Gunstock Nordic News

Fundraiser - The Motorcycle Hillclimb: For those of you that don't know.....motorcycles race up our big ski jump landing hill during the huge Motorcycle Week event that happens in the Lakes Region every June. GNA gets right out there and cooks up burgers and hotdogs on all the grills we can find. We serve coffee, cookies, donuts, chips and drinks - have a blast doing it and raise money at the same time. The weather for this was not great this year....bummer! We did not come out as good as we have in the past, but we did have fun. Thanks go to all the GNA and non-GNA members that turned out to help us out!!

Austria Ski Training Camp: the Austria Camp was once again a huge success....18 athletes participated and spent two weeks in Ramsau. The training included skiing on the Dachstein Glacier, roller skiing in Ramsau, hiking and running in the numerous trails all around the town, and strength/technique sessions at the Pension. Weather conditions were definitely not spectacular this time, but it did not seem to dampen spirits too much! A few highlights of the trip were the afternoon spent at the local high ropes course. Four increasingly difficult levels of ropes courses that challenged everyone! The video footage has some awesome shots: Amanda inching across hanging logs, Tom, did you forget to grab the net or was that Corinne? How about Amy, upside down on the Flying Fox....Emily, talking to herself to as she crossed sections of the black course. Then there were those on the top of the first platform of the black course trying to find some courage and arm strength to cross the ladder. What a day! Another highlight was the trip to shop in Schladming. Natives got a good show from the "Conehead trio" (Ask Katrina, Ingrid and Jenia about that one!) Anyway, a great camp, lots of photos, lots of video and best of all, wonderful memories for all!

GNA Summer Camp #1: While Nina was back in her homeland for a visit, Igor coached the week-long camp here in Gilford. Participants stayed at a local B&B, trained on Igor's Strength Course, roller skied in various locations, went swimming, had BBQ's, hiked and ran till they could do no more! The week was quite hot, so it was a real plus to have the lake so close by for frequent, refreshing swims!

GNA Summer Camp #2: Pretty much the same as the first summer camp, except that Nina was also coaching. More swimming, more movies, more sweat and hard work - Awesome job from another great group of athletes, Russian and American - who else could coach in those two languages?? (Kevin.....I'm keeping my scissors with me, and Leah, don't trip over your tongue)

Summer Training: A group of athletes has continued training with Igor & Nina for the whole summer. The schedules were at times confusing, due to a variety of work schedules, etc. that needed to be accommodated. Nina and Igor did find a new hill to train on.....ask Katrina, Alex and Sam about that one!

Now Fall is upon us. School sports are taking up many hours of the athletes time and the real steady training won't resume until the end of October. The plan is to head for Canada over Thanksgiving break and then the real fun on snow should begin!

Gunstock Nordic News

Two years ago I switched from my previous ski team to GNA, and I'm glad I did. I love training with my coaches, Igor and Nina.

They are serious about their work, but they make training fun for everyone. By breaking up the team into groups for practices,

each individual gets the most out of their training. GNA is a great place for everyone from beginning skiers to seasoned veterans.

No matter what your level of skiing is, you will have a positive experience at GNA.

All in all, I'm glad I joined GNA for the skiing and for the great community attached to it.
Sincerely,
Meredith Cline.

Another summer has is over - at least the calendar says so! The temperatures sure don't reflect fall yet. So, before we move on to winter activities,

ets take a moment to review the past spring, summer and all that happened with GNA.

Here are the winners for the 2003-2004 ski season...Congratulations to all on a very successful year!

BKL Participation Award: Monique Baron, Danielle Baron, Evgenia Badamshina, Zachary Baron, Jeffrey Baron,

Jim Maddock, Jenna Maddock, Jack Schrupp, Tessa Schrupp, Kevin Hackett, Hannah Slattery

There have been some serious complications with our web provider and the use of our own site, so up-dates have not been possible till now. Anyway, the spring of 2004 has come down upon us. Here in central NH we have seen quite a few very warm sunny days. Schools are coming close to an end and that means there is lots of training to come for our year round athletes in GNA! Lots to look forward to this spring and summer.

As for the what is new here at Gunstock Nordic, Igor has built a new strength and conditioning center for dry-land training during the summer. He has also started cutting new trails on Alpine Ridge. Trails have been cleared of the annoying overhanging branches, and new trails have been cut to accommodate for the BKL races. Also in cutting these trails Igor has a special project in mind for next summer; it's "Top Secret" but it includes JULY 4 and SNOW, and that is all we shall release here as of now. Pay attention for upcoming news.

On the Ski Jumping side of GNA, Geoff has been attempting to make the judges tower on the large hill sturdy again. Our bid for the 2006 Junior Olympics is in it's final stages at the United States Ski and Snowboard Associations annual meetings, and we should be getting the final "yes" in a matter of weeks. The reconstruction of the K50 meter hill will start as soon as plans are drawn up by our friend Don West. Plans include the re-designing of the entire in-run and landing hill of the K50 meter hill.

Andy and other members of the Board of Directors have been putting in COUNTLESS hours to get projects done. Of course one is trying to get things finalized for the Annual Gunstock Hill Climb coming in June. Others include writing and applying for a grant to reconstruct the existing trail system at Gunstock. This will give us the ability to make trails wide enough to fit a full sized snow cat through to groom the trails, allow proper drainage and cut the underbrush that constantly tries to take over our skiing trails. Also, on the HUGE list of jobs that these wonderful volunteers, like the Howes, have put together is a Competition Center. Our current "competition center" consists of the infamous "jump shack" and that is all it is, a shack. This project being pushed forward primarily by the Howes and Mr. McGuffin, is well on its way to becoming a reality. We are all looking forward to seeing a building where our family of skiers can all congregate for meetings, races, daily training sessions and countless other purposes. Everyone should pass their thanks on to the members of the Board for their amazing work. THANKS GUYS!

Lots of things have been going on these past few months. The new snowmaking line on Fletcher Hale is operational and we have hosted our first BKL event on this course. To see results for this race go to our RESULTS page.

Gunstock Nordic Association has put in a bid for the 2006 Junior Olympic National Championships for Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined and have past the first step in hosting it. At the "Eastern Ski Jumping & Nordic Combined" winter meeting the Eastern Division has awarded Gunstock Nordic Association with the Junior Olympics, so now we move on to the National Committee in Anchorage Alaska in March. From there it will then go on to the United States Ski and Snowboard Association for approval. This is great news and a huge event, we will be looking forward to hosting approximately 80 junior skiers from all over the country. We will be looking for a lot of help to pull this event off, so keep us in mind when you have a free min.

The board of Directors of Gunstock Nordic Association has decided to purchase a "Winch Cat" from Piston Bully for grooming purposes on our cross country trails and ski jumps. Pictures should be coming soon, as well as the cat it's self! With this addition to GNA we will become a serious club able to host large events and have wonderful skiing on our trails and jumps. This is such an important tool for the club, especially for the ski jumps, because using it's winch it can climb the very very steep landing hill of all our jump hills. More information will be coming soon, so look here for updates on the progress!

Where to start...I must first apologize for taking so long to update this part of the site. BUT, by waiting long enough there have been a lot of new additions and lots of new news to tell you all about.

First lets talk about the new coaches we have hired here at GNA, In June of 2003 we hired a coach by the name of Geoff Howe who ran practices all summer and early fall, he is officially our Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined coach. Then this fall we finalized plans with our Russian friends, and have hired Nina Gavriluk as our head cross-country coach. Please join us for our up-coming event "Meet the Coaches" For more information go to our home page and click on the link provided.

All summer and early fall we have been working on our ski jumps and cross-country trails. This included brush cutting and tree cutting and lots and lots of weed whacking! On the ski jumps themselves we have installed brand new stairs on the K87 meter, and driven pipes in the ground for grade boards on the K 28. We also filled the gabions at the end of the K 28 with rock, so they won't go anywhere this year.

This fall we have installed snow making pipes on our "Fletcher Hale" loop so we now have a full 2.5 Kilometers of trail with snow making and lights. There have been a lot more things happening, but to put it down here would take up pages and pages, so if you want to know more about what is going on here at GNA I suggest you contact a member of our Board of Directors, you can find out how by clicking on our "Board of Directors" link.