Wrapping up 2025
January 12, 2026
Happy New Year from EMXC! The team is excited for many fun skiing excursions in the new year, but before we look ahead, let’s reflect on the last weeks of 2025, which were jam-packed with racing and training.
Eastern Cup #1
Eastern Cup #1 in Holderness, NH kicked off our holiday season on the weekend of December 20-21. The weekend looked like it was going to be chaotic with rain followed by a big freeze followed by more warm weather. In reality, mother nature went easy on us, and great fun was had by all.
Saturday
Saturday’s race was a skate sprint, and our juniors threw down one of our team's biggest sprint days in recent memory, with 7 boys and 3 girls qualifying for their age-group heats, and 2 girls for the open heats! For many folks this was their first time ever in the heats, so it was a pretty big deal, and lots of celebrating was in order.
As coach Chris noted in a recent team email “Leigh and Fran comfortably qualified for open heats amidst a large field of college skiers. Hannah P. skied a highly tactical U18/U20 quarterfinal to earn a lucky loser spot and move up into the U18/U20 final. Saku qualified for the U16 boys heats in his first Eastern Cup as a junior. April pushed all the way to the finish in her U16 semifinal and beat out a New Hampshire skier in a lunge. Emma showed us gutsy racing, flying out of the woods in first to win both her semifinal and final, finishing 3rd U16 overall on the day. Calvin, Jasper, Sid, Egor, Thomas, and Leigh were breathing down the necks of their competitors, all fighting to a close 3rd or 4th place in their first heats, and all just missing moving on by a hair.” In addition, Lukas C, Matthew K, and Zach were all just seconds off of qualifying!
Even better than the results, though, was the energy surrounding the team on Saturday. Many athletes could be seen uplifting their teammates, congratulating them, and cheering for racers in the heats. Ben, Andrew, Iris, and many others led the charge in the afternoon cheering department! What a way to kick off the season!
Sunday
Sunday was another great day full of team spirit and impressive racing. Folks showed up, tired legs and all, to bring their best energy to a classic 5/10k. While Leigh, Emma, and Thomas placed in the top 10 of their age groups, Keira, Ulrika, Zach, Nolan, Tyler and Ben all raced their first 10k’s as U18s. They had all prepared for this event, having dialed in their warmups and pacing strategies at our time trial with Dublin the week prior. Zach was even our team’s top U18/20 finisher! Our first year U16s also raced their first Eastern Cup distance races - mastering the kick testing and getting to the start on time. Grit and determination were on full display - Ian strided up the hill gracefully, April fought the steep uphill and overcame the challenge, and Shay put on one of the best “pain cave” faces ever.
Chris shared another wholesome note with the team: “Racing alongside our college-aged alumni was another highlight. I counted eight overall-top-10 finishes from EMXC Juniors alumni Evie Walton, Sofia Scirica, Shea Brams (who won on Sunday), and Nathan Doughty (who earned his second-ever Eastern Cup podium on Sunday), as well as to strong efforts from Rowan Verghese (qualifying for U18/U20 heats on Saturday), Clara Lake, Amelia Tucker, Francesca Kitch, and Elizabeth Graziani. These college skiers spent many, many hours training at Weston Ski Track when they were EMXC Juniors and have continued to work hard for their successes in college.”
MSA Camp
After a few days with family, the team made the trek across the border to Canada. We were so lucky this year to have some fantastic snow conditions for our annual Mont Sainte Anne camp (although not without one day of freezing rain). Regardless, we had 5 days of consistent skiing on nearly all of the trails at MSA.
Day 1:
We did some Long L3 skate intervals and classic technique work in the afternoon. Our first workout was a chilly one, with temperatures floating around zero degrees. It was a shock to our systems, but folks rallied for some unparalleled V1 climbing up towards mont sainte hillaire. This was probably the most gruelling workout of camp, and we had it done and dusted on the first day!
In the afternoon, we classic skied, took video, and reviewed it inside the lodge in small groups after practice.
Day 2:
On the morning of day 2, the team gathered to wax skis with … blue hardwax (!!!) and headed out for a classic speed ski . Most groups went out for a scenic ski and did reaction speeds along the way. Coaches were impressed by everyone’s true L1 skiing (it’s easy to go too hard on these trails) and by the beauty of the snow trees and sunshine.
In the afternoon, we went out for a skate ski, took some video, and reviewed it after practice in the lodge. At this point, some of the fatigue of 4 workouts in 2 days was setting in, and athletes needed some gummies and snacks to rally for the video review portion of the day.
Day 3:
Sprint simulation day! The royal court sprint day is a fan favorite, despite the fact that we always seem to be battling funky weather every time we do it. This time, the day started out warm with beautifully groomed trails and no precipitation. However, as soon as athletes arrived to start skiing the course and warming up, a sharp, cold sleet began falling from the sky. At first, it was just a little ice, but as time went on and the qualifier ended, the wet ice had seeped through puffy coats, swix pants, and base layers and had most folks shivering. We had a tough bunch of athletes who stayed moving and kept warm as best they could, finishing out 4 rounds of sprinting through some of the toughest weather conditions they might ever have to sprint through!
With a very challenging morning in our rear-view mirrors, we decided to take the afternoon off to change layers, snack extra, and get warm. Later that evening, athletes gathered for a game night and team bonding.
Day 4:
Another fan favorite day is the distance day, where athletes ski for 2:00-2:30 at L1 pace. Athletes and coaches alike had their eyes set on trail 38 - a single track classic trail that snakes through the snowy trees. Because it’s single track, chatting with friends can be challenging, so the peace and quiet of the trail was easily experienced.
Skiers had the afternoon off to do fun family things. Many of them went on a family ski or took a trip into Quebec city to get food or hit the spa.
Day 5:
Last day! Many families left early in order to return to boston in the daylight, so our group size was smaller on the last day. Because of this, the crew headed to trail 24 in one big group of ~25 skiers. It was a cold day - even colder than the first day, which meant skiers were bundled up in puffy coats, buffs, and toe warmers. The upside of the cold was that this was one of those rare and special skis where it was cold enough for eyelashes to frost over - we all truly embraced mother nature (and some of us even grew snow mustaches)!
Post-camp
Some takeaways from camp: What an awesome bunch of humans! We are a group who can tackle challenges head-on, uplift one another, and show gratitude for the beautiful trails we get to ski on. Without each person working their hardest in all of these categories, we would not be growing together and getting better together. This week showcased a lot of hard work, big steps together as a team, and SO MUCH FUN!
This takeaway includes our volunteer coaches, who provided us with unwavering support and valuable feedback throughout the week - thank you Josh, Rebecca, Nate, Robert, and Evgeny for supporting us (this includes standing out in the freezing rain for hours).
Now… after a week of recovery and some extra off-days, everybody is hopping back into training in preparation for our second Eastern Cup. The team will be hitting the trails of Quarry Road for a 7.5k skate race and a 5/10k classic mass start on January 17th and 18th.