The NWVT club made it's Debut perfomance at U.S. Nationals this past week.Tyler Magnan a BFA and St.LAwrence Gradute and current NWVT club member working and training in Colorado this winter, represented our club. While his results were mabye not what he had hoped, I think it was a learning and good experience for both of us (The both being myself who was their to watch and help the best I could). It was cetainly a big step forward for our Club, and I was very proud and excited to see my brother and the colors of the NWVT team making it's way around the hills and corners of Soldier Hollow.
Jen and I left for Utah on Monday and after a day and two interesting cab rides in NY City (we were fogged in at Burlington for over an hr and missed our flight to Utah) we arrived in Salt Lake, the day after Tyler competed in the 30k skate, an event that all but 40 or so athletes would finish, due to the blistering past of the leaders who lapped most of the field (lapped racers were pulled). We spent the first day catching up with Tyler and visiting Park City, The Olympic Jumping and Sledding center and finished with dinner and a speed skate on the Olympic oval with several hundred local kids. On Thursday we headed to Soldier Hollow for the 1.5k Sprint event. Tyler represented our Club very well with good form and a finish near the top 50 Percent. Tyler and I went out Friday morning for a ski and to test wax for the race on Saturday. The snow was mostly manmade and dry for the 30+ degree temps. We tried some klisters and also tried covering the Klister. On Saturday morning after a successful test day we were confident straight Klister was the way to go. I tested some kr 50 about an hr before Tyler’s start, which was very late, about 170th on a three lap course. THe course became very glazed and hard packed due to the number of racers and increasing sun and temperature. The wax seemed excellent and Tyler agreed. Near race time I added some kr60 to the mix to copensate for the changing condiontions. It seemed excellent, so I applied the mix to Tyler’s race ski’s we tested the day before. He came back after a quick test with no Kick. I added a thicker layer of straight 60, He headed out once again and headed to the start line. Right off it was evident something was not right. The skis were not working well and he was struggling up the hills. It turned out that the ski’s that had worked well the day before were too stiff for the hard packed glazed conditions. I thought he did well to finish and was far from the back. Sundays 10k skate race went much better. He moved up several places and was much happier about the race. After the race I was able to get in about 30k on my own. The elevation took some getting used too. You are skiing along just fine and suddenly you just don’t have any energy. Beyond skiing Jen and I had fun looking around to see what Park city and Salt Lake had to offer. The highlight for both of us was probably the scenic views and beautiful sunsets of the Wacatsh Mountains. You can see all of Tyler’s results on the NENSA web site. Great Job to everyone who competed this past weekend, I am exited to see so many doing so well, it is very motivating to all involved and can only help our club get stronger. Thanks, Scott