A week after returning from Thanksgiving break, the Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, and Nordic teams kicked off their competition seasons in Norway, Colorado, and right here in Lake Placid.
Before their competitions, they helped prepare the hills in Lake Placid for winter. The team helped with the slushing of the in-run track. Henry Loher ’26 said, “We were tasked with shoveling snow from a pile of manmade snow and running it through a snowblower to chop it up. From the blower, we put it in 5-gallon buckets and carried it to the takeoff of the jump.” The buckets were then dumped into a hopper that gets pulled up the track by a winch. In the hopper, water is added to the chopped snow, creating a slush mix that Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) staff and New York Ski Education Foundation (NYSEF) coaches then pour onto the track to freeze. Once the track was completed and frozen, the track cutter smoothed the ice.
The tracks being slushed. Photos provided.
The team was able to get on the hill for their first training session on December 5th. “It was good to get some training on our home hill before we went to the competition,” said Jack Kroll ’26.
After a weekend of training, the team split up to head to their first competitions. Henry Loher ’26 and Eli Larkin ’27 traveled to Norway to compete in a FIS Cup. The FIS Cup is an international competition level that is the first step to the World Cup. For both Loher and Larkin, it was “not our first FIS Cups, but it still was a valuable experience,” said Larkin. The pair had fewer training sessions than their competitors due to lengthy travel and adverse weather conditions. Ultimately, the results were “not quite what we hoped,” said Loher.
Jack Kroll ’26 in 2nd on the U20 US Cup podium. Photo provided.
The other half of the team traveled to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to compete in the first winter US Cup of the 2025-2026 season. The team included Jack Kroll ’26, Cadel Cox ’27, Duncan Van Dorn ’28, and Islay Sheil ’28. The US Cup is the highest level of domestic competition. “We got solid training while there leading into the competition, and I think that showed in our results,” said Kroll. Kroll took home 2nd place in a close battle for the U20 US Cup podium. Van Dorn finished 6th in the jumping, and Cox finished 10th. Sheil got 9th in the U20 girls.
For Nordic Combined, both Cox and Van Dorn were scheduled to race, but Cox was “pretty sick and unable to race.” Van Dorn showed good pace and strong skiing even at the altitude. He dropped back 1 place over the 7.5 km Compact race, finishing in 5th.
For Nordic, Max Fey ’28 competed in the ADK Tour De Ski and finished 1st.