Thank you NENSA and all of the past present and future GMVS skiers for making me look good!

APRIL 23, 2012

NENSA Announces 2012 New England Coach of the Year

Posted by: Janice Sibilia

Justin has been coaching at GMVS for 6 years, was J1 Scando trip leader in 2009, World Junior Coach in 2012 and the New England Team Wax Tech 2009-2012. For four straight years in a row, Justin has also managed the production of 55- 65 pairs of skis per race at Junior Nationals- this is no easy feat to keep the New England train rolling! His calmness through the inevitable storms of wax testing and making the right calls, consistently put out the best skis on the best skiers day in and day out during a busy week.
Through all of this he stresses the team effort to make New England such a great ski community. In true spirit, Justin recaps his season on a recent blog post:

” Thanks for helping  make this winter a success for New England– the enthusiasm of the Nordic Community in our region overshadowed any lack of snow. It was a huge year of successes for Eastern Skiers from the BKL level,  at Junior Nationals and NCAA’s. I’m proud to be a part of this energy and I look forward to collaborating with many of you in the future.”

We congratulate Justin and wish him much success as he continues to educate and challenge his skiers to even more success in the future.

Coach of the year award history
2012 – Justin Beckwith
2011 – Sverre Caldwell
2010 – Pepa Milochoeva
2009 – Matt Boobar
2008 – Eileen Carey
2007 – Rob Bradlee

We’ve only had one day of Spring Series and it has already been a ton of fun! This is the strongest field we have skied in this year—better than US Nationals, better than West Yellowstone and Bozeman in November—and there is no lack of inspiration to be had on the trails. Almost all of the big names in US skiing are here, and the field is not just strong at the top, as many of the NCAA skiers and juniors are here for one more shot at competition after NCAA Championships and Junior Nationals.

Heidi heads to her start with Craftsbury’s unbelievable fleet of snow moving machinery as a backdrop.

MK explodes out of the blocks.

Flying through a ribbon of snow: grass and mud surrounds the course on all sides and spectators are urged to stay off the trails to preserve the snow.

MK hammers home up the final climb.

Hans, ready to go.

Alum David Sinclair has had an amazing end to his season: he was 2nd and 3rd in the final Eastern Cup, 3rd in the final carnival at Trapps, finished as the top junior in several races at Canadian Nationals, and skied to a strong 25th place today. Incredible job David!

Hans is battling a post-JOs cold and didn’t feel his best out there today, but focused on making strong movements on a day where glide was super important.

Dev paced his race like a champ and skied higher than his bib today. He’ll take tomorrow’s race off and then return for the sprint on Tuesday.

Our friend from the North, Antoine, has finished his biathlon season but donned the green and white threads to ski some races in the US. It’s always good to have Toine around!

David was the second junior today, the highlight in a group of great results for GMVS and its alums!

Dev had a chance to showcase his talents with flare and daring today.

Both he and Kaitlin took top honors in the school-wide bump contest …

We’re waiting for photos of Fitzy.

Junior, Heidi Halvorsen, has kept her race season rolling overseas.  After the completion of the J1 Scandinavian trip in Estonia she stayed in Norway, training with a club in Oslo and staying with her grandmother.  Two weeks ago, while we were basking in the sun in Utah, she was completing a very strenuous Norwegian intensity block.  She kept her cool, wished her friends and brother good luck in the JO, and trained for the Norwegian Junior Nationals.

By virtue of her strong results in Estonia and in time trials with local skiers she was given a great seeding spot in the races.  In the under-17 class of 87 athletes she started in the mid-forties.  We can’t wait to hear more about the races when she gets back but, she seems to have nailed the 5km skate — 17th place.  A fantastic result in perhaps the deepest field she has raced against.

Thanks to Peter Moore for finding the below photo of Heidi competing in the relay.

7.5 km classic. Guest class winner. 49th overall.
http://www.emit.biz/races/2012.03.16/Junior_NM_Klassisk/resultat/RESULT.HTM

5 km skate. Guest class winner. 17th overall!
http://www.emit.biz/races/2012.03.17/Junior_NM_Fristil/resultat/RESULT.HTM

4×3.75 relay. 23rd place team.
http://www.emit.biz/races/2012.03.18/Junior_NM_Stafett/stafres/DAMER_4x3.75_KM.HTM

Hello Monday morning!  It was a weekend to remember and a ski season that leaves us all wanting more time.  It’s five days till the start of Super Tour Finals.  Our winter has been made possible by hard working and resourceful touring centers taking advantage of any clip of cold weather — we’re still optimistic for this weekend and we have a gang ready to race.

The wax choices are getting easier as we head deep into the warm and wet season.

The klister box got a thorough going over after JO’s — ready to go!!

Congrats to the Vermont skiers and the hard workers at Mt. Top who were able to get the weekends races off.  Truly impressive to drive into the area, with no snow visible for miles and see a great track laid out for some early spring ski derby!

Yesterday was the last day for MRG.  I missed the lift in the afternoon, but skied up, no skins (’cause I didn’t have ’em), but the snow was so sticky it worked with some good upper body work.  Too short, but always awesome.

We’re gearing up for awesome summer camps and the registrations are starting to roll in — give me a shout and secure your spot — gonna be some fun camps this year!!

What has this winter been up to?  We’ve been celebrating this week, up in Stowe, and on the slopes of Mad River Glen.  It’s been a great stretch and our legs are tired — a good sign of winter.

Wax testing in Soldier Hollow.

Before we get into this week we’ve gotta mention a great day of skiing in Alta, Utah.  It was a nordic skiers dream, the Sunday after a championship week and you are at the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  Even better we were getting to share our trip with guests, Bill, Henry and Don Harmeyer, and Ben Hegman.  All of these skiers had the forethought to put some tele or touring skis in their quiver for a trip to Utah.

Hans and Dev under the Devils Castle.  Superior in the background.

So we took over the New England Girls van, complete with pastel writings including, “Hugs and Kisses,” “Girl Power,” and heart shaped drawings and headed up the canyon.  After visiting friends here for many years now I was getting to give the tour of a skiers Disneyland.  “To the left you might see some climbers and mountain goats,” we looked — and by golly they were there.  Through the slide paths and past he Y Couloir we drove.  Because of our window art we were given VIP Parking at the front of the lot!

Jason with the group looking west.

We toured a lot of the area and found chalky snow, most memorably on High Rustler, and corn and frozen corn.  During our ski we ran into several friends including, Mid – A coaches Bill Brooker and Jason Hettenbaugh.  We also had the chance to check out a friend’s octagon house off the Albion Lift — elk burgers with a view!!

Bro, good GNAR Points! @awesome

This week started with a tour up the Hual Road at Trapps.  We climbed up and descended into the Mansfield Touring Center, purple and yellow klister eating up the tracks and kicking on all eastern surfaces.  Ice-slop-freshly groomed corn-pine cone-stick-water-air-rock-snow.  A special time climbing up Ranch Brook, running proud with melt, and feeling the rich forest air fill your lungs after two weeks of thin and dry Utah air.  David Sinclair was back training with us for a few days during break and helping keep the pace.

With the strong group we were covering good ground and soon found ourselves rounding the perimeter of the trail system, heading straight up Houston to Stowe and then onto the Derby Trail.  The trail we raced over only weeks ago was reduced in places to a thick, dark sheet of pine cone ridden ice.  It’s the sketchy conditions are what make skiing so much fun!  As we climbed home the snowmobile groomer cut a fresh track directly in front of us — good luck is following us … so we hid our hunger and tiredness and did a continuos interval to the top.  David said good bye, Evan made a proud push, and I kept them parallel.

David and I skied on Sugarbush during Christmas — bell to bell – three months… Oh winter what are you up to?

Thursday we skied on the lower trails at Trapps.  Again we were greeted by varied conditions and all feeling a sense of loss for this winter that never really seemed to come.  We’ve been lucky for sure, Dev and I made turns in October, and we had great snow in Yellowstone and then constant skiing up to this point.  The east side of the Greens is going to be the place to be for the next years!

After a quick warmup we did a three person sprint relay with each skier doing six laps around a fun stadium loop.  There was gravel showing through the Sugar Road and the field is getting quite green.  Our course had two options at the far point; if you turned early you could gap, or ski over a patch of grass, or continue to the second gate and stay on the snow.  When we dropped off David we interrupted a coyote stalking a group of four deer.

Rafter supervising snow angel making at the Starks Nest 11/11/11, during a training hike.

Today we went up to celebrate the snow on Mad River Glen.  Part of being a skier is the ability to ski it all — skiing at Mad River you get to do that.  Skiing Paradise is the definition of skiing to me.

We had a great posse and got to show Evan around some of the best trails.  The signs of spring and a soft winter all over, the ground barely looks like it froze.  The skiing is great and the grass is fast all over so get out and enjoy the heck out of it.

We are so fortunate to live here in the Mad River Valley and get to ski and travel like we do.

MK skiing at the Dartmouth Carnival earlier this year. She was 5th in the 10 km OJ girls skate at Junior Nationals.

Mary Kate Cirelli took home 5th place in the OJ Girls 10 km skate on Wednesday. She skied with the lead pack for the duration, and weathered the storm when several girls made attacks near the end of the race, skating in through the slush to hold onto 5th place overall. I don’t have many details from the race, and I’m unfortunately not there to take photos, but it looks like the rest of the team will be gunning for improvement Tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll be able to scrape together some more info soon!

Dev and Hans showed they can crush it in the classic sprints. After a tough day yesterday, look for them to rip out there tomorrow!

Tomorrow our gang looks to match its strong classic sprint with some good classic distance racing. The distance is 5 km for MK and Katilin and 10 km for Hans and Dev. It promises to be fun out there!

On a different note, I got to go watch the Bill Koch Festival at Great Glen Trails this past weekend, which was a real treat and a throwback to my days as a young racer in New England. The kids—500 of them in all, more than are at JNs—represented the typical range of young skiers that BKL attracts. Some were super serious about the racing and some were along for the ride, more interested in the costumes, the obstacle course, and the general excitement of the festival. Regardless of mentality about the racing, everyone was having a great time. It is always refreshing to get back to the roots of skiing and remember why we are all in this sport.

I helped out in the finish corral on Sunday for the individual races, and got to pick up many of the racers after they hurled themselves to the snow in exhaustion after skiing their 1, 2, 3, or 4 km loops. After a lift up and some encouragement to breathe, almost all of them threw a big smile on their face and cheered for their competitors crossing the finish line. And every kid, when I asked them how it went, either said “fun!” or “awesome!” What a great perspective on the sport, one which I think we should recall whenever we go out and race. Skiing is exhilarating and fun: getting too caught up results can cloud the enjoyment that brings us all out to the trails.

And some of these kids can flat out ski! On the skate day especially, I was amazed at the fluidity and grace with which some of the BKLers moved around the course. The last 200 meters came down a steep hill and across a flat before turning and climbing gradually to the finish. Some of the kids moved so effortlessly across the flat that I could have sworn I was watching miniature world cup skiers. They skied with total abandon, relaxed at every joint, carefree in their arm swing and their expressions, and big—or as big as they could be at an average of 4′ 5″—in every motion they made. Skiing is not a sport founded on brute strength or raw power: it is founded on the joy of free movement, of speed gained effortlessly and momentum preserved by efficiency. Sometimes it is important to take a step back and look at the kids who just want to go fast.

Good luck tomorrow to the GMVS crew, and we’ll keep everyone posted on how it goes!

I haven’t gotten many details on the day, but congratulations go out to the whole team for qualifying, and to Hans for skiing through the heats and racing to 6th place in the country for OJ Boys! More details and hopefully photos to come!

Hans Halvorsen set the bar high with a 2nd place in qualifying. He was just under 1.5 seconds out of the win, and will look to ski some awesome heats this afternoon.

Unofficial results are beaming in over the interwebs, and summit timing shows GMVS skier Hans Halvorsen racing to a second place qualifying time in Soldier Hollow in the classic sprint. Devlin Shea crushed it out there as well, coming across the line as the 19th J1. I think that the last qualifier just crossed the line, so we want to wish those boys good luck in the heats!

Dev ripping the classic stride at Craftsbury on  the final Eastern Cup weekend.

Head Coach Justin Beckwith is the head kick wax tech for the New England team, which has continued its strong performances in JO sprint racing with 16 boys qualified unofficial in the Men’s J1/OJ category. Seems like they had some pretty good boards out there!

Justin probably had the power shades on in the wax cabin in SoHo.

Stay tuned for more updates as the day progresses. We will keep you posted on MK and Kaitlin’s results when they come through in a little while, and will tell you about heat results as they unfold.

Great start to the day for GMVS!