Back to Jackson for the second time this month for the UNH Carnival! Jackson is always a lovely venue - nice winding trails with some fun descents, very spectator friendly, and surrounded by beautiful mountains. And it's even better when you're staying right across the street at a nice old school hotel, the Eagle Mountain House. A couple days before the races, New England got a big snowstorm followed by some rain, so the course was covered with saturated snow when we arrived on Thursday. It froze up overnight and groomed out nicely for Friday's 5k skate race - super fast and fun skiing, and the race was over in a flash. Zach led the men in 19th, with Carson in 25th, Adam scoring a nice PR in 28th, and Ayden skiing a fantastic race to finish 35th. The women put 5 in the top 30 - Aggie 16th, Jori 19th, Emma 20th, Morgan 24th, Kira 27th - with Ingrid in 34th and Grace M in 37th for emphasis. Really impressive display of depth!
Things got interesting the next day for the 20k classic - a little flurry shortly before the race put us right on the edge between klister and hard wax. We were pretty committed to klister by this point, so we kept plowing ahead and did what we could to keep the skis free. After as much testing as we could manage, we scrambled to get the skis out on time for the men. The lead pack broke up more quickly than last weekend, but Carson was able to hang on to a small chase group and finish 11th - only a stumble in the final sprint kept him from another top 10 finish. Zach was a bit under the weather but managed a respectable 34th, and James came back from sickness for a gritty 39th place finish. We tweaked the women's skis a bit and sent them off, hoping they'd be able to make them kick as the sun hit the course. Jori skied an almost identical race to last weekend, jumping in with the lead group and hanging tough once things strung out to finish 11th. The rest of our crew did an outstanding job of moving through the crowd - Emma scrapped up from a middle seed to work her way into 14th, with Morgan close behind in 19th. Aggie kept calm and skied smoothly throughout the race for a personal best classic finish of 21st. Kira got caught up in traffic in the first few kilometers, but showed impressive perseverance to work her way back to a great PR of 23rd. Grace M was once again close to the elusive top 30 in 36th - another strong race in a remarkably consistent season so far. Grace E was not far behind in 40th - a fearless performance from a tough young skier. Just a crazy, chaotic, exhausting, and super fun day of racing. Big thanks to volunteer assistant John Eldredge, who drove up to help us out with waxing - we never could have gotten all those skis ready in time without him! Overall a really solid carnival that left us feeling confident and eager to get back after it. We've got a bit of a break this week with no carnival - several of our skiers will be doing the Quarry Road Eastern Cup, but no overnight travel. Should be a fun weekend!
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