Sold out! Currently scheduled for Sunday, May 25, 2025, something like 500 teams have signed up for this iconic race. While it’s too late to get your own team together, there are still teams looking for cross-country skiers of all abilities! The Ski-to-Sea race is composed of 7 legs (8 people) that travel 55 miles past the 6500 foot level of Mt. Baker to the shores of Bellingham Bay in Fairhaven.
I. Grooming, Current Conditions, and Practice Sessions:
Mt. Baker Downhill will be grooming the race trail so that skiers can practice (Thanks, Mt. Baker Downhill!!). It has been confirmed that the steepest downhill that caused many racers problems (and backed up traffic on the trail) two years ago has been re-routed to lessen the number of crashes.
Grooming for 2025 practice sessions is scheduled for the following dates: (note the Saturday grooming on May 17). There will *not* be any grooming on Saturday, May 10.
- Monday, May 12:
- Thursday, May 15:
- Saturday, May 17:
- Every day this week: Monday, May 19 through Saturday, May 24
- It’s been reported to us that grooming will happen every day this week. We’re guessing that it will be done by 9:00 in the morning. The snow is holding up well. Time to go ski!
A reminder from Ski-to-Sea and the groomer: “the XC course is typically groomed in the morning. Please stay clear of all grooming equipment while it’s operating and completely avoid the groomed run if the machine is in the area.”
- Sunday, May 25: Race Day!
We’ve had a number of good practice sessions this last week, but not much planned for this second week. Will probably will be there around 9:00 this Thursday, May 22. But check out the mapand go ski! (Click this image for a larger version and a description of the loops )
Some notes from Will on what to expect for snow quality as the grooming ages: “It’s best to ski the course within an hour or two of grooming. After that, it tends to change to deep sugar/slush. Then the pollen goo/debris starts to accumulate on the grooming. This time of year, that can mean minimal (or sometimes no) glide. It also means cleaning the pollen goo/debris off your skis after your work-out.”
If you email us, we’ll be on the lookout for you and can send you information if plans must change: ski2sea@nooksacknordicskiclub.org
II. More general background information:
The Nooksack Nordic Ski Club has nothing to do with the Ski-to-Sea race, except that many teams have trouble filling their cross-country ski slot and are looking for experienced skiers who can finish a 4 mile loop in ‘soft’ conditions. So this page is designed to provide wanna-be Nordic racers with some additional information.
To calibrate things, I (Pete, age 68 when I last skied it, relatively experienced, middling athletic condition) skied it with skinny classical fishscale skis and finished in the middle of the pack. And the team that added me appeared to be happy with what they got…
You can peruse all the results. You can scroll down to find me at place 201 in 2019…
If you are interested in entering the race and looking for a team, check out this message board (part of the Ski-to-Sea site). There are still a couple of possible openings listed as of May 18.
The course is listed at 4 miles. It’s relatively hilly (it is part of a downhill ski area) – it’s either going uphill or downhill – but having said that, the hills aren’t all that bad. Unfortunately (but understandably) they do not set any classical tracks. The course is usually fairly solid at the start of the race, but with 4-500 skiers, it gets churned up fairly quickly. Given the late May date, the weather is warm and the snow soft – picking a kick wax would be difficult. Skin skis, fishscales, or skating!
I did the ski to sea in 2017 and 2019. As an experienced, but not fast, skate and classical skier, I chose skinny (48 mm) fishscale classical skis rather than skate skis because of all the uphills and how the snow gets churned up. I finished a little slower than right in the middle. There is no question that skating is faster, but you need the stamina to blast up the hills in soft snow. I’d say that if you are aiming for the top 30-40%, you need to skate – go out fast enough to be with the quicker skiers and then stay with them (general strategy in a mass start race is to line up on one of the edges, so you can work forward along the edge and not get caught in the jam in the middle.). But if you are aiming for more the middle of the finishers, get the fastest classical skis you can find and ski your own race through the heavy traffic. I felt that I was limited by my stamina, not by the traffic. All this is of course just my humble opinion…
