Saturday Roll

I thought it was time to get some new photos up on the blog and so I ventured over to Littleton today to see who would show up.

Had to add this very cool, backlit sculpture

Mountain Weekend 2

A small crew tried the VT hills for training this weekend.  Saturday featured a beautiful roller ski in the Pleasant Valley area that had the combined nice pavement, rolling hills and zip for traffic.  The Vt. country is quite charming, but it the backside of the Mansfield range had an ominous look as it was partially shrouded in the clouds.  Walker and Chris Bean joined Madeline, James, Carina, Chris Burnham and I for this new classic roll.  I had thought about going to the Jericho roller ski course, but this loop was much closer and really nice.

That afternoon we braved the sunny 85 degree weather and went boating on the Waterbury Reservoir for a casual paddle.  Lots of splashing between the boats with little regard for the coaches as Madeline and James worked on their quick strength by seeing who could dump the most water into the opposing ship.  A short swim and we returned home to cookout.

Sunday the same crew braved a 5 minute shower to climb up Mt. Mansfield in the early morning. 

Kind of a hammerfest.  Once on the Chin we started booking it across the ridge to the nose where there is a hut as a unexpected drizzle and distant rumble got our nerves moving although the storms were not expected, but it was fortunately was a small cloudy drizzle that lifted over time.  That was enough to have Chris Bean drag the team into the depths of Mordor.  The cliff trail is a lateral trail

from the nose back to the Gondola summit that goes under over around and through the cliffs.  Two tunnels and an epic climb up the misty “Canyon of the winds” was one highlight (see photo).  The canyon is a crack in the rock that is about 300 feet across with walls about 200 feet high on the cliff and a 40 foot opposing wall that is only a few feet wide.   There is a new Stowe zip line that consists of 3 zips from the top to the bottom where speeds can exceed 80 MPH, but the high cost kept the hikers quietly eating their sandwiches while we watched some zipper roll into the fog at high speeds and huge heights.    We finished with another cookout only to find that while I was quite tired, the CSU juniors were still full of energy. 

Coach Bob

More CSU Summer Camp Photos

Rob forwarded a few photos from today's Wapack run/hike on a beautiful day:

Mt Watatic summit with Mt. Monadock in the background

Somewhere on the trail

Guns out at Binney Pond

And Smores to finish the day.  Yumm!

CSU Summer Camp

Well, clearly Amie's group is having a lot of fun at the annual CSU Summer Ski Camp out at the Winchendon School.  Can the other groups measure up?  We'll see:

The whole gang on top of Mt. Watatic before commencing hill bounding intervals

Girls showing their guns!

Sweaty Selfie

NENSA Club of the Year Celebration

Thanks to the Yoders for hosting a very nice cookout to celebrate the naming of CSU as the NENSA Club of the Year.  It was a perfect evening with Doug manning the grill and no mosquitos! 

Western MA training weekend

Last weekend, we had another CSU mountain weekend, this one out in western MA, where we joined forces with some of the Greylock team. We had excellent weather on Saturday, cool and dry and sunny, and then a little rain on Sunday, but not enough to mess with our plans. Because of the poor timing of finals this week, attendance was low - just Sonya, Elinor, and Laura - but the small size of the group gave us much more flexibility, which was nice. 

We started with a rollerski, on the rolling, well-paved, wide-shouldered roads of western MA and eastern NY. Did YOU ski across a state line last weekend?




Having a snack in the parking lot of a Stop and Shop... classy. Sonya was a fan of the fried chicken.


I swear, these kids aren't homeless.


It rained a bit on Saturday night, so we were very happy to change our camping plans from the Lanesboro campground to Rebecca Smith's summer dorm common room, at Williams.  Comfortable, safe, and most importantly, dry.


Found a swimming hole, prior to pizza for dinner and some fun word games.


Despite not staying at a campground, we managed to make a fire and have s'mores anyway.





Sunday, properly fueled by cold cereal eaten out of tupperwares, we all did a race at Mt. Greylock. There were two distances offered, 13.5mi and 5k. Laura wanted to do the full distance, but I convinced her that as a first-year J2 the 5k was a better fit. Elinor and Sonya and Rebecca did the long race, and braved the mud, hills, and rocks very well. Jakin, one of the Greylock skiers, also did the long race, and he beat me, which means I owe him ice cream, but they all had to leave before I got a chance to buy him ice cream! Next time. We all found said ice cream place before piling into the car for the drive home. All in all, an excellent weekend!

Mt Washington Road Race

It was a great day on the rock pile with perfect weather and lots of CSUers running.  A few photos:

Bermans at the awards

Ellie Mendonca was inducted into the Hall of Fame.  She won 3 times in the late 70s, setting 2 course records in the process.  Ellie (Brazil) also is one of two CSU runners to have run in the 1984 Olympics along with Charlie Spedding (Gt. Britain).

CSU Women's Senior team

Kris Freeman

Lewis and Will having a great race

The boys were obviously having a great time.  No one else was this enthusiastic!

Rob, decidedly less enthusiastic

Donna Smyth

Lisa Doucett

Jody Newton

I almost missed Chris Doyle

Peanut Gallery on the hillside - Kathy, Meg and Shea

Clara smiling her way to the finish

Clara runs past Wildcat Ski Area

Larry helping at the finish

Sarah Mae at the finish