Adirondack Tour de Ski coming to golf course this Sunday

by Dan McClelland

A new nordic event is coming to the town’s trail network at the golf course Sunday morning that will bring competitors from across the region.

Tupper Lake will host one of the six parts of the new Adirondack Tour de Ski that day.

Councilman John Gillis, who also directs the maintenance and operation of the town’s four-season trails at the Tupper Lake Golf Course, announced the new event at a board meeting last fall, noting that “The Adirondack Tour de Ski” is a six-venue, six-race series.”

Mr. Gillis has been part of the organizing committee since early last summer.

The races began at Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid in December, and were supposed to continue at Dewey Mountain in Saranac Lake in the following weeks. That event was postponed due to lack of snow cover until later this winter when hopefully there is enough snow. It will likely be held on a Saturday evening, under the trail lights there, Mr. Gillis said yesterday.

Sunday is Tupper’s turn and Mr. Gillis is hoping for snow, not rain between now and then.

Yesterday he was up grooming the local course, and while it’s fine right now, more snow would help, he said.

Upcoming races will be at Scotts Cobble and Cascade trails in Lake Placid and the Visitor Interpretive Center at Paul Smith’s, plus the Dewey Mt. One.

He said the way the new tour will work is that it began with a 3K race and will build up to a 15 or 20 kilometer race by the final one. “It’s geared for families. It’s a fun race series.”

The races begin about 10:15a.m. this Sunday and the public is very welcome to come out and cheer on the nordic racers.

He said the schedule is set up so most of the races will be held on Sundays and in that way it will encourage families and couples to come for the entire weekend.

“We’ve had good support from Franklin County Tourism and their program “The Adirondack Frontier.” There’s also been a generous donor come forward from Lake Placid who posted a $25,000 sponsorship.

“We should see a lot of turn-out” from around the northeast, he said he and the other series organizers expect.

He also noted that the reason Mt. Van Hoevenberg was selected as an early race next month, is because of the state facility’s snow-making system.

He said too the series is designed so if one of the host places can’t host an event due to lack of snow, it can always be moved to the Lake Placid site with its artificial snow.”

For its part in hosting one of the six races, the town will receive money from the overall tour budget to underwrite maintenance costs on the golf course trails here.

Another event on our trails- and this one in the middle of February- will be the New York State Empire Games’ winter triathlon- a brand new event for Tupper.