Snow

Last Saturday's race at Jericho was pretty good. We had some great results despite some really tricky waxing. It was snowing on and off and hovering around 34 degrees. With the really wet stuff, the tracks were icy and slippery, but the new snow was clumping up on skis anytime we hopped out of the tracks. I think that the waxing was about as good as it could be. We had worse skis at practice one Tuesday, with really variable conditions as this new snow blew in. Kind of frustrating, but a reality of skiing in this type of weather and one that we will have to be prepared for at the state meet. The good thing about conditions like these is that everyone is pretty much in the same boat.

We canceled practice today, and there is talk of the state meet being postponed. I will update on that as soon as I know. But I guess its just a matter of being ready for anything.

It sure is pretty outside though.

Blueberry Hill Race

Well it was no easy course last night at Blueberry Hill, a good uphill climb over a 6km course, we had all of our skiers, Varsity and JV do the entire loop, and I think for everyone it was a good experience. Talking with George after the race, he said that the longer distance was hard for him, but the finish line surprised him, coming earlier than expected. Everyone looked strong up the final hill. It was a great day to be out and a really fun and easy race to get to. It was nice to have the convenience of an after-school race and be back before the sun was down. Thanks to Tony for hosting us there, and doing a fabulous job with the new snow, even regrooming the course mid way through for the middle school racers. And thanks to Brian Jerome for organizing the race.

This Weekend

Well,

we're looking ahead to a pretty fun weekend. The race Saturday should be a pretty good one. Which is to say, it will probably be a really good workout, I'm a little nervous about the waxing as the thermometer will be hanging right around 34 with some new snow forecast, that means some tricky conditions.

I think that the whole team is really looking forward to Sunday and Monday. Britta invited the team to make the Bread Loaf to Blueberry Hill ski on Sunday afternoon and then spend the night up there, have a big pasta feed, watch some movies, camp out on the floor. Britta is emailing out the details but the general plan is to take the 1pm shuttle from the green and hopefully be hitting the trail by about 2pm. We'll do it ski tour style with some backpacks with dry clothes and sleeping bags, but the food for dinner and breakfast can be put into Tony's Truck or my car and will magically arrive at the Inn.

Can't wait.

J2 Qualifiers

I'll write quickly about the J2 and Eastern High School qualifiers yesterday at Grafton Ponds. We only had a small handful of skiers there, but the day was pretty successful. It was an early morning and a bit of a long day with two races, but all in all things went pretty well. The coverage was great but the snow was pretty transformed, they haven't had any new snow in a while either, that made the waxing a little harder, but not too confusing. The guys probably ended up on a little slippery skis than I would have liked, but the girls kick seemed pretty dialed in.

For the skate race a little structure in the bases and some fast wax seemed to make for good skis. Everyone seemed pretty happy. Congrats to Will Conlon and Dominique who both qualified for the J2 team. Also Addison Tate and Britta who were named as alternates the the J2 and Eastern High School Teams respectively, both just missed qualifying outright by only a couple of seconds, and skied some really fabulous skate races to push themselves into solid contention.

All in all it was a nice day, sunny in the morning but getting colder throughout the day. By the time results were posted I think everyone was pretty antsy to get into warm cars.

Relay Time Trial

Well , I thought it was pretty fun to do the relay on Saturday, it was a little cold, but well worth braving the conditions. The snow on the far side of the field was in great shape and Jim was nice enough to groom it just before we raced so conditions couldn't have been better. We got in a little practice for Tuesday's race with the tags, and learned that it is important to have your warm-ups off before your partner gets into the tag zone (who could have imagined...)
I was also surprised that I was able to time without a hitch, and I dont think I made any significant mistakes, so here are the results, rounded to the nearest second.

Eastern Cup @ UVM

So we've got a couple of skiers racing at the Eastern Cup this weekend at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. Tomorrow is the Classic race and Sunday will be a skate. It should be a fun weekend with some competitive racing. It is combined with a college carnival so it will be a great event to watch. Head on over on Sunday for some really beautiful skiing and fun spectating. Cood luck to Will, Britta, Dominique and Lisa.

Coach's racing debut of the season is the Sunday skate race. Come and watch him get thrashed. Its gonna be a tough one. Race start is at 9:30am. For lack of a better picture, here is your coach, the last time he was seen skiing in public. Yikes.

Time Trial Tomorrow

So here's the critical info.

We will push back the start just a little bit to about 10:15 am. There is a Shuttle bus from the Green in town which leaves at 9:15 and should get us up there around 9:40. That leaves about a half an hour for warmup.

We will be skiing in the field across the road.
After a brief discussion with Charlie, I have decided to change the format to a relay, so that we can have a little practice before Tuesday's race at Woodstock. It will be run in 2 person teams. JV will each do two laps while Varsity will do three.

See you up there.

The Paintball Biathalon

So it was my first experience at the paintball Biathalon. It was about what I expected, just colder. All in all things went pretty well. I was pretty confused with the registration, the addition of t-shirts made for a little more to keep track of. But we got it all sorted out, and got down to the skiing. The scene at the range was pretty hectic, lots of skiers coming in and out. Three 1.5km loops lead to occasional periods of congestion and other quiet moments, but always the popping of guns.

There were a ton of volunteers doing the scoring of shooting which looked pretty confusing to me. Our skiers skied well, Britta and Dominique finished 3rd and 5th with really close skiing times. Maddie had a great race, though her shooting wasn't quite sniper material, her skiing would have landed her in 13th, a solid result. Will Earle had another solid race, 8th and Will Conlon and Austin also skied well finishing 15th and 17th.

We're taking a little time off of racing, but we'll be back at it on Tuesday at Colchester for the night relays. We have a little time trial on Saturday to keep things sharp. We're getting a little bit of snow here and there, and skiing is improving daily. After the rains last week, I think everyone is glad to be skiing again after a week of running.

Some more pictures

Here are some pictures from the U-32 race that were given to me by Christine Metcalfe. I figured it would be nice to show some of our guys. Here's Kelsey making it hurt up coming toward the final hill and Will getting after it.

Paintball Biathalon

Sorry everybody the results are a little slow in coming, but they should appear sometime later today. In the meantime, here is a link to some photos from the event. Dubs is featured right on the front page. I think I would be terrified if I didn't know the whole story.

http://www.bigshotphotovt.com/p193082622

We're also awaiting some video from the race. Dubs managed to hit record this go round and supposedly there are some fun tumbles.