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Man-made snow for the Nordic skiing set
What are Nordic skiers and ski areas in the region doing about it? Both are working hard to offer reliable cross-country skiing supported by snowmaking. In early to mid-November, three Wisconsin downhill ski and snowboard areas and the Three Rivers Parks District in Minneapolis will begin making snow. Tyrol Ski Basin and the Blackhawk Ski Club are near Madison. The Trollhaugen ski, snowboard and tube area is near the Twin Cities, and Elm Creek Park is in metro Minneapolis-St. Paul. All four areas usually have reliable cross-country skiing starting around mid-November continuing into March. That four-month stretch of white snow has been a welcome relief to the cross-country ski crowd. The race community in particular has benefited from an ability to get on snow early and stay there. You must, however, adjust your expectations. This is not like skiing endless kilometers in a field of dreams. It is more like training in a lap pool. All of the Nordic snowmaking efforts at these areas have started within the last four years and have been driven by a combination of poor natural snow conditions, dedicated individuals, and enlightened management at the downhill areas and the park districts. One common refrain you hear when talking to downhill ski area managers about allocating resources to Nordic skiing is a concern over recapturing their costs. Cross-country ski folk are viewed as parsimonious. The perception from the gravity-assisted side of skiing and snowboarding is that Nordic skiers spend about one-tenth of a downhill skier or snowboarder. Snowmaking is a very capital and labor-intensive effort. To make a 20-foot-wide ribbon of snow 2 feet deep and over 2 kilometers takes a lot of time and money. An SMI-ducted snow fan pulled along by a Snow Cat is the preferred method for snowing a trail. When conditions prohibit this from being done, piles are made and pushed into place. With a big Piston Bully running six figures and a decent snow fan coming in at over $15,000 and I'm talking about used equipment snowmaking solely for cross-country skiing is not feasible for many small ski clubs. This is all the more true when you add in the costs of a well, pipe, pumps and a lot of electricity. Your best hope is to link it to an existing downhill and snowboard area. Selling Nordic day passes at around $10 a day doesn't begin to pay the bills. What all three of these downhill ski areas have done effectively is to fit a Nordic program into their existing infrastructure. The Three Rivers Parks District built theirs with help from the state of Minnesota. To be viable, a cross-country ski program needs to be a shared investment tied into a tubing hill (as is the case at Trollhaugen and Elm Creek) or meshed with the downhill operation (as it is at Tyrol and Blackhawk). The existence of reliable cross-country skiing at these four locales is due primarily to the willingness of the managers at each area to take a risk on offering Nordic skiing supported by snowmaking. The other aspect that all four operations have in common is that in each case there is tremendous support in the local Nordic community pushing the effort forward. It is clear that without open-minded management of these areas and an energized local cross-country ski community to push it along, the dream of reliable snow would melt away in the harsh sun of logistics and cost. Tyrol Ski Basin The Tyrol Ski Basin and snowboard area has hosted some exciting and unusual Nordic events within the past two years. The summer Nordic sprint race held this past June in 82-degree weather is a good example. A huge stockpile of snow was kept under old Brewer baseball infield tarps and treated to retard snow melt. On race weekend, the Snow Cat was fired up and a Nordic trail was groomed out. Racers from as far away as Duluth and Minneapolis came to race on snow in their running shorts. It was hot that evening, and it was quite a site to see the racers zipping along through the fog coming up off of the snow. Tyrol also hosted the Russian Ski School November Sprints last year and is planning to do so again on November 20. In addition, the Madison Nordic Ski Club will be putting on three Tuesday night races at Tyrol Basin, November 30, December 7 and 14. The Nordic effort at Tyrol has been championed by Yuriy Gusev. Yuriy is a Russian ski instructor who trains Nordic skiers of all ages from children to Masters. Yuriy has developed a good relationship with the manager of Tyrol Basin, Don McKay. Between the two of them, they have pulled off some innovative and exciting Nordic events with more to come. The most unique of these on the horizon is the Capitol Square Sprints to be held in Madison the weekend of January 15-16. Tyrol will make over 100 dump truck loads of snow to be spread around the Capitol Square for this Nor/Am Olympic qualifier. The feelings of the management at Tyrol toward cross-country skiing plays a large part in their willingness to support Nordic skiing activities. "We want the Nordic community to feel welcome," McKay said. "People have been coming out to Tyrol for years hill bounding, skiing and training for the Birkie. I really enjoy seeing people come out and have fun sliding on snow." Nordic skiing is viewed as "a nice sideline" by McKay. While it hasn't brought in much money yet, it hasn't lost any either, he said. That fact, along with the support of guys like Yuriy and Don, means that Nordic skiing at Tyrol Basin will continue to grow. For more information about skiing at Tyrol, go to www.tyrolbasin.com. For race specific information, go to www.madnorski.org. For information on the Capitol Square Sprints, please see www.capitalsquaresprints.org. Blackhawk Ski Club Nordic skiing at the Blackhawk Ski Club is a very retro experience. Located just beyond reach of Madison's western suburbs, Blackhawk has manila rope tows and two chalets heated with wood split by members. It is not uncommon to see children, between practices, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in the fireplaces. The area is quite rustic, harkening back to the days of the old local ski jumping clubs formed by Scandinavian immigrants. Snowmaking is done primarily by volunteers using antiquated equipment dating from the days when Flash Gordon was popular. It is labor intensive, back-breaking work. Organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity, Blackhawk has no paid staff and almost everything is done by volunteers. The club has about 225 family memberships and roughly 100 single memberships. In addition to offering cross-country skiing opportunities, Blackhawk is home for ski jumping, downhill skiing and racing, Nordic combined and biathlon. Over the years the club has produced three Olympians and dozens of Junior Olympians. Notable cross-country events this past season at Blackhawk included a weekend USBA Biathlon clinic and a Nordic combined race last January. The Nordic combined features ski jumping as well as cross-country ski racing, and the event was a qualifier for nationals. In February, dozens of racers ages 7 to 69 showed up for a kids' race, a king of the mountain climb, sprints and a biathlon. Last year a new Nordic trail was cut to connect the outruns of all the downhill and jumping hills to make a contiguous cross-country trail that the snow guns could access. There is now a 2-kilometer snowed trail that meanders along the base of the six downhill out-runs and goes up-and-down two of them to provide skiers with some intense cardio work. The board at Blackhawk has been very supportive of all the Nordic programs. Recently club members John and Leslie Taylor donated $50,000 toward the purchase of two mostly new rotary snow fans. There is a fund-raising effort under way to match that amount to make additional snowmaking possible. A great deal of credit goes to Mark Torresani, Peter Berbee and dozens of other volunteers from the Nordic community for getting the snowmaking effort for cross-country skiing going. According to Torresani, more trail work is needed and more lights installed for night skiing. "The club's long-range Nordic development plan, which focuses on facility improvement, program development and special events, is being implemented. The goal is to provide a setting conducive to the development of recreational- to elite-level Nordic skiers," he said. For more information about the programs at Blackhawk, go to www.blackskiarea.org. Trollhaugen While a great deal is happening in the Madison vicinity, there is also a lot going on with snowmaking for cross-country skiing near and in the Twin Cities. Trollhaugen, the Valley of the Trolls, has an extremely successful cross-country program. Four years young this fall, they have the oldest snowmaking program for Nordic use of the four areas reviewed here. This downhill, snowboarding and tubing area grooms Nordic trails every morning. According to Rollie Westman, Trollhaugen's director of skiing services, "We offer beautiful skiing every day, guaranteed." Statistics bear this out. Over 100 cross-country ski season passes are sold, Westman said, "to folks who live far away and who are willing to drive here for the consistency. I receive several letters each year with our pass renewals telling us to keep up the good work." This fact has not gone unnoticed by the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul ski community. Several skiers come early before work to ski and train. Every November the area hosts the Nordic Fest Race Camp for high school racers up to Masters. Several high school races have been hosted there in the last few years, particularly due to a lack of snow in the Twin Cities. The annual Winter Solstice race attracts top collegiate racers, many of whom are home for the holidays. In addition, Trollhaugen is the backup site for the National Masters scheduled for the Twin Cities this year. Manager J.R. Rochford has been very receptive to the expansion of cross-country skiing at Trollhaugen. Like many such endeavors, the cross-country ski program started small, and past successes have been built upon. All the proceeds from the Nordic program continue to be reinvested back into upgrading the facility. "Having a cross-country facility generates ancillary business for us," Rochford said. "Many people bring their kids to downhill ski or snowboard and then head out to cross-country ski." For more information about Nordic skiing in the Valley of the Trolls, logon to www.trollhaugen.com. Elm Creek Park The Three Rivers Parks District in suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul opened its Elm Creek Park Reserve Winter Recreation Area last year. Elm Creek is home to the metro area's first Nordic ski trail with snowmaking. The lights go on along the 2.5-kilometer Valley Trail at 5 a.m. and again at sunset until about 10 p.m. The trail is part of a 16-kilometer Nordic ski trail system in the park and is supported by a visitor center offering ski rentals and a snack bar. Given the vibrancy of the metro area's Nordic ski scene, this park was made to order. Cross-country ski lessons are offered during the season starting in early December and carry into late February. According to local high school ski coach Brodie Rau, "Last year the high school teams heavily used the Valley Trail on Tuesday and Thursday nights given the lack of natural snow anywhere else. In addition, our local ski shop, GearWest, sponsored the 10K Snowflake Race on the trails the week before the Birkie. That was well-attended." Last year was a trial run for snowmaking at Elm Creek. The state of Minnesota helped with the financing so a Minnesota Nordic pass was also required to ski on the trails. This year there is talk of the Three Rivers Parks District going forward on their own with the sale of passes, rental fees, program fees and donations helping to defray the costs. Given the existing investment at Elm Creek in the Winter Recreation Area and the enthusiastic response of the locals, it appears that consistent cross-country skiing in the Twin Cities is off to an excellent start. For more, see www.threeriversparksdistrict.org. There is a lot going on in the Madison and Minneapolis-St. Paul Nordic ski communities to provide reliable cross-country skiing. With the help of management at Tyrol, Blackhawk, Trollhaugen and the Three Rivers Parks District, snowmaking is benefiting the Nordic skiing community. Hopefully it will snow this winter south of the snow belt. But if it doesn't, we Nordic skiers in the banana belt still have places to race and train closer to home. Walter Meanwell is co-president of the Madison Nordic Ski Club. | |||||
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