Bates Carnival

We had a nice drive to the great state of Maine - no moose sightings and it only starting snowing at the tail end of the five hours.  After placing our breakfast orders to the Rostay, we tucked in for the night.  Once everyone had their fill of chocolate chip pancakes and orange juice, we were off to the races.

The start of the GS was blustery and cold.  However, it was not tough to find our start area as our start bench is now painted the glorious colors of our great school - and these colors are far from discrete.  So we made ourselves at home up there.  Everyone was helpful, grabbing each others jackets and coming around to cheer despite the weather.  The girls ran first and by golly, if I didn't see Laurel Carter laying down back to back GS runs!  It was great to see!  She wound up with her best GS ever, 11th place!

Geordie backed her up with a 15th and Shannon was our third ladies scorer with 32nd.  Annie, Kristina and Sarah didn't quite find the finish line but they were going for it and skiing well.  The women were pretty happy with their GS but they knew they had a lot more to give, especially when it came to that slalom event...

The boys ran second.  Men's captain, Sean ran first for the Eph men.  After a solid first run, he managed to lose the edge right off his skis but he had a tough heart and finished the race anyway.  Freshman, Christoph was gunning for it - he managed 11th on the first split but the stars weren't quite aligned and he found himself head over heels in the powdery berm on the side of the track.  He is taking a couple of days on the bench but we are sure he will be back on the hill in no time.

Carson made a giant leap from bib 74 to finish in 29th.  Way to get it done.  Victor fought his way down and wound up in 33rd.

The next day was a bit warmer and it was slalom - something we get pretty excited about... Men go first for this event.  Chris and Sean had a tight race with Chris pulling into 23rd place and Sean on his heels in  24th place.  Carson thoroughly confused the gate-keepers, managing to ski a hairpin backwards with some quick thinking but his fight earned Williams some points so he did what he had to and earned a 38th.  Two finishes in his first carnival - not bad at all.  I know he has a lot more gas to give though so keep your eyes peeled for that.  Dylan had a good fight out there and he will rise to the challenge with a couple more training days under his belt - but he kept his head up and pulled out a 46.  The guys have been training hard and pushing each other and they are all on track to move up a lot more this weekend at UNH.

The ladies finished up with weekend with a power move, claiming the number one spot as a team for women's slalom.  Geordie was our first finisher, with a 2nd place behind world cup point holder, Elli of UVM.  Laurel snagged 6th place and Shannon rounded out the scoring team with a 13th.  Annie made flip first run but things didn't quite go as planned on round 2 but we know she is skiing fast.  Sarah also had a great first run but got bit by a feisty snow snake during her second run and I'm afraid the same culprit took down Kristina during her run as well.

Congratulations, ladies on winning the opening slalom as a team!  I am sure it will not be the last time either.  Great work - You guys really threw down!

We are training up and are psyched to bring what we've got over to Attitash next week!

Some Good Moments

The team all went to the Bosquet race a week ago and Ed got some great shots!  Thought I would share them with you.  Also, the snow today out there on Whirlaway was amazing. Everyone was ripping.

Everyone

The Men 

The Women

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.