The skaters were coming around the last bend, the sun glinting off an icy track at the Mont du Lac ski hill, their hockey jerseys billowing off their backs as they raced down the last steep stretch of the hill toward two final berms.
The two berms were placed one after the other so the skaters needed to make a decision - either jump off one to catch some air over the second or slowly glide over both with little risk of falling. As most kids decided to take the risk and flew off the first berm Saturday morning, a few shouted “Here I go!” and “I’m not going to fall!”
Tucking their feet up underneath them or doing the splits in the air, some managed to land on both feet on the other side of the obstacle to skate over the finish line before quickly making a hockey stop, sending ice shavings flying.
However, not all made it over, their skates catching on the second berm as they landed short, causing them to slide over the finish line sprawled on their stomachs. The falls failed to quell their excitement and they rushed over to a truck to be driven back to the top of the hill to make another trip down the track.
Mont du Lac, located across the St. Louis River from Duluth’s Fond du Lac neighborhood, is home to the first permanent track in the United States for ice cross downhill, a newer winter sport associated with Red Bull Crashed Ice events that sends four skaters decked out in protective gear racing down an ice track that includes sharp turns, berms and jumps.
Seventy-five kids from as far away as the Twin Cities suburbs tried their hand at ice cross downhill Saturday at Ice X for Kids, an instructional clinic held at Mont du Lac in an effort to expand the sport’s participation into a younger generation.
After a few hours on the track Saturday morning, Maddie Smith, Rian Braun, Ashlee Siegle and Helaina Orn - all hockey players from Duluth - already said they wanted to spend their weekends on the ice cross downhill track next winter.
“I’d so do it, I’ll come here a lot,” Smith said, while the others added that they hope there are ice cross downhill races for kids next winter.
Standing at the bottom of the hill after a skate down the track, Braun said it was scary at first. Smith, who said she wanted to try it after seeing videos of the sport on YouTube, pointed out that the fear factor is because they’ve never skated down a hillside before.
“But now we’re trying crazy stuff like jumps,” she said.
Plus, they explained, the sport helps them with hockey skills because navigating the track’s corners improves their balance on their skates. They also get a good workout by skating up and down portions of the hill they want to try again.
A lot of kids at Saturday’s clinic were timid the first couple of times down the track because they weren’t accustomed to skating down ice that’s rough and steep, said Reed Whiting, an ice cross downhill athlete from Rochester, Minn., who competes in Red Bull Crashed Ice.
Whiting and several other ice cross downhill veterans took the kids down the hill slowly at first to acclimate them - but after the first few trips down, the kids started going fast and taking on the jumps and other obstacles, he said.
Duluth resident Becca Richards, mother to hockey player and clinic participant Max, was apprehensive at first about the idea of letting Max try ice cross downhill.
“I was scared to come here,” she said. “I watched the video and got more scared.”
However, after coming to the clinic along with 17 kids in her son’s hockey association, her opinion changed.
“It’s awesome,” she said as she high-fived Max while he walked by on his way to the truck to go back to the top of the hill. The kids will be at the track a lot more if it’s opened for the entire winter, she said.
The kids’ reactions to the sport was what Whiting was hoping for with Saturday’s clinic.
“I just want them to love the sport, and I think that’s happened,” he said.
Whiting, who played college hockey for Ohio State, said he doesn’t see ice cross downhill as replacing hockey, but rather a supplement to playing hockey. It can give kids a midseason break as well as help with skills such as balance and coordination, he explained.
Whiting said he hopes to begin kids races in ice cross downhill at Mont du Lac next winter. The 40-degree temperatures predicted in the next week probably will bring an end to the Mont du Lac track for this winter, he said.
The track also was used Feb. 27-28 in the Riders Cup Can/Am Series, in which ice cross downhill athletes competed to advance to the Red Bull Crashed Ice series.
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