Winthrop High School's Nordic team found an exciting way to spend a portion of their holiday vacation by traveling to the 10th Mountain Lodge in Fort Kent for a weekend of training and events. In addition to training, the Ramblers participated in a biathlon event, skied on a lighted course at night and competed in a race Sunday before heading home.

"Everyone had a great time, it was a lot of fun," Winthrop Nordic coach Ed Van Tassel said. "The parents and kids had this planned since the beginning of the season and, even though we had plenty of snow at home, we still wanted to go."

Saturday, the Ramblers will be competing in the Hornet Classic, a 5k classical race at Leavitt Area High School. Many of the strongest Nordic high school racers will be on hand, giving the Ramblers an idea of where they are early in the season.

"Every week we go against the strongest teams," Van Tassel said. "It helps us prepare for the end of the season when we focus on the conference and state championship meets."

Van Tassel has also been working hard to develop a girls team at Winthrop and appears to be headed in the right direction with four freshmen and a sophomore joining the team.

"We should have a full girls team to race on Saturday," he said.

"Three of the girls went with us to Fort Kent and learned a lot about racing, so that should really help."

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Mt. Blue's Welly Ramsey, who collected two second-place finishes last season in the Class A Nordic championships in classical and freestyle, claimed first place in Saturday's Rangeley Opener freestyle event at Saddleback Mountain.

Ramsey and five of his Mt. Blue teammates have opted to train as skimeisters this season, nearly doubling the number of competitors, who vied for the title last season. Only five boys and one girl signed on as skimeisters at the Class A state meet a year ago, two of the boys, Peter Smith and Jared Foster, were from Mt. Blue.

A Skimeister competes in all four disciplines: Alpine -- slalom and giant slalom and Nordic -- classical and freestyle, with the lowest combined score earning the overall title.

"I think this is really fantastic," Mt. Blue Nordic coach Buzz Davis said. "Having the kids compete in both Nordic and Alpine really gives them a complete picture of the sport."

During preseason, Skimeister competitors at Mt. Blue have been alternating training sessions with the Alpine and Nordic teams. Following the results of Saturday's competition, it appears the Cougars' training regime was sufficient. Mt. Blue boys placed four skiers in the top 11 while the girls managed four finishers in the top 16 skiers. "It's great that the kids are looking at doing Skimeister," Davis said. "There seems to be a growing interest in the competition."

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The Alpine racing season gets underway this week with three races scheduled on consecutive days. Thursday, Rangeley is slated to host a giant slalom event at Saddleback, Mt. Blue takes the reins Friday with a slalom meet at Titcomb Mountain and Black Mountain will be the venue for a GS, Saturday.

Mt. Blue, the defending Class A Alpine champions, have been venturing to Saddleback Mountain to train for the giant slalom. The Cougars' home course at Titcomb Mountain features a slalom course on the Otter Slide but does not have an area suitable for a GS race.

"We spent two days at Saddleback training on GS gates," Mt. Blue coach Mark Cyr said. "We will start slalom training this week to get ready for Friday's race at Titcomb."

Friday's Alpine event at Titcomb will feature schools from all three ski classifications, Oxford Hills, Camden Hills, Mt. Abram, Rangeley, Jay and Livermore Falls high schools are currently signed on for the race.

"Right now we have five teams but we usually pick up another one or two early in the week," Cyr said. "This should be a good race to get everyone competing again."