Ski the East

Those who know me know that my relationship with East Coast skiing started out rather "icily", shall we say. First impressions were not good: in my freshman year at UNH I l gained a new appreciation for rock skis and glare ice. I battled epic “wintry mix” conditions (for those who don’t know, that means sun/snow/sleet/rain, in any combination, at any time. Fun). I missed my extra blue kick wax and sunny skies, and I quickly realized that this spoiled West Coast ski brat needed to get tough, real quick.

Gradually I came to appreciate the quiet beauty of the Green Hills (sorry, Mountains) of Vermont. It’s a different kind of fun when you're skiing on narrow trails that wind through the woods and could end in a sharp corner or downed tree at any time. I’ve also learned that when the conditions aren’t perfect, it takes the type of skier who can put his or her head down and battle through. There’s a reason they say skiers who grew up in the East can ski anywhere! I even occasionally enjoy an icy downhill to keep me on my toes.

I’m happy to say that East Coast skiing and I are now going steady, which is good, since I’m spending almost 6 weeks in the east this winter. Since returning to Craftsbury after Nationals, we’ve had absolutely perfect skiing on the trails here. It helps that there are numerous 2 hr + loops on the trail system and they are always impeccably groomed. It also helps that Alaska, the entire West Coast, and Europe are hurting for snow this year, but we have plenty! As one of my teammates remarked the other day, we might be enjoying some of the best skiing in the world right now. I’m pretty much in heaven skiing every day right out our front door.

Andrew's been taking a lot of skiing shots, here are the girls putting in the k's

Unreal conditions. That's our house in the background, literally door to door skiing 

Headlamps are a necessity for afternoon training sessions, but the sunsets can't be beat

Preeeeetty nice

Our groomers have been doing an awesome job both keeping the trails in shape and prepping for the upcoming races

Pure skier bliss

It was tough to pull ourselves away from the great skiing at Craftsbury, but a group of GRP skiers went to Rumford for the Eastern Cups and actually had a great time. Rumford isn’t my all-time favorite venue because I’ve had trouble breathing in the past due to paper mill pollution. However, this time the prevailing winds kept the yucky air away, and I had two good races, taking 4th in the 5k skate and 1st in the classic sprint! I don’t think I’ve won a race since I was a junior, so it was really fun to race my GRP teammates in the final, and a good confidence boost to take the win. I’ve also become an EISA SuperFan the past two weekends cheering my former UNH teammates at the Bates and UVM carnivals. They’ve been rocking it!  I can’t wait to have them skiing here in Craftsbury in two weekends since the Dartmouth Carnival is combined with the second weekend of SuperTours.

GRP ski ladies swept the non-college podium in the 5k skate... and the classic sprint podium the next day!

A rare GRP team photo at the Rumford awards

When skiing in 0 degrees and -10 windchill, remember, hand warmers and duct tape!

And our face tape got an upgrade too, I think the Williams team was jealous of our cow tape

 Next up, the Craftsbury SuperTours! We’ll be racing a 20k classic mass start on Friday and a classic sprint Sunday, and then three more races (skate sprint, 10k skate, 10k classic mass start) the following weekend. Skiers are slowly trickling in from across the country, and while the fields for the first weekend will be pretty small, they’ll be really competitive. Check out the Bart Timing website for live results, and I’ll be sure to post an update after the two weeks of craziness are over.

Oh, I should also mention that I now know what the rest of my season will look like (this is exciting for a nomadic skier, to actually know where you’re going to be for the next two months). On February 24th I’m heading from Craftsbury to Europe, where I’ll race OPA Cups in Rogla, Slovenia and Chamonix, France. In between I’ll most likely do a FIS Race somewhere in Austria. Then I’ll fly back to the US on March 16th and head straight to SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley, ID and wrap my season there. Pretty stoked to see what I can do in the upcoming races!

Having One in Houghton

You know the expression, "you're having one!"? As in, you ski past a coach when you're feeling really good in a race and they pump you up by telling you "C'mon, you're having one!". It's one of the most motivating things to hear, because it means that A. You don't look like you're riding the bonk train and B. You're probably doing pretty well in the race! 

For me, having one means having a race that surpasses your own expectations while simultaneously pumping up your confidence. Up in Houghton, for most of the week at US Nationals I felt like I was finally having mine. A lot of people have written about the weather in Houghton last week, and it's true, the temperatures stayed mostly in the single digits, the sun never came out to play, and the wind kept you on your toes. But somehow it didn't seem to bother me much. After all, cross country skiing is a winter sport, and I would choose plentiful snow and the accompanying wintry conditions over skiing on dirty, warm, thin snow any day. Every day was an exercise in bundling, the more layers the better. I practiced my best "babushka" look, pulling my buff over my ears to avoid frostbite and made sure to Rock tape my face. I also had warms toes and fingers every day thanks to my awesome Toko gloves and Salomon boot covers! 

In the 10k skate, I knew I was in for a battle. Slow snow and skate skiing are tough for me because in skating I thrive on fast, firm conditions where I can extend my glide (or "use my length" as Pepa says). I didn't have the fastest time of the day or even an awesome placing (I was 18th), but I was actually really happy with the way I skied the race. 10k individual is always a mental battle, and one that I hope to conquer sometime really soon!

Bundled up and pushing hard in the 10k (Photo Skinnyski.com)

I've been looking forward to the classic sprint at Nationals for a while, and even though the conditions were equally slow as the skate day, I knew that the gradual climb into the finish would favor a long and powerful stride. During my qualifier warm-up I did a race-pace lap on the course and hit the wall after the second hill (with 500m left to go), which made me reassess my race plan. I knew the course was long, but I didn't think it was that long! My mantra for the day became "ski the first two hills like a 5k, and then go". I executed it well and found myself with plenty of pop for the entire qualifier and crossed the line in 4th! I was excited, but then instantly the most nervous I have been in a very long time. After all, a lot can go wrong in sprint heats. Instead of focusing on that, I turned my attention to the first thing I could control, my quarterfinal. The same tactic I'd used in the qualifier also worked well there, and even though I was in 5th at the bottom of the downhill I slowly picked off the skiers in front and led my quarterfinal to the finish. 

Skinnyski photo of my quarter

Pysched to race my semifinal against some fast and TALL girls, Heather Mooney from Middlebury and Becca Rorabaugh, APU

I ran out of gas a little in the semifinals, but was able to advance to the A final in lucky loser position. At this point, I was resolved to just enjoy the day. It was my first time ever making the A Final at Nationals, so at that point, whatever happened, happened, and I was thrilled to even be there racing against such fast girls. But, as it turned out, I did have a little left in the tank. When my former Park City teammate (now APU skier) Rosie Brennan started to string out the pack, I was able to follow Becca into 3rd. At that point, I couldn't even believe I was in podium contention,  but instead of pinching myself I focused on moving my arms and legs as fast as I possibly could and held my spot. I crossed the line feeling the best mixture of exhaustion and happiness.

Following Rosie out of the start..

Photo Christopher Schmidt

Post race hugs are always the best, and this one was up there! Congrats Rose on an impressive week and good luck in the World Cup!!

A very snowy podium

The classic sprint was such a high that I was a little worried about having enough energy for the 20k mass start two days later. After all, a sprint is over in just a few minutes (or maybe more like 5 on the Houghton course), but the 20k in slow classic conditions was bound to last over an hour. However, I was able to stay with the lead pack through most of the first 10k lap, and even though I ended up getting dropped by the 5 person pack I stubbornly stayed in 6th place until the finish. I was really happy with the result for a couple reasons, first because it was my first top ten in a distance event at nationals, and second because skiing alone for 12k is really mentally tough, but I managed to push through it. I was also excited because Rosie won the race again, and my GRP teammate Caitlin Patterson was second!

GRP green right up there with the APU blue! My other teammate Kaitlynn Miller finished 13th, making it an awesome day for our team

And then I skied alone...

And skied alone a little more...

And finally crossed the line alone!

 And just like that Nationals week was almost over, and we just had to conquer the skate sprint. It was back to skating in slow conditions, and even though my body was tired at this point, I also had a ton of confidence from the previous two races. I advanced to the semifinals in a lucky loser spot, and even though I ended my day with a 5th place in my semi, it was another top 10 finish and a good way to end the week.

The 3 GRP ladies had the misfortune of all having to compete in the same quarterfinal for just 2 auto-advance spots, but at least it was fun to race with teammates that I train with all year long!

Attempting to stick with speedsters Caitlin and Jennie Bender on the climb

Now that I've had a little time to process my week, I have to say I'm really happy with how things went, and looking forward to the rest of the season! We also had awesome skis all week at Nationals, and I know our wax techs Nick Brown and Bryan Cook worked way harder than we did and slept a lot less, so huge thanks to them. I'm still waiting to hear if I'll be able to compete in OPA Cups over in Europe in February and March, but for now I'm just focusing on getting in a good training block before the SuperTour in Craftsbury in two weeks. As a bonus, the skiing at Craftsbury has been absolutely incredible since we've been back. I'm racing the Eastern Cup in Rumford this weekend and then I'll take a weekend break and go cheer on the Wildcats at the UVM Carnival. Shoutout to fast kitten Annika Taylor who placed 2nd in both races at the Bates Carnival this weekend. Let's see if she can one-up it (see what I did there??) at Trapp's! So for now, go GREEN and go CATS!!

Happy New Year!!

As I was walking through the Detroit Airport Tunnel yesterday afternoon (see below, if you haven't been there, it is a surreal experience), I realized that by luck of the airport connection draw, it was my third time in the Detroit Airport in the last 14 days. As a semi-nomadic skier/traveler, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised, but it is a little crazy to think how much time I spend in transit: airplanes, cars, vans, and yes, the moving walkway!

I think the Detroit Airport believes this sound/light show is soothing, but believe me when you have 20 minutes to catch your plane in what feels like the world's most sprawling terminals, it is anything but!

My 6 short days in Craftsbury following Minnesota trials were a mix of good and bad. Good: the Craftsbury Christmas Party and perfect skiing. Bad: the dreaded stomach bug! Luckily it was just a 24 hour thing and I was back on my feet just in time to pack up and head home for the holidays. I was bummed to not be able to race the Eastern Cup Opener in Middlebury, but I think it was my body's way of telling me I needed REST after our races in the Midwest.

I arrived in Park City to beautiful mountains and a lot of grass sticking up through the snow. However, I firmly believed that my arrival would bring with it more winter storms, and I turned out to be right! We got a few inches each day that added up to perfect skiing by the time I left. The holidays were a total blur of family and friend time, training, hot tubbing, SO MANY Christmas cookies and just generally a really great time. 

Anyways, after some quality Detroit airport time I'm now in Houghton, Michigan getting ready to race at US Nationals. First up is a 10k skate individual this Sunday, followed by a classic sprint Monday. The trails are in perfect shape and we had great extra blue skiing this morning on firm tracks, my favorite kind of conditions! I can't wait to race, and I'll try to keep everyone updated on how it goes.

Here are some photos from the last few days of 2014.

Family Christmas ski at my old stomping grounds, White Pine Touring.

Then it finally snowed in PC! And the holiday traffic was madness, but I didn't care because there was snow!

Obligatory family Christmas tree photo with my dad and brother

On my second to last day in Park City, I was finally able to ski at Round Valley, which is one of my favorite places to ski anywhere (and this photo probably explains why)

Bluebird

But freezing....

Sharing the trails with skiers, hikers, and dogs is okay when you have this view!

Catching up with old friends

And ringing in the New Year with some of my favorites!

Happy 2015 everyone! I hope your new year is filled with love, laughter, adventure, and good friends and family. Thanks for reading everyone.