After a snowless winter last year, 2025 has yet to be better. All kinds of winter sports are feeling the effects of a lack of snow, and Park’s nordic team has had to learn to adapt.
Assistant coach Kara Bancroft said the dry winter causes Park to split a relatively small amount of practice space with many other Nordic teams in the area. She said the team has learned how to adjust to the overloaded practices.
“(The lack of snow) creates a training situation where everybody is trying to share the same trails, which makes it busy,” Bancroft said. “But our skiers are adapting awesomely and making the best of another low-snow year.”
Senior captain Lucas Tangelson said the lack of snow hasn’t been too detrimental to the team and they make do with what they have. He said the artificial snow at Theodore Wirth Regional Park allows them to have effective practices.
“(The absence of snow) has not been an issue because where we practice at, Theodore Wirth, there’s man-made snow that’s being produced,” Tangleson said. “The warmer weather took out a lot of the (natural) snow, but with the man-made snow we can still manage to practice on what we have.”
Senior captain Nora Lindeman said the artificial snow interacts differently with the skis and wax. She said fake snow creates different skiing conditions than natural snow.
“When you are classic skiing, you have to put on kick wax, and the artificial snow tears the wax off faster than the natural snow,” Lindeman said. “(Artificial snow) is like ground-up ice, so the uphills are really slow and the downhills are really icy.”
According to Bancroft, aside from the jam-packed workouts, the quality of the artificial snow is less than optimal, presenting more challenges for the team. Bancroft said despite the setbacks she is grateful the team has a place to practice.
“We’re getting used to training with all the other teams and the less-than-ideal conditions. The snow gets really icy and ground-up, which is not as fun as fresh snow,” Bancroft said. “Otherwise, we are lucky enough to be able to ski at Theodore Wirth every day.”
Tangleson said with all of the artificial snow being made for the team to continue practicing, there is a noticeable difference between the fake and natural snow. He said the synthetic snow is made specifically for nordic, something experienced skiers will easily notice.
“There is a huge difference between artificial and natural snow. The artificial snow is a lot easier to ski on—it’s faster and is made for Nordic (skiing),” Tangleson said.
Lindeman said a challenge of the season is the absence of variety in courses. She said she has high hopes for the girls team, despite the setback.
“We have very limited trails and are only able to ski on what they’ve made. We are not able to get the diversity of trails, hills and terrain,” Lindeman said. “Still, I really hope the girls’ team makes (it to) state.”
According to Bancroft, she has confidence in the team, even with the poor conditions. She said she aspires to see the individual improvements among Park’s nordic skiers, as well as seeing them reach some milestones.
“My hopes for the season is that everyone is skiing faster at the end and that we have taught new skiers how to ski that didn’t know how awesome skiing was before,” Bancroft said. “Hopefully we’ve hit a lot of personal records along the way, and winning wouldn’t be bad either.”