Lake Placid Flaming Leaves 2010

The Nordic nation has once again descended on the adirondack mountains of upstate NY.  for the past 10 days the CXC team has been honing it's skills in preparation for winter on the roads and trails surrounding Lake Placid and for the past week the US Nordic Combined team has been beating themselves into the local asphalt executing its perenial low altitude intensity camp here.  Last night we were joined by the US Cross Country team as well as Sun Valley Nordic in anticipation of tomorrows Whiteface Hill Climb which starts at 8:30am.  

As fasterskier.com has already pretty much covered pre-race I will simply add that local favorite Duncan Douglas is according to my phone call last night, "too busy counting calories down in a Hospital in Newark, NJ covering 80 hrs of shifts a week!" to some defend the title.  Looks like whoever wins this thing will need an * denoting the lack of a full field.  That being said the Biathlon team is also out in Park City, Utah for their annual camp.  

Yesterday the US and Australian Nordic Combined squads had a little "fun" comp that culminated with a race up the shorter albeit steeper side of whiteface.  Yes thats right the Aussies have decided to take up the sport!  With veteran XC skier Ben Simm leading the charge with 17 year old prodigy Jackson the two have joined us in Park City and now Lake Placid to learn the ropes.  While they jumped the 40 meter here in LP we put them into the pursuit race at appropriate intervals.  The Camerota bros Brett and Eric nearly tied for the win in the jumping with yours truely trailing by 0:28 and Bryan Fletcher another 0:18 back.  Ben Simm was thrown into the mix starting 2:00 min behind.  Good for me seeing as Ben recently swept all 4 races at the Aussie Championships and has been flying in recent intensity sessions!

After 9.3km and about 28 min of racing I was able to hang onto a 0:15 advantage over Simm who had mowed through the field and he was closely followed by Taylor and Bryan Fletcher for 3rd and 4th.  So high hopes for the budding team from down-under.  It speaks well to the future of the sport that a new country is joining the fray, as well as jumps opening and reopening across the country like the new venue slated for Aspen, CO.

Following tomorrows slugfest we will be having our annual Flaming Leaves jumping and Nordic Combined Comps on Sat and Sun at the Olympic Jumping Complex.  Jumping starts at 11am both days and the Nordic Combined portion will take place on the rollerski loop at 8:30 am Sunday morning.  If you want to watch the NC skiers duke it out prepare to park at the Horse Show grounds across the street as the gate to the venue won't open until 9:00am.

Hope to see you out here!

Back in the mix, Dewey Mountain style!

So for my inaugural blog post I'm going to report on the state of Nordic skiing here in the Adirondacks.  Sat down at lunch today with my old coach and great friend Kris Seymour over lunch at Saranac Lake's Blue Moon Cafe.  Over some grub we discussed the history of a little eastern Bill Koch program born at Dewey Mountain here in Saranac. 

First off I want to point out that Dewey Mountain is probably the most challenging ski area in world as its narrow trails wind and dive through the woods in a manner that requires fierce concentration.  Though it's primary 8 kms or so of skiing lie on a mere 30 acres, the heavily forested slope on which they meander offer brief glimpses of upcoming corners and diving downhills mere seconds before you find yourself cutting hard and dropping in.  It is the perfect venue for teaching young kids how to ski and get their survival skill set. As an adult I ski Dewey for an hour or so and ive done it all, albeit each steep uphill gasping for air and trying not to break into a snow plow screaming down the descents.  Much of this definitely contributed to a foggy memory I have of walking down the trail after getting the worst of a tree stump during a game of Chinese Downhill (which was the Thursday night high-school practice routine) one broken sacrum, and I believe a good friend of mine by the name of Mike Stemp may have had a concussion.

But as we reflected over lunch there is a lot of history that went into Dewey Mountains existance as well the history made by the boys and girls who grew up skiing there.  The Mountain was originally set up with a rope tow in 1941, but after a season of nearly no snow and with WWII coming on the operation shut down.  In 1980 the town invested in starting a trail system and by 1981 the trails designed by Craig Ward from Aspen, Co opened up and under the lights a lively scene of youth programs and races grew on cold Adirondack nights.  A whole host of young families with kids from 4-10 years old rallyed a few nights a week to Dewey Mountain for practice.  Among that group of kids many of whom continued to ski through high school and beyond were a few who made a career out of Nordic Skiing.  I was one of those youth as I started skiing at Dewey in 1985 as well as Timothy Burke, both of us have for the past 25 years made skiing our lifestyle and our pursuit.  And last season both of us did something no other American has done.  I won a Gold Medal in Nordic Combined in Vancouver, and Tim held the Yellow (golden) Bib as the World Cup Leader for a chunk of the season.  Two big firsts for American nordic skiing, from two little boys who grew up skiing the World's toughest Nordic Venue!

This afternoon I attended a kick-off party.  It was a huge gathering of people at Dewey Mountain.  Since 1981 very little has changed at Dewey, and although the youth program is strong and building this group of people is gathered to kick-off a drive to rejuvenate the mountain, it's facilities, and it's trails.  The people collected here range from Congressman Bill Owen and ski Historian Nat Leduc, to the next generation of lollipoppers and bill kochers...  The parents of the new generation are meeting the parents of my generation.  It is a reunion of all those that have called Dewey home in their lives and a union with those that will call it home.  I am so eager to see how this project will grow and develope.  It will in many ways be much like when Dewey was first built in 1981 when the town, the village, the donors, and the volunteers came together to make it happen. 

Right as I was leaving Dewey Mountain this afternoon a little boy came up to me and his mother asked him, "what do you want to be when you grow up?"  He replied sharply, "I'm going to ski like Billy Demong!"  That's kind of creepy to hear if you are me.... But such a huge start toward building the next generation of Dewey Mountain Olympians!

Hammer Down!