The Hodag Challenge has been cancelled due to a lack of snow.  The Northwoods Nordic Ski Club thanks all of our supporters and volunteers for supporting the Club and this venue. Let's just hope next year is normal.

The 2025 Hodag Challenge cross country ski races take place January 18-19, 2025 at the Cedrig A. Vig Outdoor Classroom (CAVOC) in Rhinelander.   

We have decided to discontinue the Pursuit style venue on Sunday and will instead have a Freestyle or Skate venue with interval starts. 

Northwoods Nordic Ski Club will also host the Central Cross Country (CXC) Great Lakes Division (GLD) Junior National Cup (JNC) at our CAVOC venue on January 18-19, 2025.  The JNQ races will be conducted prior to the Hodag Challenge High and Middle School races on both Saturday and Sunday.  JNQ athletes that are in High School or Middle School will have the opportunity to have their times included in the Hodag Challenge results and be included with that races results (with no additional fee). Specific instructions for registering for both venues is discussed below and on the Salomon CXC Cup page.

Teams and individual skiers come from all across Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula and even Minnesota skiers have attended.   An un-timed Youth Race for younger skiers (5th grade and under) will be held on Saturday.

The High School course is 5.1 kilometers and the Middle School course is 3.3 kilometers.  Both courses are very challenging with plenty of elevation changes.   The width of the course is 6 meters for undulating terrain and 9 meters for uphills.   The Youth course is 1.1 kilometers and utilizes a trail with less hills.  Course maps are provided at the links on this page.

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Varsity, JV & Middle School Classic Style Interval Starts @ 15 seconds.

Youth Race – Mass Start 

Sunday, January 19, 2025

 Varsity, JV & Middle School, Freestyle Interval Starts @ 15 seconds.

The Middle School has two separate divisions, 5/6 and 7/8 grades.  Due to the degree of difficulty of the trail system, we do not recommend that 4th graders be registered in the MS classes.  However, we will accept 4th graders in the MS 5/6 division under the Coaches discretion.

The Youth Race is for participants typically 4th grade or younger.  However, we know some MS skiers are not yet ready to ski the Hodag Challenge.  Therefore, the Youth Race is also open to other MS skiers that do not ski in either of the MS categories.  We say under 4th grade, but honestly we don't check ID's.  The Youth Race is not timed, no registration is necessary, and no placement awards are given.  We do have a treat for the participants. 

The schedule below is the anticipated venue timetable.  Times may change based on weather conditions and number of skiers registered.  Changes to schedules will be posted as they become available here, on Rhinelander Nordic Skiing Facebook site, and the information board/kiosk at the venue.

A Team Captains/Coaches Meeting will be held in the CAVOC Lodge at 6:00 pm, Friday, January 17th.  A Google Meet link will be posted several days before the meeting along with the Power Point presentation.  Attendance can take place in person or by Google Meet. 

The Hodag Challenge will be setup to use MileSplit and should be used by all WNSL teams. We are also working to open up the MileSplit registration to other teams to facilitate registration for the event. 

If you do not have a MileSplit account then you must register by filling out the Hodag Challenge Roster found at the link below.  Only those who do not have a MileSplit account may email the HC Roster to northwoodsnordictiming@gmail.com. If you do not receive confirmation of receipt of non-Milesplit entries by 2pm on Wednesday, January 15, please call Charil at 208-720-6271. (Confirmation will be sent via email to the address used for submission of the roster.)

MileSplit entries and the HC Roster are due by Tuesday, January 14th at 10:00 PM Central Time.  Late entries will not be accepted and registration will automatically close at 10:00 PM on MileSplit.

Start lists will be posted on Thursday, January 16th at 3:00 pm. 

Questions and changes to rosters after January 14th must be directed to Performance Timing. 

Follow this link to register your athlete for the Salomon CXC Cup. The CXC Cup events are sanctioned by the U.S. Ski & Snowboard and a current Cross Country General or Competitor U16+ membership is required to enter the CXC Cup race.

JNQ athletes, that are in High School or Middle School, have the opportunity to have their times included in the Hodag Challenge results and be included with that races results (with no additional fee). 

Do not register your athlete for the Hodag Challenge if you are registering them for the CXC Cup race and want them included in the scoring for the Hodag Challenge. There will be a place in the CXC Cup registration to indicate that the athlete will also have their time used in the Hodag Challenge results.  We will review the race registration entries from the CXC Cup race and the Hodag Challenge and if we discover duplicate entries, the Hodag Challenge entry will be deleted.  That athlete's seeding will then be deleted from the Hodag Challenge roster. 

Note:  Keep in mind that your team will have two seeding scenarios if you have athletes competing separately in the CXC Cup race and the Hodag Challenge.  The athletes that are registered for the CXC Cup race will have seeding determined by their points and this seeding will only be used for the CXC Cup race.  The athletes only registered for the Hodag Challenge will have a separate seeding as discussed below.  As a team, you will have separate seedings for the CXC Cup and the Hodag Challenge as seeding takes place in each races registration.

Hodag Challenge 2025 Seeding Guidelines

Seeding for all individuals for each of the races (i.e. classic on Saturday and freestyle on Sunday) will be a combination of Coaches Self-Seeding and the discretion of the Race Director.  

We are setting a maximum number of entries for A and B seeding for each Team/Club.  Coaches, please place your athletes in appropriate seeds based on expected results/placements.  You do not need to fill up all the entries for each seeding if you do not have skiers that meet the seeding requirement. That is, if each team/club has 3 entries available for an A seed, they may choose to enter from 0 to 3 individuals and for B seeds 0 to 5 individuals.

A = Expected Top 25%.  Up to three (3) entries per team.
B = Next 25% to 50% of finishers.  Up to five (5) entries per team.
C = being all others.

There are 4 divisions (i.e., Varsity, JV, MS7/8 and MS5/6) that are seeded.  That means that coaches could seed up to three (3) athletes in all of the divisions (i.e., Varsity, JV, MS7/8 and MS5/6) as an A seed.  And then seed up to five (5) athletes in the B seed, and then the rest of the team/club as a C seed in their respective division. 

Each division seeding (i.e., A, B and C) will be randomized separately to generate the start order for each division.  We anticipate a break of less than 5 minutes between the Varsity and JV divisions, and between the MS7/8 C seed and the MS5/6 A seed to allow separation of the divisions on the course and avert the A seeds from catching the C seeds from the prior start.

If you have more skiers for either A or B seed than allowed, enter that individual in the C seeding and then send an email to  Northwoodsnordictiming@gmail.com asking for placement of that athlete in the preferred seeding.  Include an appropriate justification for the seeding such as; past race results, comparison of individual to team members registered in the requested seeding, etc. 

The Hodag Challenge has decided to provide a Standing Adaptive Skier category for both the High School and Middle School races on Saturday (classic) and Sunday (skate). Our plan is to start these skiers at the end of the Varsity/JV and MS waves.  The Standing Adaptive Skier would then ski their appropriate HS or MS course.  Registration will be through the normal MileSplit registration process and you will just need to indicate its for a Standing Adaptive Skier.

There is some language on the CXC website in regards to the classification of the adaptive skier in the chosen category based on the International Paralympic Committee's Paralympic classification system and time factors. If you haven't contacted U.S. Paralympic Nordic Skiing to confirm what class you would be in, please email them at: USPNordic@gmail.com, to do so. Choosing the class will allow the athlete to receive a time factor on their final result time; see the link above for more details on this factor. If a class is not chosen, the skier will be placed in the category with the smallest factor (LW4 for standing skiers).

The adaptive skiers results will not be integrated back into the overall results and therefore awards for placement will not be given. Completion awards will be provided to all Adaptive participants.

Start lists will be posted on Thursday, January 16th at 3:00 pm. 

The Web Scorer link below will have Saturday's and Sundays starting order along with results after each race. Scroll down to the appropriate tab to retrieve the information. 

Live results on Web Scorer are not official.  Official results will be posted at the venue on the information boards.

• The Registration desk will be located in the lobby of the CAVOC Lodge. Upon checking in and registration is verified and payments made (if necessary), Coaches will be directed to the basement of the Lodge where bibs will be disbursed. 
• Race bibs are to be placed in receptacle at the finish line after the racer finishes.
• Any skier that misses their assigned starting time will be started after all other skiers in that wave have started their race.

We need volunteers to help at the Hodag Challenge High and Middle School Cross Country Ski races and you can register to help by using SignUp.com.

1) Click this link to see our SignUp 

2) Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like.

• General parking will be in the big lot. Overflow across the road.
• PLEASE CARPOOL TO THE EVENT IF AT ALL POSSIBLE AS OVERFLOW PARKING IS LIMITED.
  • Autos arriving at the venue will be directed to either the main lot at CAVOC or the Overflow parking area.
  • Preference will be given to athletes and autos that have more than one occupant to park in the CAVOC lot.
  • Any spectators arriving with less than two occupants, may be directed to the Overflow Parking Lot.
• NO PARKING WILL BE ALLOWED IN THE UPPER PARKING LOT.
• Buses will be directed to park at one end of the lot. Please let us know if you are bringing a bus so that we can reserve an appropriate space for parking.
• Two areas are designated for Tents on a first come first serve basis.  Please erect tents only in these areas.  Power will not be supplied to these areas.  You will need your own generator.

General Comments

• For warmup, athletes may choose to ski the entire race course before its closed each day or complete a shorter warm up course that will be clearly marked.
• For the classic race we anticipate that 2 tracks will be set all the way around the course.
• Arrows indicate direction of travel and skiers shall not ski backwards on the course.  Disqualification may occur for anyone skiing backwards on course or warm up loop.
• Coaches shall not ski on the course during a race.   Due to the number of athletes on the course, there is too great of a chance of a coach skiing on the course impeding an skier. Coaches are requested to stay in one place, or take off ski's and walk during a race.

Field of Play - Course and Start Area

• The Field of Play will only be open to USSS athletes and USSS Coaches with appropriate bibs during the JNQ races. 
• The Field of Play will be open to coaches wearing a USSS or Hodag Challenge COACHES bib during the Hodag Challenge races.
• Coaches must always ski in the direction of the race when on the course.
• Two COACHES bibs will be issued to each team for use during the Hodag Challenge during bib pickup.  

The Hodag Challenge are NON-FLUORO races.

The pavilion near the Lodge has electrical outlets and may be used for waxing.  The pavilion will not be enclosed as in past years and will be an open area.  Team waxing tents may also be set up in the designated area in the lower parking lot on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Hot food and concessions will be available in the CAVOC Lodge during lunch hours.  Cash or credit accepted.  The Rhinelander Music Parents will provide concessions.

No hot plates or cookers are allowed in the CAVOC facility.   

The table below provides contact information for local establishments. 

CAVOC Lodge, Spectators and Parking

The CAVOC Lodge is open and available for participants to gather.  Several rows of tables and chairs will be setup to spread out.

There are several great viewing areas for spectators at the venue.  Parking is available onsite with quick access to the venue.  Indoor bathroom facilities are available in the CAVOC lodge and several porta potties are present.  

No dogs are allowed on the CAVOC property.

Follow the link(s) below for photos from the event.

Email Brian Hegge at brian.hegge10@gmail.com  for specific questions.