Oarsome Ski Classic - Saturday February 21st 2026 - Oak Hill Outdoor Center

[Upper Valley Rowing UVRF]

For those of you who have not yet participated in the Oarsome Ski Classic it is a wonderfully fun cross country ski race for rowers who ski of EVERY skill and ability. In prior years the times for the races ranged from under 20 minutes to over an hour - there are VERY FAST people and there are VERY SLOW people so there is no excuse not to come and join the fun!

We will have two races, 5k skate and 5k classic. It is a self-seeded mass start with two loops that total 5km for each race. We will race the skate 5k first and then the classic 5k. If you only skate/classic you can do both races in the style you race/have skis for, we will just modify your start time - we try to make sure that everyone gets to race as much as they want, and following racing you can continue the day skiing on the other trails. One year a Dartmouth rower only had skate skis so he raced the skate race and then double poled the entire classic race on his skate skis - he might even have won both races!! Another year a very elegant rower raced both races in black tie with tails!! Everyone is welcome, whatever your ability, if you just want to ski 3k that is totally fine (make sure to tell us as you zip past the finish line!),  and if you just want to come and cheer, or help Dawn and I time the race or check people in, we also love that.

Timetable - Saturday February 21st

Location - Check in at Garipay parking area, Reservoir Road, Hanover - Race on old golf course

9am Check In - look for the UVRF oars - we will be checking people in at my car in the parking lot

10am 5k Skate Race

11am 5k Classic Race

Keep snow dancing - we are hoping to race on the old golf course but we need a little more snow - we will adjust the location depending upon the snow conditions.

Every participant must have an Oak Hill Ski Pass, either a day pass or season pass. This link will take you to the website to sign up for a day pass - CLICK HERE FOR DAY PASS  - If you are a Dartmouth student the cost is free but you must sign up for the pass for insurance purposes. If you have a season pass you can just show that at check in. Please sign up for the pass before you arrive, internet is not great at the parking lot!!

We are sharing the trails with skiers not racing, Oak Hill Outdoor Center are very generously letting us hold our event at no cost beyond the ski pass, thank you Oak Hill!! There will be many non rowers out there during our event, please don’t run over other skiers during the race, be polite and courteous as you pass them or they pass you. With so many participants please be sure to car pool as much as possible so we don’t take up all of the parking area.

Oak Hill Outdoor Center is a non profit that have created wonderful ski trails and are making snow to keep cross country skiing available in the Upper Valley even with limited snow, if you would like to learn more about them and to make a donation here is the link: Learn More and Donate Here

 

HISTORY OF THE OARSOME SKI CLASSIC

The event started as the Oarsman’s Ski Classic back in the 1970s for Dartmouth rowers to have some winter fun and was raced through the mid 80s with rowers from Harvard, Northeastern, UNH and others.

At the time Concept 2 ergs had not been invented, so nordic skiing was the best training alternative for large groups and Coaches Dick Grossman and Peter Gardner added skiing to the winter training.  Around 1976 they persuaded the College to add a nordic phys ed class to the ski school for credit and had all the freshman rowers join for the winter.  They also set up bulk ski deals so they could buy equipment inexpensively and winter training was made far more fun and accessible to all!

 

Dick and Peter bought an old used snowmobile, so old it barely ran, and Wendall Badger built a wooden sled, covered with fiberglass, with protrusions on the bottom spaced for two pairs of tracks.  Every Friday afternoon they set tracks, and followed up with a crew race every Saturday.  After a year or two, they were having so much fun that they decided to share it and invited rowers from rowing clubs in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, and the Oarsman's Ski Classic was born.

It was very successful for a while, drawing close to 100 competitors if the snow and weather were good.  Around the same time, Dick and Peter Dreissigacker were inventing their erg.  Once the erg became popular and easily accessible Tiff and friends came up with the Crash-B sprints, which happened to be the same weekend.  As erging largely replaced skiing as a winter training staple, the numbers dropped until the event was put on pause. 

After an almost twenty year hiatus it was restarted in the early 2000s by Carin Reynolds (D’84) on the Meriden trails with racers working hard to groom the course the morning of racing in time to start at 10am! 

I jumped in to help Carin with running the event in 2005, as a non skiing rower I loved the organisational component and getting UVRF rowers together in the winter. Even though I can now ski, I still prefer to time and cheer rather than race!

We moved to Strafford Nordic Center in 2013 where we enjoyed ten years of racing on their fabulous trails and the Dartmouth rowing team added the event back into their winter calendar. In 2022 we changed the name to the Oarsome Ski Classic, somehow it just fit. We moved to the Hanover Golf Course in 2023, and unfortunately had to cancel the event due to lack of snow, but we came back strong in 2024 and had an amazing race with over 110 competitors ranging from 7 to 83 years old!! 

We are very grateful to the Oak Hill Outdoor Center for supporting the event.  https://www.oakhilloutdoorcenter.org/

Email or call if you have any questions, see you on the snow!

Rowan 

-- 

Rowan Carroll, volunteer

Upper Valley Rowing Foundation
Building strength and community one stroke at a time

PO Box 419 | Hanover, NH 03755 | www.uppervalleyrowing.org

If you would like to be removed from this mailing list please reply to this email and let us know.

[Upper Valley Rowing UVRF]

Hi Everyone 

We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Oarsome Ski Classic on Saturday - details are in the email forwarded below, highlights here: 

Timetable - Saturday February 21st

Location - Check in at Garipay parking area, Reservoir Road, Hanover - Race on old golf course

9am Check In - look for the UVRF oars - we will be checking people in at my car in the parking lot

10am 5k Skate Race

11am 5k Classic Race

Every participant must have an Oak Hill Ski Pass, either a day pass or season pass. This link will take you to the website to sign up for a day pass - CLICK HERE FOR DAY PASS  - If you are a Dartmouth student the cost is free but you must sign up for the pass for insurance purposes. If you have a season pass you can just show that at check in. Please sign up for the pass before you arrive, internet is not great at the parking lot - if the day pass sign up does not appear to work click on the date to select 2/21/26 and it should then allow you to purchase the pass.

We are so grateful to Oak Hill Outdoor Center for hosting us once again, for grooming and setting the race course, and just charging participants for a day pass. If you would like to donate to them and support all the wonderful work they do click here 

See you on Saturday - email with any questions! 

Rowan 

-- 

Rowan Carroll, volunteer

Upper Valley Rowing Foundation
Building strength and community one stroke at a time

PO Box 419 | Hanover, NH 03755 | www.uppervalleyrowing.org

If you would like to be removed from this mailing list please reply to this email and let us know.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Upper Valley Rowing UVRF <upperv...@gmail.com>
Date: January 19, 2026 at 12:29:36 PM EST
To: Upper Valley <upperv...@gmail.com>
Subject: Oarsome Ski Classic - Saturday February 21st 2026 - Oak Hill Outdoor Center