Open FIS Sunday River

Ed went up to the Great North in the wee hours that Friday.  The remaining five adventurers piled into the van after a little dinner and made the trek.  After braving the dark roads and one McDonalds stop, we arrived at our refuge, The Norseman.  We were uncertain what we would find at this northern venue with such a late snow season at hand.  

In the morning we were greeted with mostly grassy trails and snowguns at full power.  Some of the westerners were less then impressed with this.  However the sun was out and they finally got to hit some slalom gates so smiles were big nonetheless.  

Geordie shields herself from the snowguns on the way up the lift 

But we are happy

When we got to the course, we were pleasantly surprised with the surface.  It was hard, good snow!  Sunday River said they could do it and they did a great job preparing the hill.

G, mid warmup

The Ephs fought hard and pulled off some impressive stuff, despite not having a single slalom turn in their training quiver.  Geordie managed a fourth place!  Christoph a 13! And Chris wound up 25!

Christoph

Carson skied great but did not quite manage to navigate his way around all the gates.  And Victor almost cracked top 30, with a 32.

Victor and Geordie

It was a really fun first race weekend and we are all psyched we went.

Christoph, Victor, Carson

Before The Snow

You put a skier on a snowy mountain and sure, they have to work hard out there to get better but they are in their element.  Its very easy for them to look around and get inspired.  But what happens when you take away the crisp, white element?  Thats when they have to dig deep and look inside of themselves for inspiration... and thank you, Mother Nature for giving the Williams Alpine Ski Team this opportunity.

Yay Charles!

Awesome Job today Charles!  Those 18 hundredths would have been nice to qualify for that second run but 31st in your first world cup!  Not too shabby Chucko!

Good Luck Charles

Now we have two Williams Ski Team alumns on the World Cup Circuit.  Chris Frank has been skiing great with some awesome NorAm results recently.  He skied well in his last world cup, even dealing with a rerun situation.  So keep up the good work, Chris!

And Charles Christianson will be making his White Circus debut tomorrow in the mens GS at Beaver Creek.  Just want to wish you luck from the purple valley!  Eyes up and Go, Charles!

Alpine Ephs Head Out West

The team spent Thanksgiving break in Winter Park, Colorado. We had exactly four days on snow, which didn't seem like much in theory. But with two and even three sessions in a day, you can get a lot done! We were lucky enough to have guest coach, Brendan helping us out. The team was focused and working hard. We had a wonderful dinner at Victor's family's place. That evening there was an intense chess matchup between Whitney and Christoph. Unfortunately they would not disclose the winner to the press and they announced it as "a tie". We are going to have to work on the competitiveness there... Thanksgiving day included turkey and a parking lot football game so everyone was a true American, even the Canadians. It was a super fun, productive camp.

Big Thank You to Bo Peabody '94, Rich Georgi '87, and Steve Graham '82 for making it possible.

Here is some footage of our travels.