Bill Koch Festival

Dear Skiers,
This is a repeat of a message I sent a week or so ago. With a February 1 deadline coming up, I thought I would send out a reminder.

It is time to sign up for the New England Bill Koch Festival to be held theweekend of February 27-March 1 at the Notchview Reservation in Windsor, MA(near Pittsfield). For full information, go to the festival website whereyou can find lots of information about the festival:
http://www.nensa.net/page.php?id=2936

If you are interested in this event, I would encourage you to registerbefore February 20th so that you avoid a late fee. You should also make a reservation at theCrowne Plaza as soon as possible. Be sure to call them directly and ask tomake a reservation for the festival (don't go to central reservations--they will send you back to the hotel).

What is the Bill Koch Festival? It is a fun weekend of skiing for skiersborn after 1994. There are competitive events--an individual classic raceand a skate relay race, as well as non-competitive skiing--themini-marathon. For the youngest skiers, there are the lollypop races.There are kids from all over New England that come together to celebrate Nordic skiing.

The actual events start on Saturday morning, but most people try to arrive at the festival site by Friday afternoon, hopefully in time to check out the courses.

Most people will stay at the Crowne Plaza in Pittsfield--there is a pool there and the Saturday night Pasta Dinner and awards are held there. Inaddition, they set up a waxing room and are essentially the event headquarters. You can find out all of the lodging options at the festivalwebsite.

Our family went to our very first Bill Koch Festival in 2001 at Notchview. I remember the weekend vividly. Jackson skied in the lollypop race and thenskied in a relay as well. Carter spent most of the weekend skiing around avery short loop in the woods where they had decorated the trees with all sorts of trolls. Four years later, we returned and they were both racing in all of the events.

When you register, they will ask you for your club. If you are in the Cumberland, Freeport, Falmouth, Yarmouth, North Falmouth area, I would encourage you to sign up as part of Coastal Nordic. If you are from CapeElizabeth, your club is Cape Nordic. When they ask what district you arefrom, it is SOME (Southern Maine).

I know that western Massachusetts sounds like it is a long way away fromsouthern Maine (and it is about a four hour drive) and you might bewondering about snow in Massachusetts. Well, the best snow we have had atthe festivals were the two festivals at Notchview, the one at Stowe and lastyear at Gunstock.

Hopefully, we will have a good group of skiers from southern Maine attendingthis year. Morgan Laidlaw will join us as well for coaching and support!

Ted Hall846-4872