Category Archives: Craftsbury Outdoor Center

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Lost Nation Roll

Clear and cool today for the first cross country ski race in the season of COVID, the New England Nordic Ski Association’s Lost Nation Roll at Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center. There was Lysol to disinfect the roller skis, which were shared; interval starts; masks everywhere; no spectators; smooth skiing on the new asphalt track; and no crashes in the race.  Roller skis are the training […]

Also posted in roller skiing Tagged , |
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January in November

November turned to winter in a hurry: snow, skiing and temperatures one night near zero. Both photos, early season skiers at Craftsbury Outdoor Center, VT, USA.

Also posted in cross-country skiing, Vermont, Winter Tagged , , , |
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Winter Jumps

After a long cloudy day, the sun came out and the kids started jumping off the mini-mountain of manmade snow at the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center last weekend. The guy on the bottom started out facing the other direction and in this series is en route to a 360.

Also posted in cross-country skiing, Vermont, Winter Tagged , , , |
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Ski Orienteering World Cup

If cross country ski racing is a niche sport, then ski orienteering is a niche within a niche. It involves racing on cross-country skis and finding your way to a series of checkpoints scattered around the woods on trails you have never seen before, using a map you only receive 15 seconds before the race starts. It means getting around the route as fast as […]

Also posted in cross country ski racing, International Orienteering Federation, ski o, ski orienteereing Tagged , |
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Ski Race Photos at Craftsbury Outdoor Center

If you happen to get to the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center any time this winter, take a look at the photos in the touring center (open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, all winter). I have an exhibit of 22 16-x-24-inch color prints from some of the racing coverage I did in 2016 and 2017. The photos range from local racers in New England […]

Also posted in 2017 Lahti World Championships, cross country ski racing, Finland, Vermont
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Eastern Cup #1

The New England Nordic Ski Association held its first Eastern Cup of the 2016-17 season at Craftsbury Outdoor Center Saturday and Sunday. Hundreds of skiers from New England and eastern Canada raced, in heavy snow on Saturday, rain and freezing rain on Sunday. If you want to see more, click here for a gallery. (If the gallery slideshow is too slow for you, click on the […]

Also posted in cross country ski racing, Snow, Vermont, Winter
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Making Skiing by Making Snow

It’s a sad commentary on the weather, but the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center had to continue making skiing out of nothing last week when it held the Super Tour Finals and national distance championship cross-country ski races, virtually all of it without natural (real) snow. They did it with a three-story pile of manmade snow, an excavator, 500 dump-truck loads, big ski groomers and the skilled workers […]

Also posted in climate, cross country ski racing, Uncategorized, Vermont, Winter
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SuperTour x 2

The USSA SuperTour and the Dartmouth Winter Carnival brought high-level cross-country ski racing back to Craftsbury Outdoor Center over the weekend. Top, Johnson’s Jennie Bender leads a freestyle (skate) sprint heat Friday. Below, the women’s 10-k started in falling snow on Sunday; Hans Halvorsen of Williams College in the freestyle (skate) sprint Friday; volunteer Carol Van Dyke trying to stay warm; Rebecca Rorabaugh of Alaska Pacific […]

Also posted in cross country ski racing, Vermont