EVERYONE:

1. Attendance form: you know the drill!

2. Training plan: still here - you gotta scroll down on that there page

3. Punctuality: timeliness is becoming problematic across all of our groups. Some of you are here 30 minutes early to wax your skis, get ready, etc., and are waiting on the field a few minutes before your practice starts. Others aren’t even pulling into the parking lot until after your practice has started, and there’s a whole range of you in between. Please aim to be ready and waiting for your practice a few minutes before it starts. We know it can be a struggle, but it’s unfair to those who are on time to wait around for those who are late, and it cuts into our practice time together. In some cases it has limited our ability to go on longer skis. Please message coaches if you are going to be late.

4. Care for equipment: please don’t ski across roads or parking lots with your skis on. Rocks + dirt = scratched up skis. The vast majority of kids in our programs have rented equipment from us and we try really hard to keep rental costs as low as we can, which means getting at least ~3 years out of everything, and we need your help in caring for gear. But even if you own your gear, you can help it last longer/retain its value by trying to only ski on snow!

5. Biathlon summer camps are open for registration. Kids camps are open to both experienced biathletes and experienced skiers who want to try biathlon. Check out the event listings on the Craftsbury website for more details.

JUNIORS:

1. Final Eastern Cup Weekend: Holy smokes, how did that happen so fast?! Team info with all the things here. Some routines will be a little different since you’re traveling with your families, so be sure you know where you need to be and when all weekend, and get yourself on the dang Slack channel. All the last-minute logistic-ing happens there.

2. HS Races and wax support: We want to see y’all succeed in all your racing — school, club and otherwise — but we are not generally in the business of providing wax support at VPA races unless prior arrangements have been made. CA and its affiliated independents have made such arrangements. Everyone else: we were overwhelmed and a little frustrated by what felt like 30 pairs of surprise skis this past Wednesday for the Lamoille race, and the comparatively few “pleases” and general advance communication. So next time: ask, at least 24 hrs in advance. Say please and thank you. And clean up after your dang klister messes.

U14s:

1. MS races and wax support: We want to see y’all succeed in all your racing — school, club and otherwise — but we are not generally in the business of providing wax support at VPA or school races unless prior arrangements have been made. CA and its affiliated independents have made such arrangements. Everyone else: we were overwhelmed and a little frustrated by what felt like 30 pairs of surprise skis this past Wednesday for the Lamoille race, and the comparatively few “pleases” and general advance communication. So next time: ask, at least 24 hrs in advance. Say please and thank you. And clean up after your dang klister messes.

2. Middle School States: hosted by U32 and taking place at this here Craftsbury Outdoor Center on Thursday! All the details are here. Any independents wishing to race need to put their info on this sheet as “registration” by Monday Feb. 19th at 8pm and come with $5. If you want to help volunteer with timing the race, email/Slack Ollie.

3. The BKL Festival is coming! As U14s, you are still in BKL! Remember how fun the Festival was last year? This year the Rikert Nordic Center in Ripton, Vt., is hosting the very same event on March 2-3. Register here. Coaches are going to cheer, coach, and help wax skis. Online registration closes on 2/23. A reminder that NENSA membership is required for participation at the Festival.

BKL:

1. The BKL Festival is coming! Remember how fun the Festival was last year? This year the Rikert Nordic Center in Ripton, Vt., is hosting the very same event on March 2-3. Register here. Coaches are going to cheer, coach, and help wax skis. Online registration closes on 2/23. A reminder that NENSA membership is required for participation at the Festival.

COMPETITIVE MASTERS:

1. Ollie is back in action! Looks like it will be great hardwax skiing early in the week, but we’re going to skate for our two quality sessions so that we can focus on effort and technique, not whether the skis are working. Thursday’s emphasis will be on moving quickly, while Sunday we’ll be back to some of our tried-and-true threshold intervals.

INTERMEDIATE MASTERS:

Y’all are classic skiing this week!

BEGINNER MASTERS:

Great job last week buddies! This week we'll dial in and answer questions on V1 and V2.  We'll break into two groups and go over the details you want.  Come eager with questions and energy!

BIATHLON:

Wow, what a weekend!  Sooooo cool to see so many of you jumping in a race, cheering each other on, and also staying to help volunteer. That's what this sport is about.  We are super proud of the biathletes you are and even more proud of the humans you are.  

Practices this week will happen at normal times.   

Summer camp registration is open. See event listings on the Craftsbury website.

Now that the race weekend is behind us, we'll get to work on planning more details for Nationals in Fort Kent.  Stay tuned.  

We'll also have another Bayley Hazen novice biathlon race on March 17th.  This last one nearly hit our cap, so get yourself and your friends and family signed up before it sells out. 

CATAMOUNTS:

1. Distance cruise: What an amazing lake ski we had on Sunday - the kids rallied and really cruised along, some making it all the way to the Narrows, with a head wind on the way back!  I encourage your families to get out there this week and enjoy the lake while the skiing is good!

2. Classic this week:  We're back to classic this week, thanks everyone for doing a rocking job with borrowing and returning skate skis, we've had a fun few weeks with those speedy boards.

3. Hats/jackets/mittens etc: great job in this department too! Everyone was warm and cozy for our long ski on Sunday! Keep it up!

   Thanks everyone, see you out there!

4. The BKL Festival is coming! Yes yes, you’re all BKLers! Did some of you go to the Festival last year? Wasn’t it fun?! This year the Rikert Nordic Center in Ripton, Vt., is hosting the very same event on March 2-3. Register here. Coaches are going to cheer, coach, and help wax skis. Online registration closes on 2/23. A reminder that NENSA membership is required for participation at the Festival.

See you all this week!

-coaches