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Rochester Active Sports Club

When RASC was formed in 2000, one of the main drivers was to create advocacy for silent sports in Rochester, especially Nordic skiing and cycling.  At that time, there was only one ungroomed ski trail at Eastwood.  We also realized that most of the skiers at Eastwood on any given winter day were over 40 years old! RASC was founded in part to help address the lack of facilities for Nordic skiing in our community. This led to the development of new trails in both Quarry Hill and Essex Park, the purchasing of grooming equipment and volunteer grooming teams to maintain these trails. To address the “over 40” issue, the Rochester Nordic Ski Team was launched to bring youth into the sport we love, with a straightforward mission: Teach Skiers a Lifetime Sport.  

Rochester Nordic Skiing – Then and Now:

2000:

• 6km ski trail at Eastwood

• No high school ski team

• RASC is launched

2023:

• 11 km of Nordic ski trails at Quarry Hill and 10km at Essex Park with Volunteer Groomer Teams for each trail system

• Gamehaven Park opens with 8km natural trails and 3km of snowmaking trail

• 117 junior and senior high school team members of Rochester Nordic Ski Team (RNST), from Rochester, Byron, Pine Island, Stewartville, and Zumbrota/Mazeppa. Over 1000 high school members of RNST since its launch in 2002. Practices are 3 days per week during the winter.

• 50 volunteer RNST ski coaches

• 14 volunteer RASC groomers at Quarry Hill and Essex

• Almost 800 RASC members

Partnering with Rochester Parks & Recreation

The City of Rochester, through its Park and Recreation Department, had developed a master plan for a winter recreation area at Gamehaven Park.  That plan resulted in the designation of Gamehaven as a Minnesota Regional Park and led to the allocation of approximately $1.3 million by the Greater Minnesota Parks and Trails Commission (GMPTC) for the purchase of adjacent land needed for park development.  The GMPTC looks for strong collaborative public-private commitment in its funding decision and cited RASC’s involvement in development of this park as a key factor in awarding this grant. The overall cost of the fully developed park in the master plan, with full winter and summer amenities will be over $10M and something we realized would take several grant cycles and many years to accomplish.

In 2018, RASC met with the Park & Recreation Department to advocate they accelerate their long term plan to build a winter recreation area at Gamehaven Park.  We felt we could not wait 10 years, but instead needed to get snowmaking capabilities launched ASAP to support Rochester’s Nordic skiers and to help attract and retain enthusiastic youth members of RNST during increasingly low-snow winters!  RASC agreed to contribute $150,000 toward the total equipment costs of snowmaking equipment at Gamehaven to create a 2.5-3.5km man-made ski trail on an accelerated timeline.   RASC also committed to help lay out an additional 9km of Nordic trails which would use natural snow.  By 2019, everything was all set to begin, but then the pandemic hit and significantly delayed all aspects of this project.  

Snowmaking will finally launch this winter at Gamehaven!  This fall, Parks and Recreation has finally managed to obtain all the necessary components for snowmaking (pump, pump house, hoses, and two snow guns) and has installed the necessary power supply. The pumps will obtain chilled water from the Gamehaven reservoir. The P&R have also purchased a large piston bully to allow them to move and groom this snow. Once we have consistent below freezing temperatures, P&R plan to start up the guns and will begin making snow for the 2.5-3.5 km trail!