Mike Hecker
MSHSNSCA President

December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A decision has been made on the skate course for the State Meet and the Giants Ridge Invitational (formally the Mesabi East Invite) . The course will start out from the traditional Start/Finish area. Once the athlete leaves the start, they will ski straight out and take a left (sweeper) turn up to the Northern Lights. From there the athlete will continue on Northern Lights to the Summit Trail. Once on Summit Trail, the skiers will continue approximately 1.8k up the Summit. From there, the course moves to the challenging hills on the Cedar and Gold trails.  The course then finishes on the gold trail to the Stadium. John Filander will be producing a course map which we will post on our website, as well as the High School League's web site and Skinnyski.

The staff at Giant's Ridge presented several options to Bob O’Hara for the skate course. Both Pete Tremaine (President Elect) and I had the opportunity to ski all of them and this one provided the best compromise between a challenging course and the ability of our athletes to pass each other without interference.

This course provides at least 2 wide skating for most of the course (in some areas it could be widened to 3 lanes). This was an important component in the final course selection.

The course options and selection was based on 3 components:

Team Competition

True Pursuit Format

Individual Competition

Team competition is viewed as a significant part of our State Meet. A course was needed to allow for passing of all team members. The True Pursuit Format sends out teams members in seconds of each other and the need for a wide course in the first 3k is critical. We hope that the challenges of the hills on Cedar and Gold will separate the field and allow for an exciting finish.

Giant’s Ridge has bent over backwards to help. During the Holidays, John Finlander agreed to mark off the course and make it available to any teams that will be having winter camps at the Ridge. Also, I anticipate this course will be available for viewing between the Giant’s Ridge Invitational and the State Meet.

For those of you skiing the course either during the Holidays or at the Giant’s Ridge Invitational, your feedback is critical. Please voice your concerns (and suggested ways to improve it). I believe at our Spring meeting, as a membership, we need to review not only the new course, but our current format and look to ways to improve the event for our athletes.

Think Snow!