States: Sinclair runs like a Champion and Season Wrap

We Train at Night! (and J1 Scando Trip)

Antoine at 9:21 pm. He just finished a skate ski + speed around campus (his skis are fast, so every ski includes speed). Not pictured are his helmet and headlamp (night-time rollerski essentials).

USST Seeks Two J1 Scandinavian Trip Coaches

The US Ski Team is listing two coaching position to assist Head J1 Trip Coach Tim Weston (GMVS) for the J1 Scandinavian Championships beginning at the end of January in 2010. The positions are fully funded. Coaches looking to apply for these positions should have experience working with athletes aged 14-17, a strong background in waxing and testing skis, and the leadership experience to help manage twelve athletes in Kuopio, Finland for two weeks. That said, we are looking to develop coaches and welcome all applications from coaches wishing to gain new experience and willing to share their own.

Please send a resume and brief cover letter to pcasey@ussa.org by November 1st. The staff will be selected by November 5th.

Selection criteria for athletes are posted at www.ussa.org - go to “Sports,” “Cross Country,” then “Advancement.”

Trip Details
Location: Kuopio, Finland
Rough Trip Dates: Jan 21st- February 1st
Race Dates: Jan 29th – 31st
Coaching Staff:
Head Coach (Fully Funded): Tim Weston (GMVS)
Coach (Fully Funded): TBA
Coach (Fully Funded): TBA

App Gap Classic TT and 350.

Atop App Gap with the school's new 350 banner.
Antoine -- not so new to roller skiing anymore.
Hans finishing it up.
David working hard and gettin' it done.
Hans, Ryley and Beckwith on the last KM.
Eye of the tiger.
Get back into it.
Ryley getting the hang of the striding.
Hans stretching it out.

We had another frosty on the mountains this morning and the last workout of the week. Uphill classic time trial up App Gap. A real crowd pleaser!

Some did not ski hard due to sickness or tiredness.

Girls:
Kaitlin 11:33 (:46 improvement since the summer!)

Boys: no historical date for this exact tt.
Sinner 21:58
Ryley 24:18
JB 24:20
Hansy 24:21
Antoine 31:11

GMVS Nordic Helps Promote 350.org

As many in the ski world already know this Saturday, October 24th, is 350 day!

This international day of action is a chance for us as a school, team and community to show that we are concerned about the effects our society is causing the world. It is also taking a positive stand and saying, "Yes we can do something."

This movement which will have nearly 400o events happening throughout the globe on Saturday is based upon the mission of local activist Bill McKibben. McKibben's premise for this organization is that 350 parts per million is the safe amount of C02 we can have in our environment. It is the hopes of 350.org to show the worldwide support for these measures through photographic petition.

Here at GMVS we are hosting SMS for a Girls soccer game and we are organizing a picture before that game.

Nordic Coach, Justin Beckwith, is also circumnavigating Manhatten via kayak with a group of friends and will also be taking photographs for 350. This journey is approximately 30 miles long. Many times the island of Manhatten has been used to illustrate what will happen if sea levels rise. Beckwith will get to see it first hand!

The nordic team is also logging some serious km's for the Green Team's 350,000,000 m 350 Challenge. To date we have logged almost 3,000,000,000 meters. Read more at: http://www.concept2.com/sranking03/challenge/350/

For more info on the orgins of 350 and what it's all about read on. (By Tim Johnson • Free Press Staff Writer • October 11, 2009)

As a follow-up he (McKibben) has founded another organization with a wider scope -- the world -- and a more sharply focused message that's compressed into what he calls "the most important number in the world" -- 350. By his reckoning, that's the safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, in parts per million.

The current concentration is about 390 and rising, and unless the level is brought down during this century, he believes, excessive temperatures will put the Earth past the tipping point, with melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and devastating new drought and rainfall patterns.

Like Step It Up, McKibben's 350.org expects to nurture and publicize hundreds of anti-global-warming demonstrations on a single day, Oct. 24, all with the aim of imprinting "350" on the world's consciousness. The aim is to raise the pressure on the world's leading nations to set meaningful limits on emissions in talks scheduled for December in Copenhagen. Even McKibben admits that's a tall order.

We talked to him recently at his home in Ripton -- which has more than a dozen large solar panels on the roof -- about recent climate-change developments and the 350 campaign: Tim Johnson: What's the latest science telling us about climate change?
Bill McKibben: Basically, all the latest science can be summed up by saying, global warming is way ahead of schedule. We're seeing huge changes with only fairly small increases in temperature -- a little over one degree Fahrenheit, and that's been enough to get the Arctic melting, every glacier in the world melting, changing hydrological cycles in profound ways, so we're seeing much heavier bursts of rainfall than have ever been recorded. The science has gotten very clear about what we need to do. This number that we've been working with, 350, is new. Two years ago, no one knew it was important, but now, probably, it's the most important number in the world. It represents the most carbon we can safely have in the atmosphere.

Video: GMVS training at Sugarbush Resort

...agility, speed, balance, coordination, confidence... all very necessary in our sport:

Local Bill Koch League Posting

Nordic skiing is fun, fast, and a great way to enjoy the Vermont winter! Join the Mad River Valley Bill Koch League and learn a sport you will enjoy for a lifetime! Open to grades K-6. Practices are Tuesdays 3:30 - 5 at Ole's Cross Country Center, December 15 - March 16, school holidays excluded. Interested? Contact Kate Williams: kate@northernforestcanoetrail.org / 279-8302 for info and registration materials. $100 if you register before November 15, $110 after.

The times are a changin' and October 13 Snow.

Kristin and I just got a nice set of intervals done on German Flats. The weather is inspiring for classic intervals--this morning was the second day of waking to snow and it's cold up in the hills. Our program is rolling along--off to camp, lots of good work done--now back to school, snow on the soccer fields--training and making muscles...

This changing of seasons is such an exciting time for us. All the hard work makes perfect sense and it seems like the natural hand of colder weather is beckoning us to keep moving.

The kids had a solid training load last week, with hours in the high teens and some solid workouts to bout. The boys hiked to the top of Mt. Marcy -- the highest point in NY and the girls summitted nearby Phelps. All the kids skied up Whiteface (NY's 5th highest) -- and by ski I mean ski -- they gauged their efforts and made a solid push to make it to the top without having major technical problems. I was a very proud coach watching the athletes take a sound approach to a significant challenge.

And the snow...October 13th...I think its a new record for me here in Waitsfield. Not to get too excited, but to be fortunate for the day and all the opportunities we have at our fingertips here. That's my journal for the day--off to eat some lunch and get up higher in the mountains to see how snowy it is on the top. Enjoy the shots of Placid foliage and the transition to winter here on campus. Tons of energy.
Kristin making her classic bid up the Castle.
Emily gliding for the first time this winter!
The team at the end of a skate over distance ski in Wilmington. Walker, Sinclair, Hans, Weston, Shea, Moore, Stitt, Fitzgerald.
Luethi, Stitt and Fitzgerald off to a controlled start!
Elena extremely in control and feeling right at home with the long planks on.
Beckwith caught on film with jeans and a t shirt -- feels natural.
Smiles and smiles.
Not a bad Tuesday in October!!