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.

Getting Dirty in Mt. Itasca

Nope, it doesn’t mean what you think it does. In biathlon, when you hit all 5 shots in a row, it’s called “cleaning”. Along the same logic, if you miss all 5 shots, well, that’s called dirtying.

I have only just recently started shooting and trying out biathlon, but up until now I had never “dirtied” a stage (that’s 5 shots) in a race before. Well, it turns out that if you add a measure of race nerves to a newbie biathlete, it’s pretty easy to do!

Let’s back up a bit. Last week after the Bozeman SuperTours I traveled to Mt. Itasca, Minnesota to compete in IBU Cup Trials for biathlon. Having very little expectations for the races in my first season doing any sort of biathlon, I tried to enter the week with an open mind, but truth be told, I was pretty nervous. We were scheduled to race 4 times: 2 consecutive 7.5k sprint competitions, a rest day, a 12.5k mass start, and then a final sprint. The day of the first sprint (two shooting stages, 1 prone and 1 standing) I came into prone and hit 3 targets. Not awesome shooting, but pretty good for me! I skied my two penalty loops, came around the loop and got into standing position. And promptly missed all 5 targets. Shoooot. It wasn’t that fun skiing 5 times around the penalty loop, and truth be told I got a little dizzy. But the good news is, it definitely took a lot of the pressure off for the rest of the week! From there on, I decided to just have fun with it and approach the shooting with as relaxed an attitude as possible. I was able to improve my shooting a little bit in the next sprint (hitting 4/10) and then in the mass start I actually hit 8/10 prone targets and had my best shooting of the week (55%). I had another tough day on the range in the final sprint, but by that point I just let it roll right off. The truth is, I haven't been doing biathlon long enough to be competitive in range time or accuracy, but every race experience I get is something to learn from and build upon. I now know exactly what I have to work on, and I’m feeling confident in my skiing right now, so I’m excited for the rest of the ski season.

I got in to Craftsbury late Thursday night and was psyched to see all the snow here, but then… DUN DUN DUN I came down with a stomach bug! Luckily it appears that it was just a 24 hour thing, and it may end up being a blessing in disguise as I’m definitely getting plenty of rest after all those races. I’m excited to head home for Christmas and then back to the Midwest for US Nationals in Houghton. I haven’t skied in Houghton since Senior Nationals back in 2008 I believe, so it will be fun to go back to the homeland (1/2 of my family is from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan).

Enjoy the pictures of the biathlon races in Mt. Itasca, all the race shots are from Minnesota biathlete Jakob Ellingson (check out the full gallery here).

Shooting prone with MWSC biathlete Maddie Phaneuf

Getting used to skiing (and tucking!) with a rifle on my back

Standing shooting (had to be the lefty ruining the picture...)

Taking the corner at the top of the course with Kelsey Dickinson from MWSC. It was fun to race with her and to catch up, I haven't seen her since the USBA Talent ID Camp back in August 

Clare starting one of the sprints. She's been crushing it in biathlon this season, and will find out soon if she'll be repping the US at IBU Cups in Europe later this season. Psyched for her!

Thanks for reading everyone, and please, make sure to do your snow dance so that we get something to ski on in Park City!! Here's wishing everyone happy holidays and a white Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Solstice wherever you are!

Getting Back Up

Cresting the hill during the Bozeman 10k Mass Start. Photo Anya Bean

After a few really nice distance skis in West Yellowstone, we moved up to Bozeman for the second weekend of SuperTour races. I was looking forward to these races a lot, mostly because I felt a little unfulfilled after the Yellowstone weekend, and also because classic sprinting is one of my favorite race formats, and last year we didn't get to do the sprint in Bozeman when cold temperatures forced the organizers to cancel. 

My pre-race workouts all felt good, my energy started to bounce back, and I was ready to go! The sprint course in Bozeman had a few good climbs and one somewhat steep downhill that curved sharply to the right at the bottom. In good  conditions, it's completely fine, but during the pre-race workout, it was covered in ankle deep slush. A little challenging, but I knew the grooming would be better the next day. Then, when we showed up for warm-up on the sprint day, it more resembled a sheet of ice. I talked myself through it, did a few laps of the course for warm-up, then hit the line for my qualifier. Things were going well, I felt great on the uphills and in double pole, and then I headed down the hill full of confidence, only to catch an edge and find myself skidding backwards, looking up towards the top of the hill where I had just come from. Well, crap. I didn't have much time to think about it, so I quickly turned my skis the right direction, untangled my poles, and skied as fast as humanly possible for the rest of the short qualifier. My surge of adrenaline helped me get going again, but I was really nervous about making the heats. Then, results were posted, and I was 26th! Okay, maybe not my most spectacular qualifier, but at least I would live to fight (later) that day!

We only had about an hour and a half between the qualifier and the heats, but the whole time my stomach was flip-flopping and I was filled with nervous energy about the thought of facing that downhill again. It was completely silly, but I was actually dreading the heats. With a little over 40 minutes to go until the quarterfinal, I told myself it was time to put my big girl pants on, and I went to warm up on some of the other Bohart Trails. When the gun went off in my quarterfinal, I completely forgot about the downhill and focused only on the other girls in front of me and around me, and gradually I moved up in my heat. After the uphill I was in 2nd place, I stayed on my feet around the corner, and then used a slingshot move to propel myself into 1st. After double poling like mad, I crossed the line first with the second fastest time from any of the quarterfinals. From there on out, it was game-time, and although I didn't make the A-final from my semi, I was so happy that I managed to conquer my fears and turn my day around from an embarrassing (and slightly painful) fall into a really fun and successful 8th place result. Plus, the other GRP girls had a great day too, and CPatts was 3rd, and Kaitlynn Miller was 7th after a ripping fast 5th best qualifier!

The trails may have been even icier for the 10k mass start the following day, but armed with new confidence and positive race vibes, I decided that I was just going to take whatever the course threw at me. Starting from bib #24, I had some work to do. I missed out on the leaders when they broke away, but I skied a solid race, came through the stadium after 5k in 5th, finished in 7th, and most importantly, stayed on my feet the entire time! I knew that those days of nor-pining (riding the ski lifts with nordic skis) with Rosie Brennan back in the Park City Nordic Ski Club days would come in handy some day. Speaking of Rosie, she has been absolutely dominating the SuperTour races and her win in the 10k was her third in a row! She has overcome a really tough year to post some inspiring results, and I'm so proud of her for persevering. Watch out world!

I also want to thank our awesome wax techs for the weekend: Nick Brown, Bryan Cook, and Brayton Osgood. Not only did they give us incredibly fast skis with great kick, but somehow the grip also survived the skidding, snowplowing, and general abuse of the Bohart downhills. Ski magic, I tell you.

Thanks for reading! Here are a few pictures from Bohart, mostly courtesy of my photography whiz friend Anya Bean, thanks Anya! Check out some more of her photos from the distance day on Fasterskier.

A happy team in green!

Mass start mayhem and fun. Photo Anya Bean

Braving the downhills, especially this one where I fell the previous day! It actually wasn't bad during the mass start, but some of the others slightly resembled a luge track. Photo Anya Bean

Enjoying the post-race sun with friends. This western girl needed her Vitamin D! Photo Anya Bean.

The GRP women had a great weekend, all placing in the top 10 both days! It was awesome to race with these speedy ladies.

We finally got a team photo! GRP Ski with the Bridger's in the background. Good thing the boys have been practicing their soro squats..

I'm now in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, prepping for IBU Cup Trials in biathlon. Biathlon and learning to shoot in general has been a fun adventure for me this year. While I haven't been shooting long enough to have any real expectations for these races, I'm really excited to try out my first real on-snow biathlon races, and I'm sure it will be a lot of fun. Stay tuned for updates!

Just the Beginning

I'm a little overdue on updating everyone on what's going on in ski world. Since my last post, we've been on snow for almost 3 weeks, raced our first SuperTours in West Yellowstone, and we're currently in Bozeman, Montana for the second weekend of SuperTour races.

Finally getting on snow has been the best feeling! Nothing feels better than being able to do distance sessions on real snow and new terrain, whereas the thought of another two hour rollerski on the same roads was making me want to snap my rollerski poles in half. Luckily, I didn't, and we all made it through some tricky days when the roads were too wet to rollerski, but there wasn't quite enough snow on the trails to ski. Hello, bounding time trials!

It was so nice to get to West Yellowstone last Tuesdsay. I've been coming to West for Thanksgiving since I was in middle school, and I think I've only missed 2 years since then, so in some ways it feels more like home to spend turkey day there than at home in Park City. It was so nice to catch up with friends and family, and talk with ski reps and coaches that I don't usually get to see during the summer. 

I think that my friend Annie (P) on the Stratton team had the best insight on the first races of the season: they're a win-win situation. If you do well, you get great confidence going into the rest of the season. And if you don't do well, it's okay, because a) sometimes it takes a while to find ski speed again, and b) there are so many more important races left in the season! Unfortunately, I had one of those "what am I doing out here??" type races in the skate sprint, which was probably a result of travel fatigue, a big adjustment to the altitude, and not having my mental game quite down. I tried to stay positive and was able to turn things around a little bit in the 10k skate individual, which was good because that race format is usually one of my least favorite. I finished 14th in a competitive field, and now I'm really looking forward to the races in Bozeman. Even though it rained here, the klister skiing is really good and hopefully it will freeze up enough tonight to make for some fast sprinting tomorrow! 

Stay tuned for updates from the Bozeman races, and in the meantime here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

We did get some skiing in Vermont before we left. Here we headed up Stowe Mt. and then sketchily descended. Turns out that edges do come in handy sometimes.

Once we arrived in Bozeman, we did our usual Costco run. It takes a lot of food to fuel 9 skiers and 4 busy coaches/wax techs!

We weren't really sure how we would fit the boxes in the van, as it was almost full from ski bags and duffels before our food run...

But everyone got a box on their lap, and we somehow fit everything, at least for the 1.5 hour drive to West

GRP ladies training on a rare sunny day in West

Finishing the 10k in the altitude pain cave. Thanks to my brother Dan for the pic!

Watching the men's 15k distance race. Here's Alex Schulz

Gordo on the first climb of the course.

Pete climbing

Our men's team celebrated Movember. Just look realllly closely, the mustaches are there I swear.

Great to be back in beautiful Bozeman! We're happy to have much warmer conditions than last year, when they had to cancel one of the races due to temperatures that mostly stayed below -10F.

Hammering some pre-race intervals on the Bohart course with Caitlin and Kaitlynn. Photo cred Anya Bean

And smiling on the recovery!

Thanks for reading!