World Junior Championships in Kazakhstan

By: Julia Kern

I spent the last two weeks in Almaty, Kazakhstan training and competing at Junior World Championships! I must say it was quite the adventure. The volunteers were extremely friendly and helpful right from the beginning, starting with the airport.

The team arrives in Almaty!    

Our wonderful volunteer Altynai (in the green jacket) with the team!

Our volunteer made us delicious fried buns, a traditional Kazak delicacy!

There is no doubt Kazakhstan has a unique culture and a way of life. They had quite the weird driving system. Some cars had the wheels on the left, others on the right. Also, the stoplights had timers, which signaled how long the light would be green or red for. On the topic of driving, the people are insane drivers there, driving fast and in close proximity to other cars. The bus drivers are incredible, every day they made it up and down the extremely windy access road and through narrow gates without any problems.

Bus selfie with the USA and Canadian Team!

Bus selfies are clearly so important…

I guess umbrellas are Earthquake safe?

Coach Boobar and Katharine in the city with a view of our hotel in the background.   

The subway system is very deep under the ground.

As the volunteers worked hard to blow snow all week, we were able to ski on all of the trails the city venue had to offer. The rocks poked through at times and the warm weather made the snow cover thin, but with all of the hard work, they were able to prep great courses!

Lower course overview.

Looks a lot like Weston with all of those S-turns!

Excitement levels really high in the stars and stripes! (Julia, Hailey, Katharine)    

The tunnel entrance to the stadium. (The venue is a 2022 Olympic Candidate City)

Opening ceremonies J

RELAY DAY= GLITTER

One of the most exciting days for the USA is relay day! Our entire relay team and all other athletes put on glitter for relay day. Hailey, Katharine and I then tracked down all of the coaches and wax techs and put glitter on their face in spirit of relay day.

Boobar being glittered up by Hailey.

Fish receiving his dose of glitter.

Me (Julia) racing in the scramble leg of the relay!    

Julia, Hailey, Katharine cheering for the boys relay!

Every race week and venue has its quirks. Pollution was present in the city we were staying in unfortunately, but everyone has to deal with it. Keeping a positive mindset and being flexible is one of my biggest takeaways. I had an amazing experience at World Juniors and learned A LOT about racing internationally at a high level! Now I am off to the Czech Republic for Slavic Cup races!

I guess my mask style is the new style….

The smog laying low in the city in the morning.

Red, White, Blue= Check!

By Julia Kern

Weston Tuesday Night Races! Wave 2 Photos

After the Wave 1 race I grabbed the camera.  Here is the first installment of photos, more to come later in the week.  Perfect conditions for racing on a pretty comfortable night!

Jackson (not) 30km

Frank toes the line

The CSU masters turned out in force up in Jackson today for the White Mt. Chase.  It was nice to see snow, icy as it was, on the ground instead of the brown conditions down in Boston. Jackson did a great job putting together the course after the rains of last week and the skiing was really very nice sugar snow and very reminiscent of skiing on our usual Weston manmade snow.  The course was pretty short, in large part because there were a lot of ice in places on the golf course and elsewhere and you could see how much work by the piston bully had been required just to get a good strip of snow for the race.  However, Yodel was still a major grunt and the hills on the Wave were still plenty hard.  The snowstorm hitting Massachusetts and S. NH stayed to the south, which was actually a good thing as everyone was on klister.  Rob put out the wax call after some testing on Friday and since I did most of my waxing at home the pre-race prep was rather relaxed!  Skis worked, good to go!  Andy Milne had been prepping everyone all week with his usual amusing emails and CSU clearly had the biggest contingent in the race and ready to reclaim our respective crowns after a year off in the NENSA one-day club championship.

A lot of the usual college kids were missing this year which made the start seem a bit more relaxed.  Up ahead of me was a lot of CSU blue with Andy, Frank, Rob, John, Alex, Steve and a few others as we lapped the 1st field and then headed for the first big climb up Yodel.  At that point I lost site of the front and was left trying to hang with Hannah Smith and not blow a gasket on the big climb.

CSU Women (minus Hannah Smith) - Champions!

CSU Men - Champions!

As we popped out in the fields various CSUers on different loops would come into view, Frank, Andy, John, usually in little groups dueling with the competition from NWVE, Mt. Mansfield, Ford Sayre, etc.  I must say I was delighted not to have that 2nd climb after the old airfield as we hit the Wave and caught my breath from the first big climb and headed back into the woods.  I must say, I was mighty sloppy coming down the Wave on lap 1 and was lucky not to fall a couple times.  I must correct that on lap 2!  Then the winding around the fields chasing various people and checking on who was chasing me.  Hannah and Robert weren't far behind, and I traded places with Albert a couple times.  In retrospect, I was way too relaxed the 1st lap in the fields.  The race wasn't that long!   On lap 2 I skied much better and faster on the hills and around the fields but at one point looked back to see a whole bunch of people chasing not far behind with the orange suit of Joann Hanowski apparently leading the charge.  I had to put it in gear!   I was trying hard to chase down Pavel from NWVE and Jonathan Rodd and realized I was running out of time.  As we headed toward Yodel I cranked it up a notch on the climbs and was ready to go hard on the downhill.  The light was flat and it was fast and hard to see exactly the best line and at max speed my ski hit one of the tracks and I flailed around trying not to crash.  I pulled it together, barely, and survived the downhill with Hannah chasing me and me chasing Jonathan.  I ran out of course but gave it a good go.

A fun race!  Alex was the overall women's winner and I believe Hannah was 2nd.  Congrats!  We had several age group firsts, not the least of which were Larry and Sara Mae's respective wins.  At lunch Andy delighted in presenting the men's championship back to CSU after a 1 year hiatus and in saying that right now the women's race was a tie but that Sara Mae Berman was closing in on the finish line, which would tip the balance in the CSU women's favor.  Our women ran out to greet Sara Mae at the finish and get some team photos.  A good day for CSU!  Full results are posted HERE

Alex shooting snot rockets early in the race with Rob behind

Robert chasing Albert at the road crossing

Alex collecting some swag for 1st

The Bogburn

Once again Bob Haydock pulled off somewhat of a miracle with a lot of work on the snowmobile and some well time snow and held the 32nd Bogburn Race.  Conditions were interesting with an icy base, some fresh snow, some ice chunks that resisted breaking up by countless passes of the snowmobile and it was FAST.  Bob, probably wisely, took out the Chicane Loop from the first part of the race with its 180 corner that is always a huge challenge in the best of conditions and its lung-searing hills right at the start of the race.  The mellower version of the course was challenge enough this year!  With a huge bunch of kids in the BKSL races (including Bill Koch's own kid), there was a lot of action out on the course.  Photos of the BKSLers (and a few others) can be found HERE.  As for the adult races, it seems quite a few people took at least one tumble or in the case of Frank Feist, a spin-out.  But perhaps the best wipe out belonged to Jackson Hardin who decided to go into the drainage ditch on the first hard left corner rather than navigate around the turn.  Bummer.  I caught Jacob Meyerson running down the course, the victim of his binding pulling out of his ski.  I made a mistake and let Andy pass me just before the S turns after the dam and I had to jam on the breaks as Andy put in a vicious snowplow.  I took a dive, not on a hairy downhill but on a corner on the flats.....Really??? You get the idea, lots of good stories after the race.  Race results can be found HERE.  Thanks Bob for another race that will provide embellished stories for years to come!

Final Full Day at MSA

Today was a cold one for sure.  -10F as we drove into the parking lot, but the sun was shining, albeit low in the sky, and there was almost no breeze, so we bundled up with multiple buffs, balaclavas and layers of clothes and headed out for some pretty fabulous classic skiing this morning.  Temps rose to about 3 at lunch as we headed down the hill for a well deserved lunch and some warmth and of course a nap.  For the afternoon speeds session several of us opted to continue with classic given the beautiful tracks.  A great day at MSA!  Tomorrow morning will be our last ski before heading home. Promises to be better than coffee to wake us all up with forecast temps at -10F!

MSA Time Trial Results

1	Lewis Nottonson	12:22	12:15	24:37:00
2	Will Rhatigan	12:29	12:40	25:09:00
3	Chris Burnham	12:36	12:50	25:26:00
4	Jacob Meyerson	12:43	12:51	25:34:00
5	Frank Feist	13:14	12:43	25:57:00
6	James Kitch	13:12	12:46	25:58:00
7	Joseph Carleo	13:11	12:48	25:59:00
8	Tyler Lee	13:34	12:26	26:00:00
9	Jacob Jampel	13:35	12:26	26:01:00
10	Oliver Snow	13:27	12:35	26:02:00
11	John Sakalowski	13:26	12:37	26:03:00
12	Jackson Harding	13:41	13:45	27:26:00
13	Leah Brahms	13:39	13:49	27:28:00
14	Andy Milne	13:39	13:50	27:29:00
15	Rob Bradlee	14:05	13:42	27:47:00
16	Jordan Fried	14:38	13:23	28:01:00
17	Eli Bucher	14:13	14:24	28:37:00
18	Hadley Moreau	14:47	14:32	29:19:00
19	Kathy Maddock	14:44	14:50	29:34:00
20	Bob Burnham	15:08	14:36	29:44:00
21	Sonya Jampel	15:21	14:51	30:12:00
22	Gabby V.	15:15	15:05	30:20:00
23	Madelin Kitch	15:23	15:06	30:29:00
24	Clara Cousins	15:40	14:51	30:31:00
25	Talia Seltzer	15:14	15:26	30:40:00
26	Meg Yoder	15:58	14:52	30:50:00
27	Allie Skahen	16:10	15:45	31:55:00
28	Madelin Rieder	16:33	15:35	32:08:00
29	Hannah Rieder	16:32	15:37	32:09:00
30	Jeanelle Deneau	16:47	15:53	32:40:00
31	Kevin Telfer	16:48	15:57	32:45:00
32	Izzy Cole	16:55	16:42	33:37:00
33	Lilly Sullivan	18:48	15:27	34:15:00
34	Emily Nottonson	18:05	16:23	34:28:00
35	Thor E.	17:02	17:32	34:34:00
36	Violet Cobb	18:07	16:59	35:06:00
37	Rebecca Feist	18:00	17:12	35:12:00
38	Clare Telfer	18:04	17:22	35:26:00
39	Lydia Yoder	18:06	17:39	35:45:00
40	Isaac Newell	18:44	18:19	37:03:00
41	Julia Homa	19:00	19:11	38:11:00
42	Lucy Bergeron	20:22	19:36	39:58:00
43	Natalie Boyle	21:59	22:20	44:19:00