March 2024 Newsletter

Thanks to everyone for a great season of Alpine skiing and snowboarding; Nordic skiing, ski jumping and biathlon; snowshoeing; and fat biking! Despite the unpredictable weather, everyone made the most of their time on snow! Now, we look forward to mountain biking, hiking, and outdoor exploration this spring and summer. Remember that Full and Limited Access memberships include hiking and mountain biking!

Speaking of hiking and mountain biking, remember to renew those memberships starting 4/1. ALSO, we anticipate having registration open for youth mountain bike lessons around April 9. Keep an eye on your email and social media for more updates. We also offer private mountain bike lessons for all ages. See you on the trails.

Annual Meeting

Our Annual Meeting for all members will be held in the West Chalet at 7pm on Monday, April 15. We will recap the past year and elect new board members. Light food and drink will be provided. Please bring a lawn chair as we usually run out of seating.

Mountain Biking and Trail Work Updates

Our trails are drying out from the winter season and will soon be open. We're planning to join forces with Middleton Bike Park (MBP) this season and have joint trail workdays. We'd like to encourage Blackhawk members to join us at MBP for the April 13 workday and/or Blackhawk’s workday on April 27. Both will be held from 9-1 each Saturday, and more details will follow.

Honoring the Memory of Dirk Racine

Sadly, one of our longtime mountain bike members, Dirk Racine, passed away in December 2023 (read about Dirk here). In his will, he bequeathed a very generous gift to the Club. Dirk loved to come to Blackhawk to ride and spend time together with friends. Therefore, we are planning to use this gift to develop a “Gathering Place” in Dirk’s honor at the East Trailhead. Please contact us if you’d like to know more or would like to be involved in the planning process.

Weekly Thursday Club Rides June-August

We're starting a weekly Thursday evening "Club Ride," modeled after similar group rides sponsored by our local mountain bike association (CORP), for members of all ages and abilities. Thursdays, 6 PM, June-August, at the Eastside trailhead. Most people will ride for 1-2 hours, and many people stay after riding to socialize and enjoy snacks and beverages.

Rides will only happen when the trails are open. We will post the conditions at https://www.madcitydirt.com/index.php?action=trailconditions;display=6

If you’re an experienced rider and know our trails, we’d love for you to come out and help lead a group of riders. If you have questions or want to help organize the Club Ride, email us at bike@blackhawkskiclub.org.

Upcoming Outdoor Exploration Events

Sunday 3/24 6:30pm - Full Moon Night Hike

Join Outdoor Exploration for a Full Moon Night Hike on Sunday, March 24 @ 6:30pm! Bring your headlamps and the whole family!
Registration at https://blackhawkskiclub.org/youth-programs/outdoor-exploration or email jen.stclair@blackhawkskiclub.org

2024 Nordic Kids Winter-Summer Season!

We had harsh, cold wind for one Cookie race (Wednesday) and shorts and t-shirt weather for the other (Sunday)! That is kinda the summary of our weird weather winter, but we were out there almost every week learning how to cross-country ski. Thank you to all the parent volunteers, instructors, assistants, and junior assistants who make this program possible! We had over 150 kids learn to ski, many of whom put on skis for the first time this year. From parents with their tots to kids ready to ski competitively, we saw huge strides in balance, coordination, navigation of trails and hills, and most importantly, having fun outside in the winter! Join us for Nordic Kids this spring (all memberships welcome!) Sundays in April and early May.

Ski Jumping Update

We started the 2024 jumping season in good form with 50 kids signed up for ski jumping programs. Unfortunately, the warm temps we experienced in January made it impossible for our program to maintain our ski jumps. Thanks to a late season snow making effort, the jumping program was able to hold 5 make-up classes. It was great to see so many kids taking advantage of our make-up sessions and really enjoying the sport of ski jumping.

We would also like to congratulate Simon Walker for competing in Junior Nationals in Anchorage, Alaska in February. He had a great week and improved as the week went on.

If your jumper enjoyed their experience this winter, there are also summer and fall jumping opportunities. More info on non-snow jumping options will be coming out soon. Questions - jumping@blackhawkskiclub.org

Biathlon Update

The Blackhawk Biathlon season got off to a great start this year. We had six new middle schoolers, ten returning middle schoolers, and eleven returning high school biathletes. Although the race season was shortened because of El Nino, we were able to hold three races at Blackhawk and debuted the new Twin Creek Trail for one of the races. Three high school athletes, Cole, Amelia, and Sophia raced at the Youth and Junior Trails in December at Mt Itasca, Minnesota and saw some great competition. Most of our biathletes season ended at the start of March, when all the snow melted, and we were forced to cancel the last three races of the season. There is one athlete still in training: Amelia will be heading to Maine on March 19 to compete in the USBA Nationals. Good luck, Amelia! All in all, it was a great it was a great biathlon season, and we look forward to summer training.

Blackhawk Nordic Ski Team Update

With the unusually warm temps and lack of snow up north, it has been a very interesting season for the Blackhawk Nordic Ski Team. The team feels so fortunate that Blackhawk had some of the best snow in Wisconsin and that they had a great training season. We even successfully hosted two races at Blackhawk which normally would not have happened. Our ski season concluded the first weekend of March at the State Distance Championships in Cable on a manmade loop of snow in 55 degree weather. Our Middle School girls and boys teams both placed 5th out of 10 and our High School girls and boys teams both placed 8th out of 13. Many of our skiers had excellent races and contributed to solid team results! 3 skiers went on to compete at the national level: Sophie Stephenson in the U18 Women’s Junior National Championships, Dietrich Mattison in the U20 Men’s, held in Lake Placid, and Theo Hubanks in the U18 Men’s Junior National trip in Ottawa. Congrats to all our skiers!

Sophie Stephenson

Dietrich Mattison

Theo Hubanks

BART Update

Congratulations to our BART ski racers for a great season! Tucker Sturm and Ellie McNamar qualified for the Eastern High School championships. Ella Tieman qualified for and competed at the Rocky Central US Ski and Snowboard U14 Championships in Winter Park, and Ellie McNamar qualified and competed at the Rocky Central U16 Championships in Vail. The racers below qualified for the High School State Ski race this year.
James McNamar / Tucker Sturm / Orion Wilson / Magnus Oistad / Griffin Schumacher / Zach Zanoni / Callum Donovan / Cadel Donovan / Camryn Wirth / Rita Vavilov / Elizabeth McNamar / Juliette McMurray / Estella McMurray / Beatrice Barbouche