Dear Members, 

What a season!  Another ski season has come to a close, and we’re so grateful to all of you for making the winter so much fun. Kids and adults learned to downhill ski, cross-country ski, ski jump,do biathlon, and snowboard this winter. Older kids competed through Blackhawk at the local, state, and junior national level. Adults trained for the Birkie at Blackhawk or race biathlon at the club. People fat biked all winter, snowshoed around the perimeter trail, gathered around the outdoor fire by the West Chalet, and celebrated the joy Blackhawk brings to our winter days.  

News from Around the Club 

Program Directors recently met to recap their season and the theme could be summarized by Awesome Snowmaking and Grooming! As Kelley said it best, “It’s easy to teach kids to ski when the snow is so good!” This year, nearly every flake out there had to be made by people, most of whom are volunteers – thank you Joe House, Don Wylie, Rick Hardy, Matt Ginder-Vogel, and all the other volunteers. Huge thank you to our Lead Snowmaker, Casey Bingham, who has had so much fun making snow, he has accepted our offer to stay on as our year-round facilities manager! Our grooming crew came out nightly November through March to make sure hills and trails were prepped. All of this takes machinery, so thank you to our mechanic and superhero Craig Kleinstieber, who kept the groomer in action, which was no easy task! Thank you to all who made this winter season a success! 

A special shout out to our Nordic Kids’ corporate sponsor, Wildside Action Sports, who donated half the cost of renewing our fleet of youth classic cross-country skis. We are finally retiring most of the fleet donated by Susan Stone Remington (late mother to Pat Remington) which has lasted 20 years! Wildside owner Pete Schmitz is happy to support kids’ learn-to-ski programs in southern Wisconsin, and we are pleased to partner with him!  

*NEW* Registration Platform Coming April 7! 

Our colleagues at Ski Club Pro have been working hard to address our needs as a club and tailor our registration and communication to the variety of memberships and programs we offer. We’re happy to announce that a brand-new registration platform is coming April 7. There will be many benefits, including the ability of multiple parents to access their household account, simpler program registration, an improved payment system, and multiple communication tools. 

All members will need to register their families in the new system. For those purchasing mountain biking and hiking year-round memberships, registration will be available to you starting April 7. Full Access and Limited Access members will need to register if you plan on purchasing youth mountain biking lessons. Otherwise, Full and Limited access members will register their families in the system in September. Full and Limited access members do not need to purchase a separate biking/hiking membership – it is included! 

Youth Mountain Biking lesson registration will open April 12 at 7pm for all members   

Great news! We have increased capacity in our youth mountain biking lesson program! We are excited to be offering more opportunities for kids to learn to bike this summer and fall. Check out the website for details. 

April Annual Meeting: 

Please join us for Blackhawk’s annual membership meeting on April 11 at 7pm on Zoom!

Blackhawk Youth Participate in Events Around the U.S. (and the Olympics!)

Congratulations to our youth participating in select junior events around the U.S.! 

Ski Jumping: Estella Hassrick competed in FIS Continental Cup in Park City, UT and FIS Continental Cup in Lake Placid, NY (and Junior Nationals). 

Blackhawk Alpine Race Team participated in the state finals.

Blackhawk Nordic Ski Team: Sophie Stephenson and Dietrich Mattison, Junior Nationals at Wirth Park in Minneapolis; Theo Hubbanks at U16 CXC team at the Western Club Championships at Bogus Basin in (near) Boise, Idaho.

Blackhawk Youth Biathlon: Mark Torresani and Mike Conway have a crew out at Biathlon Nationals in Lake Placid including Sophia Jedlewska, Amelia Kydd, Cole Kleinstieber, Jasper Rothenberg, Finn Rothenberg and Edison Bynum – our team represents 3 states! Not skiing due to injury but pictured here is Julia Torresani. 

Youth Program Alums:  Lily Hubanks, who skis for St Olaf College, took 1st place in the Women’s 15km Classic Mass Start at the USCSA National Championships in Lake Placid, NY. Alice House skis for University of New Hampshire and took 16th in the East for the Middlebury Carnival 20k mass start skate race and 16th for the UNH Regionals 5k classic. At Regionals, Alice scored points for UNH which finished second in team competition (the team scores include points from both Nordic and Alpine men and women). And, of course, congratulations to Anna Hoffmann who made her Olympic ski jumping debut this year in Beijing! 

Congratulations to all our Blackhawk alums out there enjoying a lifelong love of outdoor sports! 

Upcoming Events 

Spring Nordic Kids will be held 4 Sundays in April and May.  Registration is open now! We will have running games, pole hiking, and strength and agility training (which may look a lot like trail maintenance!). Please email me if you are interested in helping with Spring Nordic Kids xckids@blackhawkskiclub.org 

Join us for a Spring family campout at Blackhawk April 29. Arrive outside biathlon haus anytime after 5pm to set up your tent and hang out! Games will begin sometime after 7pm with night hike to follow. Rain or shine (We are hardy campers!) Members only, please! 

Mountain Biking, Hiking, and Outdoor Exploration 

Blackhawk has been growing in popularity for mountain biking as we’ve built and maintained new trails. And now we’ve added the perimeter trail for hiking, the Otter Den for picnicking, and a bunch of cool outdoor events, like birdwatching, night hikes, and campouts. Keep an eye on the website, email, and Instagram and Facebook for updates and MadCityDirt for mountain bike trail conditions. Mountain biking and hiking maps are on the website. We’ve got a new web page for Land Restoration and Ecological Stewardship Events. Join us to pull invasive plants, plant native plants and trees, and celebrate this beautiful land by hiking, birdwatching, and camping. Plus, thanks to board member Jill Stevenson and intern Lily Hubanks, we have a sold-out Outdoor Exploration program for kids! 

News from the Otter Den 

Spring has sprung! Members can enjoy Blackhawk’s red-tailed hawks by hiking near Hill 2 (place link for hiking trail map) and enjoy watching this nest captured by Cornell bird scientists from home.

Prime the Pump Fundraising Campaign Continues 

Thank you to all who have generously donated to PRIME THE PUMP! With your help, we are over a third of the way to paying for the drilling of the high capacity well. We are grateful to be in this position, AND we still need your support to make this pump a reality. Please consider a donation today! 

Reminders 

See you soon! 

The Blackhawk Board of Directors