John Morton received this year’s EISA Service Award for the work he has done in trail design which has so positively affected many communities and nordic skiers; racers and recreational tourists alike.  Many of the EISA college races are run on trails that he has designed or modified, including the new homologated race courses at Trapps Family Lodge in Stowe, VT, and The Jackson Touring Center in New Hampshire.

Read the full story at Fasterskier.com

For John Morton, the story still brings tears.

It was 1992. Albertville, France. The Winter Olympics. Morton, now 63, was team leader for the United States biathlon team. He was standing in the Nordic competition area, helping his athletes prepare for the day's events, a crowd of the world's best cross-country skiers and biathletes surrounding them. A coach and a skier came running into the U.S. camp. They spoke broken English and looked desperate.

"They were Latvian," Morton said. "They had nothing."

It was just a year before when the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania broke free from Soviet control and re-established sovereign nations. With that, they earned the right to send athletes to the Olympic Games -- the first time since 1936.

"But these teams didn't even have jackets," Morton said. "They were using old, beat-up equipment. The coach was asking for wax for his athlete's skis. But no one else was helping them out. I asked one of our coaches if we had any to spare."

They quickly handed a can to the man, just minutes before the race. The Latvian athlete who competed in the 50-kilometer Nordic event didn't win a medal that day. But after the race, he tracked Morton and his men down, acting as if he had.

"He came running up to us, hugging us and crying," he said. "He was so proud that he could just compete for his country. It was the first race in his life as a Latvian. He wasn't the Latvian on the Soviet team anymore. This is what the Olympic spirit is all about."

For Morton, of Thetford, Vt., his Olympic memories span seven of the Games -- from Sapporo, Japan, in 1972 to Salt Lake City in 2002. His skiing career started in the late 1960s when he was a member of the Middlebury College ski team, where he won the Eastern Intercollegiate Cross-Country Championship in 1966 and was runner-up in the 1968 NCAA Championships. Morton served a four-year assignment at the U.S. Biathlon Training Center at Fort Richardson, Alaska. His tenure there was interrupted by a tour of duty in South Vietnam as a mobile advisory team leader.

He competed in the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, a competition Morton described as "nothing to brag about," which was the same he said about his results at the 1976 Games in Innsbruck, Austria. He failed to qualify for the biathlon finals in the 1972 Games but helped Team USA finish 11th in the 1976 biathlon relay. That was Morton's best Olympic finish. He later was named head coach of men's skiing at Dartmouth College, a job he held for 11 years, and has since been involved in every Olympic U.S. biathlon team either as a coach, team leader or chief of course, a position he served at the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002.

He also designs cross-country skiing courses around the world, including the one at Hilltop Orchards in Richmond.

Morton said his Olympic experiences are memorable on many levels. The competition. The friendships. The 4,000 calorie-a-day diets. The training. The intense schedules. The media hype.

"Trying to go to sleep at 9 p.m. the night before a big race," he said. "Impossible. Anyone who participates in the Olympics knows it's the toughest thing to try and have your best day on the one day it really counts. The pressure is incredibly difficult."

"For three years and 11 months, no one knows you," Morton said. "Then you get to the Olympics and everyone wants an interview."

He made friends with fellow biathletes from the Soviet Union, East Germany and Britain. He was in the stands for the "Miracle on Ice" U.S. hockey team's win over the Soviet Union in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980. And he was in Nagano, Japan, in 1998, when officials accidentally seated a Serbian coach next to a Croatian coach -- both their countries at war. The room went silent. Then, the Croatian coach turned to the crowd and said, "At home, we're at war. Here, we play games."

"It's not about winning," Morton said. "It's about the experiences."

This article first ran in the Berkshire Eagle. Reproduced here with author's permission.

Hilltop Orchards intended for all cross-country skiing skill levels.

Morton and Hilltop owner John Vittori worked together to add to the extensive network of trails that dip and climb over much of the property's sweeping 189 acres. And the two believe this is just the beginning of their collaboration -- Vittori is hoping to build Hilltop's cache from not only an apple, cider doughnut and wine destination but also as a hotspot for cross-country skiing.

"We feel we can develop this property into a destination of sorts for Nordic skiing," Vittori said. "It's a vision we both share."

Morton, 63, and his wife, Kay, skied the track early in the morning before sipping hot cider beside a fire with visitors later in the day. He competed in both the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, and the 1976 games in Innsbruck, Austria. He's also been a part of five other Olympics as a coach, team leader and, most recently at Salt Lake City, as chief of course for the biathlon events.

Designed many trails

The former men's ski coach at Dartmouth College began developing trails for private landowners, municipalities, schools and resorts and in places like Scotland and South Korea. His reputation in the field is what Vittori liked. He and his work crews had constructed a series of hiking, skiing and snowshoing trails on the Richmond property over the years, nearly 3 kilometers worth. "But when I see John's work, I see the difference in what a professional trail can add," he said. Morton said the Hilltop land is one of the best canvases he's worked with.

Hilltop has it all

"The thing that excited me is that there was tremendous potential," Morton said. "The trail runs through the apple orchard, forested land, open pastures, and it has these fabulous vistas. It's everything a cross-country skier wants."

Morton and Vittori said the trails will satisfy everyone from beginners to experts. Cross-country skiing is recognized as one of the most effective cardio workouts. Morton said studies have shown that few if any sports can push the body to process oxygen like a Nordic skiing workout. And it's easy to do, too. Morton said an hour lesson is all one really needs to get started.

The new trail, which is a four-season track, nearly doubles the distance of the total network at Hilltop. But Vittori said he isn't done yet. He plans to phase in new trails over the next several years, with the potential of having a total of 17 kilometers of trails.

"We have this incredible piece of property here, and we want to make as much of it available to outdoor enthusiasts as possible," he said.

This article first ran in the Berkshire Eagle. Reproduced here with author's permission.

Dublin School revitalizes cross country ski and running programs by taking full advantage of their beautiful 350 acre campus. In the video below, Brad Bates, Headmaster, discusses the trail design with John Morton of Morton Trails.