How Far Will You Go?

[Andrew Gardner]

1. How many miles do you drive per week for racing or snow?

[Kelsey Boyer]

15 miles to practice everyday from my house and i think its maybe 20 miles from school to birch hill, and about a mile from school and 15 miles to practice the other way to west ridge (UAF trails). though to get to the JN qualifiers in AK, we have to drive or fly about 400 miles.

[Barret Dunbar]

Miles? I am not sure but I usually train on a golf course that is maybe a kilometer from my house and races are typically 150 to 300 kilometers away. Although this week I will not be going anywhere to train because the high has been around -30 C. That is the same as -22 F. With the windchill factored in it is -50 C.

[Luke Siebert]

Well, I generally practice at Great Brook Farm or Weston, each 20-30 minutes from my high school by bus. Thats about 15-20 miles a day for normal training. Then there's weekends. Most weekends (non JOQ) I train in Jackson, NH, 150 miles away. Then JOQ's are typically between 150 and 200 miles away, occasionally more. Sometimes the travel in between my hotel and the race is a long way. I would say at least 400 miles a week. Sometimes more.

[jcork]

If this turns into a carbon-footprint lecture, I'm going to be mad.

In Durango, I'm currently in a car for about five miles (round-trip) M-F -- we have enough snow to ski on a golf course. Up at the Nordic Center at Durango Mountain Resort on Saturday -- about 40 miles round-trip. So 65 miles/week.

Usually, we have to drive about 40 miles round-trip to get from town to the Nordic Center, and we'll do that M-Sat. -- so about 240 miles/week.

However, if we're going to JOQs you can add 500-700 miles those weekends.

[Will Sweetser]

MWSC Coaches drive a lot (250-300 miles per week commute for practices, clinics, etc.) but the athletes really don't NEED to drive more than 2-5 miles to get to a groomed trail for training. We have community trails in more than 20 towns around northern Maine. All free. All with decent to excellent terrain. All with snow from December through early April.

Racing is another issue--thousands of miles per year racked up on junior race trips, alone. This is less than ideal, not only from an environmental perspective, but also from an educational/developmental perspective. We're experimenting with solutions, but have not found a good fix yet.

[Alex Jospe]

Living in Boston, I actually drive less to train than I ever have in my life. It's 4.5 miles to the Weston Ski Track (which has its own range of problems, but there is some substance that closely resembles snow on the ground), and I make that drive three to four times a week. I travel every weekend, usually in the 100-300 mile range, although during the fall and summer, when I am traveling to bike races or training events, I look for things closer to the >100mile range. It turns out Boston is actually pretty central to New England ski races. I generally carpool; there has only been one race so far this winter where I have driven alone. This winter, the furthest I've driven for a race was 1200mi, to Houghton for nationals, with two other people in the car.

[Eli Brown]

5,000 to 15,000 miles per year. This includes dryland, camps, races, training, ski business, etc.

[Kelsey Boyer]

jeez how would you even start to calculate that? haha

[Tim Miner]

My son skied in his 5th Barnebirkie last week. On the way home I realized that I have driven 1000 miles for less then 10km of skiing. While I apologize to Mother Earth on one hand, I know that next year the tally will read 1200 miles and 15km.

[Harvester of Sorrow]

Peru NY...two great, well groomed places to train... Mount Van Hoevenberg in LP 35 miles (45 min each way), MitcHELLbeiner Skistadion in Morrisonville 10 miles (15 min each way).. so at least 150 miles or 3-4 hours of driving during the week. And I live in snow country! For races the closest ones are in Lake Placid, and my limit is 3 hours... The trip to Old Forge NY is as far as I will go. It seems like this is a real problem for growing Nordic skiing ... you have to commit to lots of driving if you want to compete.

[Jamie Doucett]

How does 5,559 miles sound? Thats 3 days a week driving to Weston Ski Track near Boston to coach and train and for the Tuesday night races and then up north to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine locations for other training and racing every weekend all winter. The longest trip was 800 miles round-trip to Presque Isle, Maine for the first races of the season. Oi, what a drive home in a blinding snowstorm for that one!

[Joe Howdy]

The University of Wyoming ski team drives about 18 miles round trip for snow, and averages about 700 miles round trip for NCAA RMISA races.
Bozeman: 1200 round trip
Soldier Hollow: 750
Crested Butte: 750
Red River: 840
Steamboat: 250

For all other races we usually average about 250 miles.