BC Ski Team at 2022 US Super Tour
Lake Placid, New York/Craftsbury, Vermont, USA
Lake Placid – Race da
Craftsbury Super Tour results – bottom of page.
Following an exciting, yet very cold race weekend in Lake Placid, we spent an extra day in the area exploring the other trails at Mt. Van Hoevenberg. It was the cross country skiing race venue for both the 1980 and the 1932 Winter Olympics (though back in 1932 they only had 2 distances, 18km and 50km). We skied through the old stadium, as well as some of the older race loops and their loppet loop, which was a great, old-school trail through the maple forest, complete with irrigation tubing punched into all the maple trees and carefully angled downhill to prepare for the maple sugar harvest in the coming spring. The intricate set-up was cool to see, and a first for some of us.
Lake Placid – Maple syrup tubes weaving through the forests.
The next day, Tuesday, February 1st, we packed up and headed over to Craftsbury, Vermont. We drove right past the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream factory, but unfortunately it was closed for any tours due to their COVID protocols. However, that didn’t stop some of us from indulging in some store bought B&J…Chris. We had an obligatory stop at the REI near Burlington, Vermont, prior to arriving at Craftsbury.
Once we arrived at our accommodations, which was situated right beside the Craftsbury ski stadium, we jumped on our skis to get a sneak peak of the race courses for the upcoming races. We began living the true ski racer lifestyle by having our delicious meals made for us from the Craftsbury ski center staff. Craftsbury is a truly amazing venue. It’s so remote in Vermont that there’s barely any cell coverage, and the elite racing team there are allowed to train and live there in exchange for working at the facility. With a full stomach every lunch, breakfast, and dinner, we were able to put our best foot forward for our pre-race training.
Craftsbury Accommodation: ski trails on demand.
Unfortunately, we were only able to book two nights’ accommodations at Craftsbury, as they had been sold out over 6 months in advance for the upcoming race weekend. We moved to another AirBNB on Thursday, for our final 3 nights in Vermont, which required a long trek through the Vermont outback. An adventure all on its own.
The last weekend of races were going to be quite exciting. There were 3 days of racing, and it included the local clubs, the NCAA circuit, and it was also a SuperTour event! Needless to say, these were some of the biggest fields of racers that some of us have ever seen and raced against. The first race was a 1.6km skate sprint. While the start of the course was flat (and downhill), the second half consisted of some grueling hills that brought you back up into the stadium. Adding to that, the night before, Vermont was hit by a snowstorm, with more than 30cm of fresh snow falling in the 12 hours prior to the sprint qualifier, which made the course a little more challenging and exciting! All the racers put their best effort forward and prevailed through the challenging conditions to provide some great results.
The snowstorm and the sprints on Friday were not our only challenge. Our plans were to return to Montreal on Sunday evening and then fly back home Monday morning. In order to cross back into Canada, all travelers need to provide a negative PCR COVID test, otherwise you cannot return to Canada. This proved far more difficult than we thought. Our coaches had purchased COVID molecular tests through Amazon and needed to have them dropped off at a UPS store by Friday evening. With the inclement weather, the UPS store that morning indicated that the delivery “may be delayed”, totally throwing a wrench into our plans. We then had to pursue a second option of getting our COVID tests. After much online searching and panicked phone calls (don’t forget, the wifi and cell service is marginal at best at the race venue!), we found a hospital 30 minutes away that offered free COVID PCR tests. Yeah baby! We were able to book the entire team into their drive thru COVID window on Friday evening. With that in mind, right after the races on Friday, we packed into our vans to go to the Morrisville Hospital for these tests. We first completed the Amazon-purchased tests. In hindsight this was a comical scene, with nine of us standing outside the hospital main entrance (we weren’t allowed into their lobby due to COVID concerns), shivering in the cold, swabbing each other’s nostrils! We needed to stand close enough to the entrance in order to use the guest wifi at the hospital to register these kits and complete them properly. We then jumped back into our vehicles to have our nostrils violated yet again by another swab in their ambulance bay drive thru COVID centre. Their efficiency was amazing, and they quickly shooed us away stating “we’ll call you with the results…” We made it just in time to the UPS store for their proposed guaranteed air pick-up on Friday evening for our Amazon tests. Despite the reassurances from UPS that thing would be sent out, they never left that store for another 24 hours!
Friday night ended with us feeling optimistic about getting our COVID results in time, and excited about our next 2 days of racing. A 10km classic interval start awaited everyone on Saturday, followed by a skate pursuit race on Sunday.
by Sadie DeMars and Michael Murdoch
Previous Reports & Photos:
1. https://www.crosscountrybc.ca/bc-ski-team-2022-us-super-tour-jan-31
BC Highlights from the Craftsbury US Super Tour
Craftsbury, Vermont, USA
February 4-6, 2022
Results: https://www.bullitttiming.com/events/EISA-UVM-2021
The top results from the past weekend are noted below.
February 6: Pursuit – Free Technique
1st U18 Boys Garrett Siever (Telemark Nordic Club)
1st U16 Boys Eamon Wilson (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
2nd U18 Girls Maeve Macleod (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club)
2nd U16 Boys Finn Redman (Telemark Nordic Club)
3rd U23 Men Michael Murdoch (Whistler Nordic Ski Club)
4th U18 Boys Adam Heale (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club)
5th U20 Women Amelia Wells (Strathcona Nordic Ski Club)
5th U20 Men Gregory Baxter (Sovereign Lake Nordic Club)
5th U18 Boys Quinn O’Shea (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
5th U18 Girls Alexandra Luxmoore (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club)
February 5: Mass Start – Classic Technique
1st U20 Women Jasmine Drolet (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club)
1st U16 Boys Finn Redman (Telemark Nordic Club)
2nd U18 Boys Garrett Siever (Telemark Nordic Club)
2nd U18 Girls Maeve Macleod (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club)
2nd U16 Boys Eamon Wilson (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
4th U23 Men Michael Murdoch (Whistler Nordic Ski Cluelb)
4th U18 Boys Quinn O’Shea (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
4th U18 Girls Alexandra Luxmoore (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club)
5th U18 Boys Adam Heale (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club)
February 4: Individual Sprint – Free Technique
(results from the Qualification Round only)
1st U20 Women Jasmine Drolet (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club)
1st U18 Boys Garrett Siever (Telemark Nordic Club)
1st U16 Boys Finn Redman (Telemark Nordic Club)
2nd U18 Girls Maeve Macleod (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club)
2nd U16 Boys Eamon Wilson (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
3rd U18 Boys Quinn O’Shea (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
4th U23 Men Michael Murdoch (Whistler Nordic Ski Club)|
4th U18 Boys Adam Heale (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club)
4th U18 Girls Alexandra Luxmoore (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club)
Race Schedule:
Lake Placid
January 30th 1.4 km Individual Sprint, Classic Technique
January 29th 10 km Mass Start, Free Technique
Craftsbury
February 4th 1.6km Individual Sprint, Free Technique
February 5th 10km Interval Start, Classic Technique
February 6th 7.5km Pursuit (Women)
10 km Pursuit (Men)
CCBC B-Tour
Athletes:
Eamon Wilson (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club, North Vancouver)
Finn Redman (Telemark Nordic Club, Kelowna)
Michael Murdoch (Whistler Nordic Ski Club)
Nathan Savage (Kimberley Nordic Club)
Alexandra Luxmoore (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club)
Maeve Macleod (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club)
Sadie Demars (Kimberley Nordic Club)
CCBC B-Tour Coaches:
Chris Manhard (Cross Country BC)
Jessica Roach (Nickel Plate Nordic Ski Club)
Frank Ackermann (Kimberley Nordic Club)
Five additional BC athletes were named to the Nordiq Canada B-Tour team that is attending the same US Super Tour events.
Adam Heale (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club, Rossland)
Amelia Wells (Strathcona Nordic Ski Club, Victoria)
Garrett Siever (Telemark Nordic Club, Kelowna)
Gregory Baxter (Sovereign Lake Nordic Club, Vernon)
Quinn O’Shea (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club, North Vancouver)