Trail 24, A Few Downhills

Here are a few of the downhills on Trail 24.  The wide angle sure flattens out the hills though:

Trip to Quebec!

After the time trial yesterday morning, many of the skiers ventured into the city with various families and one group with Jamie.  Fortunately, while it was pretty cold, there was no wind.  I've never been to Quebec when it wasn't windy, so that was a treat.  We stopped off at the Chutes de Montmorency and had fun watching ice climbers finishing up their vertical climbs.  Then it was on to the city and the toboggan slide, which of course was lots of fun.  We then found a good place for dinner that had enough seats for us.  A group of girls found an art installation where you come up with a design and add a short phrase or title. Once the image is saved it is added to the slideshow and projected on the front of an old church (Notre Dame des Victoires) within a few minutes.  Attached is what some of the J2 (Rebecca, Talia, Izzy, Leah, Janelle and her cousin Alaina) and EMBK girls (Emily and Shea) came up with.

MSA Time Trial

Today we held our annual skiathlon time trial at the MSA camp.  The day dawned clear and cold......but no wind, so it was not so frigid as in other years.  Dialing in the wax was rather simple.  I suggested a layer of blue covered with mint and it was bomber.  After a tour of the race course on Trail 11, we lined up about 35 racers, including several coaches and non-CSUers or alumni CSUers.  I take the cake for what must have been the slowest transition ever.  A good battle at the front ensued with Koby Gordon prevailing at the end. Results are posted below:

CSU Time Trial: Mt. St. Ann

December 29, 2012

Into transition:

1. Rion O’Grady 13:22
2. Jimmy Burnham 13:23
3. Calvin W 13:24
4. Koby Gordon 13:26
5. Chris Burnham 13:50
6. Lewis Nottonson 14:57
7. Jacob Meyerson 14:58
8. Shaun Skahen 15:35
9. Leah Brams 15:53
10. Hank Yoder 15:54
11. Cathy 15:58
12. John McDaniel 15:59
13. Bob Burnham 16:01
14. Olga 16:11
15. Alex Jospe 16:16
16. Eli Bucher 16:17
17. Will Rhatigan 17:03
18. Jamie Doucett 17:04
19. Clara Cousins 17:15
20. Meg Yoder 17:23
21. Carina Wallach 17:38
22. Trevor Owens 17:42
23. Olivia Cannon 17:52
24. Rosie Cobb 17:58
25. Janelle Deneau 18:28
26. Katrin O’Grady 18:31
27. Ryan Clemmons 18:46
28. Aryeh Lieberman 19:26
29. Talia Seltzer 19:39
30. Phoebe Seltzer 20:28
31. Liza Dawley 20:31
32. Clare Telfer 20:38
33. Sophie MacArthur 20:40
34. Hannah Brigham 22:29
35. Haley Colpitts 23:19
36. Rebecca Nottonson 23:44

FINAL

1. Koby Gordon 26:01
2. Calvin Wight 26:02
3. Rion O’Grady 26:03
4. Jimmy Burnham 26:17
5. Chris Burnham 28:05
6. Ryan? 28:41
7. Jacob Meyerson 28:52
8. Lewis Nottonson 29:04
9. Shaun Skahen 30:19
10. Leah Brams 30:55
11. Cathy 31:12
12. Hank Yoder 31:20
13. Bob Burnham 32:31
14. Alex Jospe 32:43
15. Olga 33:00
16. Clara Cousins 33:53
17. John McDaniel 33:55
18. Eli Bucher 33:56
19. Will Rhatigan 34:25
20. Olivia Cannon 35:02
21. Carina Wallach 35:06
22. Jamie Doucett 35:11
23. Meg Yoder 35:33
24. Trevor Owens 36:00
25. Rosie Cobb 36:06
26. Katrin O’Grady 36:23
27. Janelle Deneau 38:42
28. Talia Seltzer 39:22
29. Aryeh Lieberman 40:01
30. Sophie MacArthur 40:07
31. Clare Telfer 40:47
32. Phoebe Seltzer 41:37
33. Liza Dawley 42:40
34. Hannah Brigham 43:02

Toboggan Ride, Quebec

A video from the toboggan ride in Quebec.  This is fun......

MSA Team Photo

The sun came out after the snowstorm, the troops gathered for the afternoon workout and we managed to corral everyone before they headed off in their workout groups. 

MSA Video

Here is a video from yesterday. 

Here's all of the team out at White Pine touring center in Park City.  (Missing Julia who was doing some intervals).

Here's Julia doing some hard training:

We are enjoying excellent food thanks to Peter Hoenig, the Kerns, and other parents.  The athletes build mental toughness by doing lots of dishes.

Corey Stock came over for dinner and seek the advice of her Kitchen Cabinet of old coaches.  She's staying with the Dartmouth team that has 18 racers here.

Waterville Valley

Evan took a few photos at Waterville today, so here is what it looks like. 

Craftsbury E. Cup Skate Race

As brilliantly sunny as Saturday was, Sunday dawned with the look of snow, gray, cloudy and feeling damp.  The wax team reassembled, ready to do battle again and the racers slowly trickled in, J2s first since they raced early, and J1s and OJs much later since they wouldn't start until 12:30.  Conditions were excellent, the sound of roto-corks cut through the morning air, warm ups were begun......another day of ski racing had begun!  For the most part, the snow held off until part way through the women's race and then came down in earnest during the men's race, softening and slowing the course.  CSU had a good day with many finishing in the hunt for JN points and everyone skiing well despite the lack of snow time.  Clearly everyone was happy to finally be racing after a summer and fall of rollersking, hill-bounding, running, core and whatever else we all do to pass the time between ski seasons.  I was a bit sorry I hadn't signed up to race.  Some photos below.  By the men's race it was getting too dark for good photos....sorry about that guys!  Finally, once more driving home in a snowstorm from the first JNQ race of the season.  At least this drive was easy!

Craftsbury E. Cup - Saturday

Craftsbury did a great job getting their courses ready with manmade snow for the E. Cup opener.  There was no natural snow left after the recent warm spell, but all my concerns about the course vanished when I went out for a headlamp ski on Friday night when I arrived.  It was really excellent skiing. 

It turned out to be an interesting day.  We had about 30 CSU juniors and a number of college CSU alumni to wax for the classic sprint.  We have lots of experience with man-made snow and so it was no surprise that the old standby, toko base green layered with red and a layer of Viola on top turned out to be the wax of the day.  The wax team did a masterful job getting right back in the swing of things under the watchful eyes of Peter Hoenig and Amie Smith.   We had good skis!  Most everyone had good qualifying races and it looked like several juniors would make the heats, but the race results were screwy and after much discussion the race organizers decided that the situation could not be fixed and instead of the elimination rounds they decided on another qualifying round instead.  Disappointing because the rounds are fun to watch, but a great chance for many of the juniors to get another shot at the race.  Many took full advantage to improve on the morning performance.  The wax team regrouped and touched up all the skis and off everyone went again into the sunset.  A few photos:

Corey Races in Canmore

Corey headed out last week to Canmore after the Quebec World Cup for another sprint event on a tough, high altitude course and finished in 51st place.  The courses in Canmore are reportedly very tough....steep climbs and fast downhills.  Jim sent along this photo:

And So It Begins......

If you need to find me in the next 3 months, I'll probably be down here in what Lisa calls "The Shrine to Rode and Toko".  It will also not look this neat again.

Nice crowd!

Here is a photo of Corey that Jim sent along from her sprint qualifier in Quebec with a nice view of the large crowd cheering on the skiers.  Just like racing at Weston!

Practice Sprint Race

A good bunch came to Annursnac for a practice sprint race with full warmup, qualifier race and then heats of 3 to each heat.  Here are the times for each round. 

Name Race1 Race2 Race3 Race4


Chris  3:01 3:07 3:04 3:01
Gavin 2:57 3:05 2:58 3:00
Sean  3:01 3:09 3:01 NS
Julia   3:00 3:06 3:16 3:11
Cate   3:21 3:33 3:30 NS
Zoe    3:25 3:36 3:44 NS
Trevor 3:24 3:20 3:28 3:28
Hank  3:16 3:26 3:39 3:24
Leah   3:28 3:30 3:26 3:25
Meg   3:29 3:39 3:44 3:31
Clara  3:32 3:37 3:38 3:47
Mary  3:38 3:39 3:39 3:32
Sophie 3:55 3:37 3:38 3:40
Sonja  3:55 3:38 3:39 NS
Jordan 4:16 4:55 4:44 4:45
Haley   5:15 NS NS 5:01