Thanks in part to Mother Nature’s fickle distribution of snow this winter — Thursday’s coat of snow notwithstanding — and also in part to the tremendous snow-making efforts at Titcomb Mountain, the Farmington ski area will host both days of a major northeast ski competition this weekend.
“It’s been a tremendous volunteer effort that’s made this all possible,” said Doug Dunlap, a media liaison with the Farmington Ski Club. We’ve had volunteers helping to make snow at all hours of the day and night for more than a week now under the direction of Jim Sawyer, and all of the efforts have made this a truly great track.”
The event, part of the NENSA TD Bank Pine Tree Eastern Cup, begins Saturday morning. Originally, the first day of the event was scheduled to take place at the Bond Brook course in Augusta, but a lack of snow and an inability to make artificial snow at the site forced officials to move the schedule to Titcomb.
“Even with this natural snow we just got, without that base that we’d put down, the track wouldn’t have been ready,” Dunlap said. “With the base down, plus all of this new snow, the conditions are superb.”
One of the big reasons the area was able to make so much snow in a short amount of time was the donation of several fire hoses from area companies, allowing the ski area to pump out snowmaking at a much faster rate.
“We had great support from the community,” said Karleen Andrews, Titcomb Mountain’s manager. “We had hundreds of feet of hose that allowed us to get our guns out onto the trails. That’s not something we’re normally equipped to handle.”
The event itself is one of four major regional competitions sponsored by the New England Nordic Ski Association, and the Titcomb event will be the only Eastern Cup race held in Maine this season. Other race locations for 2012 are in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Among skiers with local ties expected to compete are Welly Ramsey, of New Sharon, Derek Rowe, of Farmington, and Mike Lessard of Turner, who all ski for the Maine Winter Sports Center; Justin Fereshetian of Turner, who skis for the University of Maine at Presque Isle and the Maine Winter Sports Center; and Shelby Aseltine of Wilton, who skis for Bowdoin College. The event is expected to be the largest Nordic ski competition ever held at Titcomb Mountain.
“This is a pretty big deal for us,” Andrews said. “It’s good exposure for our Nordic trails. We have a good reputation for our alpine programs, with Mt. Blue’s success at the high school level, as well as the middle school states being held here and the various other downhill races we hold, but it’s great that this event will allow people to see what we have to offer on the Nordic side of things.”
The two-day racing event will begin Saturday with a classical sprint on a 1.2-kilometer loop, with qualifying races for all men’s age classes beginning at 10 a.m., and women’s qualifying races for all ages immediately to follow.
Top skiers in each age class will race in elimination heats starting at 1 p.m.
On Sunday, skiers will participate in a freestyle race, making multiple loops on a 1.4-kilometer course, all of which have been covered with man-made snow, in addition to the approximately six inches of natural snow the region received Thursday.
“The registrations for Sunday are, right now, about 30 or 40 more than we have Saturday,” Dunlap said. “It should be an exciting weekend. We also have an alpine event going on here on Saturday, which will bring another 200 or so skiers in. This is going to be a busy little hill this weekend.”
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