December Races

"artsy" shot of Snowbowl

The team dispersed a bit for winter break.  Highlights from these races were: 

A third place run for Sarah at the Sunday River Eastern Cups.  She put together two solid races there.  Good skiing, and just after her return from adventures overseas in Norway.  Velde Fint, Flicka!

Christoph also stomped a USSA race, out west, claiming gold.  Well done, sir.  

Shannon finished off 2013 with some very respectable performances as well - she is scoring up a storm - with 3 top five finishes in Canada, bringing her points down to the low 40s.  Excellent. 

Kendall took advantage of the devos, finishing 2nd and 3rd in the GS races, providing himself with a score both of those days.  

I spent last week with Carson at a mountain that is near and dear to my heart, my very own Sugarloaf Mountain.  This northern Maine venue lived up to its reputation, supplying us with inversions and ice and rain some wind... basically extremely unpredictable weather.  The visibility in the GS was not anything to write home about...!  And there was some powder to be pushed of the track but Carson wound up in the low 20s on his best GS days - a score for him.  And we managed to pull off two slalom races in one day (which was necessary to avoid the ice storm that was to come).  After a fifth place first run, Cars threw down a very nice second run putting him into 4th place overall.  Very nicely executed.  It was a fun week of great meals, strange weather and very good skiing.

The dark horse of the race was the German 'Pilot'.  A Lufthansa engineer was flown over from Germany for 3 weeks to work on the rebuilding of an old plane in Auburn or somewhere around here.  He brought his ski stuff over to the states to see if there might be some races.  So he drove up to Sugarloaf and managed to win one of the slaloms.  The airline mechanic had some good moves.  

I hope everyone has had a very merry Christmas and is finding some good snow to play in -

Our morning ride up double runner

Bates and St Michaels coaches Rogan and Angus enjoy the fine weather conditions 

Slalom training after the GS race day II 

A soft training track but good to hit some plastic 

Sunday River Stratton Tales

There have been a few major events since the last post.  Allow me to fill you in.  We had a trip to Sunday River.  The start area was very steep and icy - this is my excuse for not photographing the event.  Apologies.  However, there were some important events that you should be aware of.  The first is Shannon moved from 17 to 7th on day two, scoring in the low 40s and she has since made a match for this race up in Canada with a second place.  That was a big move for her but I'm quite certain this is a trend that will continue.  Stay posted.

Carson stepped up and won a second run at Sunday River, landing him in 4th place overall in the Open race.  

Christoph and Dylan both put down some extremely good sections of skiing and we look forward to seeing them put it all together in their upcoming races.  Just watch.

Max and Riley gave us exciting races to spectate as well, putting together some solid turns and we saw a lot of fight out of both of them.  Gabby started to loosen up in her final trip down the course, letting the skis really run.  And Merrit also put two runs together quite nicely. 

Yesterday a few ladies made the trip to Stratton for an Open GS.  It was seriously frigid.  The track was hard.  Nikki really stepped it up second run, skiing deliberately and cleanly to finish up 26.  Nicely executed.  Merrit also scored a race for herself - so congratulations there - And we lost Jocelyn second run to a rut but she was moving in the second run so that was good to see as well.

Last night, Christoph, Kendall and I made the trip back up there to beat the blizzard.  We had a fine evening at the Econolodge and made it up to the mountain in time to find out that it had been cancelled.  We met Carson there and he was just buckling up for some eastern pow on rental boards (for some reason he did not want try his 195s in the snow).  So... we drove back so Christoph could finish his paper... 

Here are some photos from the ladies' Stratton race -

 Ed in his armor

Jocelyn found some old friends at the start 

Nikki cannot wait to get in that gate! Super psyched. 

Pre race routine 

Nikki getting in the zone 

Jocelyn 

Merrit is in the lineup 

And she cannot wait to get on the course

Thats all for now.  The team is dispersing a bit for the holidays but look for some of them to pop up in Canada and Steamboat Sunday River Sugarloaf Sugarbush - 

AND FINALLY, lets go Pats - 

Agility Session

I have recently come into some photos from an earlier agility session we had in the "Odd Quad".

Nikki races through the ladder 

Merritt rounds the cone in the slalom course 

Paige hops her way through the gauntlet of ropes 

They decide to give Kendall a real challenge - he has some ups.

Colorado Wrap Up

The camp came to to end, unfortunately.  I think we were all getting quite used the high levels of vitamin D and time on snow.  But alas, every great thing must end.  With a final sandwich from the lodge and a couple free runs, we said our goodbyes to Winter Park and headed back to Williamstown.

We said our "see you laters" to Carson and our volunteer coach, Alex (ski team alumn '11).  We'll be catching up with Carson at Sunday River this weekend for some open races and hopefully Alex will venture from the big city of Philli for a bit to take a trip back to the 'ol Purple Valley.  We really appreciated you coming out with us - it was awesome having you there.

We saw some Midd Kids on our plane back - you really never can go through the Denver airport without seeing someone you know, generally in the ski racer world.  Then, with Carson absent (he tends to have strong [and quite valid] concerns with keeping a good diet), we made a 2:00am stop on the ride home at the finest steakhouse in America, serving billions each day - for some breakfast sandwiches and has browns.

Then it is back to the grindstone with school.  But I know everyone is excited to race this weekend at Sunday River - and of course to finish up the semester with those final papers and exams!

It was a great week - Thank you to Steve Graham and Rich Georgie for making this possible!  It has become a very special and productive trip -

Kelsey

Post - morning sesh.  Group pic - missing Jocelyn - everyone, looking sharp.

On our way to set the course in the am 

 Coach Alex

See, he's all blue. 

Oh, The Things They Carried...! 

Thanks for a fun week, team.

Colorado Day 2 - Happy Turkey Day!

Colorado did not disappoint.  It was sunny again, as promised.  The day started out with some drills and fine tuning.  In the afternoon, we returned our our trusty GS Hill, Hughs.  Again, we were spoiled and had the trail to ourselves.  The team was really focused and hammered out about six runs in our afternoon session.  

It is really great to be on snow with everyone.  We've got an 'American' Thanksgiving dinner (that what the Canadians are calling it) planned tonight at Deno's.  We are all happy and tired but excited to get recharged and get more done tomorrow am!

Thanks for the awesome training today, team.