Maria Stuber (National Silver Medalist)
to
give 2 clinics at Lapham
Lapham’s own Maria Stuber,
fresh from a second place finish at this year’s cross
country ski Nationals, will be back in the area to give two
skating clinics on roller skis. The first (June 23, 2009, 6
P.M.) is for ladies only; note this is the correct date -
the date on the following flyer is incorrect.
Lapham
Women's Clinic Flyer 2009 The second clinic, Thursday
(June 25th, 6P.M.) is open to all. Lapham Clinic Flyer
2009 Maria was
also named the May Athlete of the Month by Silent
Sports. Click here for more thorough update on
Maria’s accomplishments.
Click here for more
details.
U.S. Nordic Skiers Have Best World Championships or
Olympics, EVER!
What is the Lapham Connection?
Keep reading. The architect may surprise you.
This is a photo, from the
80’s, of young teenaged racer, Luke Bodensteiner, and
he is the connection. Luke, recently promoted to Vice President of
Athletics for the USSA, has been the
architect of the US’s emergence into the elite
group of Nordic Nations. (For a while, this year, the
U.S. was actually leading the medal count at the Nordic
Worlds, finally ending up third overall, only behind
Norway and Finland. Click here for more complete
story.) But wait, we’re
getting ahead of ourselves. Just what is the possible
connection of young Luke Bodensteiner, Lapham Peak and
the recent U.S. emergence as a world Nordic power? Well,
here is the connection and it’s not nearly as
convoluted as the “6 degrees of Kevin
Bacon.”
Luke got his start in racing under the lights of Heritage
Ridge, back in the early days of Wednesday Night Races.
When our Wednesday night ski course became a Walmart, off
highway 83, Bob Sandless (owner of Kettle Moraine sports)
donated the lights to Lapham Peak. So our lighted loop is a
direct descendent of Luke’s early Wednesday Night
race course and if Luke were starting now, he’d be
racing at Lapham, just like many young skiers now do. (See
below to read about this year’s Lapham Peak H.S.
State Champs.)
To make a long
story short, Luke went on to win many National
Championships, was an NCAA ski champion, and two time
Olympian (’92 & ‘94). After retiring from
competition, Luke joined the USSA staff in
1996 and became nordic director in 2001, overseeing cross
country, nordic combined and ski jumping. During his tenure
he was responsible for developing the programs which
ultimately led to the present success. Just last March,
Luke had been promoted to become associate athletic
director of high performance, and then was promoted again
to VP of the USSA last November. The USSA's sports include
alpine skiing, cross country, disabled alpine and cross
country, freestyle, nordic combined and ski jumping, and
snowboarding. (To get more details on Luke and the program
click on the following links. Link 1. Link 2.)
So who knows what future impact the “lights of
Lapham” will be, but you don’t have to go any
further than to stop some winter evening to find skiers of
all ages who are now enjoying this privilege. And with
snowmaking, it won’t be an on-again, off-again
affair. (To donate money to the ongoing snowmaking project,
click the “Make a Donation” button in the
sidebar.)
Peak HS State Champs Use Lapham’s Manmade Snow to
Prepare for Madison Sprints
(Photo by Ed Muzik)
Evidently our Peak Nordic
high school team made the most out of Lapham’s
manmade snow; both girls’ and boys’ teams
finished second in the State HS Sprint Championships. In
addition, the boys garnered a first in the Open Division,
with the girls again finishing second. Click here for results.
Peak Boys Team Wins State HS Championship
Girls Take Second
Matt Dugan on
way to 2nd overall. (Photo by Dennis Loy)
Click here for Team
Photos in
2009 Slideshow
Note: The following is the
correct information on the State Championships. If you saw
the first posting, there was some erroneous information.
Better let Mary Eloranta, head coach, explain it in her own
words.
“We WON! The boys won
by one point over Wausau West! Hayward girls won and a tie
between Peak Nordic and Wausau West came down to the 4th
girl to break the tie and put the Peak Nordic girls in
second place. We put 2 boys and 2 girls in the top ten for
the pursuit races. Eddie Gurney, Matt Dugan, Felicia
Gesior, Krista White. Peak Nordic is now a club team that
accepts athletes from all area schools. We currently have
athletes from 6 area high schools. Arrowhead, Oconmowoc,
Waukesha West, West Allis, Kettle Moraine and Brookfield.
We morphed out of Waukesha West when we were not allowed to
accept skiers from other schools on to the team. Donna
Hoelz and I have been doing his gig for 9 years and Boyd
Coleman for more and we finally got ourselves a State
Championship Team! We are happy happy
happy!”
To view complete individual race results and a gorgeous
photoset on skinnyski.com, click here. In
addition, all Wednesday night race results are also
posted on skinnyski.com. Note: H.S. races,
click here.
Adult races, click here.
Lapham Peak’s Whales
(Photo by Kris
and John Maki)
These huge piles of snow
are affectionately called Lapham’s whales. Because of
the unusual winter, with all it’s natural snow,
Lapham Peak’s snowmaking project has largely gone
unnoticed. But now that the meltdown is here, things have
changed. There is more than enough snow in the whales to
cover the manmade loop, once the meltdown is past, and some
snow spreading has begun. Click here (or on the button in
the sidebar) to check the Trail Conditions page for
daily updates. Click here to view the slide show
of the snow whales and other snowmaking photos.
(2/7/09)
Snowmaking Update
Ed Muzik
installing the underground pipes.
Click here for complete
slideshow.
Again, this year, steady
progress has been made on the snowmaking project. But
again, we’ve had a great year of natural snow, so
much of the improvement to Lapham’s snowmaking has
gone unnoticed. First, the underground water delivery
system has been installed. This will greatly enhance the
snowmaking capabilities as much valuable time (during low
temperature nights) was wasted moving the above ground
hoses. As of today (February 5th) enough snow has been
stockpiled and is ready for spreading after the predicted
warmup this weekend. I will be updating this site every few
days to chronicle the progress of Lapham Snowmaking. ( Lee
Borowski)
Loppet HS results and photoset
Photo by Sean Becker
Click here for Sean Becker’s
complete photoset of the HS/middleschool portion of the
Lapham Loppet. Thanks again to skinnyski.com for
providing a central clearing house for Midwest racing.
The reason most of us didn’t know the results and
photos were there was because Bruce Adelsman had them
posted in a new high school only section. The race race
results are also posted on this skinnyski.com HS
page.
Chad Tolbert repeats as 2009 Lapham Loppet Winner
Results,
video and photoset of race below.
Photo
by John Wilkie.
Katie Brekke was the
woman’s winner, edging out last year’s winner
Joellen Torresana by 17 seconds. Click here for complete results at
skinnyski.com. Click here for the results of the
junior race, Meet at the Peak. For an interesting
perspective of the race from a mountain bike and ski
racer, click here. If you missed the
race, the following links will make you feel that you
are there. John Wilkie (above photo) and Sean Becker
have each posted s photoset of the entire race at
skinnyski.com. In addition, Sean has
posted a video of the entire race, including the photo
finish, which can be accessed at skinnyski.com or
youtube. I can’t resist
making a comment about the video footage. First the
camera work is excellent but secondly, I was a amazed at
the “world class” skating technique
exhibited throughout the entire field. Worth viewing
before heading out to ski, just to get the feeling of
exquisite skating.
The Lapham Loppet is on for Saturday January 17, 2009
Great
news! The Lapham Loppet has been rescued by this last
snowfall. All proceeds go to the Lapham Peak Friends
Snowmaking Project. You may now register online by
clicking here.
Registration is limited to 200. To view the entire
Loppet brochure, with downloadable entry blank,
click here.
Photo by
John Wrycza from last year’s
Loppet.
Find the best current SE Wisconsin skiing
conditions!
Looking
for the up-to-date snow reports on the internet, where
you'll find the latest information from the groomers
themselves? Click here to go to this very
site,
sponsored by The Friend's of Lapham Peak. It features
official reports on Lapham Peak, Nordic, Scuppernong,
McMiller, Zilmer, Greenbush and Fox Hill. In addition,
you can view the latest ski conditions from the eyes the
the skiers themselves, and if you'd like, enter your own
report.
Roll 4 Snow Rollerski Race 11/08
Lapham Snowmaking Fundraiser
A 28 K
rollerski race will start at the Nordic Ski Trail parking
(LaGrange, WI) at 10 AM, Saturday, November 8th. Proceeds
will be donated to Lapham Peak Snowmaking.
For more details click here.
I'd
also encourage you to browse their exceptional website
to see what local skiers are doing.
661 Participants for the 20th Annual Colorama Run/Walk
Chad
Tolbert and Megan Rugowski were top man and top woman
at the 20th annual Lapham Peak Colorama 10 K Run. Jon
Waltz and Holly Ochs were the respective winners of the 5 K
race. Again this event was a huge success, earning
over $9400 as the principal fundraiser for the Friends of
Lapham Peak. This marked the 20th year for race
director Kris Maki, the first and only director the race
has ever had. Click here to view all the
results.
Click here for detailed report on the
Colorama Run/Walk.
Pipe has arrived!
The pipe for the snowmaking
project was delivered to Lapham Peak on Aug. 14, 2008.
John McCarthy, the lead engineer on this project was there
to check the delivery. Bob and Jane Misslich posed with the
pipe that their $3000 donation helped to buy. (John Lupo)
Note:
The instillation of the underground water delivery system,
using these pipes, will complete the 1st phase of the
snowmaking project.
Click here to read about the
next step.
Colorama Run
Smokey
Bear Fun Run participants, Jacob and Jenna (race director
Kris Maki's grandchildren) pass out water at last year's
Colorama 10K Run. The event raised nearly $10,000 for the
Lapham Friends. This year will be the 20th for Kris, who's
been race director since the start. Click here for a history
of Colorama.
This year's event will be held on October 4th, 2008 at
Homestead Hollow. The 5K/10K runs and 4K walk begin at
10:00 a.m. The Fun Run, for participants 10 and under
begins at 11:25 a.m. Run/walk participants receive a long
sleeve, custom-designed T-shirt. Fun Run participants
receive short sleeve T-shirts. Click here for a downloadable
registration form.
Extended Hunting Seasons OKed by State Legislature
Fortunately, no hunting is allowed in the
Lapham Peak Unit but wear your blaze orange if you plan on
skiing over the Christmas week in the South Kettle.
Click here for the complete deer hunting
seasons in the Chronic Wasting Disease
zones.
History of Lapham Snowmaking
Click on
the Archives (located in sidebar) for the entire history of
Lapham Snowmaking.