Greetings, Beacon Nation! With the Winter Olympics set to open Feb. 6 in Milan, the snow deities can begin to atone for what they’ve failed to deliver across the western United States in the form of snow by giving us snow sports. But the scarcity of snow in the region hasn’t stopped local snow sports athletes from competing at the highest level, and over the weekend that included more than a dozen Nordic ski racers from the Flathead Valley, who on Jan. 23 and 24 delivered a clinic on skinny-ski racing in Midway, Utah.

The Glacier Nordic Ski Team (GNST) opened the racing season at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, located near Park City, which was among the new facilities constructed ahead of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. This past weekend, it provided the venue for the season opener after the original opener was moved from Sun Valley, Idaho to Bozeman before its eventual cancellation due to poor conditions. Meanwhile, the second race of the season slated for Bogus Basin near Boise, Idaho, which was scheduled for Feb. 7-8, has been moved to Jackson, Wyo., also due to poor conditions.

How did those scheduling snafus translate into competition for the 14 GNST athletes who converged on Soldier Hollow to compete this past weekend?

“This opportunity to travel to Utah to race on a small loop of manmade snow was not to be wasted!” according to Jennie Bender, executive director of the Glacier Nordic Club.

With months of solid training and preparation, the GNST athletes opened the racing season at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center along with hundreds of other competitors from multiple regions, ranging from U8 to college athletes in the Intermountain Division (IMD), the region in which GNST races. The weekend’s races included a classic sprint on Friday and a skate individual distance race on Saturday.

“Given the snow situation across the West, and the awesome racing opportunities at Soldier Hollow, this was by far the biggest race of the season with over 700 competitors,” Bender said.

Here are some of the top results:

Findley Dezzani put together a strong set of races competing in the U20 category, finishing 12th in the classic sprint after qualifying for the quarter finals and moving onto the semifinals. She then followed up with a 4th place finish in the individual skate race. In the U18 races, Liam Browne and Euell Browne battled it out in both the classic sprint and individual skate, finishing only a few seconds apart in the individual skate race.

GNST also sent nine U16 racers to compete. On the boys side, Boden Dezzani led the way on back-to-back days, followed closely by his teammates Peter Schram (after an epic crash in his sprint race), as well as Luke Bork and Jack Montiel in their debut races.

On the girls side, Kendall Dye finished 6th in the classic sprint after qualifying for heats. She put down another solid effort in the skate race finishing 8th for the IMD. Teammates Marin Gignoux, Addie Nerdig and Noelle Svennungsen also had excellent races to start off the season. Ellie Ward competed in her first ever Junior Nationals Qualifying race, Bender said, “putting down some exceptional results in a competitive field.”

In the U12/U14 races, sisters Heidi and Hannah Bork shared their debut race weekends. Hannah (pictured on the podium above) finished 7th place in the classic sprint and 2nd in the skate distance, and Heidi finished 5th both days in her races in the U12 category.

“Given the growing team, we had to take two vans down to Midway and three coaches, one of the largest teams ever in the history of GNST,” Bender said, expressing thanks to parents and supporters who helped equip the team with an all-wheel drive van and “support our growing team.”

Along with Bender, coaches Olivia Skillings and Ernesta McIntosh led the crew throughout the long journey.

I’m Tristan Scott, with you for the rest of this Monday’s Daily Roundup.