Following the Canadian Ski Nationals, coach Dave took David, Julien, and some friends from around the country down to Truckee California for the last competition of the year: the US Super Tour Finals/Spring Series. Greeted by rain and wet snow, the week of racing was a successful finalé to the season. Opening the competition was a 3.3km prologue. Julien Locke managed to finish as the top Junior while Knute Johnsgaard of the Whitehorse Ski Club took home 2nd in the Open Men’s category. In the 15km Classic, David lead the team with a 7th place finish while Julien came in 11th. Next up was the classic sprint. While Knute finished 8th Open and Alexis Turgeon of the Skinouk club from Gatineau QC took 15th, Julien took the win in the Junior category. The final day of racing was a hill climb up alpine area Sugar Bowl’s “Mount Disney.” Fighting against strong winds up unskiably steep terrain, the team put in a solid effort to make it up the climb in the last race of the season. Knute finished the Super Tour Finals in 18th overall, David 6th Junior, Julien 11th Junior, and Alex Mahoney of RMR finished in 53rd overall.

Throughout the challenging week of ever-changing conditions, Dave Wood did an amazing job in single handedly preparing skis for the five of us (all racing in the same category) as well as two others skiers from Canada.

While Team Black Jack departed from Truckee following the hill climb, Knute stayed on to compete in the US Long Distance Nationals and finished the Open Men’s 50km in an astonishing 4th place.