FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

A collection of live feeds from cross-country ski blogs around the web.

  • Heidi and MK/Alums at Dartmouth Carnival

    Last Friday Heidi and MK took advantage of the NENSA seed for the carnival, and skied a 5 k against the region’s best collegiate race. They mixed it up with several GMVS alums, and everyone had a great time in the springlike conditions.
    Kristin Halvorsen races for Williams College.

    MK powers up the hill at 3 km. After what she described as a “frantic” start, MK settled in a skied a good second half of the race, coming in 34th. She is ready for a solid conclusion to the Eastern Cup season this weekend at Craftsbury.

     Heidi hammered her way to 19th, making it into three carnival top-25s in three races. Not bad for a high school junior and first-year J1! 
    She’s off to Estonia on the J1 Scandinavian Trip, and we hope to get some updates about how things are going over there.

    David Sinclair charged to 11th in the men’s 10 km skate, looking fierce the whole way.

     Dylan Grald, killing it in traffic.
     D. Grald is putting together an amazing season: he was 6th on Friday and led a portion of Saturday’s mass start, finishing 12th.
    Heidi cools down in the sunshine… say what you will about the snow, we’ve had incredible weather for skiing these past weeks.

    Our Flex Termers were out out course, cheering, skiing, and taking in the scene. Noah does his best “Blue Steel,” trailside.

    The girls are reluctant photo subjects, but this is Isobel and Annika sporting new GMVS headbands from Swix.

    David, wearing his top-10 mustache and GMVS band, is always ready with a smile.

    What a great day at Trapps!

  • Bomb’s Away Video

    MNC Elite Team member Bill Harmeyer passed along his recent video, “Bomb’s Away”. Filmed at Trapp Family Lodge a couple weeks back. Enjoy:

  • J2/Eastern High School Qualifier

    On Sunday we traveled down to Grafton for the J2/EHS Qualifier.  After a nice cruise down Route 100, we were greeted by a sunny and fast one km loop that the kids would race around three times in classic and then skate technique.  We brought down Hans, Devlin, and Kaitlin as Heidi and MK had raced the carnival up at Trapps on Friday — we also brought Parker and Noah as they were looking for some race experience.

    The tracks were nice and the snow was frozen granular, little bb like pellets that turned into sugar throughout the day.  A lot of folks were using klister, but two sets of my hardwax/binder skis were working better in this manmade and super transformed snow.  I’ve tried the binder trick several times to no avail in these conditions, but it was certainly working this day.  Of course you need to be able to kick well to make it work.  For those who could, their skis were quite a bit faster than those on klister.

    Hans is improving with every effort right now and he took the victory in the classic race, a full 24 seconds ahead of the field.

    We were working on pacing and staying relaxed in motions and in breathing.  He went out very hard and had fast first and third laps, the middle one still a place to improve as he struggled a bit with the intensity of the first lap.

    Dev also skied fast, but caught up with a “snow snake” on one of the track changes — this bumped him down to 6th.

    Dev skied a great skate race, with increased pacing throughout and finished fourth.  The boys ended the day as the 2nd (Hans) and 6th (Dev) qualifiers.  Our two younger visitor skiers learned a lot out there today battling with the high school racers, having solid efforts and focussing on technique throughout each 3km.

    Noah skis the big hill on the classic leg.
    Parker gutting it out in the skate.

    Kaitlin was a little off in her classic race, but recovered really well in the afternoon to put down a very respectable skate race.

    In another gutsy skate performance she skied to 8th place for the overall girls.  We continue to work on having more even efforts and know she has the guts to put together a great race.

    It’s fun to travel out of our region and see what kids in the rest of the state have been skiing on.  The hills of Southern, Vermont are beautiful and the surface of the snow is even a touch firmer than what we have up north.  Thanks to Alexi and the Vermont Academy for a great event. The rest of the pictures are below!

    Dev V2s over the top of the big hill.
    Hans

    A lot of pictures of the big fellow.

    Noah leads a pack of skiers, having passed bib 15 from 15 seconds down.

    Tim and Andrea’s son Tim was out on the trails on Sunday!

    Today we are resting up and getting ready for a big race weekend in Craftsbury.  Heidi Halvorsen is off to Albu, Estonia with the US Scandinavian Team today — we are stoked for her!

  • Can Devon Kershaw Overtake Petter Northug In The WC Overall?

    That was the question in a comment I got the other day.

    So here’s the situation. Devon Kershaw currently has 953 WC points, Petter Northug has 1199. Northug is apparently going to skip the next two weekends of WC racing in order to prepare for the Vasaloppet. Could Kershaw catch and overtake Northug in that time, and then hold onto second place through the rest of the WC season?

    There is a ton of uncertainty in answering questions like this, so bear with me as I make some assumptions. Specifically, let’s assume that,

    • Northug skips the WC races in Poland and Lahti, and also the Drammen sprints, but contests every remaining race on the schedule.
    • Kershaw skis all the remaining races on the schedule.

    Northug will be missing three sprints and two distance races. The remaining races consist of one sprint (Stockholm), three distance races (Oslo, first two stages of World Cup Final) and the World Cup Final overall stage results. (I’m not quite sure why the final handicap start stage of the World Cup Final isn’t listed in the WC points PDFs. In keeping with FIS’s sclerotic approach to race formats and scheduling this would be the only stage race event that doesn’t award WC points.)

    So presumably Kershaw would have to make up the point gap, plus some breathing room since we probably can’t expect him to beat Northug in every remaining WC race.

    The gap is currently 246 WC points. How many points above this would he need to feel safe in keeping Northug at bay?

    So far this season when they’ve raced directly against each other, Northug has scored an average of about 13 more WC points per distance race and around 6 more WC points per sprint race. (I checked whether I needed to track point differences in regular vs stage WCs separately due to the different point scales, but the numbers turn out more or less the same.)

    Naively carrying that forward would suggest that Kershaw would need a cushion of at least 45 WC points, not including the WC points awarded in the WCF overall. If we assume that Kershaw is unlikely to finish ahead of Northug in those overall standings, we’d need to tack on another 20-30 WC points as a conservative estimate.

    So at the end of the day, let’s call that a grand total of around 315 WC points that Kershaw would need to pick up in the next three weekends alone.

    That would mean averaging around 63 WC points for each of the next five races, through Drammen. (Third place is worth 60 points.) So if Kershaw really wants to control his own destiny here he doesn’t have much room for even the occasional 4th or 5th place finish.

    However, due to the extremely non-linear nature of WC points, small changes in each athlete’s schedule, or a handful of unusually good or bad performances could alter this number considerably.

    Suppose, for instance, that Northug wrecks himself in the Vasa, and develops some sort of minor illness. Then when he returns he’s a little flat and and has 1-2 really poor performances, outside the top 15. In this scenario Kershaw would have to pick up fewer WC points than the current gap of 246, since he’d still be outscoring Northug in the final four races.

    So if you toss the assumption that Northug will continue to ski as well as he has the rest of the season, things look vastly more optimistic for Kershaw. He could conceivably only need to pick up 200 WC points while Northug is absent. He could probably do that in five races with a string of top tens, and the occasional podium.

    In the end, though, you sort of have to put your money on Northug here. As the guy with the lead at the moment, and also just the stronger skier overall, he’s the one with the room for an occasional bad race or misstep. No matter what Northug does, Kershaw’s the one who’ll have to ski more or less flawlessly in basically every single remaining race. Which doesn’t leave much room for error.

    Related posts:

    1. <Did Petter Northug Have a Slight Edge On Marcus Hellner?
    2. <Head-To-Head: Petter Northug vs. Marcus Hellner
    3. <Canadian National Team Preview: Alex Harvey & Devon Kershaw


  • Vermont EHS/J2 Qualfier Update with Results

    We had a group of eight racing at Grafton Ponds for the Vermont EHS/J2 qualifier this morning. Hamish and Mac represented SMS for the boys, while Issy, Anika, Brooke, Tess, Pippin, & Katharine took to the trails for the girls. The qualifier has two races in one day – classic in the AM and skate in the PM (each race ~3k long). It was REALLY cold out and with wind whipping through the field, it made for one of the colder racing days we’ve had this year. Fortunately, we were very lucky to head a half mile down the road to Issy Pelletier’s house in between races, where her family had an amazing lunch prepared for us and a warm home for us to rest and get out of the cold. Thanks so much to Herve & Mary for hosting us! Thank you to Herve for the great photos as well. More pictures here.

    Sverre gives Issy some advice before her race.

    Pippin catches her breath on a downhill. She was the 8th ranked J2 in the state today – way to go!

    Mac skied really well today: 13th overall with his combined skate and classic results.

    Katharine had a great day: 4th in classic, 3rd in skate.

    Tess hits the mini-hill in the field – she qualified for the J2 Festival as the 6th ranked J2 in Vermont – awesome!

    Words of wisdom from Sver. 🙂
    Anika, who leaves tomorrow morning for the J1 Scando trip, was 2nd in the classic race and won the skate race. Awesome results for her final tune up races before she rips it up in Europe!

    Issy P was 3rd in the classic and 4th in the skate race today. Issy found out yesterday that she’s been accepted to Middlebury for next fall. Awesome! 🙂

    Hamish – 3rd in the classic race and 6th in the skate race – looked strong today!

    Gino raced at the Dartmouth Carnival on Friday so he took it easy today and did a distance ski at the race course and cheered on his teammates. Koby, who is getting over a cold, took it easy as well and on the basis of his JOQ results this year will get to race at EHS later this winter.

    Brooke cranked it in both the classic and skate race – 1st in the classic and 2nd in skate (1 second behind her teammate). Nice skiing!
    Matt is off to Erzurum, Turkey on Tuesday to coach at World Juniors. We’ll miss him while he’s gone!
    Manya Gordon, Koby’s older sister, was cruising along in the classic race today.
    Scott Mooney always knows where the camera is. 🙂

    Hamish (5th behind 3 Woodstock boys and Hans Halvorsen from GMVS, not pictured) and Mac (13th, not pictured) qualified for the Vermont EHS team but both declined their spots on the team – EHS conflicts with Canadian Nationals and is right before Spring Series, two races we’re focusing on this March.

    SMS girls go 1, 2, 6, 8 (Brooke, Katharine, Tess, Pip) in qualifying for the Vermont J2 team! The J2 Festival conflicts with Junior Nationals, so Brooke and Katharine will likely miss this event and declined their spots, but Tess and Pip are psyched to rep SMS up at the Festival in Rumford, ME! Nice going girls! Tess was also named as an alternate for the EHS Team.

    Top three overall for racing today: Brooke (1), Anika (2), Issy (3). SMS sweep! In both races today SMS girls went 1-2-3-4.

    Top J2s on the day: Brooke (1), Katharine (2), Lauren Gillott – Craftsbury (3). Woo!
    Men’s results – combined skate & classic (click to enlarge). Missing the J2s (on a separate page).
    Women’s results – combined skate and classic (click to enlarge).

  • Brian and Caitlin top the Pre Birkie 26K-free

    Skinnyski.com reports that “Nearly 1,000 skiers participated in the 2012 Pre-Birkie race from Lake Hayward to Hwy OO as a final tune up to the big Birkie race. Skiers reported a clean start (with the wind!) and reasonable fast and quite good trail conditions. In the 42K freestyle race, Santiago Ocariz topped (?) a tough mens field while Elaine Nelson collected the womens crown. 42K classical titles went to classic veteran Michael Myers and former Minnesota State Champ Katie Bono. In the 26K freestyle, the Gregg couple, Brian and Caitlin dominated the field. Classical 26K victories for Nick Hess and Cindy Storm.”

    pre Birkie results

  • Next Post

    Today was another baby step forward from yesterday.  Yes one itty bitty baby of a step.  But I nailed it!

    There are moments when you want to hop, skip, leap…. or run at an all out mad dash ahead.  But it doesn’t work that way. There are times when you get so frustrated and angry you could throw a sandwich… But that’s no fun.  So here I am.  Totally stoked on my baby step.  Completely ok with this patience thing I’m trying out… atleast for now.

    Back to today.

    So many things went right!  I…
    -Stayed relaxed
    -Effortlessly picked a pair of race skis (ok actually I handed two pairs to the techs and said see you in the start pen!)
    -Got in a good warm up and a relatively painless zero
    -Put my head band on RIGHT SIDE UP (though I did have a team mate double check for me)
    -Hit a few more targets
    -Felt slightly more lively on my skis
    -Smiled (albeit being covered in snot and slobber) the entire time

    AND my team mates crushed it. Lanny tied for 4th, Laura was 10th, and Tracey finished 12th!

    (photo from Hannah D)

    I survived.  That was a big goal of mine coming off of being so sick for so long.  I needed to not give up, and I did just that.  I kept it together the entire race!  I didn’t have to fight the urge to scream, “Take me out coach!”  I was focused, heck I think there were even moments when I skied a little less like a dainty fairy child and more like my (totally imaginary) super hero alter ego (wonder girl).

    We know I’m a long ways from being 100%… but for the time being I’m ok with coming back one step at a time.

    Corrine

     

  • Tokositna Loop

    I like a lot of variety in my ski routes, and so I don’t often do the same trips multiple times.  But this was my third time doing the Curry Ridge Rider’s Tokositna Loop.   It is such a great ski, its worth doing a few times.

    Rob, Bill, Kate, Chris and I are all trying to get ready for the White Mountains 100, and the Tokositna loop is great training for that.  For a little variation, we skied it counter-clockwise this year, and I have to say, I think I like that way better.  We hit a pretty good snowstorm that dumped at least 4 inches of snow on us during the day.  So it was slow going and I didn’t take any photos, but it was fun and really good training.

    GPS track here

     

  • Don’t Forget to Play

    Do you feel cheated?  No?  …Well you totally should!

    The pictures I posted earlier were actually… from last November!  Oh the deception!  I didn’t have my photos uploaded yet.  But the guilt is gnashing at my poor little heart strings… So I’m hoping this little collection of [current] photos can act as a proper apology.

    Someone is excited to be wearing an athlete bib!

    And now a few pictures from my little adventure this afternoon… after numbing my mind and warming my limbs with a gianormous mug of coffee (chocolate soup) I ventured out onto the absolutely expansive trail system in Canmore for a little play time jog.  But first a few from the venue (clearly skiing sucks here… not)!

    -Corrine

  • Klingenthal COC/Predazzo WC

    I am now in park city after our team elected to skip Almaty, KAZ world cup in order to rest and gear up for the 5 week trip to end the season.

    I am glad to be back and happy to report that my last two week trip was a very successful trip. I was in Klingenthal, Germany first for a couple Continental Cup races. I started off on a good note with jumping and felt very comfortable on the large hill in Kthal. I knew my form in cross country was still very strong, and with solid jumping I knew I could be close to the podium and possible on the podium.

    Day 1:
    The first day made for some challenging conditions. We woke up to some heavy snow, and light wind. After a strong trial jump I was feeling very comfortable for a strong competition round. I have been feeling more confident with my jumping and jumping is starting to be on a higher level! After the comp jump I was placed 17th, 1:03 behind the leaders. This weekend, there were several world cup skiers trying to fill the weekend with a competition. I knew that it was going to be hard to catch them but, I put the head down and pushed hard to reach the lead group. Unfortunately I didn’t have the speed to match the top 2 as I had to make up a large amount of time in the first couple laps. I was happy to finish 3rd and was looking forward to the next day!

    Day 2:
    As far as day 2, things couldn’t have gone better! I woke up feeling super confident after the first day and felt like today was going to be better! After the trial round, I knew my feeling was super on the hill. Next came the comp round, and I had one of my best competition round jumps ever! I was placed 7th after a long jump of a 133 meters. I was 45 seconds behind the leader Tomas Slavik from CZE. Right away I had made up a large amount of time and felt comfortable pushing the pace. On the last lap and hill I had pushed the pace hard enough to drop Slavik and ski away with almost 30 second in hand for the win!

    With the success of the weekend, I was really excited to try my luck in the world cup in Predazzo!

                                                                                                        Predazzo

    Team event:
    The first race for me was the Team sprint with Johnny. After some decent jumping on both our parts we were starting 1:10 behind the leading team of France and Germany. Johnny went out first and put in a good effort to make up some time on the leaders. It was up to me next to continue skiing strong. We did that and made up some solid time and caught the leaders half way through the race. Then came some bad luck! As I was tagging off to Johnny, he was leaving the exchange zone and got tangled up with another skier, named Billy Demong! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make up the lost time and finished 10th! After my strong skiing, I was very excited for the next day!

    Individual:
    I was really excited  for the individual as I was coming of some solid results. I had put myself in a good position after the jumping and knew I could move up some spots in the race!  I had some strong skiers around me and I could work with them to move up. After sitting in most of the first lap, I took the lead and never looked back. I moved up from 33rd to 14th with the 5th best time to get my best finish in a world cup to date!

    Next up is a long trip for us! We will head back to Klingenthal, then to Liberec, Lahti, then the final in Oslo. I hope to keep up my level of skiing till the end of the year. Tune back f

  • Stratton Mountain School Adds Elite Team for 2012-2013, Hires Gus Kaeding


  • FlexTerm Wrap — Locals Week

    Over the past week we hosted five up and coming athletes from the Valley for a Flex Term week.  It was really fun to work with this group who are bridging the gap from BKL to Junior Ski Racing.  We did technique work, did two adventure skis, cheered at a College Carnival, and had a lot of fun on skis!
    This is the first crew of athletes that I have worked with from the earliest stages of Bill Koch so it is especially rewarding to see them have interest in taking the next step forward.  They are all literally getting better with each session and getting in some racing experience.  I can’t wait to see where this desire takes them!
    One of my favorite parts of Flex Term weeks is exposing the kids to real adventure and using skis to travel through beautiful terrain on skis.  I don’t have to say that this has been a trying winter — but we are really lucky to have the Greens out our door — allowing us to ski when a lot of New England is forced to do dryland training.
    Our lower elevation snowpack is nothing special — well actually as BKL coach Reid Greenberg coined it — SNICE (snow-ice).  On Thursday we left the Battleground with klister and climbed up the Catamount Trail towards Huntington Gap on some of the firmest skiable terrain I can remember.  After an hour we got up to the VAST Snowmobile trail and then continued on into the beautiful hollow that leads to the Gap proper.  A pretty arduous ski and everyone put in a solid effort getting up to the higher elevations where we were greeted by real winter conditions and some awesome scenery.
    I love checking out the ice formations up here and the forrest opens up with mature stands of mixed trees.  Near our turn around point I hugged a huge, straight white birch which took my whole wingspan to get around.  The woods are quiet up here and we snuck in some view of Burnt Rock and the ridge, which the gave the kids a sense of place as many of them had hiked in those areas in previous summer camps and on outings with their families.
    Rafter came along for the tour and had relatively easy travel on a thick crust that lay beneath a nice fluff of aged powder.  Even though he ate two of my muffins I still love the guy.
    Devlin and Kaitlin came along and were a great mentors and offered encouragement during the long climb.  It was neat to see Kaitlin enjoying the ski and even finding joy in the descent — which is another sense of accomplishment for me as a coach.  Kaitlin came to our program a relatively new skier and it has been fun to watch her develop into a racer, a technically sound skier, and an all around great person.  We’ll miss her next year when skis skiing for Colby College.  Dev is an all-arounder, a super skier on nordic and alpine gear and his smile never seems to fade.  Here I snuck a shot as we came out of the hollow in some really enjoyable conditions — making turns and catching air off a virgin snowpack on racing skis is a skill that many skiers don’t get too often.  It helps with balance, awareness and feeds a passion for snow that lasts a lifetime.
    We searched for the perfect log for lunch and found it right where the Catamount leaves the VAST.  All smiles and good energy as we refueled for the ski out.  A moment to remember.
    On the way out we spotted a few bear markings on a beech tree.  The woods right above campus are full of wonder, during the ski we spotted tracks of turkey, coyote, bobcat, squirrel, rabbit.
    Keep dreaming of snow.

  • Oh, gosh darn ouch!

    Today I didn’t crush it.  I did not destroy.  Slay. Or triumph victoriously.

    Today I managed.  I clung.  I fought it out, and it wasn’t all that pretty.  (and I’m not talking about the slobber and snot that manifested all over my face)

    Despite the fact that I openly acknowledged that I was here for the sake of experience and fun. I was undeniably nervous this morning.  I’ve raced a whopping FIVE times this season (a long ways away from the 20+ starts I should be racking up)… I haven’t raced in four weeks and finished up a mean round of antibiotics on monday.  I was feeling rusty.  And I thought I was totally prepared for that… my bad.

    Anxious panic gnawed at my gut.  My eyes glazed over.  I desperately needed someone to make me laugh. To crack into the horrible no good very bad mood that was settling in.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to puke, cry, or laugh… but I was well on my way to some serious multitasking of uncontrollable emotion.  “Quick someone give that poor girl a hug!”

    It all started with ski testing.  I detest ski testing.  Honestly, I would be perfectly content if they just handed me skis on my way to the start pen.  Last year was my first season ever having more than one pair of race skis…  Sometimes the best option is not having any options.  (Yep, you are granted to hate me, here I am complaining about having too many pairs of skis, hah!) I just can’t tell the subtle differences yet between my skis.  They are either fast, slow, or the same.  Luckily I have a very patient waxing crew and coaching staff.  That can read the slight difference between my “meh” and “Mmmm” and shoulder shrug.

    Next I botched my warm up.  Meaning all of a sudden I was heading to zero after handing my race skis off to Bjorn and Brandon only to find we were approaching 20minutes to start.  AHHHHHHHHH!  Panic ensued… despite my best efforts to stick my tongue out and just roll with it.

    From there I rushed into the start pen to join the highly anticipated pre-race dance off.  Yep. I rock the intimidation factor hard.

    I put my headband on upside down.  One minute before my start the IBU officials decided I needed an event sponsor sticker on both sides of my rifle (oh the convenience of being a lefty).  More frantic movements.  Suddenly I was at the starting wand reminding myself to settle the flippity frack down. Too late.

    Shooting was more or less a disaster.  I missed about 5 too many targets…  Is it just me or was that penalty loop   really long?  Maybe that’s just what happens when you find yourself skiing your third… or fourth… or fifth one of the day?  My coaches assured me I was justing saving those targets for tomorrow, and boy I sure hope so!

    Skiing was decent. Hovering around fair.  My lungs burned, and my legs ached in a way that seem entirely too foreign.  But apparently it looked alot better than it felt…  man I can’t wait for skiing to feel good again.  At one point when I was stubbornly V2ing up one of the many hills I found myself thinking, “Don’t fall off the treadmill… don’t fall off! don’t fall off!” (Taking self talk to a whole new level) I can’t wait until I feel like myself again.  When I can charge instead of settling for hanging on.  But I know that might be a while.  One race at a time.

    At one point I even managed to choke on air. Yep… forgot how to breathe…

    On the plus side there is always a next race, AND I did get to watch a French girl totally panic about a squirrel!

    Oh and have I mentioned that Canmore might be my favorite nordic ski venue in North America?  Not a bad place to suffer, eh?

  • BKL Race at Grafton

    Grafton Ponds is the place to race these days! Poppet, Liz, Helena, Alex, Mackenzie, & Russell spent the morning at Grafton for the BKL race and had lots of fun – great skiing by all SMS kids and friends. Koby, Pip, Katharine, Brooke, & Tess were all out and about skiing and cheering on their friends. 🙂 Mackenzie, Helena, and Alex went 1-2-3 and Russell was 2nd in the 7-8 race. They did 4 loops around the course at Grafton which has plenty of snow cover and even though the track got pretty soft by the time their race rolled around, it was still pretty solid skiing. Nice racing guys!

    Grace Braddish.

    Mackenzie, Alex, & Helena warm up for their race.

    Mae Chalmers.

    Eli Epilito.

    Ben Ogden.

    Lillian Fisher.
    Emma Perry.

    Charlotte Ogden.

    Cheering on your teammates and friends is one of the best parts of skiing! Pip, Katharine, Tess, Brooke, and Emma on course cheering for the 7-8 racers.

    Koby was out for a nice, easy ski today.

    Scott Mooney was the top dog in the 7-8 race today!

    Russell skied smoothly and kept Scott in sight to take 2nd place in the 7-8 race.

    Mackenzie on her way to 1st place for girls in the 7-8 race.

    Helena put in a late charge and nearly caught up with her teammate! She finished strong in 2nd place.

    Alex Cobb on her way to third in the 7-8 race.
    West River + SMS kids. : )

  • A Blog about Mo the crazy grouse

    So…once again I’m finding time to write about Craftsbury only when I’m not in Craftsbury…right now I’m in the Calgary Airport, en route to Canmore for some more IBU cup racing!

    But luckily for all of you blog-readers, I spent perhaps too much time when I was home for a week documenting the life of Mo, our celebrity “pet” ruffed grouse!   But first things first–I want to take this opportunity to officially correct my previous determination of Mo’s gender.  Our best guess is now that Mo is in fact a male grouse, though he has yet to get puffed up into full male display form.  Maybe thats for lack of a lady grouse in the vicinity, time of year, etc.  But thanks to Rick Halling for his advice about Mo’s gender.

    Make sure to scroll down to the videos!  They’re the best part!

    Mo modeling his best angle. Mo can look very slender if he wants to, or he can puff up his feathers and look very fat.

    Mo modeling his best angle. Mo can look very slender if he wants to, or he can puff up his feathers and look very fat.

    First, let me tell you how Mo seems to spend his day–I suppose he must to some foraging for food at some point, but when we’re around, he generally likes to be as close to us as possible.  If we’re in the living room, he sits at the living room window looking in on us, occasionally pecking at the window.  If we’re in the dining room, he sits at that window.

    Often, I’ll walk out the door to go skiing to find Mo sitting right by the door, as if he knew I was about to come out.  Then he scurries up next to me, and follows me over to the trail, where I put my skis on and he pokes around.  Once or twice he’s actually tried to scurry along while I ski, but I’m too fast for him!

    Mo did his best to help Maria, Brian and I wax our skis.

    Maria and Mo waxing. Mo did his best to help Maria, Brian and I wax our skis.

    Mo tried to perch on my poles, but they weren't grippy enough, and he kept sliding off.

    Mo tried to perch on my poles, but they weren't grippy enough, and he kept sliding off.

    Mo and Bryan demonstrate Mo’s fearlessness (video)

    Mo eats bread crumbs. I’m a nerd. (video)

    Also, by the way, the skiing in Craftsbury for the last week was unreal!  We actually had about 7 bluebird days in a row, the grooming was superb, and the snow was FAST.  The rest of NE may be having a terrible snow winter, but Craftsbury has somehow avoided it!

    Crust skiing in early February!

    Crust skiing in early February!

  • Mad-own-a

    That’s how you say Madona. This little Latvian town was the site of some awesome Scando Cup races yesterday and the day before. If you’re not into too many words, please see my photo album from the trip so far.

    We arrived late at night on Sunday, and moved into the hotel Janis. This hotel as quickly become one of my favorite in the world. Here’s why:

    It’s just one of the nicest and most comfortable hotels that I get to stay in for ski races. However, Madona isn’t all that way. There are definitely rougher parts of town. Reese, Forrest and I ran by some big old apartment buildings one day:

    It’s just a little bit awkward to jog by in your fancy US Team uniform, while traveling internationally and skiing, when people live in places like this. Granted, the apartments could be beautiful on the inside like Hotel Janis, but I am going to guess that they’re more variable than that. At least they have satellite internet!

    The venue was pretty sweet though. That’s what I remember from Latvia last year- the roads are a little bumpy and it’s obviously not a rich country, but they have a great set of trails! Madona has done a fantastic job of creating an championship-caliber venue. The trails have some incredible new terrain, there is plenty of snow-making to hold races in low-snow years, and now there is also a wood and glass themed lodge that made me want to move in. In addition to the fun and spacious architecture in the lodge, I personally enjoyed the downhills on the outer loop. They have some of the most fun and well-designed downhill corners that I have encountered.

    I was pretty happy with my sprint race there. In my heat I was able to get off the line well and establish my position early, which was key. It was a lot of fun to mix it up with such fast ladies, and a confidence boost to find that it wasn’t impossible to hang with them. The distance race was similar for me, it was a chance to prove that I could ski with girls of my age from other national development teams. I felt pretty good for a lot of it, and I was happy to be in the mix.

    Now we’re in Estonia, getting ready to race a classic sprint tomorrow morning. It’s going to be cold again… my specialty! I’ll let you know how it goes!

  • Moscow WC Video: Part II

  • Dartmouth Carnival Skate Race

    The Dartmouth Carnival race was moved to Trapps today and conditions were perfect!

    SMS skiers, Anika (pictured above), Isabelle P, Gino, Paddy and Skyler were able to race under the 6 person NENSA quota and it was a great experience.
    The college circuit is alive and well, with great competitons each weekend and it is good for our skiers to be able to jump in the mix and hammer against some very good skiers.
    Isabel C. works the hill at 2 kms. It is also fun for us to go because we have so many alumni racing for different colleges.
    Isabelle looks great up the hill. She, Anika, Izzy and Heather (below) all finished within 10 seconds of each other :).

    Sophie gets refreshment from Austin (nice doo eh?). She is on a roll, winning her 4th of the last 5 carnivals.
    Gino cathes a ride from Alex Howe (who placed 5th). Gino started out on fire (a little too much on fire) and paid the price on the secong lap. But..it was a great experience to be able to ski with two of the guys who placed in the top 5.
    Alums Rachel (Middleburys top girl today) and Gage (UVM) show that good competiton does not mean that you can’t be friends.
    Austin Cobb skiing smoothly as always.
    Paddy had another solid race and placed 12th overall (just behind alums Chase and Fritz).
    Skyler is rapidly improving his distance racing. He was lucky to be able to chase Patrick Johnson (race winner) when he was passed at 4 km.
    Overall, it was a great day for current and past SMS skiers. Thanks to Dartmouth, NENSA and EISA for allowing us to race!

  • Intervals @ Sunbowl

    A good chunk of the team spent the morning up at the mountain doing some L3 intervals. It was a picture perfect day and everyone skied well and worked hard. We ended practice with some skiing up in the terrain park – always a good time. 🙂 Tyler and Kate are easing back into practice after dealing with some illness, so they each did a short, easy ski.

    Warm enough for a shirtless ski? Maybe. These guys thought so. 🙂

    Trying something new in the terrain park. 🙂

    Charlie, coming in hot…

    And he’s down!

  • Europe!

    It has been a while since my last post, which I apologize to those people checking my blog regularly. I will try to do a better job the rest of the season.

    After Christmas I headed to Maine for Nationals. I was really excited for the obvious reasons but also because my parents were traveling all the way from Washington to watch Sadie and I race. Unfortunately, I was only able to race half the races due to illness and had to sit out my strongest discipline, the sprints. Sadie was feeling about the same as me, maybe worse so she didn’t race at all. The races that I was able to compete in I didn’t feel quite race up to par. After Maine I headed back to Anchorage for a three-week training block because the racing season is so long. A lot of skiers will try to fit this in at some point during the season to try and maintain the large base that we create over the summer. It was nice to be home for that short period and I hope all that hard training will pay off!
    Last Sunday I left Anchorage to start my 6 week long trip to Europe. We will be traveling around hitting up some of the most competitive races in the world. The trip was set up by the US Ski Team and is designed to be a stepping-stone to the World Cup. The coaches selected about 15 athletes from around the country, most of them around the same age as me. I’m really excited and honored to have been one of the fifteen selected to be here racing for our country. I hope to put together some really strong races. Our first stop is where I’m at now in Madona, Latvia. Madona is an interesting little town. I’ve travelled to some places in central Europe and last year I went to Finland and Estonia, but this place is much different then any place I’ve seen. I get the feeling that most people are right around the poverty line. When traveling in foreign countries I try to meet at least a couple of locals. You can learn a lot about the culture and atmosphere this way. My first impression when walking around town was that people were kind of glaring at us. After stopping and trying to communicate with them (sadly I can only communicate in the only language I know), I realized that they were quite friendly towards us. I think that the people are just looking at our large group with curiosity not anger. I was talking to the receptionist at our hotel last night and I asked her about what most people do for work around town. She said that a lot of the men where loggers and then she went on to talk about how little work there is right now. She said she would come into the hotel every third day and that she felt very lucky to have the job. Madona is a very neat place and I wouldn’t mind coming to race here again. I’ve never been to Russia, but this is what I imagine it would be like.


    Yesterday was my first race here in Europe, this tends to be the hardest one for us Americans. I’m not sure why. Maybe it is the time change and the fact that I’m usually lying horizontally at the time I’m now trying to race. It was a skate sprint and I qualified 36th, second American and 1 second out of making it to the heats. I’m sure it will only get better from here and I’m really looking forward to the next race.  

    Tomorrow we travel to Estonia for the second part of the Scando cup races. I will be racing a classic sprint and a classic 15km. I will try and write a short blog soon to let you know how it goes and life in Estonia.
    From Estonia I go to Turkey to represent the US in U23 World Championships.  It is there I really hope to be in full form.  So it’s hard work ahead and I’m hoping my training this summer has been effective. I had some great races at the beginning of the season, but this is where I hope to peak and have the races I know I am capable of in a mix of the best in the world!