the top in world standings. —L.L.
“I knew I wanted to go somewhere where I could bike and ski,” says Mazie Hayden of how she chose the University of Vermont after completing high school at the Killington Mountain School. It didn’t hurt that the college has a mountain bike team and is not far from her home in Pittsfield. For Hayden, helping her UVM Club team win the Collegiate Nationals, was “Just fun— really different from racing World Cup.” And that’s where Hayden has spent most of her time this year, racing at the world-class level on both skis and on bikes. On August 27, 2018, Hayden finished second in ski cross— the sport where multiple skiers race down a course of banked turns and jumps—in the FIS World Junior Ski Championships in New Zealand. Two weeks earlier, she finished third at the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup at Mont St. Anne, Quebec. Hayden grew up skiing and mountain biking around Killington Mountain Resort, where her father works. She earned her first USASA National Ski Cross Championship title in 2012 when she was 11 and has won every USASA National title since. She’s also competed at the national level in
bouldering and sport climbing, and, as a 12-year-old, was sending 5.13 routes at her local climbing gym, Green Mountain Rock Climbing in Rutland. “My ski legs and bike legs aren’t really great for climbing now,” she admits. But they are good for ski cross, where Hayden has excelled. This summer, she competed as a pro mountain biker. She finished sixth at the Fox U.S. Open at Killington and won her first pro downhill race at the Mountain Creek (N.J.) Pro GRT Spring Nationals where the women’s field was packed with top pros from California, Canada, Colorado and the East Coast. In August, Hayden was one of 17 women from all sports across the country to receive a Travel and Training grant from the Women’s Sports Foundation. What’s it like to compete in two sports at the international level? Hayden acknowledges it can be a challenge to schedule races and training. But, as she says, “I have so much fun biking and I really enjoy competing in ski cross. There are lots of movements you do for both, like ‘popping.’ And the most important thing is the mental preparation for each race and that carries over for both seasons—and overcoming the fear,” she says, adding, “that said, it’s better to fall on snow.” However, after dislocating her shoulder
Pittsfield's Mazie Hayden has been going downhill fast, snow or no snow, but this year will focus on mountain biking.
Photo courtesy Mount Snow.
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ATHLETES OF THE YEAR twice this season and going in for surgery in December, she’s laying off the skiing for now and sticking to what she calls the more “fun” type of racing: downhill mountain biking. —L.L.
BLAZING A TRAIL: MOUNTAIN BIKER KYLE EBBETT Kyle Ebbett may not be a household name but in mountain biking, he is something of a legend. In a 2013 interview with MTBVT, Ebbett talked about his early years of riding in Cape Cod on BMX bikes and then mountain bikes. “I was a tech school autobody grad, and thought I was on track for a life of fixing cars. Then my best friend Larry lost his driver’s license, and he got a mountain bike to get around. My dad had a MTB that I borrowed and [used to go] on rides with Larry. Wow! We got hooked quick and that’s all we did. I quit my job at the body shop and got a job at a bike shop.” From there, Ebbett began racing downhill (with a top finish of fifth in a World Cup downhill in Slovenia) and making dirt jumps in his backyard, adding BMX tricks to his downhill runs. He turned pro in 1998 and while on the downhill circuit, he met downhill mountain bike racer Donna Fletcher, a ski racer from Vermont. He moved to Essex and married her. In Vermont, Ebbett (a.k.a E-Bot) started to work with fellow trailbuilder Knight Ide. The two built Kingdom Trail’s first groomed downhill run— Knight Slayer—and went on from there. Ebbett has built trails and parks ranging from the Maple Street Bike Park in Essex, Vt. and Smugglers' Notch Resort's trails to world-renowned parks such as the Crankworx in Whistler, British Columbia (at the time, in 2011, the biggest course ever) and Highland Bike Park’s dual slalom. He also built features for the Sea Otter Classic, Red Bull and the Teva Mountain Games. When he wasn’t riding or building courses, Ebbett was a regular race announcer and starred in the "Chain Reaction" video series. In 2010, Ebbett suffered a seizure and underwent brain surgery to remove a benign tumor. Twelve weeks later, he was back on his bike, doing his signature back flip. And in 2012, at age 38, Ebbett smoked the field at the Teva Mountain Bike Games in Vail in a dual slalom, on snow.
Kyle Ebbett, doing what he loved best, on a backyard course in Vermont.
Over the past year, his seizures came back and on October 15, a windy Monday, Ebbett drowned while out fishing on Lake Iroquois, in Hinesburg. He was wearing a life vest and his boat was found capsized. In recent years, Ebbett focused on building local parks, such as the new one in Bristol, and on teaching skiing. As Bristol Bike Park coordinator Alison Zimmer told Mountain Flyer writer Berne Broudy: “Kyle took no time in
Photo by Adam Klein
getting the community involved, letting the kids help him ride and be part of building their track. The pump track was an immediate success in bringing the community together and getting more people out riding.”
BEATING THE ODDS: DUATHLETEKAREN NEWMAN D In April 2018, Karen Newman of South Burlington, Vt., received a grim
Karen Newman, representing Team USA at the Triathlon World Championships.
34 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
Photo courtesy Karen Newman
diagnosis: stage four metastatic breast cancer and four tumors in her pelvis. It was the third advanced breast cancer diagnosis she’d received in ten years. None of the other diagnoses had stopped Newman from competing in triathlons and the former age group World Champion decided she would keep training. What happened next was nothing short of incredible. Newman underwent a radiation therapy so targeted and powerful that her doctors told her it was likely she would never walk again. Having qualified in 2016 for the 2018 World Championships in Triathlon in Denmark in July, she was offered the opportunity to compete instead in Aquathlon (sitting on a bike would have been too risky for her pelvic structure), a swimrun competition. She placed sixth overall and had the fastest 5K time of any competitor for the 55 to 59 age group. Then, this fall, she was told that there were six more tumors in her pelvis. Newman underwent chemotherapy (again), taking treatment in stride. The 57-year-old mother of three battled through shooting pains in her legs and pelvis and terrible side effects like sores in her mouth and throat to train and compete at the 2018 Aquathlon National Championships in Miami, Fl. On November 10, she swam through alligator-infested waters to take first place in the 55 to 59-year-old category. “They told us that as long as we all swam as a group, the alligators would be afraid, but I saw one sunning itself on the bank after my swim,” said Newman, who dealt with a horde of jellyfish on her swim at the World Championships in Fyn, Denmark this summer. “After all I’ve been through, I’m not scared of much anymore. I was just grateful to be there.” Newman is a former age group World Champion in triathlon and has previously been a runner up at the National Championships, but in her 17 years of competing on the national circuit, this was her first outright win at Nationals. “This had been a big goal of mine. It really became this dream because it had eluded me for so long and I’d come so close. And to do it now, at 57 with ten tumors? It really felt good.” When Newman found herself on the podium following her race, she experienced something that moved her to tears. “The announcer said, ‘This is Karen Newman. She’s a stage IV meta-
ATHLETES OF THE YEAR static breast cancer survivor and she is our National Champion.’ I felt the girls on either side of me, my competitors, raise my hands. It felt like there was a lot of love,” said Newman. She’s still battling cancer and Newman says she’s unsure whether she will compete in the World Championships. “I’ve been doing this a long time and...I’d like to give that [opportunity] to someone else and now, having won Nationals, I’ve really achieved my dream. I think I’m ready to try something completely new.” She’s eyeing snowshoe marathons and biathlon as some prospective new hobbies and will be embarking on a speaking tour this year. On December 21, Newman discovered that the cancer is once again spreading. Her remarks for this story were made prior to her most recent diagnosis, but she continues to fight the disease and has said she is determined to continue her life as an athlete. Look for her on Good Morning America’s “Thriving Thursdays” program in January. —Abagael Giles
MAKING WAVES: SWIMMER VERA RIVARD In July, Vera Rivard of Derby, Vt., became the youngest person, male or female, to swim the 25 miles from Newport, Vt. To Magog, Q.C. on Lake Memphremagog. Rivard, then 14, didn’t just finish— she took second place. She was one of just two finishers to battle through choppy waters on the open lake and a grueling 20 MPH headwind to fin-
Winter Swim, Northeast Kingdom Open Water Swimming Association’s (NEKOWSA) 10-mile Son of a Swim, NEKOWSA’s In Search of Memphre, Kingdom Swim (a 10K on Lake Willoughby) and an open-ocean swim at Coney Island. Rivard also completed each race in the Northeast Kingdom Swim Week, in which contestants do eight open water swims over nine days. The longest involved swimming the length of Quebec’s Lake Massewippi in an 18-mile day. The same week, Rivard swam the length of Lake Willoughby twice as an out-and-back. The 14-year-old has her sights set on swimming the English Channel in 2020 when she turns 16. At 21 miles across, it is shorter than the length of Lake Memphremagog but involves rough open-ocean conditions. Rivard plans to prepare by taking on more open-ocean swims in the coming years. She has been invited to the illustrious 2019 Cork Distance Week in Ireland, a nine-day open-ocean swimming camp that challenges participants to swim through swarms of jellyfish, across inland lakes and even through small rapids on brackish Irish rivers–all through cold water. She is very excited. “I do it for the adventure of it all,” says Rivard. “I find it relaxing and love the challenge. It’s all about the amount of experience you have and learning to cope with the conditions. There’s a mental process of working through to get to where you want to be." —A.G.
Ninth grader Vera Rivard, shown here in Lake Memphremagog, hopes to swim the English Channel before she graduates from high school. Photo courtesy Vera Rivard
ish in just 16 hours and 24 minutes. Early in 2018, Rivard became the youngest swimmer ever to participate in Kingdom Swim’s Memphremagog Winter Swim Festival. Rivard (who trains at Upper Valley Aquatic Center in White River Junction, Vt.), swam an array of events ranging from the 25m Butterfly to the 50m Freestyle in a lane cut from the ice of Lake Memphremagog. The water was 29 degrees Fahrenheit and her mother, Darcie Rivard, recalled the race organizers skimming newly-formed ice off of the water’s surface as her daughter swam. “It was definitely fun,” said Rivard. Rivard swam her first open water race at the age of 10, when she competed in a one-mile swim as part of Kingdom Swim in July, 2015. Later that summer, Kingdom Games director Phil White and Darcie helped her reach her
goal of swimming the 1.5-miles from shore to Bath Tub Rock at Lake Caspian. “A week before the swim, Darcie wrote that [Vera] was thinking about swimming all three miles [to the island and back] and had been training to do so,” says White. “We decided she could swim to the rock and we’d see how she was doing when she arrived. When we all got to the rock, Vera swam up to it, slapped it, turned right around, put her head underwater and was quickly on her way back to the beach. No discussion; just determination.” The then-ten-yearold swam the three-mile route roundtrip, through high winds. “Caspian is high in the hills. Winds can rip it. That’s why we call it the little lake that roars,” says White. “Vera took on the wind and waves like a seasoned open water swimmer having the time of her life.” In 2018, Rivard completed the
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RUNNING/SNOWSHOEING JANUARY 4 | Extremus Group Winter Trek, Keene, N.Y. Hike 24 miles and gain 10K feet as you summit Marcy, Haystack, Little Haystack, Basin, Saddleback, Gothics, Armstrong, Upper Wolfjaw and Lower Wolfjaw with the Endurance Society. endurancesociety.org 6 | Susan G. Komen Snowshoe for the Cure, Stratton Raise funds to support breast cancer patients and research by participating in a 3K or 5K snowshoe walk or a 3K snowshoe race. komennewengland.org 13 | Winter Magic 5K, Magic Mountain Grab your snowshoes for this fun but competitive race on the slopes of Magic Mountain sponsored by Dion Snowshoes. dionwmacsnowshoe.com 19 | Hoot Toot & Whistle 5K, Readsboro Grab your snowshoes for this fun but competitive snowshoe race on the Catamount Ski Trail along the Deerfield River. dionwmacsnowshoe.com 21 | Naturalist Snowshoe Tour, Burke Mountain Resort Join the NorthWoods Stewardship Center staff and explore the track and trails around the Dashney Nordic Center. skiburke.com
16 | Cupid 5K, Shelburne Register as “attached” or “unattached” and strike up a conversation with someone else whose bib indicates they are looking for love over post-race munchies. Prize for best-dressed cupid. racevermont.com
17 | Winter Wild Race Series at Ascutney, Brownsville This year’s race will be a 3.1-mile trail run with 800 vertical feet of climbing. The course, designed by Jim Lyle, contains steep climbs, single-track, double-track, winding descents, all to be navigated by the light of headlamp as the start is at 6:00 p.m. winterwild.com 23 | PEAK Snow Devil Snowshoe Race/ Winter Ultra, Pittsfield Choose between a marathon, half marathon, 10K and a 100-mile race on snowshoes or by foot on a rugged 6.5mile loop in the Green Mountains. Each loop features 1,200 feet of vertical gain. peak.com 23 | Frigus 5K, 15K and Marathon Snowshoe Race, Killington The Endurance Society hosts this snowshoe marathon consisting of multiple loops through the woods of central Vermont. endurancesociety.org
BIKING JANUARY 5 | Uberwintern with MTBVT, Stowe A day of group fatbike rides, good food and beer hosted by MTBVT at the Trapp Family Lodge cross-country ski trails. mtbvt.com 12 | Moose Brook Fat Bike Race, Gorham, N.H. Race 10 or 20 miles with the Coos Cycling Club through the rugged White Mountains. Don’t miss the epic party immediately following the race. cooscyclingclub.org
30 | Lawson’s Finest Beer Lover’s Dinner and Full Moon Snowshoe, Mad River Glen Join brewer and naturalist Sean Lawson for a one-hour full moon snowshoe followed by a localvore buffet dinner paired with a cash bar of Lawson’s Finest brews. $50 includes snowshoe, dinner and one beer. madriverglen.com
26 | Torchlit Trail Experience, Kingdom Trails Check in at the Nordic center for an evening of self-guided fatbiking, Nordic skiing or snowshoeing on torchlit trails to a fire and hot chocolate in the woods. kingdomtrails.org
FEBRUARY
3 | 2nd Annual Waterbury Winterfest Fat Bikeapalooza, Waterbury Head to Rusty Park from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a demo loop, guided rides and more with Waterbury Trails Alliance. waterburytrails.com
9 | Susan G. Komen New England Snoswhoe for a Cure, Gilford, N.H. Join Susan G. Komen New England for this 5K snowshoe on the Nordic ski trails at Gunstock Mountain. Participants are encouraged to fundraise leading up to the race, which benefits breast cancer patients and research. komennewengland.org 9 | Wild and Woolly Snowshoe Races, East Charleston A day of competitive and recreational snowshoe races ranging in distance from 1.5K to 15K at the Northwoods Stewardship Center. northwoodscenter.org
FEBRUARY
9 | Carabassett Fat Tire Race, Sugarloaf Outdoor Center, Maine Get out your fatbike to compete in a long 18- to 20-mile race loop or a shorter nine to ten-mile race loop. sugarloaf.com 10-11 | Winter Woolly Fatbike Festival, Northfield, N.H. NEMBA and Highland Mountain Bike Park host this winter fatbike festival with demos, races and group downhill and cross country laps, plus a beer garden. highlandmountain.com
MARCH
1-2 | Winterbike, Kingdom Trails, East Burke The East’s largest winter fatbike festival returns to Kingdom Trails. mbtvt.com
ALPINE SKIING AND RIDING JANUARY 5| Okemo’s Grommet Throwdown, Ludlow Okemo designs a special park for kids 13 and under to compete in a special grommet competition. okemo.com 6 | Pico Telemark Clinic, Pico Mountain Hosted by the Catamount Trail Association, this event offers two clinics in one: one for experienced backcountry skiers looking to improve their skill on challenging downhill terrain to learn the telemark turn and the other for telemarkers looking to improve their skills. picomountain.com 9 | Women’s Telemark Clinic, Mad River Glen Join fellow women skiers for a full day of group instruction in telemark technique. Repeats Feb. 13 and March 17. madriverglen.com 12-13 | Skirack Ski Swap, Burlington Sell your downhill skis, snowboards, cross-country skis, snowshoes, boots, bindings, poles, roof racks, fat bikes and more for store credit or cash. skirack.com 17 | Backcountry Equipment Primer with the Catamount Trail Association, Burlington Join the CTA and L.L. Bean to learn more about backcountry skiing and snowboarding equipment and what to wear and pack for a pre-work tour or all-day backcountry adventure. catamounttrail.org 19 | SheJumps International Women’s Ski and Snowboard Day, Warren Celebrate female camaraderie at Sugarbush as it hosts group ski and ride activities, games, raffle drawings, après ski and more. sugarbush.com 25 | Annual Farmers’ Appreciation Day, Jay Peak Jay Peak offers each local Vermont farm four free lift tickets for the day. jaypeakresort.com 26-27 | USASA Southern Vermont Snowboard and Freeski Series, Mount Snow Catch slopestyle competitions at Carinthia Parks in one of the longest-running USASA series in the country, known to attract some of the world’s top riders. mountsnow.com 26 | Vertical Challenge, Bolton Valley Skiers and riders of all abilities and ages are welcome at this event, which is part of the Vertical Challenge, an annual casual downhill alpine and snowboard race series across the East Coast. verticalchallenge.com
JAN./FEB. 2019 | VTSPORTS.COM 37
26 | Mad River Glen’s 70th Anniversary Gala, Mad River Glen Party like it’s 1949–the year the ski area was founded. This event will celebrate seven decades of skiing at Mad River Glen. madriverglen.com 26 | Parlor Skis Demo Day, Jay Peak Try the latest gear from Bern Helmets and Goggles and Parlor Skis at Jay Peak Resort. jaypeakresort.com
FEBRUARY 9-10 & 16-17 | USASA Skier/Boardercross, Jay Peak Catch some of the region’s best freeskiers and riders as they take on Lower Can-Am in this two-weekend freestyle series. Open to all competitors. jaypeakresort.com 9 | Ski to Defeat ALS Day, Jay Peak Catch live music from The Yoozsh, a 50/50 raffle and more on the top floor of the Stateside Hotel and Base Lodge to raise funds for the ALS Association Northern New England Chapter. jaypeakresort.com 9 | Junior Castlerock Extreme, Sugarbush Talented skiers 14 & under are invited to compete in a highly challenging and technical run down Castlerock’s infamous liftline. sugarbush.com 14 | Valentine’s Day Kissing Special, Mad River Glen Kiss your partner, whoever they may be, at the ticket office and you both ski for half price. madriverglen.com 16-17 | Harris Hill Ski Jump, Brattleboro Ski jumpers from around the world head to Brattleboro to compete on Southern Vermont’s historic first ski jump. harrishillskijump.com
MARCH 3 | Hope on the Slopes, Jay Peak Resort Partake in an all-day vertical challenge competition to see who can ski the most vertical feet and raise funds for the American Cancer Society. jaypeakresort.com 9 | Vertical Challenge, Burke Mountain Skiers and riders of all abilities and ages are welcome at this event, which is part of the Vertical Challenge, an annual casual alpine and snowboard race series across the East Coast. verticalchallenge.com
Ethan Allen Biathlon Club 2019 Winter Race Series
DATES January 10, 17, 24, February 7, 14, 21 TIMES 5:00 pm - Registration 5:30 to 6:00 pm - Zeroing 6:15 pm - Race Start WHERE Ethan Allen Biathlon Club Ethan Allen Rd., Jericho, VT
NEW: See our website for MANDATORY
Safety Clinic information Info: www.eabiathlon.org
38 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
9 | Ride and Ski New England Après Party, Jay Peak Free live music from Hoopla and giveaways. jaypeakresort.com 10 | Vertical Challenge, Bromley Mountain Skiers and riders of all abilities and ages are welcome at this event, which is part of the Vertical Challenge, an annual casual alpine and snowboard race series across the East Coast. verticalchallenge.com 16 | 2nd Annual Real to Steel, Jay Peak Open to skiers and riders, at this competition you can test your skills on challenging upper mountain terrain of Upper Quai and your tricks in the Interstate Terrain Park with one run on each course. There is a kids’ division. jaypeakresort. com 23 | 39th Annual George Syrovatka Ski Race, Jay Peak This annual ski race benefits Leukemia research and features a dual slalom for both ski and snowboard and a post-race after party with a raffle. jaypeakresort.com 30 | 2019 Triple Crown Unconventional Terrain Competition, Fayston The first leg of the Triple Crown Competition series sends skiers down the Lift Line trail at Mad River Glen and challenges them to ski all of the steeps, cliffs, jumps and rocks they can. madriverglen.com 30 | Meier Skis Demo Day, Jay Peak Try new skis and gear from Meier Skis. jaypeakresort.com 31 | 2018 Triple Crown Mogul Challenge, Mad River Glen Race through a grueling moguls course on the Chute Trail—so single chair riders can have a bird’s eye view of the competition. madriverglen.com
APRIL 1 | 2019 Triple Crown Vertical Challenge, Mad River Glen See how much vertical you can rack up in one day on Mad River Glen’s Chute and Lift Line trails. The record is 30 runs and over 60,000 vertical feet. madriverglen.com 6 | Vertical Challenge Finals, Jay Peak Claim the fastest time of the season in this recreational alpine ski and snowboard downhill race open to all ages and abilities. jaypeakresort.com
NORDIC SKIING JANUARY 3-8 | U.S. Cross-Country Ski Championships, Craftsbury Outdoor Center Six days of races featuring the best Nordic skiers in the country, with national championship titles and start spots on the line for everything from the Junior World Championships in Lahti, Finland to the end-of-season World Cups in Quebec City. craftsburynationals.com 5 | Gunstock Attack Skate, Gilford, N.H. A fun series of Nordic races at Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, N.H. Individual start skate races for 12.6K, 8.4K, 4.2K distances, plus a 4.2K fun race. gunstocknordic.com
12 | The Bogburn Classic, North Pomfret 13K classic Nordic ski race for adults, 7K course for U16 racers. Part of the Zak and Club Cup Series. nensa.net 13 | Stowe Derby, Stowe The oldest downhill cross-country ski race (and now fatbike race) in North America. The race draws more than 900 competitors and features a challenging descent down Mt. Mansfield’s Toll Road. mmsc-mmwa.org 19 | Open House and Trail Days at Northwoods Stewardship Center, Burke Take advantage of free two-hour long ski/snowshoe rentals and half-price trail passes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Northwoods Stewardship Center and Dashney Nordic Center. Repeats Feb. 18 and March 16. skiburke.com 20 | Intermediate Skate Ski Clinic, Kingdom Trails Hone your skate skiing skills with Craftsbury Outdoor Center coach Ollie Burruss. Clinic will focus on proper weight transfer and efficient uphill technique. kingdomtrails.org 24-27 | Skiing for Runners, Craftsbury Outdoor Center A week of fun, challenging cross-training to help runners develop the skills they need to ski, snowshoe and run their way to fitness during the depths of winter in Vermont. craftsbury.com 26-27 | Lake Placid Super Tour Eastern Cup, Mt. Van Hoevenberg Classic mass start races on Saturday with a 5K for U16s, a 10K for women and a 15K for men. Sunday is a classic sprint. nensa.net
FEBRUARY 2-3 | 38th Annual Craftsbury Marathon, Craftsbury This classic ski marathon is a wave start cross-country ski race of 25 or 50K, held on a 12.5K loop with three aid stations. craftsbury.com 8-10 | Canadian Ski Marathon, Mont Tremblant This annual two-day event features a double-tracked ski trail divided into 10 sections spanning 160K (100 miles) from Mont-Tremblant to Lachute and draws more than 2,000 skiers annually. skimarathon.ca 10 | Mansfield Nordic Skiathlon, Craftsbury Outdoor Center Men and women U16 and older compete in a race that requires switching skis halfway through, with 6K of classic skiing and 6K of freestyle. mansfieldnordic.org 16-17 | Frost Mountain/Rikert Eastern Cup, Rikert Nordic Center Skate interval starts on Saturday with a classic mass start on Sunday for a variety of distances ranging from 5K to 15K. rikertnordic.com 24 | Strafford Nordic Relays, Strafford Nordic Center Fun, sprint-style skate relay races with obstacles open to teams of two skiers in the same age category. All competitors get free Strafford Organic Creamery ice cream. straffordnordicskiing.com
MARCH 2 | 45th Annual Mount Washington Cup, Bretton Woods, N.H. Bretton Woods Nordic Center hosts a 10K freestyle race through a 100K trail network. brettonwoods.com
SKI MOUNTAINEERING/UPHILL JANUARY
5 | NE Randonee Race Series: The Magic at Magic Mountain, Londonderry Two looped randonnee courses: one competitive course and one shorter recreational course with a bootpack. Bothat Magic Mountain. nerandorance.blogspot.com 12 | Skimo East: Trail de Nuit de Stoneham, Stoneham, Quebec Join this nighttime randonnee race up (on skins) and back down Stoneham. Separate podium for those with a ski touring setup weighin more than 12 pounds and splitboarders.skimoeast.com 12-13 | Intro to Backcountry Skiing Clinic, Onion River Outdoors Join Onion River Outdoors staff for a clinic to improve your comfort skiing uphill and downhill on telemark or alpine touring gear in the woods of the Green Mountains. onionriver.com
19 | Bolton Valley Split and Surfest, Bolton A day filled with free demos, food and local beer from Lost Nation Brewing. Explore Bolton’s backcountry terrain on splitboards. boltonvalley.com 19 | NE Rando Race Series: “The Beast,” Berkshire East, Mass. At this USSMA-certified race, choose between a competitive course featuring three cycles of multiple ascents and descents up Berkshire East mountain, including a bootpack for 6,188 feet of elevation gain and a shorter recreational course. nerandorace.blogspot.com
FEBRUARY 9-10 | 24 Hours of Bolton, Bolton Valley North America’s only 24-hour backcountry ski and splitboard race features a daytime loop in Bolton’s backcountry and an overnight loop on Bolton’s groomed terrain. Relay teams welcome. nativeendurance.com
of Camel’s Hump to support the Vermont Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. act.alz.org 10 | Skimo East Owl’s Head Challenge, Owl’s Head Mountain, Quebec Skin and boot-pack up Owl’s Head in this challenging 15K skimo race, featuring 1,600m of elevation gain. Skiers and snowboarders whose bindings, boards/skis and boots weigh more than 12 pounds are eligible to compete in a separate category. skimoeast.com 23 | NE Rando Race Series: The Bolt, Mt. Greylock, Mass. This USSMA race takes place in the backcountry. Choose between a competitive division with 5,777 feet of elevation gain and loss, and a shorter recreational division. nerandorace.blogspot.com
MARCH
9-10 | Women’s Backcountry Ski Clinic, Onion River Outdoors Gain confidence navigating backcountry terrain on your telemark or alpine touring setup in the Green Mountains with an awesome group of women. onionriver.com
4 | The Endurance Society Pico Skimo Event, Pico Mountain Grab your skis and skins and choose between race divisions of one, two or three laps on Pico’s uphill travel route, with a ski descent on mountain trails. 2,000 feet of vertical gain per lap. endurancesociety.org
10 | 32nd Annual Camel’s Hump Challenge, Huntington Grab your alpine or telemark touring gear or better yet your fish scale skis with metal edges, three-pin bindings and leather boots for this 13-mile ski around the perimeter
16 | New England Rando Race Series presents “The Sun,” Bromley Race uphill using skins and then race back down to the mountain’s base. Part four in a five-part annual series. nerandorace.blogspot.com
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17 | Skimo Challenge Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec Choose one of three ski trails for your ascent up Mont Sainte-Anne mountain on skis, a splitboard, snowshoes or trailrunners. Race up the 600m climb by foot or choose a longer, traditional skimo course, with 1,600 to 1,800m of elevation gain over about 18K and a bootpack. skimoeast.com
18 | Curling Clinic, Okemo Join Upper Valley Curling and the Woodstock Curling Club for a two-hour curling clinic. okemo.com
23 | NE Rando Race Series: Something Bigger, Sunday River, ME Choose between a competitive USSMA race division and course featuring nearly 6,000 feet of vertical gain and loss and a recreational division in this race to benefit Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation. nerandorace.blogspot.com
JANUARY
SKATING JANUARY 7 | Bud Light Pond Hockey Series, Killington Pickup Pond Hockey will run through ski season, weather permitting, on Monday and Thursday nights from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. killington.com
MULTI-SPORT/OTHER
25-27 | Smuggs Ice Bash, Smugglers’ Notch Winter’s biggest climbing event happens at the Notch and at PetraCliffs in Burlington. Sign up for free gear demos, clinics, slideshows, competitions, a party and prizes. smuggsicebash.com 26 | Annual Ice Fishing Festival, North Hero Join Vermont Fish and Wildlife for a day of clinics and demonstrations about ice safety, fish identification, gear, hole drilling and tip-up techniques at Knight Point State Park. Bring your own gear or borrow theirs. Open to anglers of all ages and ability levels. vtfishandwildlife.com
FEBRUARY
20 | 15th Annual Lake Morey Skate-a-thon, Fairlee Find out how far you can skate in a day on the groomed trail around Lake Morey. Nordic skate rentals will be available and Vermont Nordic Skaters will hold skating workshops. uvtrails.org
2 | Polar Bear Eight-Hour Obstacle Challenge, Benson Run continuously for 8 hours on Shale Hill’s 10K obstacle course loop with over 70 obstacles per lap for the center’s final event before closing. shalehilladventure.com
25-27 | Frostbite Face-Off Hockey Tournament, Fairlee An open-air pond hockey tournament open to those 21 and older featuring themed costume after parties with live music at the Lake Morey Resort hotel. frostbitefaceoff.com
23-24 | Memphremagog Winter Swim Festival, Newport Choose your distance and stroke for this cold weather swimming festival in a lap lane carved out of the ice. Distances range from 25m to 100m. kingdomgames.co
FEBRUARY
MARCH
1-3 | Annual New England Pond Hockey Classic, Meredith, N.H. Live music, food and beer are all available at this annual pond hockey tournament and festival on Lake Winnipesaukee. pondhockeyclassic.com
2 | Frigid Infliction and Test Your Nettle Adventure Races, Bolton Valley Join a team of two or three for this multi-sport adventure race series through the Bolton Backcountry. Take on a 10hour orienteering challenge featuring snowshoeing, crosscountry skiing and a surprise activity, or “test your nettle” with the three hour race. gmara.org
2-3| VT Pond Hockey Championships, Fairlee Competitors of all ages head to Lake Morey for a weekend of pond hockey on groomed ice. lakemoreyresort.com 8-10 | Lake Champlain Pond Hockey Classic, Colchester Three days of pond hockey on Mallett’s Bay with a beer garden and food vendors on-ice. pondhockeyclassic.com 9-10 | Memphremagog Women’s Pond Hockey Tournaments, Newport Kingdom Games hosts two days of pond hockey on Lake Memphremagog with teams of six women, plus one referee/alternate. memphremagogpondhockey.com 9-10 | New England Youth Pond Hockey Jamboree, Fairlee Round robin-style tournament on the ice at Lake Morey. Spectators skate around the games on the long loop that circumnavigates the lake. amhersthockey.org 7 | Winterfest at Squam Lake, Holderness, N.H. A fun, free celebration that features groomed, open-air ice skating, sledding, cross country skiing, winter minigolf and a chili contest. Hosted by the Squam Lakes Association. squamlakes.org
40 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
3 | Jack Jump World Championships, Mount Snow Complete with speed, racing action and epic wipeouts, the Jack Jump World Championships return to Mount Snow’s racecourse. mountsnow.com
BOATING APRIL 13 | 11th New Haven Ledges Race, New Haven Hosted by the Vermont Paddlers’ Club, this is an epic race down the New Haven river when it is at the peak of spring runoff. facebook.com/newhavenrace
FESTIVALS & FILMS Jan. 24-26 | Banff Mountain Film Festival, Burlington Skirack hosts this outdoor adventure film series. skirack.com Jan. 25-27 | Stowe Winter Carnival, Stowe Ice carving, snow volleyball and snowgolf are just some of the fun that takes over Stowe on Carnival weekend. gostowe.com
Feb. 1-10 | Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, Saranac Lake This winter festival features an ice palace, woodsmen’s games, broomball, cross country ski races and pond hockey. saranaclakewintercarnival.com Feb. 7 | Screening: An American Ascent, Outdoor Gear Exchange, Burlington This film tackles issues of race in the outdoors and covers the first African-American expedition to summit Denali. gearx.com Feb. 24 | Wintervale, Burlington Join Skirack for a day of free Nordic ski, fatbike and snowshoe rentals, guided walks and local food at the Intervale Center. skirack.com
TALKS Jan. 25 | Bill McKibben: Climate Change & Winter Sports, Stowe Join Bill McKibben, one of the foremost experts on climate change and author of Long Distance, a book about his year of training with Olympic Nordic skiers and coaches, for a candid talk about winter sports and climate change at the Vermont Ski & Snowboard Museum. vtssm.org Jan. 31 | Knee Health: What You Need to Know, Morrisville Orthopaedic specialist Nicholas Antell, M.D. discusses common causes of chronic knee pain and treatment options at Copley Health Center. copleyvt.org/event/knee-healthneed-know March 7 | History of Lost Ski Areas in Waterbury and Stowe, Waterbury Center Join historian Brian Lindner at the Green Mountain Club Visitor Center for a talk about the history of skiing in the Stowe area and Stowe Mountain Resort. greenmountainclub.org
RACE SERIES Jan. 13-March 3 | Dion WMAC Snowshoe Series Travel across New England and the Adirondacks for this season-long snowshoe running race series, featuring three events in Vermont: The Winter Magic 5K (1/13), Hoot Toot & Whistle 5K (1/19) and FRIGUS (2/23). dionwmacsnowshoe.com Jan. 15-March 19 | Tuesday Night Race Series, Craftsbury Outdoor Center This friendly but competitive Nordic race series runs every tuesday evening from Dec. 11 to March 19 on different trails at Craftsbury Outdoor Center. Race distances range from 5K to 10K and start at 4 p.m. craftsbury.com Jan. 15-March 5 | Green Mountain Skimo Race Series, Bolton Friendly but competitive skimo races will run every Tuesday evening at Bolton Valley ski area from Jan. 15 through Mar. 5. catamounttrail.org Jan. 20 & Feb. 22 | Moonlit Evenings on the Trails, Dashney Nordic Center, Burke Catch a nearly full moon and ski with a headlamp for tasty treats and half-price trail passes and rentals. Repeats Feb. 22. skiburke.com
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ENDGAME
THIS BUCK DOESN'T STOP
NEED SOME MOTIVATION TO GET OUTSIDE? JUST LOOK TO LARRY BUCK.
BY JILL HINDLE KIEDAISCH
S
ome people get outside for fun. Others do it out of necessity. And by necessity, I mean you can’t think straight, you get irritable, you feel the pressure of inactivity building up in your chest until you lose your cool completely and either yell or start crying. I speak from experience. I feel a special kinship with people who show flickers of this always-burning furnace in their movements and deeds, with people who say crazy things like “What blizzard?” and “I’ll sleep when I’m dead!” and “Get out there! Just go!” This is why, when I first met Larry Buck, I liked him right away. He had just pulled into a coffee shop not far from his home in New Haven, Vt. on his road trike, dirt flecks all over his sunglasses, reflectors Velcroed to his chest and arms, a big grin plastered across his face. He happily ordered his usual from the barista who called him by name and quipped about his high-Lycra fashion sense. Then he turned to me and said, “Made it! Been here long?” I smiled, embarrassed, because I was the one who’d been late, and I knew he’d taken an extra lap up the road and back in favor of sitting around waiting for me. I apologized, lamely explaining how I’d sent him a last-minute note about the slight time shift. “I’m not very real-time with my communications,” he laughed. “Kinda hard to email from the trike!” Larry is 62, but years don’t seem to factor into his calculus. I didn’t even think about his age until he told me about the stroke he suffered nearly a decade ago, at age 53. He had taken ill with a severe case of H1N1 Swine Flu, which mushroomed into an out-of-leftfield leukemia diagnosis, landing him in a drug-induced coma for days. His wife Jane wasn’t sure he’d come out of it. When he did, his left side was out of commission and his muscles had atrophied significantly. According to Jane, he looked like a ragdoll. She admitted it was hard to see him in a wheelchair during those first six to eight months at home. “I’m fine!” he’d assure her. “At least I’ve got wheels!” It was clear that Larry would refuse to be an invalid. “It didn’t feel like a choice
42 VTSPORTS.COM | JAN./FEB. 2019
Larry Buck, ready to rip at Rikert on his custom Vermont-built fat trike. Photo by Angelo Lynn
though,” Larry explained to me recently. “I didn’t know how to be someone who couldn’t move.” His track record backs up that statement. He made a career out of physical activity, working long days, mostly outdoors, as a founding partner in the design build firm Conner & Buck, in Bristol. My husband Matt tells a story of being a kid of eight or nine, bumming around the job site where his parents were having their timber frame raised. Larry was the general contractor on the job, in his late twenties then, with jet-black hair, a black mustache. “He and his crew were young active guys, climbing around way up on these beams, probably 50 feet off the ground or more. They’d drop wood shavings and maple-copters down on me to see if I’d notice.” It’s a formative memory Matt still carries 35 years later, of being a kid among grown-ups who did hard, dangerous work and generally trusted him to be smart enough to stay out the way. “Larry was fun and freespirited,” he says. “He joked around with me, even though he had plenty of
other things to do. He seemed pretty happy just to be out in the fresh air, working. I liked that about him.” Local legend has it that in those days Larry was a serious competitor on the pond hockey circuit. Friends and family constantly cite his athleticism on skates, bikes, and skis—both Nordic and Alpine. So it was no surprise that, after a month in the ICU and two months in a rehab facility, the first thing Larry did was buy himself a trike. “Admirable, definitely—but no surprise,” agrees Jane. “Sitting still is not his strong suit.” Within a year, you could have only sold the trike for parts. “I literally rode it into the ground,” says Larry. This is what I mean by the necessity of movement. When it’s hardwired into who you are, you don’t forget, even after a stroke takes much of it away. In 2013, Larry fortuitously met Anja Wrede at a Tour de Farms ride. Anja and her partner David Black of RAD -Innovations in Cornwall, Vt., build custom recumbent trikes and adaptive bikes for all abilities and disabilities. After assessing Larry’s specific needs,
they set him up with an electricallyassisted fat-tire Kettwiesel from Hase Bikes USA. Now he can ride in any season, including winter, when outdoor mobility is especially difficult for those who rely on wheels to get around. This newfound freedom gave Larry an idea: Why not create a whole fleet of bikes and make them available to anyone who wants to use them? He proposed the idea to his long-time friend Mike Hussey, director of the Rikert Nordic Center in Ripton, Vt. Together, they hatched a vision for an adaptive fat-tire trike and bike program, which just launched this past December under the name Adaptive Trike Rikert (ATR). Having raised $10K for the program’s first fully retrofitted adaptive e-trike last fall, the ATR team is now kicking off a $20,000 campaign to raise funds for a hand-pedal bike to accommodate people with spinal injuries. “We’re trying to take small steps that we can achieve,” says Larry, after taking a few laps around the Field Loop at Rikert. “And those small steps can build into a program that will be recognized. It’s a long road,” he adds. “It takes patience. That’s the hardest part.” Maybe that’s why Larry is so indomitable—because the hardest part for him is the patience. Meanwhile, he’s busy pedaling his way toward his own personal goal of getting back to 90 percent mobility. Every day, with each ride, he is literally rewiring trillions of neural pathways, teaching his brain to heal itself. It’s that same drive that served him well as a young timber framer and pond hockey champion, and now, as a role model for others struggling with disabilities. Scratch that: He’s a role model for everyone. The other day, Larry and I were emailing about weekend plans. “Get your skis waxed and bring the family up to Rikert for a holiday ski and snowball fight!” he wrote. “Winter isn’t winter without a Calvin and Hobbes snowball fight.” Sold. We’ll be there. Our challenge, of course, will be keeping up with him. For more about Adaptive Trike Rikert or to make a donation, visit the program’s GoFundMe page: gofundme.com/ adaptive-trike-rikert.
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GET BACK TO YOUR LIFE Dr. Kevin McGuire is a board-certified surgeon who brings 13 years of experience in spinal surgery to Dartmouth-Hitchcock. As part of the physician team for the award-winning Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT), Dr. McGuire takes care of the most complex spine needs at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the only comprehensive joint replacement and spine surgery practice in the region. See how our team of renowned surgeons can get you back to a pain-free life as soon as possible. Make an appointment at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon today.
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