The Rikert Ski Touring Center at the Bread Loaf Mountain Campus in Ripton, Vt. hosted the 2011 TD Bank Bill Koch League Festival on Saturday, Feb. 26 and Sunday, Feb. 27. The two-day event hosted over 500 five- to thirteen-year-old racers, marking the highest participation rate yet.
In April 2010, Frost Mountain Nordic, Addison County’s cross-country ski club, put in a bid to the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA) with hopes of hosting the annual Bill Koch Festival at Bread Loaf. Bruce Ingersoll, who skied for Bates College’s nordic team and graduated from Breadloaf in 1996, was co-chair of the Bill Koch Festival this year, and was proud to organize the event. A resident of Middlebury, Ingersoll worked closely with his co-chairs, Chris and Barney Hodge, the owners of Sunrise Orchards in Middlebury. Since receiving the good news last spring, the three have met on a weekly basis.
“This festival is a celebration of cross-country skiing,” said Ingersoll, who also works at Camp Keewaydin on Lake Dunmore. “This is the biggest event Rikert has ever hosted. It is good for our community, good for our club and good for the sport.”
Ingersoll was personally pleased with his own club, Frost Mountain Nordic. When he moved to Middlebury in 2006 with his wife and two daughters, there were eight children skiing for Frost Mountain. Now the club boasts a youth program of 95 cross-country skiers from across Addison County.
“It is great fun to all get together,” said Andy Grab, a coach for the Mansfield nordic team, located in Mount Mansfield, Vt. “There is energy and smiles, and it’s a warm 15 [degrees]. It is nice there is no wind.”
Each year, the festival organizers pick a theme and encourage participants to dress up for their races. The event was held in Maine last year, and the host site played with its coastline location and chose a “Ski the Wave” themed-festival. As Robert Frost was a frequent summer visitor to Breadloaf, Ingersoll and his co-chairs found inspiration for this year’s theme from Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Ingersoll and his team appropriately named the festival “Skiing by the Woods on a Snowy Day” and encouraged participants and attendees to dress as animals from Frost’s forest. Ingersoll himself took the lead and wore a bear suit.
“I was amazed at the support of the Middlebury community,” he said. “Everyone gave much time and money to the event. It is a really cool thing and the intentions are great.”
Eight different age groups competed at the Bill Koch Festival. On Saturday, after the opening parade, there were a series of mass-start, two-person relays, with each team member skiing two kilometers. Younger kids skied Picnic Loop, while the older ones competed on Battell trail. All racers represented their respective ski clubs, which the event grouped according to region — Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and upstate New York. There are a total of 12 clubs in New England. Ingersoll explained that there is no scoring at the festival, but racers’ results are published.
Christian Ostberg, a 12-year-old from Darien, Ct., skies for Craftsbury Nordic, a team based out of northeastern Vt. Ostberg travels to Stowe, Vt. on the weekends to ski. This year, Ostberg and his 13-year-old brother competed on a relay team together.
“I started skiing since before I can remember,” he said, but credits his dad’s Norwegian background to his love of the sport. “This is an awesome setting. It was a great place to host the event.”
Following the races on Saturday, families were encouraged to join their kids on the Frost Cabin Forest Animal Cruise, a casual, non-competitive opportunity to explore the Rikert Ski Center on skis. Later, a pasta dinner and a silent auction delighted many at Middlebury Union High School. On Sunday, individual competitions were timed, as were the Lollipop Races for the youngest members of the crowd, five and six-year-olds.
Ingersoll and the event staff were all volunteers; any profit made at the festival goes directly to the Frost Mountain Club.
“Any profit goes back to … supporting the kids,” he said. “It also
helps support coaches clinics, which then promotes the sport in Addison County.”
The Bill Koch League is currently in the process of becoming a non-for-profit organization. Its paperwork is pending.
Various venders were also on site over the weekend, including Olivia’s Croutons from New Haven, Vt., Two Guys in Vermont, a soup company based out of Montpelier, Vt. and Vermont Natural Foods from Randolph, Vt., which makes homemade specialty dressings and vinaigrettes. Jen Nemi, a volunteer for Ski Vermont, a non-for-profit that promotes skiing, helped out at the Vermont Natural Foods’ tent.
“It is a very well-attended event. I am impressed,” said Nemi, herself a Nordic and downhill skier.
While the College ski teams hoped to attend the festival, they were at Bates College for the NCAA Regional Championships on Saturday and Sunday. Nonetheless, Ingersoll said both teams were very supportive, and he especially appreciated the help of Andrew Gardner, the head coach of the men’s and women’s Nordic teams. He also thanks Corrine Prevot ’13, as she donated several of her homemade Skida hats to the staff.
“Our motto is, if you have a question then ask the hat,” said Ingersoll.
Nordic racer, Chase Marston ’12 participated in the festival from sixth through eighth grade. He believes it is “an important tradition for skiing because it brings all the young skiers throughout New England together and allows them to meet, befriend and hang out with each other.” A Charlotte, Vt. native, Marston thought Breadloaf was the “perfect venue” for the weekend’s festivities and wished he could have watched the races, as they were the favorite of his career thus far.
“The racing is fun, but the importance of the festival is the lasting effects of the fostering of such a tight knit community,” he said. “This is so evident today. My favorite part of skiing is still the people and the community, and most of my best friends in the sport are from the festival days.”
Austin Cobb ’14, a fellow skier, said the annual snowball fight at the festival is his fondest memory. A participant in the event from the age of 5 to thirteen, Cobb feels he would not be skiing today if it had not been for the Bill Koch League.
“This year, when it [the festival] was up at Rikert, there were way more people than there were at the Middlebury Carnival, which shows just how large of an event the festival is,” said Cobb. “It shows that Nordic skiing is growing in Middlebury and is becoming a prominent and important sport in the area.”
Keely Levins ’13, Marston’s teammate, also competed in the festival from the age of six to 13. She said it is “an important tradition because it pulls skiing out of the many niches of New England, and for days, makes this scattered community whole.” When the event was held in Putney, Vt, both Marston and Levins remember the theme was “Olympians.” Vermont Olympians led the opening parade and spoke with the racers during the two days about their skiing experiences and memories.
Other students from the College also volunteered at the event. Stephen Lammers ’13 and Katie McFarren ’14, members of the Student Emergency Response Team (SERT), were on call in case of emergency or injury.
“It is cool that everyone comes out for an event like this,” said McFarren.
Ingersoll believes Bill Koch is an “innovator” and was thrilled with the outcome of the weekend’s festivities. He said there is “a lot of momentum to continue events like this” in the future and feels the Bill Koch Festival was an important event not only for the racers, but for the community as well.
Annual Bill Koch Festival celebrates shared passion for skiing
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