Author: Jim Pippin, President, RXCSF

Looking back at the winter season we had this year and memories of local Nordic skiing are fleeting.  However, there were some great moments in the local youth racing calendar this year.  Jason Hettenbaugh shares some of the successes of Rochester Nordic youth skiers have had here locally, around the northeast and nationally.  Many of these young skiers learned to ski within the RXCSF Youth Program which is affiliated with the Bill Koch Ski League.  Currently, the RXCSF Board is looking for a new RXCSF Youth Coordinator to carry on the tradition of developing Rochester’s next generation of Nordic skiers.  We have several candidates who have shown some interest but, If you or any one you know may be interested, then please e-mail me at president@rxcsf.org.  We are hoping to get the new RXCSF Youth Coordinator in place in time to begin the RXCSF youth summer program at the end of June.

The RXCSF Board has a few off-season projects planned.  The first is to work on perfecting our Nordic Pulse app which I mentioned in our previous newsletter, so we can provide live tracking of grooming to augment our conditions page.  We are also coordinating with the NYSOPRHP to gain their approval to put up winter trail signage and conduct trail improvements at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area.

I hope everyone enjoys their off season and is taking advantage of the nice weather to get out and enjoy the outdoors the rest of this spring and summer.  I look forward to reaching out to you in preparation for the next winter season in our fall newsletter.

Author: Jason Hettennabugh

Several Rochester area athletes qualified to compete at regional and national level competitions this season. Nationally, U.S.S.S. Junior Nationals is the pinnacle of junior racing. Junior Nationals bring athletes from across 10 divisions which span the U.S from New England to Alaska. This year’s competition took place at the storied trails of the Birch Hill Recreation Area in Fairbanks Alaska.

Representing the greater Rochester area and Team Mid-Atlantic were Gordon Fagan, Braden Bellizzi, Reid Smith, Emelia Jordan and Molly Heinzelman. Athletes competed in three individual events: a freestyle sprint, classic individual, and freestyle mass start. It was an amazing opportunity to travel to such an iconic venue and location all while racing the best junior athletes in the U.S. Looking forward to the 2024 Junior National Championship which will be held in Lake Placid NY. Results, replays and other info from this year’s championship can be found at: https://jn2023fairbanks.org/

Regionally, the Eastern High School Championships offers athletes an opportunity similar to Junior Nationals but on a regional stage. Athletes represent their state at this competition. 5 states including NY, NH, ME, MA, and VT compete. Representing the greater Rochester area and Team NY were Gabrielle Spyra, Marianne Spyra, Jenna Stainken, Sydney Frank, Drew Larsen, Paul Pippin, Henry Burke, Andrew Cole, Dillon Frank, Nathaniel Burke, and Amer Armbruster. This year’s competition took place at the Rikert Touring center in Middlebury VT. These athletes were able to use this year’s EHSC event to learn and hopefully motivate each other to represent team Mid-Atlantic next year at Junior Nationals! Results can be found at: https://www.bullitttiming.com/events/EHS-2023

Local juniors now set their sights on summer training and next year’s ski season. As the saying goes, “skiers are made in June, July and August” so find a group of like-minded athletes and spend some time on roller skis this summer. 

It has been a very frustrating winter so far with our first measurable snow coming the last week of January.  Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area has been the only park we have been able to groom for some decent skiing.  Hopefully we can get enough of a base soon so we can get a good base for the rest of the parks into March.

Be careful when winds are picking up while you are out at any of our venues.  There have been several downed trees at Mendon Ponds Park and Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area.  We are working with Monroe County Parks and New York State Parks to get these cleared out as we groom.  RXCSF is only allowed to hand clear.  We are not permitted to use chain saws so there is some coordination needed for larger downed trees to be removed. I encourage everyone to be cognizant of the weather conditions and forecast while out skiing – be safe.

Zak Burke, our IT Specialist, provides an article this month about a new app our groomers will be testing and trying out called Nordic Pulse.  We hope this will help supplement the conditions page to get more up to date and live tracking of our grooming.  In addition to the trail signage, improving our trail conditions, trail conditions updates is a priority goal resulting from our 2021 Spring Survey.

In a separate article, Darren Leach, our Grooming Coordinator, provides an update on some equipment purchases and an alluring call to become a groomer.  Please consider becoming a groomer.

If you would like to support RXCSF this season, please go to our website here to make a tax-deductible donation.  As always, thank you to everyone who has supported RXCSF.  I look forward to getting out on our groomed trails soon.  Please reach out to me if you have any questions, concerns, or comments.

Jim Pippin

President, RXCSF

Author: Zak Burke, RXCSF IT Specialist

We are pleased to announce that RXCSF is partnering with Nordic Pulse to improve the effectiveness, timeliness, and accuracy of our grooming reports. Nordic Pulse is a two-part system with a phone-based app for groomers to record their progress, and a website that displays maps synchronized to the phone-app to show up-to-date maps of trail conditions. We hope the situation will be win-win for groomers and skiers alike: groomers won’t have to spend as much time updating conditions pages after hours spent out in the cold on the trails because the app tracks their progress and updates the report automatically, and skiers will be able to learn exactly which trails were groomed and when. 

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Author: Jim Pippin

Snow!!! It’s finally here. I hope everyone has enjoyed some skiing since our first snow on Thanksgiving weekend. I know there isn’t much around currently, but I was just at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area this morning and there was enough to do some classic skiing. Just to confirm for everyone, late season hunting is not allowed at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area. So get out there and enjoy the snow.

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Author: Bob Kuehl

During offseason this summer the RXCSF Board updated its original Vision and Mission statements which were initially created when RXCSF was founded in 2006. Our revised Vision Statement reads as follows, “Establish and grow an inclusive environment for cross country skiing sustainable for future generations in the greater Rochester, NY area.” The Mission Statement explains how the vision will be achieved.

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Author: Anna Gorbold

In early November on a bitterly cold day, James Pippin (RXCSF President) and Matt Caton (Mendon Ponds Park groomer), together with a trusted band of RXCSF Board members, prepared Carsonite posts for installation in Mendon Ponds Park. Decisions had to be made as to where to place posts and what information they should provide.

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Author: Jason Hettenbaugh

Jason provides key updates on youth, junior, adult and masters-level racing as well as details on the upcoming World University Games in Lake Placid.

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Author: Jim Pippin

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall color and the unbelievable stretch of weather we have been having.  It’s that time of year where we enjoy our last paddle or long bike ride before we start tuning up the skis for winter. The RXCSF Board has been busy over the summer and recently wrapping up a couple of projects. In this month’s newsletter Anna Gorbold shares some of the signage improvements that we have been working on at Mendon Ponds Park in collaboration with Monroe County Parks. I think you will like the new changes and if all goes well, we hope to do the same at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area in collaboration with New York State Parks.

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