SMS NORDIC

BKL Action At Grafton

2012-01-29T14:03:00.008-05:00

We had a great morning of racing at Grafton today. Clear skies and temperatures hovering around freezing made up for the persistent wind. The trail was fun and well groomed for some fast action.

Thanks to Grafton Ponds for making the snow and allowing racers to use it. At the conclussion of the BKL race, team Mass. was having their Eastern High School qualifier.
Everyone likes their picture taken :). This is a combo of SMS, West River and Frost Mtn kids.
The skiers had the option of going around the machine made hill, or going over it....they all went over! Sam H and Eli E get after it; they got to hammer on each other for the whole race.
Ben O was on fire today.
Mehana shows off her fine V1 style.
Lillian F wins the coolest suit award (and the race).
Anna L charges the hill.
Scott M looking for someone to pass.
Sophie H and Pippin had their private duel.
Helena shows that tucking is faster.
Katharine takes off with Chloe in hot pursuit.
Russel (looking really good).
Barney H (alum) chats it up with his old coach.

A good time was had by all. Thanks to Putney for hosting the race (and to Lilly for taking the pictures)!

UNH Carnival Distance Races

2012-01-28T18:13:00.007-05:00

What a difference a day makes! Today the college kids and Skyler raced mass start distance races under sunny skies at Jackson. The Jackson crew did a great job and skiing was excellent for the womens 15 km and the mens 20 km.

Pictured above, the girls spill over the hill about 1 km into the race. At this point in the season, it seems like a UVM/Dartmouth party with those two teams taking the top 9 spots in the womens race, but rest assured, the other teams are working hard and planning to shake things up in the coming weeks.
Isabel.
Rachel.
Stephanie.
Danielle.
Hallie hammers the hill.
Sophie made her move on the final downhill, entered the last 1/2 km of flats with a solid lead and held on for the win.
Gage nears the finish.
Austin Cobb is one of the few Middlebury kids who escaped the raging stomach bug and he skied a good race.
Skyler finally felt healthy enough to race his first distance race of the year and he skied a good solid race.
This is the beginning of the mens finish sprint. Eric Paker (in 3rd here) came storming through for a narrow victory over Franz Berstein and Sam Tarling. After 20 kms. , it was exciting to see the close finish.
Fritz skied well and finished in the mid teens.
Skyler brings it home.

Tomorrow our BKL kids will race in Grafton. It should be a nice day and a fun race!

SMS Alums Shine at UNH Carnival Sprint

2012-01-27T15:32:00.006-05:00

We have a saying, "Once and SMS skier, always an SMS skier" so today was like old home day at the UNH Carnival. Skyler was entered on the USST quota and 10-15 alums were racing for their respective college teams.

We woke up to 4" of fresh snow that was changing to freezing rain and rain. A wax coaches dream since it was a classic race :).

With a 9:30 start there was not too much time for testing so we tried some klister that should work in those conditions and it was pretty good. We went with it and Skyler won the prologue!

On the alum side, Sophie, Isabel and Stephanie (all Dartmouth), Gage and Fritz (UVM), Austin Cobb, Hilary, Rachel (all Middlebury), Kristen (Williams) and Danielle Baron (UNH) qualified for the heats with Sophie, Stephanie, Gage, Isabel and Rachel all in the top 11!

During the heats, the weather changed to pretty much all cold rain. Most skiers had zeros, many had klister and a couple strong and brave lads went on skate skis.

In the end, Sam Tarling edged out Skyler for the win and Fritz skied to an 8th place finish. Sophie ran away for a convincing win in the womens A final with Isabel 5th and Stephanie 8th.

Great skiing by everyone. Sorry there are no pictures, it was too wet to have a camera out there!

For full results, google EISA and then go to results and UNH.

Stowe Mini Camp

2012-01-26T09:08:00.009-05:00

We just finished up our four day mini-camp in Stowe, Vermont. Almost everyone got six separate sessions on snow with a little bit of everything - lots of distance, intervals, time trial, etc. - and we arrived home last night, all appropriately tired from the volume, but psyched to have put in some time on snow. The skiing at Trapp's was really great, especially for the first few days. A night of rain made things interesting, but the trails still had plenty of cover. We'll be back in Stowe next weekend for the Trapp's Eastern Cups/UVM Carnival, so it was great to dial in our skiing on the race course - and for Corky, Anika, and Gino a chance to ski the courses for the first time! Check out more photos below and many more photos here.

We did a 5k + 5k continuous pursuit with GMVS on Wednesday morning. Classic first, skate second. It had rained two days prior and then snowed the night before making for variable conditions - powder here, ice there. Fun conditions to practice racing on! Everyone skied well and put together a great effort. J2/J3s & Charlie only did the classic leg, Anika only did the skate leg. Several people were pretty tired from the week and opted out of the TT and got in a nice distance ski instead. Congratulations to Gino & Mary Kate Cirelli (GMVS) for whipping around the 5K loop twice and taking the boy's and girl's wins! Thanks to Justin & Evan for bringing their crew over.

The Pastore siblings from Durango, CO: Alicia Rose (UVM '15) & Gino (SMS '13).

We did a little "Best of Vermont" tour on the way home for treats: first the Lake Champlain Chocolate Store (not pictured), then the Cabot Cheese Store... : )

Sampling maple syrup at Cabot!

The girls van made a stop at Ben & Jerry's too!

Anika is in heaven. : )

Stowe Training Trip

2012-01-24T12:38:00.004-05:00

By Issy, Mollie, Gino, & Charlie

On the quest for snow, we headed out for Stowe, Vermont on Sunday. The first day we all did a 2 -3 hour easy classic distance ski with the majestic view of the Vermont mountains in our sights and the sun setting down upon us. From there we drove to our accommodations for the next three nights. We are staying in the oldest ski house in Vermont - a rambling, large white house up on a hill off Route 108 - and though the house is a little quirky, we are all comfortable and enjoying the company of our teammates and comparing notes on who snores the loudest. :)

After snuggling with Simon and Bear (the house cats) all night, we headed out for our morning jog on Monday. We feasted on eggs, bacon, and oatmeal for breakfast and then started out for another beautiful classic ski. Half the team skied from the house (a little trail-breaking required on a backcountry trail to reach the Trapp's trails) and the rest of the team drove up to the lodge and started from there. Nearly everyone on the team has "skied to the Cabin" by this point and we're all enjoying the ripping downhills that the Trapp's trail system has (Mollie says she's learning to love them). In the afternoon, we did a short and sweet tour of the race course on skate skis to prepare for the upcoming Eastern Cups and, more importantly, our TT with GMVS tomorrow. :) In the afternoon, we went into town and found a coffee shop (the team's favorite activity, besides skiing).

Today we pushed the pace on the race course ("It was sweet," says Gino) with some level three intervals. Skyler came down from Jericho and joined us. Everyone started the workout with some starts and finishes, including a boy's team favorite - in a pack of ten: ripping down the Telemark Trail into the field, banging a hard U turn backwards into the finish and then sprinting away to an imaginary "finish line". Lots and lots of photos to come once we get home tomorrow and Liz has her camera cord back. Then everyone got down to business with two long L3 intervals on the race course. Though we got a fair amount of rain last night, the trails at Trapp's held up well and still have plenty of cover.

We'll ski again this afternoon and tomorrow we're looking forward to a continuous pursuit classic-skate TT with GMVS in the morning before departing for home, maybe with a stop at the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, before we hit the highway.

Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow...

Timcomb EC skate '12

2012-01-24T06:08:00.000-05:00

Some nice V1 skate footage. Bonus section of some of the top open men.

DIRECT LINK HERE

YOG Closing Ceremony Pictures

2012-01-22T15:43:00.003-05:00

70 nations, over 1,000 athletes and 100,000 spectators were part of the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.The flame was extinguished this evening and the Olympic flag passed to the mayor of Lillihammer, Norway, where the next YOG's will be held in 2016.

Now everyone is off to the dance. We'll have a long travel day tomorrow.

More Pictures From Youth Olympic Games

2012-01-22T08:38:00.005-05:00

Today is an off day so we have slept in, relaxed and walked around town. The athletes are being encouraged to participate in a bunch of activities at Congress (the place where we eat lunch and dinner). Paddy and Heather have done enough activities to get their free sunglasses and water bottles. Activities range from drumming and cooking classes to mountain awareness.

Each evening there is a medal ceremony in down town Innsbruck. The ceremony takes place at the end of this street.
I thought this was a statue until he waved at me.
It is a very nice town with narrow walking streets and plenty of cafes and shops.
The drive down from Seefeld yesterday was slow and slippery. Many trees had broken and toppled in the road due to the heavy snow (about 2 feet of sticky stuff). When cars slowed to get around the fallen trees, they lost their traction and then the trouble began. They closed the road to any vehicle without chains and that helped the situation. The drive, which normally takes 30 minutes, took 2 hours. We got back just in time to shower, eat and head to the medal ceremony in town.
Medal smile :)
Nice TV screen in the background eh?
Flags for the relay teams.
Happy athletes.

Relay Bronze at YOG's!

2012-01-21T10:43:00.004-05:00

This morning we had a biathlon/cross-country relay race at the Youth Olymoic Games. The first leg was biathlon girls, followed by x-c girls (Heather), then biathlon boys and finally the x-c boy (Paddy). Each biathlete shot twice and there were big swings in placings depending on how acurate each was. Our biathletes, Anna and Sean, put it all together and skied great races.
Here is Anna looking stong and smooth. There were 24 teams so it was tight most of the time.
Heather woke up with a nasty head cold last night and wasn't even sure that she could race. Her instructions were to ski smooth and relaxed. In the snow storm, this was the way to ski and she had a good solid leg.
Sean was a super star today. He shot and skied really well and pulled the team into second place!
Paddy got to start with the Russian, French and Swiss breathing down his neck. The Russian (who won Tuesdays race) caught him and they took turns leading before the Russian boy pulled a bit ahead on the last steep climb. Paddy sprinted hard but was 1/2 second out of the silver.
Happy team-mates!
Yahoo!!!!
Team gets interviewed by Eurosport.
This truck did not have any snow on it yesterday!

First Tracks at the Nordic Center

2012-01-20T16:56:00.003-05:00

Gorgeous day at SMS! We got a nice 4-5" of snow last night that made for good cover on hard packed trails. Boobs was out early with the groomer and laid down some tracks for classic skiing. We had some kids up on the mountain doing some skate intervals, while a few others were working on their classic technique on an easy tour around the nordic trail system. It seems like winter is finally here! We're headed to Stowe, VT on Sunday for a four day training camp to log some K's on the trail system there and get some solid distance training in. Stay tuned for pictures from our trip north.

Brooke Mooney has been in Austria cheering on her sister, Heather, and Paddy at the Youth Olympic Games. She's gotten some great training in on the trails with her younger brother, Scott. Check out the photos below!

Paddy 5th At World Youth Olympic Games!

2012-01-19T15:54:00.011-05:00

We had our race later today with the prologue at 3:45 and the heats starting at 5:15. Both Paddy and Heather skied solid prologues and made the heats so the day started off well.
The course was short and fast. 1 km that took the boys 1:47 and the girls around 2 minutes! The course started out with a short straight and a tiny climb, then through a tunnel, down a good hill, into a quick steep uphill, a flat and a longer gradual down and then a good bending climb into the finish lanes at the end. Above, Sverre tells Heather to get forward on the hill.

Scott waving the Stars and Stripes.
In the 1/4's, Heather got off to a wonderful start and was fighting for 2nd through the tunnel when someone hit her pole and it snapped. Tim was on the short uphill and gave her a new pole, but the couple of seconds that it took for the exchange was too much to make up and she finished 5th in her heat. She skied smart and strong, but had a piece of bad luck.
Here is a picture from the end of Paddy's 1/4. Paddy is right behind the boy from Norway (in red). Paddy finished 4th in his 1/4, but they do lucky losers by time and he had the fastest heat. His 4th place time was faster than any third place times from the other heats so he moved into the semi finals.
Scott and Brooke with their new friend Yogl (the Olympic mascot).
In the semi finals, Paddy finished in third (above) and was faster than the 4th place finishers so he got to go to the final!
Heather found Yogl too!

No pictures from the final (we were cheering too hard) but Paddy had to maneuver around a fallen skier and he got dropped from the pack. He worked his way back up to the lead group but didn't have enough gas and speed to pass them so he ended in 5th. That's not too shabby for a distance skier!
Hugs from sisters.
....and dad....
...and team-mate.

Good day for both of them :)

A special thanks to Piotr Bednarski, the biathlon ski tech who has been helping us with glide wax testing and application. We have had some fast skis out there!

Town Touring In Austria

2012-01-18T16:25:00.004-05:00

This morning while Paddy and Heather headed up the mountain on the tram, I decided to explore some of the trails around Seefeld. Here is a trail map with a little "you are here" arrow near Buchen. This was 40 minutes into the ski and I was feeling great.
The skiing was perfect..28-30 degrees and sunny...blue and purple hard wax was working well.
About 1 hour into the ski, I came down into this valley. They did not have too many trail maps out and about and I had not really studied where I was going, but it was a perfect day...
I was passing many more skiers than were passing me so life was good.
Not bad views eh?
I got a little side tracked and found myself on top of an alpine ski mountain at about 1:45 into the ski...still no maps, but here are some pictures from the top.

Oh yea... Luckily I had brought two little granola bars with me so I munched one here.
I stopped here for a photo and started to feel a bit tired..this worried me a bit because I didn't know where I was.
The tracks were great and I got to go on a screaming 3 km downhill.
Finally I found another map (at 2 hours). Hmmmm... I had been through Mosern, Buchen, then up the deadend trail (to the alpine area) towards Leutash and now I was down at the bottom of a long downhill in some little berg...and..I was fading fast. This time I really studied the map and then had a tough ski up and over a ridge and then (thankfully) a mostly downhill ski back to Seefeld.

Here are a couple of things I learned:

When skiing on a 250 km trail system, it is advisable to have a map.

When going out for nearly 3 hours, it is advisable to have food and drink.

Also....a definiton:

BONK: when it is really hard to catch a grandmother who is wearing a pink parka and a backpack. Commonly happens to older skiers who forget that they are older, don't have food and drink and forget to take a trail map. Best cure seen below :)
Luckily, I finished 10 minutes before the athletes arrived and I was able to wolf down some pasta!

Youth Olympics Update from Heather

2012-01-18T15:42:00.005-05:00

This morning, Paddy and I joined one of the "Cultural Education Program" activities to go on the tram up onto the mountain that rises out of Innsbruck. We've been able to see the station up there all week, and were really excited to get to see the view...needless to say, it was fantastic! The goal of the CEP is to get athletes to meet each other doing different activities, and to learn something. This activity, "Mountain Snow and Fun" was mainly for team building, so we built some ice sculptures, did some tandem skiing, and at the end we got to do the "zipflebob"....sledding! But mainly we got to go up into the mountains, and that was really cool!! The International Olympic Committee film crew was up there, and they asked to do an interview with us, so we got in front of the big camera and they asked us some questions about skiing and training and our time here in Innsbruck. It was my first time getting videoed for an interview, so it was pretty exciting!

enjoying the view, and the sun!

mountains....

This afternoon, we skied around the sprint course for tomorrow, and practiced different parts of it to figure out what will be fastest. The prelim starts at 3:45 our time, so it will be a fun race under the lights if we make the heats!!

sunset from the stadium!

getting ready to go!

thanks to Brooke for the skiing pictures from today!

Titcomb, Maine Classic Sprint '12

2012-01-18T07:33:00.002-05:00

Farmington Maine Eastern Cup Sprint. Congrats to Big Boy Dakota and the J1 giant slayer Cory Stock on the wins! (they are not even in the vid! so I wanted to make sure they some recognition)

link to Vimeo: CLICK HERE

Ski at Sunbowl & Strength

2012-01-17T20:20:00.000-05:00

We had a nice morning up at the Sunbowl with everyone getting out for 45 mins to an 1:30 on skate skis. There's some nice terrain up on the mountain for us to ski without climbing straight up the alpine area and several people on the team checked out the nordic trails which are skiable, but still need a little more snow before we can call them "race ski worthy" conditions. After practice everyone grabbed lunch in the dining hall, headed to classes until 5:10pm and then hit the weight room for strength & floor core and a fun warmup game in the gym.

Classic 5/10 at Youth Olympic Games

2012-01-17T11:15:00.004-05:00

We had another beautiful day for skiing in Seefeld. The forcast was for temps dipping to -25C so yesterday they decided to delay the start until 10 am. The forcast was wrong so the wax techs had to scramble a bit this morning, but having warmer temps (into the 20's) was nice for everyone other than the "techs."
Heather had a strong race and finished in 13th place. She had the good experience of following the girl who finished 4th for about a km and learned that she needs to improve her uphill skiing. Heather didn't have bomber kick and that hurt a little too.
Heather tucks down the hill from the stadium.

Oh yea, Scott.
Paddy skied a strong race and placed 16th. I think that Norway was the only country to place two skiers in front of him.

The boys had 3 laps of a 3.3 km course so there was plenty of action. Each lap was rolling terrain with one killer climb followed by a steep downhill. The climb was only about 90 seconds long, but it started with a herringbone section and then leveled to just plain steep...
At the finish. The Russians won both golds (congratulations to them) and a Japenese boy finished 2nd. No medals for Scandinavia which was a suprise to me.
Time to replentish at the food tent. Several kins of pasta and potatoes...I guess they know that carbos are important.
Heading to the bus and "home"... temps now around freezing :)
Quiet after the storm.
It is still an amazing view.
We go on a 10 minute bus ride to "Congress" for lunch and dinner. At Congress, there are also many activities for the athletes. One of the goals is to increase global awareness so there are many different exhibits.

Sign up!
Workshops are offered.
Here are the two views from outside Congress....

The Hungary kids gather around the coin smasher.

Our sprint race on Thursday will not start until 3:45 pm, so we will ski tomorrow afternoon. The forcast is calling for a snow/rain mix so I'm happy that it is a skate race!

Maine Weekend Recap

2012-01-16T17:01:00.004-05:00

Koby on the podium with the win!

We had a great weekend up in Farmington, ME for the second Eastern Cups of the year. On Saturday afternoon, we had Katharine, Issy, and Hamish all racing in the open heats (top 30 racers overall). Despite getting knocked out in the quarters, each of them skied feisty races in their respective heats. Murph & Gino qualified for the junior heats (top 12 juniors not in the top 30) and skied well (see photo below of the two of them fighting it out in the B-final). Pip & Tess also got to mix it up with the rest of the J2s in the heats. Double pole specialist Pippin hammered around the course and skied her way into the J2 B-final. Racer of the day went to Tess who skied an aggressive semifinal, placing second, and earned herself a trip to the A-final.

Gino & Murph rounding the turn for the finish in the B-final.

A very happy Tess after the J2 A-final.

On Sunday, for the freestyle distance race skiers did 3 (J2s), 6 (women) or 8 (men) laps around the base and up and down a steep section of Titcomb Mountain. Koby started things off on a high note for the team with his second win of the season in the J2 boys 5k. Koby skied a smooth race and got a nine second win over Ben Hegman. Hamish's younger brother, Gavin, rounded out the podium with a great race for third place.

Katharine on the podium in second place.

Katharine, Tess, & Pip kept it going with 2nd, 12th and 14th place finishes for the girls. Katharine sandwiched herself on the podium between two CSU girls - Julia Kern & Zoe Snow.

Interesting hair-do's ladies... :)

The older kids were led by Issy with a stellar 6th place result. Issy started off smooth and conservative - first lap in 30th place - and then picked it up on every lap, dropping her splits to 20th place, 17th place, and inside the top 10 for a few laps before settling in 6th as the second junior. Mollie and Kate skied well too - 35th for Mollie & 52nd for Kate (6th J1!). The field was full of the regular high school crew on the Eastern Cup circuit, plus the Green Team, a few girls from Sun Valley, and several college teams (Williams, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, UNH).

Gino set the pace for our boys, starting off with a few blazing fast laps behind Green Team skier Tim Reynolds. He stuck a solid pace for the rest of the race finishing as the 2nd J1 (31st overall). Corky skied a nice race for 55th place - steadily pacing the 8-lap race. Calvin was feeling a little under the weather and wanted to at least start and see how things went...and they went pretty well! Calvin finished 64th (9th J1) and charged up the hill each lap. Charlie (who had to ski two laps without a pole basket) and Murph rounded out the guys team with 79th and 85th place finishes. Hamish looked good for 3-4 laps, but had his back tighten up and made the smart call to pull the plug mid-way through the race.

We were missing a few skiers this weekend due to illness so we're looking forward to a nice long stretch of training and rest and getting everyone healthy before Stowe. Check out some nice photos of the weekend on Flying Point Road.

We were woken up very early Sunday morning by the fire alarm in our hotel. While waiting for the OK to return to our rooms, Tyler shows us what he couldn't live with out: a full backpack, wallet, cell phone & the Revived Films hard drive. Don't want to lose all that Nationals footage!

All tuckered out for the van ride home. :)

Heather & Paddy have their first race tomorrow in Innsbruck - 5/10K classic race. Check up on them tomorrow morning on the YOG website when you wake up! Paddy will be wearing bib 43 (out of 49 racers) for his race (11:45am start/5:45am EST) and Heather will be bib 32 (out of 40 racers) for her race (10am start/4am EST). Racers appear to be seeded by FIS points in reverse order - lowest points go last.

SMS senior Quincy Korte-King is competing for the Canadian snowboard team in Innsbruck this week and finished 5th in the women's halfpipe on Sunday! Congrats to her!

Update from Paddy

2012-01-16T09:45:00.003-05:00

Hello from Innsbruck! We had a nice day off from training yesterday so we explored Innsbruck a bit. Most of our activities are accessed on the YOG bus circuit so it is easy to miss a lot of the city around us. SO we walked through “old Innsbruck” for a while to check out the sites.

Always a good view of the Alps from the city

We also visited the Awards Arena where Medal Ceremonies are held every night

After seeing some of downtown we took a trip up the Alpine Mountain: Patscherkofel. My roommate Alex was racing in the Super Combined Event and placed 10th overall.

View from the bottom of the ski hill

Spotted Olympic jump on our drive up to Patscherkofel!

First race tomorrow! Classic 10/5 km Individual Start... Should be a fun day of racing.

Overandout: PC

Nordic Combined Pictures from YOG's

2012-01-15T13:23:00.003-05:00

Paddy and Heather had a day "off" today, but the nordic combined and biathlon skiers had races. Here are a couple of pictures from the NC race. They do a pursuit based on the single jump. They skied 4X2.5 km laps and it was exciting to watch. The lead changed several times and it was a sprint to the finish for a gold.
Thje guys in 2nd and 3rd here went on to place 2,1.
Colton (our US skier) hammers a short uphill before heading up to the finish.
I didn't get to the finish in time to get close, but if you look closely, you can see the upraised arms.

Paddy will write a report soon!

Youth Olympic Games Training Day

2012-01-14T12:52:00.004-05:00

Today was our third day of skiing here and Heather and Paddy did some classic intensity to wake up their bodies. They looked good and felt good. We stayed up in Seefeld for a 2nd ski and they got to test their skate skis in the afternoon. Now they are tired. Tommorow is a day off, Monday they will do a bit of wake up skiing and we start racing on Tuesday.

The picture above shows the jump out-run and a hill to the right. During the races, the skiers will cross the out-run and ski up over this hill then down and around to the finish.
This picture looks the other way (I was standing on a foot bridge) and shows wax cabins on the right and the food tent on the left.
Here you can see the finish area (behind the second fence on the left). This also doubles as the biathlon range (to the right). The uphill after the jump rises up above the range and then drops down towards the brown building in the background. Hopefully no biathletes will have a bad day and take it out on their competitors who will be skiing above the range.
They have about 250 km of perfectly groomed trails here but we are staying close to the stadium. It seems to be the way things are going, short courses with multiple loops so the spectators can see lots of action.
These coolers are in every food tent so there is no worry about getting dehyrated. Paddy and Heather just went to doping control to "give" blood. They are testing everyone.
Late afternoon trail picture.
Imagine waking up to these views every day!
I had to put at least 1 picture from the bus in the blog. This bridge is for the train.
Late afternoon view from my room. Sorry...

Morning Results from Farmington EC

2012-01-14T12:14:00.004-05:00

We had a great morning in Farmington - three skiers (Hamish, Katharine, Issy) qualified for the open heats, two boys (Nick & Gino) in the junior heats, and two girls (Tess & Pip) in the J2 heats! Everyone skied well and looked strong on a two lap course that was 98% double pole. Almost all of the boys decided to do the prelim on their skate skis because the course was so flat. Koby skied an especially strong race... but did three laps instead of two so he's going to watch his J2 competitors this afternoon and check out their strategy for the heats. : ) We'll update later with official results and photos! Poppet and Matt are prepping skis at the venue for the rounds and Liz is shuttling skiers back and forth from the hotel, 10 mins away, to the venue to get warm. All in all - a great start to the weekend! Check the bar to the right for updates on our Facebook page.

YOG Opening Ceremony Pictures

2012-01-13T15:46:00.005-05:00

We had the Opening Ceremonies this evening at the Olympic jump complex. Here is part of the crowd.
Team USA heads in. If you click on the picture to make it larger AND if you have really good eyes, maybe you'll see Paddy and Heather.
Becky Scott (Wadsworth) is here as an ambassador.
The flames get skied down the jump landing hill.
Dancers and a back flip.
70 flag bearers.
More dancers.
The torch bearers ran up through the stands. There were about 15 torch bearers, all Olympic medalists.
Get ready!
Franz Klammer lit the third torch. He is adored by the Austrians. This is the third Olympic Games that Innsbruck has hosted (1964, 1976). Bill Koch won his silver medal here!
The obligatory fire works..this is an out of focus shot of the Olympic rings.
It was a fun, exciting event and we all returned for dinner and a good sleep. Tomorrow the competitons start for many, but we do not race until Tuesday.

Youth Olympic Games (day 3)

2012-01-13T08:17:00.005-05:00

This morning we took an easy distance ski which included skiing up to the next town and dropping off Opening Ceremony tickets for Heather's family. We found the correct hotel and had a nice ski so all was good.

Along the way we say a horse with its draft gear walking aimlessly along the trail. About 1 km further on we saw a distraught farmer looking for his horse (well...that is what we think he was doing...our german is not very good and he spoke no english). We pointed him down the trail and continued our ski.

Above is our wax room...pretty tidy eh?
This is the wax room avenue. We were lucky and got a wax room on the bottom so we do not have to climb up the stairs.
Paddy and Heather in the lunch tent. Our bus drive is about 35 minutes. They schedule the buses and training times and we just follow the schedule.
Prepping for lunch.
We had a little snow early this morning and the clouds were just trying to burn off as we left the venue.

Last night I met a coach from India. He is here (along with a couple other officials) in support of their 1 athlete, a female alpine skier. He told me that to ski in India, one has to hike up and then ski down. I imagine that hopping on the tram over here is pretty exciting! The goal for team India is participation and sharing in the Olympic experience. It's great that they came.
The rest of the pictures are from our bus ride down to Innsbruck.
Apparently the guy on the left did not lose his horse.
They build the roads pretty steep here..click on the picture above...yup..16% gets you down in a hurry.
Along this 2 km stretch, there are 4 truck run-away pull offs.
That is the side of the mountain and that is a train track!

This afternoon we meet the US Ambassador and then go to the Opening Ceremonies. It will be a long day, but it should be fun.

YOGames (skiing at Seefeld)

2012-01-12T08:41:00.008-05:00

You'll have to get used to this picture; it's what I see every morning when I wake up. Innsbruck is in a long valley with impressive mountains on either side. These are the mountains more to the south west. The morning sun is just hitting the peaks.
This morning we had a "spirited" breakfast (some people were rushing and there was a line). The breakfast tent is right behind our apartment building so it is handy. Breakfast was very good. We then hopped on a bus and took the 40 minute drive up to Seefeld.

Driving up, the temps were hovering around freezing so we worried a bit about waxing for kick, but the venue is nestled up against mountains (to it's east) so we were in shade and had cooler temps. We waxed in the extra blue range and had good skis.
Our courses stay near the stadium (which is also the jump outrun) so no loop is longer than 3.3 km. There is one big hill about 1 km out and the rest of the course is pretty gentle.
Here is the town of Seefeld.

As always, you can click on any picture to enlarge it.
This picture is taken from our bus stop, looking up at the stadium.
Just another day in paradise. We skied for 1.5 hours and then headed back down to Innsbruck for lunch.
I wish we could send some of this white stuff back to the US!
Everything is centered around the stadium. We will be having Jump, Nordic Combined, Biathlon and XC Skiing races all here so the schedule is quite busy. All of the US teams are sharing a wax room so we spent some time this morning getting it all organized. Luckily the coaches from the other disciplines are nice and reasonable so we will not be fighting over space.
Yup...I like the mountains :).
Here are the hockey players having a team meeting before lunch.
This is the dining hall (sorry it's out of focus). We come here for lunch and dinner. They also have a food tent up in Seefeld for lunch. On Saturday we will probably do a double workout so we will stay there for lunch.
Paddy's lunch tray (out of focus again).
This is the US/Canada building. Heather is in the room with the flag on the upper right. I am on the other side (so I get the view).
Each building has team flags hanging from it. You need to go through security to get in the village, but once you're in, you are free to roam around.

This afternoon we are going for a short run and this evening we have a welcoming ceremony. Tomorrow evening is the opening ceremony and then we get busy. It is good that we got here a couple of days early so we can figure things out and get used to European time.

Youth Olympic Games (travel day)

2012-01-11T11:38:00.002-05:00

We made it to Munich this morning. Here are Paddy and Heather in their USST gear. We had a large group of US athletes and coaches on the same flight from Chicago and they were waiting for us with 2 big buses to drive us down to Innsbruck.

This is the first ever Winter Youth Olympic Games. There are athletes from all over the world who will compete in nordic, alpine, snowboard, luge, bobsled, figure skating, speed skating, hockey and curling. Teams are small, the US was only allowed to bring 2 x-c athletes. Paddy and Heather were chosen because they were the #1 ranked skiers (YOB '94-'95) in the US at the end of last season.
The other bus filled up so we got one pretty much to ourselves :)
Shortly after leaving Innsbruck we got a glimpse of the alps.
After a little climbing, we drove through some snowy towns.
Another bus picture. It was a beautiful day and we had a spectacular drive.
When we arrived in Innsbruck, we went through security and got our credentials. Your credentials let you do everything from get into the Olympic village, to eating, watching events etc... ALWAYS HAVE YOUR CREDENTIALS.

Above is a picture of my bedroom. Simple, but clean. What is really special is the view from my window... seen below :)
Not bad eh?

We will go up to Seefeld to ski tomorrow. We drove through on our way down and it looks perfect. Stay tuned for daily updates!

Good Luck Paddy & Heather!

2012-01-10T15:29:00.008-05:00

SMS alum/Middlebury freshman Heather Mooney and senior Paddy Caldwell depart with Sverre for Innsbruck, Austria today to compete in the Youth Olympic Games! Paddy & Heather will race 3 times: the 5/10K classic on Tues, Jan 17, a freestyle sprint on Thurs, Jan 19 and a mixed relay with the US biathlon team on Saturday, Jan 21. We're really proud of both of them and excited to hear about their trip! More info on the YOG website.

GO USA!The rest of the team headed to Grafton today to ski on the loop. We classic skied for 90 minutes and got in some solid specific strength work. After a busy week of racing for the older kids, it's really nice to get back to basics and just ski. A lot of kids made some big improvements with their double pole which was awesome to see. More pictures on the photo site.

Calvin, Corky, & Kate.
Tyler & Hamish.
Gino.
Brooke.
Alex.
Mackenzie.
Issy.
Pippin.
Koby.
Russell.
Tess.
Mollie.
The boys skied as a big group today.
Tess, Pip & Katharine.
Kate.
Calvin.
Helena.

Nationals Wrap-Up

2012-01-09T20:09:00.004-05:00

We just finished a good week of racing in Rumford for the Sr National Championships.

As a team we were a little off of top form, but everyone gave a great effort and we still had some excellent results. Everything is a learning experience; we are confident that we learned a lot during the week and we are looking forward to the rest of the season.

Congratulations to Anika Miller and Paddy Caldwell for qualifying for the US J1 trip to Estonia. This trip is offered to the top 6 J1 males and females from the US and this year the competitions will be in Estonia. Alums Heather Mooney and Austin Cobb (both now at Middlebury) and Sophie Caldwell (Dartmouth) qualified for: the J1 trip (Heather), the Jr World trip (Austin) and the U23 World Champs trip (Sophie). Gino Pastore is the first alternate for the J1 trip and Izzy Caldwell is the first alternate for the Jr World trip.

Not too shabby after all :)

For our current skiers, our highlight moments were Anika qualifying as the top Jr and 6th overall in the womens skate sprint along with Skyler Davis finishing 5th overall in the mens classic sprint. Heady stuff from those two!

Our week ended on a high note with Hamish and Gino placing 4,5 for J1's, Nick and Mac having their strongest races, Skyler placing 5th overall and Brooke winning the Jr heats (some Jrs made the open heats, but Brooke skied brilliantly to take the Jr heats). Following the races we packed up and drove home (Sverre was very happy to hear that the Giants won).

Moving forward, Sverre, Paddy and Heather leave tomorrow for the World Youth Olympic Games and the rest of the team hits the books and prepares for the Eastern Cup races that will be in Farmington this weekend.

Sorry for the lack of blogging and pictures. We were really busy in Rumford. we will be better and more up to date now :)

Nationals Skate Race Pictures

2012-01-09T19:52:00.007-05:00

One of the fun things about going to Nationals is seeing all of the alumni there, coaching and racing. Last week alums Matt Whitcomb (USST), Justin Beckwith (GMVS), Gus Kaeding (CXC), Pat Weaver (UVM) and Ben Husaby (Bend) were all in Rumford coaching, while Steve Bedard was there as a wax tech for Rossi/Toko.

On the skiers side, there were too many to keep track of, but Herve took pictures of some of our current female students and recent alums. As you can see from the pictures, the Rumford race crew did a great job making, spreading and grooming the snow. Thanks to them for the excellent job and the good races.

Rachel (Middlebury).
Mollie.
Kate.
Izzy (Dartmouth).
Issy P.
Heather (Middlebury).
Anika works her way through.
Hallie skiing for Bates.
Gage skiing for UVM.
Brooke.
Anika and Cambria (now skiing for MSU).

Thanks for the pictures Herve!

Skiing in the Cold

2012-01-04T13:16:00.006-05:00

Katharine Ogden sporting a cold weather hairdo...

We've got a big group up at Nationals, but we've still got a group of 8 younger kids at home. And we're using our time well. Yesterday we headed up Stratton Mtn. for some intervals on the alpine slopes. (Sorry no pics because it was windy with snow blowing from the guns, and coach was doing the intervals too to see what all the whining was about). After skiing 1/4 of the way up the Mountain we are able to get on some of the less steep connector trails that wind up to the Mid-Mountain Lodge. It gives us a good solid 8 minutes of L3 skiing. After, we whipped back down the slopes, through a terrain park, and jumped in the van back to school where we did a cool down on the bikes followed by an easy strength session.

This morning we headed over to Grafton Ponds for some nice easy classic skiing. There's about 1k of skiing, mostly on the flats - but we used the opportunity to do drills and work on technique and d-pole. We'll be back there tomorrow morning for some classic intervals in prep for the race there on Sunday.

Good luck to everyone else up at Nationals!

Quick Update From Nationals Sprint

2012-01-04T07:44:00.003-05:00

Due to the warm weather over the weekend the freestyle sprint race was delayed until Tuesday. The decision was a good one as the courses were put in excellent shape and the hard man made snow stayed fast and consistent all day long.

Congratulations to Torin Koos and Jessie Diggins for bringing home the gold at the end of the day!

We had some excellent results, but had hoped to do even better.

Our "skier of the day" was Anika who qualified an amazing 6th place overall! She hammered the first hill too hard in the 1/4's and paid the price, finishing 5th in her heat, but that was still good enough for 3rd J1 and 7th Jr overall.

Skyler skied well, but is still shaking off some rust from trying to get healthy. He qualified 19th overall and then missed the semi finals by a couple of inches on a lunge. Good news is that he looked strong and felt healthy. Paddy made the Jr heats and, like Skyler, missed the semis by a couple of inches in an exciting finish where all 6 in his heat finished within 2 seconds. Paddy ended up 3rd J1.

There was some solid skiing from the rest of the team, but no podiums.

On the alumni side, Austin Cobb skied brilliantly. He qualified 24th (last) for the Jr heats, squeaked through the 1/4's and then went on to WIN. This placed him 3rd for Jrs (2 Jrs had made the open heats). Sophie C skied well, qualifying 5th and finishing as the 2nd U23.

Today it is really cold. We are going out for a morning jog and then a course inspection. Tomorrow we have the 10/15 km skate and on Friday the 5/10 km classic.

Gearing up for Skate Sprint at Nationals

2012-01-01T21:14:00.002-05:00

We've got a crew of 15 skiers up in Rumford this week for US Nationals and we've just finished our last day of prep before the freestyle sprint tomorrow. We spent the morning up at Black Mountain, checking out the course, testing skis, and doing a final tune-up workout before tomorrow. This afternoon everyone laid low and got off their feet at the hotel before an early dinner down in Bethel and a team meeting to review the plan for tomorrow. We're getting psyched to race!

Live results will be posted on the race website. Girls race at 9am, boys race at 10am. Heats to follow. Check it out and cheer the team along, whether trailside or from a distance!

Mooney, Hoffman Win Grafton TT

2011-12-30T12:23:00.007-05:00

Austin, Corky, Hamish & Gino - post TT.

Heather Mooney and Noah Hoffman skied away with the victories in this mornings classic time trial at Grafton Ponds. The flat loop, with granular snow turned the TT into a d-pole race. Some who waxed paid the price with slower skis, but everyone had a good hard workout. We took lap times which are listed below. Most of the skiers were quite consistent so that was good. On a course like this, I like to see all of the lap times within 10 seconds; this shows good pacing and no mental breaks.

Paddy is coming off of a cold so he did pick-ups behind people. Tess is coming off of sickness so she went L3.

Womens results:

Heather 2:29,2:33,2:33,2:35,2:33,2:30, 15:13

Sophie 2:32,2:36,2:36,2:39,2:38,2:35, 15:38

Izzy C 2:36,2:39,2:42,2:41,2:40,2:35, 15:53

Gage 2:37,2:43,2:46,2:47,2:45,2:42, 16:20

Anika 2:39,2:46,2:45,2:50,2:53,2:51, 16:44

Keely 2:45,2:52,2:49,2:50,2:52,2:52, 17:04

Issy P 2:48,2:50,2:51,2:53,2:53,2:52, 17:07

Cam 2:47,2:51,2:50,2:56,2:58,2:54, 17:16

Katharine 2:53,2:54,3:01,2:54,2:51,2:51, 17:24

Chloe 2:55,2:59,2:58,2:57,3:00,2:59, 17:48

Mollie 3:05,3:10,3:10,3:06,3:06,3:07, 18:44

'Kenzie 3:07,3:09,3:07,3:11,3:15,3:11, 19:00

Pippin 3:12,3:17,3:14,3:14,3:19,3:18, 19:32

Alex 3:25,3:32,3:30,3:23,3:25,3:21, 20:36

Tess 3:28,3:40,3:41,3:41,3:48,3:43, 22:01

Boys Results:

Noah 2:14,2:14,2:21,2:22,2:21,2:20,2:20,2:22,2:23,2:19, 23:16

Hamish 2:24,2:29,2:30,2:33,2:29,2:30,2:32,2:29,2:33,2:29, 24:58

JACald 2:19,2:31,2:31,2:35,2:31,2:33,2:31,2:26,2:31,2:32, 25:00

ACobb 2:24,2:29,2:34,2:31,2:30,2:33,2:32,2:35,2:32,2:33, 25:17

Tyler 2:30,2:34,2:34,2:33,2:31,2:33,2:31,2:34,2:35,2:32, 25:27

Corky 2:29,2:32,2:38,2:45,2:35,2:34,2:37,2:36,2:36,2:38, 25:50

Gino 2:20,2:30,2:37,2:35,2:36,2:37,2:40,2:37,2:41,2:40, 25:53

Calvin 2:37,2:40,2:40,2:35,2:33,2:33,2:36,2:35,2:34,2:32, 25:57

Mac 2:33,2:44,2:51,2:54,2:53,2:57,2:57,2:57,2:57,2:57, 28:40

Tomorrow we head to Rumford with a big group for Senior Nationals. It should be a great week of racing!

Special thanks to Jimmy Levins and Brayton Osgood for helping time!

More photos here.

Keeley Levins (Midd).
Sophie (Dartmouth).
Mackenzie.

Katharine checks out what Izzy's doing. :)

Alex.
Cam (MSU), followed by Chloe Levins.

Tess.

Gage (UVM).

Katharine.

TT champ Heather (Midd).

Mollie.

Anika.

Issy.

Pippin.

Cousins Austin (Dartmouth) & Paddy.
Noah Hoffman (USST) set the pace today.

Gino.

Tyler.

Hamish.

Mac.

Birthday boy Corky & Calvin battled back and forth.

Austin Cobb (Midd), followed by Paddy.

Anika - all smiles while on her cool down. : )

Skate Intervals

2011-12-27T13:36:00.007-05:00

This morning we had a good group meet at Grafton for some skate intensity. After a good warm up, we agreed on a 1+ km loop and got in some good intensity/speed work. The first 3 intervals were "on your own" and the last 2 were run more like sprint heats.
Alex.

Scott, Mackenzie and Chloe.
Keeley, Mac and Mary.

Austin Cobb and Calvin.
This picture just looks fast.
Tyler and Austin are coming off colds so they did not hammer too hard.

Hammering the hill. It is pretty impressive to see this group training together. Present today were 8 skiers who have represented the US at World Jrs and/or the J1 trip.

Is this a new fangled relay race?
Sophie, Noah and Parker.
The mandatory group photo.
Part of the alumni contingent.
Happy birthday Issy P!

Round and Round

2011-12-26T15:32:00.004-05:00

A bunch of us showed up at Grafton for a ski today. The conditions are good, but limited. The little, flat loops encourage group skiing, so that is what we did. I guess it was alumni day, above are Gage, Cambria and Heather.
Parker and Sophie enjoyed their ski and then hammered on each other a bit with some speeds.
Charlotte.
Tess has recovered enough from her "walking pnemonia" to get out and ski. Needless to say, she is happy.
A good group from the local BKL program, West River, were out charging around.
Issy, Megan, Gage and Cambria.
Yup...skiing is pretty good, but a bit limited.

Tomorrow we are meeting at 9 am for some skate intervals. Time to start gearing up for Nationals!

Craftsbury Christmas Video

2011-12-24T17:16:00.005-05:00

The Craftsbury EC race vid is up. Those guys and gals up there are crazy about ski racing, they literally worked all night, non stop to give us a world class race loop. I missed some of our SMSer's while I was testing and tech-ing the race boards, sorry Brooke, Issy P and alums. I also picked up some tips from the Revived Films guys that I'll try and employ in the future but for now enjoy. Direct link to vid: HERE

2011 Fall Camp Vid

2011-12-19T16:55:00.003-05:00

Check it out here: VID link or watch below

Revived Films also got a bunch of cool footage and shots, so check their site for some more "pro" shots from the thin air of the Rocky Mountain State.

Craftsbury Eastern Cup Recap

2011-12-18T20:33:00.014-05:00

Whew! We're back from Craftsbury, VT after our first weekend of Eastern Cup racing and it was a really solid start to the season for the SMS crew. Big thanks to Crafstbury and their staff for working around the clock (literally) to make this race happen. The 1.4k loop of manmade snow that they produced was in perfect condition and was quite spectator friendly for coaches and parents. : ) On Saturday, we had a classic sprint prelim in the morning (1 lap of the course) and a 3k classic prologue (2 laps) and on Sunday we had a 4.5k freestyle race (3 laps) for the J2s and women and a 9k freestyle (6 laps) for the men.

Lots of highlights from the weekend from current SMS skiers and alums - including podium performances by the J1 boys, who went 1-2-3 (Paddy, Hamish, Gino) in the prologue on Saturday, Hamish & Gino going 2-3 (J1 boys) in the sprint, Paddy & Gino going 1-3 for J1s on Sunday, Koby and Brooke each picked up a J2 win (Brooke in the prologue, Koby in the freestyle race), Katharine was on the podium in the J2 prologue, Russell won the BKL race, Sophie (alum/Dartmouth) won the prologue and the freestyle race, Pat O'Brien (alum/Green Team) was 2nd in the sprint and the prologue, Heather Mooney (alum/Middlebury) and Izzy (alum/Dartmouth) first and second for juniors in the prologue, plus many, many more awesome individual results. Congratulations to everyone for getting the first Eastern Cup weekend under the belt for the year! Well done!

Saturday CL Sprint Results

Saturday CL Prologue Results

Sunday 4.5/9k FS Results

More Photos

Thanks so much to Herve Pelletier for many of the photos below from Sunday's freestyle races! Apologies to Skyler and Corky who we missed on camera - we'll get you next time!

Mac.

Tyler was feeling under the weather on Saturday, but bounced back to race on Sunday.

Murph.

Mackenzie.

All tuckered out.

Rachel Hall (Middlebury), Gage Fichter (UVM) and Issy.

Paddy.

Mollie.

Koby - first career Eastern Cup win on Sunday!

Katharine.

Issy P.

Kate.

Helena.

Gino.

Charlie.

Calvin.

Brooke.

Alex.

Hamish.

Pippin.

Chase (alum/Middlebury) ripped it up on Sunday with a fantastic fifth place finish in the freestyle race.

Alum Patrick O'Brien - racing for the Crafstbury Green Team - picked up two 2nd place finishes on Saturday.

Austin Caldwell (alum/Dartmouth) gets cheered on by his sisters.

Sophie and Izzy.

Russell went from 4th to 1st in the final 1/2K of the race to win the BKL race on Sunday afternoon.

J2 girls sprint podium: Julia Kern, CSU (1st) and Brooke (2nd)

Sprint junior podium: Heather (2nd) and Corey, CSU (1st)

Sophie Caldwell (Dartmouth) - prologue winner!

J2 boys sprint podium: Koby (3rd) shakes hands with Eduoard Reed-Metayer (1st) from Canada.

J2 prologue podium: Brooke (1st) and Katharine (2nd)

Prologue junior podium: Annie Hart and alums Heather Mooney (alum/Midd) and Izzy Caldwell (alum/Dartmouth).

Happy alums! Rachel Hall & Austin Cobb at Middlebury and Izzy Caldwell at Dartmouth.

Thanks for the POWER

2011-12-14T21:34:00.003-05:00

Our SMS Nordic Team and I have been very lucky to be part of PowerBar Team Elite the past few seasons. We are always topped off with fuel, stuffing nutrition through our glycogen windows and ready with a huge variety of great sports foods.

Fall Camp Recap

2011-12-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

The J2/J3 group arrived safely back in Vermont this evening, and the J1/OJ + Brooke group arrives home tomorrow evening. We've had a great time in Colorado and have gotten a lot of quality training in. As Sverre mentioned, the older kids headed over to Steamboat for a time trial on Saturday. It was nice to get a hard effort in, come down almost 2,000 feet from where we were living & training for the previous week, and mix it up with the Steamboat kids - who were fast! Results are over on their blog. No photos from the TT, but plenty of other photos from the week. Check them out below:

We watched Kikkan win gold in Davos on Sunday morning. We headed out for our morning jog and ran back inside and crowded around the kitchen table in the boys house to watch the final!
That same afternoon we headed out for a long OD. This crew made it to the top of Blue Ridge - 10,670 feet! Sweet! Katharine and Brooke also made it to the top, but missed the picture, and several others got to 9,800 feet before turning around.

On Sunday night we had our Yankee Swap - $5 limit that produced everything from body spray to Red Bull to various thrift shop finds to stuffed animals to $5 in cold hard cash. Charlie was the first to pick up the night's coveted item - an American flag button up shirt (Koby's find)...

...and Murph briefly got the shirt, but Sophie (lucky #1 for the swap) wrangled a deal to get back the shirt and swap it with Charlie for a cowboy hat from Steamboat, purchased by Gino.
Pippin opens her gift - canned hot sauce! Hmmm.... "BFD" - breakfast for dinner at the J2/J3 house!

Prepared by head chef for the night - Alex Cobb!
Lots of photos from a practice earlier this week - we skied a short loop in groups of 2-4 and the goal was to have everyone take turns leading and getting up to top speed from the start of downhill and then carrying that speed to the low point of the loop. We waxed at the lodge at the nordic center every few days. Great to have benches available for us to use, which allowed us to travel light!
Team photo on Sunday morning before heading out for our classic OD.
Waking up to this every morning - what a great way to spend a week!

Fall Camp Update

2011-12-12T12:54:00.002-05:00

Sorry about the lack of news, the internet is very spotty here. We will try to get a recap with pictures up over the next few days.

Camp is winding down here at Snow Mtn Ranch. The younger kids left this morning and the older kids are leaving tomorrow.

We had a great weekend, clear blue skies and nice temps. On Saturday a bunch of us went down to Steamboat for a TT with their group. It was fun see the crew from Steamboat and good to get in a practice race. We were definitely a bit tired from all of the skiing we have been doing, but everyone gave a good effort and skied well. The Rocky kids beat us fair and square so the TT should be a good wake up call.

Yesterday we had a classic OD. Most of us skied up the Blue Ridge Trail to the top of the pass and had spectacular views in all directions. The climb up gained 2000' in elevation and we topped out at about 10,700!

Today we have 2 easier skis with some speed and technique, then we pack up and get ready for our 6:15 am departure.

Fall Camp - Days 4 & 5

2011-12-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

Two more productive days under our belt here in Colorado. On Wednesday we did an easy skate ski in the morning and the weather was awesome - it finally warmed up into the double digits! We took Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning off. We're training at 8700 feet which has been an adjustment for almost everyone, so quality rest is key this week. We spent our off afternoon and morning getting more rest, doing some laundry, grocery shopping, catching up on homework, watching a few movies, and baking. On Thursday afternoon we had everyone out working with the coaches on dialing in their kick zones. We set up shop on a nice stretch of track and experimented with cutting back, adding more kick, etc. to get everyone to a place they were psyched about with their skis. Stay tuned for more from Colorado - pictures of the boys coming soon!

Mollie.

Kate.

Sophie.

Koby.

Alex.

Helena.

Russell.

Katharine.

Pippin.

Poppet giving instructions for practice to the J2s and J3s.

Starting off with some no-pole skiing...

Katharine.

Alex & Poppet.

Koby.

Katharine & Russell.

Mackenzie & Pippin.

Helena & Alex.

Russell.

Alex.

Fall Camp - Day 3

2011-12-06T21:15:00.007-05:00

Another beautiful, but chilly day in Colorado! Temps were in the single digits for most of the day, but we bundled up and headed out for two workouts today. The older kids did their first hard workout of camp (though arguably every workout has been hard because of the altitude!) with some L3 classic intervals, while the younger kids did an easy classic ski. In the afternoon, everyone headed out for an easy skate ski. We've been keeping busy in between skiing with trips to the supermarket, creating delicious meals, naps, reading, movies, bananagrams, and more. J2/J3 photos coming tomorrow. : )

Update from Fall Camp in Colorado

2011-12-05T09:29:00.015-05:00

The whole team is back together and we spent the morning classic skiing under beautiful sunny skies at Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby, CO. The younger kids drove down to the lodge, scraped their skis, and headed out, while the older kids skied down from our houses and met us to do some technique drills. We did some skiing without poles, the running drill, and then tried to go down a hill on one foot - once on the right, once on the left. Those who are particularly skilled when it comes to balance tried going down the hill on one foot, then removing a ski, spinning it around their head and putting their ski back on! We're enjoying camp so far and doing our best to adjust to the altitude by staying hydrated, keeping it easy on skis these first few days, and getting lots of rest. The internet is quite slow here, but we'll do our best to keep the photos coming!

Some photos from the J2/J3 group's travel day:
Russell moonwalks on the moving walkway - while wearing moon boots!

We flew right over school on our way from Boston! If you look closely you can see Stratton in the foreground and Bromley in the background and Manchester off to the left.

Checking things out in the Denver Airport.
Hopping on the train to go claim our bags and skis.
Happy to be in Denver!
The view from our house! Thank you to the older kids, Sverre, and Matt, who arrived on Saturday night, for stocking our house with breakfast food!

Pre Race Dussledorf Report

2011-12-02T17:05:00.003-05:00

FIS WORLD CUP NORDIC CITY SPRINT. December 2, 2011. Dusseldorf, Germany. On the eve of this year’s first, inner-city Nordic World Cup Sprint event, the world’s best cross country skiers have assembled in this beautiful, historic German city. Having never visited Dusseldorf, my only awareness of this amazing city was as the fictitious target of allied airstrikes-on-ball-bearing-factories in Hogan’s Hero episodes I watched religiously as a kid. Flying in from Oslo, we discovered that not only does this city produce many key components to keep the economic engine of Europe up and running, it’s a culturally rich and diverse city, filled with interesting architecture, history and amazing vistas. River barges over a thousand feet long trundle up and down the Rhine River constantly, transporting virtually every imaginable finished product and/or raw material. It’s fun to guess what kind of car the captain has stashed on his deck, immediately behind his wheelhouse, before each barge lumbers by. Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, Harley-Davidsons… hmmm. Note to self: Riverboat captain: Apparently not a bad career choice! Question: How do they get these cars onto the dry land once the barge has anchored? Ramps? Cranes? Huge German car claws? Auf du liber! However they do it, I am sure it would be fun to watch.

Strolling down from our hotel to the FIS World Cup Sprint site we viewed a really interesting cross section of Dusseldorf culture. Despite Hogan’s best efforts the city was not leveled during World War II, so there are plenty of really cool, centuries-old buildings mixed in with post 2000 architecture. One of the more impressive buildings that dominates the skyline is Germany’s version of the Seattle sky needle, the Dusseldorf Sky Tower / aka “Panorama”. The ticket seller at the base of this bad boy will try to up-sell you schnitzel and café, but when travelling on a budget, skip the snacks and take the lift up to the top for a mere, ear popping three Euros. It’s well worth the wide mouthed yawns to enjoy the breath taking views from the top. Although it’s two hundred feet lower than the Prudential Building in Boston, at 557 feet, Dusseldorf’s Panorama Tower affords viewers a pretty awesome view of the Rhineland and beyond. For thrill-seeking, wanna-be, base jumpers, the best part of the design is the angled windows. Wanna rush? Once you’ve made it to the observation deck, walk at a fast pace right up to the edge of the windows and quickly look down. Definitely worth the price of admission! You’ll be gazing beyond your feet, 557 feet straight down to the motherland below. Thank-you angled window-designers!

In a snowless city (continent?) the FIS World Cup site is clearly visible from the top of the tower. The huge, pure white, piles of snow, stockpiled for the Pisten Bullies to push around tonight, stand out from the course-side river, verdant green grass and surrounding multi-hued buildings of the city. Organizers did a great job blowing and stockpiling tons of snow for the event in a nearby indoor warehouse-sized facility. They trucked acres of the white stuff onto the site and it’s heaped in huge mounds prior to tomorrow’s event. It’s quite a process and despite the warm weather, they’ve killed the potential for melt with amount. If you make sufficient tons of the stuff, it’s not going anywhere overnight.

With unseasonably warm temperatures this year, snow is an incredibly scarce commodity across the entire European continent. Having spent the previous few days in Norway, it’s great to see snow, even if it’s manmade, here in Germany in the first few days of December. Two hours by plane to the north, Oslo is currently, downright balmy. The grass is green, jackets are optional and it wasn’t until we drove three hours north of Oslo to the resort town of Beitostolen that we saw any indication of snow. We gamely joined (obstructed?) a group of Norwegian World Cup skiers who were doing their best to hammer out enthusiastic kilometers on a short training loop at the (would-have-been-if-we-didn’t-cancel-it-and-relocated–it to-Sjusjoen ) 2011 World Cup site. Pretty sparse conditions, but sufficient to prepare for racing around in the streets of Dusseldorf. Editor’s note: We ended up on the same flight as many of these same athletes en route to compete in Dusseldorf. (“Yo, Captain Olaf. Don’t screw up this flight. You’ve got the entire Norwegian World Cup Sprint team on your plane. If it’s not too much trouble, please don’t crash!”)

Hours away from start time tomorrow morning, the site is a beehive of activity. Trucks are delivering snow, groomers laying down corduroy; workers are hustling around with shovels and rakes as security guards maintain the perimeter. “Achtung! Eingang verboten!!!” Thousands of fans from all corners of the globe will be on site cheering on their favorite racers tomorrow. Three Vermont / NENSA skiers are entered in the field. Among the 72 male racers are three skiers from the USA: Andy Newell, (start # 15), Simi Hamilton (start # 35) and Skyler Davis (start # 66). 56 Women will start tomorrow. For the USA women: Kikkan Randall (start # 1), Ida Sargent (start # 29), Sadie Bjornsen (start # 35) and Holly Brooks (start # 38). Good-luck to TEAM USA athletes when they toe the line tomorrow in downtown Dusseldorf for the FIS Sprint World Cup Nordic races! Check out the action by googling Dusseldorf Sprint World Cup or live on: http://www.sportlemon.tv/

Thanks to Pete Davis for sending this in!

Good luck team to team USA and to Skyler in his first World Cup race!

Last Day of Practice before Fall Camp

2011-12-02T13:58:00.007-05:00

Today was our last practice as a team before we head off for fall camp. Tomorrow the second year J2s, J1s and OJs head out to Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby, CO with Sverre and Matt. The J3s and first year J2s follow on Sunday with Poppet and Liz. Today we had a nice easy classic ski and started off with some no pole skiing (above) and plenty of drills before turning everyone loose to cruise around on their own. The younger kids finished up their waxing before lunch and packed up the van for Sunday and the older kids are just about finished with packing ski bags for their departure tomorrow. Check back for news and photos from Colorado!
Corky, Gino, & Koby.
Russell.
Issy.
Mackenzie gets some feedback from Poppet.
Pip's working on her balance.
Hamish, Murph, and Paddy lead the team through a no-pole lap.
Paddy.
Pip & Alex.
Sver goes over directions for the next drill.
Mollie.
The running drill uphill - run on your rollerskis, run with poles on your rollerskis.... then flow right into a snappy stride.
Charlie.
Gino.
Koby.
Hamish & Tyler.
Tess.
Brooke & Katharine.
Mac - nice forward position!
Helena.
Alex.
Kate.
Mollie.
Pip & Mackenzie.Calvin.
Anika.

Skate Intervals/TT at BMD + Strength

2011-12-01T12:52:00.008-05:00

Today we had our last hard practice before heading off to Colorado for fall camp! The first year J2s and J3s did a ~4k skate time trial and got a good hard effort in at that distance, while the second year J2s, J1s, and OJs did L4 4 x 4s. It was a cold morning and the brave folks who sported shorts and no gloves may have been a little chilly by the end of practice. : ) This afternoon we had a team meeting to go over logistics for our Saturday and Sunday departures for Colorado and then hit the gym for strength. Tomorrow we'll do an easy workout before we finish up prepping skis and packing for camp. Check out the pictures below and more here.

Combi Workout

2011-11-30T12:44:00.011-05:00

We headed to South Londonderry this morning for a combi skate ski and run workout. Though rain was in the forecast, the weather held and we had nice weather for practice. We skied Winhall Hollow & Thompsonberg Roads for 45 minutes to an hour and then traded skis for sneakers went for 40 - 50 minute trail run on the West River trail.

Toko is running a neat contest on their Facebook page - the USSA division that gets the most votes in a poll on their site wins $2000 worth of wax and tools for Junior Nationals! Support the New England team with your vote! If you're not already a fan of SMS Nordic on Facebook, check us out and follow us there.

More practice pictures from Monday & today here.

Hamish.

Chloe Levins came down from Rutland and trained with us this morning - great to have her join our large group of J2/J3 girls!

Alex.
Helena.
Mackenzie & Russell.

Katharine.

Mollie.
Issy, Koby, Anika, & Brooke.
Kate.
Paddy leads the boys train - Hamish, Corky, Gino, Calvin, & Murph.
Corky.
Gino.
Murph.
Switching gears to running: Kate & Mollie.
Hamish, Paddy, Calvin.
Poppet, Pippin, & Mackenzie.
Jimmy Levins (chauffer & big brother to Chloe), Boobs with Syd, and Koby
Sprinting in to win practice - Mac, Issy, & Murph.
Gino, Tyler, & Corky.
Alex, Sverre, & Brooke.

And we're back! Winter Term skiers arrive!

2011-11-29T11:17:00.008-05:00

We're off and running following a week-long break for Thanksgiving. Our team added six more members on Monday when the winter term students arrived on campus - welcome to our new J3s and J2s: Alex, Helena, Katharine, Pippin, Koby, & Russell (all skiing above with Poppet)! It's awesome to have so many new faces join the team!

Everyone returned back to campus rested and ready to go and we hit the road first thing Monday morning for some L3 intervals for the older students and an easy classic roll for the new winter termers. This morning we did an easy run and then went out onto our ski trails and did a final sweep of the trails - removing rocks, clearing drainages, and installing new drain pipes.

Check out this interview with Heather Mooney '11 who heads to Innsbruck, Austria for the Youth Olympic Games in January with SMS senior Paddy Caldwell.

Winter termers assemble!

Calvin.

Tyler.

Hamish.
Anika.
Mollie.
Nick.
Kate.
The boys - Gino, Mac, Calvin, Hamish, Tyler, Paddy, & Corky.
Brooke.
Issy.
Tess.
Charlie, Mac, & Tyler.
Corky, Calvin, & Brooke.

Mackenzie.

Sprint Relay Pictures

2011-11-25T12:42:00.009-05:00

This morning we hosted the Peru Relays in order to work off some of our Thanksgiving dinner.
Temps were rising quickly into the low 40's.
After a good warm up, we formed three teams of three.
each skier skied 1.2 km before tagging off.
Everyone had to do 4 "legs".
oops...
Austin, Eric and Erika led off.
Erika skied consistently with all 4 legs within 6 seconds of each other.
Gino, sporting his Rocky Mtn tights.
Natalie sporting her Dartmouth muscle shirt.
Izzy tries to hold off Tyler.
Eric rounds the "garden corner".
Austin zips around the "woodpile corner".
Karina teamed with Austin and Tyler for the win.

T-bone.
Annie storms up the hill.

That was tough.
Erika tags Gino.
Timers shack.

Post race pose, with teams below.

Room-mates.

Bonus Skiing

2011-11-24T11:57:00.003-05:00

Skiers from Alaska, Montana, Minnesota and Vermont have descended to Peru to find good November skiing. Extra blue was the kick wax of the morning, but most of the crew skated.

Packer sandwhich (with Caldwell twins for bread).
Menawhile...inLake Placid, the Mooneys and Sapps enjpy a ski at Van Ho.

Home Skiing

2011-11-23T11:56:00.003-05:00

We had some happy skiers with 11" of fresh, dense (but relatively dry) snow. Our driveway looks impassable so we packed out a loop around the house and enjoyed some good classic skiing with VR60.
Thanking the snow Gods.
Tomorrow we plan the Peru Open. We have applied for a last minute FIS sanction and expect to be granted an ok based upon our course profile and excellent snow conditions.

Ball Mtn. Dam Sprint Practice

2011-11-22T16:03:00.005-05:00

We are on our Thanksgiving break now, but a bunch of us got together for a little intensity at Ball Mtn Dam.

We were practicing a longer spring (1.8 km) in order to help Skyler with his pacing at the upcoming World Cups. We started out by rte 30 and finished just before the top of the hill.

After a good warm up, we ran a prelim, then a heat, another prelim and finally a last heat. The goal was to hammer the prelim, hammer the heat, hammer...well...you get the idea.

Issy and Anika did some inetervalsand looked good.

Times for Prelim #1

Skyler 4:02

Bryan 4:05

Gino 4:16
Start of heat #1.
We gave Issy a head start for the first heat and the boys caught her just at the finish.

Heat 1:

Skyler 4:01

Bryan 4:02

Issy 4:04 (plus head start)

Gino 4:05

It was interesting to see that all 3 boys improved in the heat. They started more relaxed and then really burned it for the last 1 km.
Gino skied well and was able to hang tough with the "big boys". Here he is in the 2nd prelim:

Bryan got faster in each of his 3 "uphill" sprints. He speculated that part of the reason was knowing the course and knowing that he was fit enough to hammer the last .8 km. I figured he did not have enough warm up for his first one. We were probably both correct.

2nd Prlim times:

Bryan 3:57

Skyler 4:12

Gino 4:16
Skyler made a bold move towards the end of heat #2 (which was easier because we switched directions) and came home with the victory.

Skyler 3:14

Bryan 3:16

Gino 3:20

Thanks to Poppet for coming by to help out and to Brooke for taking pictures after her ski.

Wrapping up Nationals Week

2011-11-17T10:37:00.004-05:00

This morning we did a combi workout - classic rollerski out to the town of Stratton and a run/hike over Stratton Mountain. A few of the girls decided to ski a little longer, instead of running. Everyone enjoyed a nice easy ski after a busy Nationals week and some tough time trials. Tomorrow we'll have class in the morning, and then everyone heads off for a week long Thanksgiving break to rest up before fall camp!
Issy & Anika.
Hamish, Gino, Corky, & Calvin.
Mollie.Brooke & Tess.
Kate & Mackenzie.
Hamish & Gino.
Mac & Tyler.
Issy, Calvin & Corky.
Skyler & Paddy.
The run/hike crew switches shoes and gets ready to head up the mountain.
Happy to get in the van at the end of the ski! It was pretty chilly this morning. : )

SMS Nationals 5/10 Classic

2011-11-16T12:51:00.006-05:00

We finished our Nationals week simulation this morning with a 5/10 km classic time trail. Word was leaking out so we had some additional participants to bolster the competition. Bryan Cook and Maria Stuber joined us along with Megan Killigrew (SMS '09, Dart '13) and Heidi Henkel.

We have times for this course from over the past 10 years so it is nice to compare to see how the group is doing. Good news..everyone set PR's!

We take split times on the course to see how people are pacing themselves AND to get a feeling for ski speed. Bryan and Maria are fast and are good bench marks for us, but they also have fast skis (Green Team issue) so their times are especially fast :).

The boys course is split into 4 timing sections, the first section is gradual up and flat, the second section is down and flat, the third section rolling up and the last section has a downhill leading into a killer uphill. The second split gives a pretty good idea of relative ski speeds along with double pole strength.

We had several people asking what happened to Skyler in the skate TT (he was last). I answered "bad wax"...indeed, he has slower skis. So..take the times with a grain of salt :)

Here are the boys splits and times.

Bryan 6:41, 4:28, 9:32, 4:43, 25:24

Skyler 6:46, 5:21, 8:55, 4:55, 25:57

Hamish 7:17, 5:45, 9:27, 5:32, 28:01

Gino 7:10, 4:56, 10:41, 5:23, 28:10

Paddy 7:31, 6:14, 9:53, 5:22, 29:00

Tyler 8:11, 6:14, 9:21, 5:09, 29:05

Calvin 8:01, 6:29, 10:21, 5:07, 29:58

The girls course covers the last 5 km (also the last two splits) of the boys course. The first section is rolling up and the last section has a quick downhill leading into a 1 km steep uphill finish.

Maria 10:13, 5:31, 15:44

Megan 10:50, 6:12, 17:02

Brooke 11:20, 6:14, 17:34

Issy 11:44, 6:13, 17:57

Heidi 12:05, 6:45, 18:50

Mackenzie 12:25, 6:46, 19:11

Mollie 12:47, 7:02, 19:49

Tess 13:00, 6:51, 19:51

Anika started with the boys and finished at the bottom of the last big climb (at 9 km). This was by design. Here are her splits:

Anika 8:43, 6:49, 11:38.

We had a few kids who were fighting colds or a bit tired so they skied easier and did pick ups as the racers went by. We were very happy with everyones efforts. Everyone was charging hard and it was good to see.

Pictures are from the cool-down today - all three coaches were timing and taking video, so no on course pictures, sorry!

New Strength Video

2011-11-16T07:21:00.000-05:00

Check out our new strength and recovery plan click: HERE or view below

Easy Ski/Drills + DRIVE FOR 25

2011-11-15T13:47:00.005-05:00

This morning we did an easy classic ski near school and broke up into small groups for some classic drills. Pictures here are of everyone doing the running drill - going from a run to full-on classic stride and working on getting weight forward and having a nice, snappy kick. We did one-on-one meetings with each skier after practice and then headed to the dining hall for lunch. Everyone's in class now and the coaches are busy unpacking and organizing everyone's skis that were recently stoneground by Caldwell Sport. Tomorrow is our last race for Nationals Week - a 5/10k classic. Stay tuned!

Check out the progress being made with the Drive for 25 today. Keep the momentum going and donate $25 if you can. All proceeds support developing skiers in the US and great programs/trips/camps like the J2 Elite Camp, the J1 Trip, World Juniors, etc. Thank you so much to all the SMS athletes, alums, & families who have already contributed! It's great to see so many SMS names on the donor list.

Nationals Week: 5/10/15K Skate TT

2011-11-14T14:02:00.007-05:00

Today we did our second of three races for Nationals Week - a 5/10/15k skate race. The boys started at the 15k start, the girls at the 10k start and Tess (our lone 5k racer) started at the 10k start and raced to the 5k start. All courses, except today's 5k, finish at the top of "stair-stepper" - a brutal final climb. The 15k course for the boys is technically a 13.25k, but since it's point to point with a net elevation gain, it skis more like a 15k.

We do a couple time checks throughout the course and it's interesting to see what you can learn from looking at split times. Where do you gain or lose time? How was your pacing? Fast start? Fast finish? When looking at the results, the time in (parentheses) indicates the racer's split time from the previous time check.

Gino and Issy led the team today with the fastest boy's and girl's times and many others had strong races. Everyone was solidly in the pain cave by the end of stair-stepper. Results are below - as always, remember that not all rollerskis are created equal. Great skiing by everyone!

Eventual TT winner Gino warms up for the race - he was too fast to the top of stair-stepper to snag a picture!
Calvin and Hamish on the final climb as the friendly dumptruck gives them plenty of room. : )

Hamish.

Paddy - 2nd overall.

Tyler - 3rd overall.

Skyler.

Corky out for an easy cruise today.

Mollie - 2nd overall.Brooke - 3rd overall - and Kate race up the final pitch.

Calvin & Issy Compete at New England Running Champs

2011-11-13T12:27:00.003-05:00

Seniors Issy and Calvin raced at the New England High School Cross Country Running Championships in Rhode Island yesterday and both did well! Issy finished 59th in 19:43 (12th Vermont girl) and Calvin finished 74th in 16:54 (8th Vermont boy). Great job to both! Complete results here. Thanks to Herve Pelletier for the pictures!

Nationals Week: Day 1 Sprint UPDATED

2011-11-12T12:35:00.003-05:00

We had an excellent sprint practice this morning. It was a good way to kick off our simulation of Nationals week. We have been doing this for 4-5 years now and we find that it is a good way to practice and gain confidence for the "real" National Championships week.

Today we had 2 different courses for our sprint practice. We started with an uphill prelim and heat and ended with a pretty flat prelim and heat. As always, ski speeds differ and you can't put too much on the results, but you can see how each skier did alone (prelim) vs in a group (heat) and how they held up through the four races.

After the uphill prelim we broke everyone into groups of 4 or 5 for their heats (based on prelim times). Here are the times for the uphill sprints:
Paddy 3:05, 3:21
Nick 3:11, 3:29
Hamish 3:17, 3:23
Mac 3:19, 3:30

Gino 3:21, 3:23
Tyler 3:21, 3:23.5
Charlie 3:26, 3:22
Koby 3:35, 3:49

Brooke 4:02, 4:09
Heidi 4:13, 4:13
Katharine 4:19, 4:11
Mollie 4:25, 4:24
Kate 4:37, 4:41

Russell 4:46, 4:57
Helena 5:02, 5:02
Tess 5:28, DNF
Pippin 5:31, DNF
Alex 5:41, 5:58

The flatter course was run the same way, but we only had 2 heats instead of 4 for the finals. Here are the times based in order of prelim times.

Paddy 2:53, 2:55
Gino 3:00, 2:52
Nick 3:01, 2:54
Hamish 3:08, 3:00
Charlie 3:08, 3:04
Tyler 3:12, 3:03
Mac 3:19, 3:09

Koby 3:32, 3:21
Brooke 3:32, 3:22
Heidi 3:38, 3:32
Katharine 3:55, 3:52
Mollie 4:02, 3:50
Kate 4:15, 4:08
Helena 4:28, 4:19
Russell 4:32, 4:24
Pippin 5:00, DNS
Alex 5:28, 5:31

Job well done!

Missing from this list are Corky (recovering from mono so he did leg speeds), Anika (resting her calves so she did some tough upper body specific strength), 'Kenzie (home recovering from a cold), Skyler (recovering from a car mishap), Issy and Calvin (running in the NE Championships in RI...more from them later).

Anika on classic skis today.

Corky & Skyler.

Paddy on course.
Murph.
Gino.
Hamish.
Charlie.
Tyler.
Mac.
Koby.
Brooke.
Russell.
Mollie.
Kate.
Katherine.
Pip.
Helena.
Alex.
Tess.