GMVS XC Ski Team

More snow in VT and maintenance strength

2012-01-31T19:47:00.000-05:00

During the season it is easy to lose the strength that you worked so hard to gain in the summer and fall. Skiing every day can keep you away from the weight room, so we make sure to schedule regular maintenance strength sessions to make sure we can still crank it when we hit the trails. Today was a 30 on 30 off circuit strength workout. The music was bumpin' and the skiers were pumpin'. Sweet!

Drama Dev is theatrical even mid-circuit mid-jump.

Awkward high five follow-through.

Kaitlin erging in the slot light.

Basketball cool down then spin.

Sharing Joys of Skiing -- Heading into Winter

2012-01-30T17:50:00.002-05:00

In a winter you get a handful of skis that make your mind, heart and muscles align into a beautiful dance. Often these days are the result of excellent conditions and sharing your passion with a group of people who feel the same way about the adventure you are taking. Yesterday was such a day.

Our rather unusual winter of 2012 has presented us with spring-like crust cruising in the month of January -- not what we've come to expect, but something we might need to come to enjoy.

Our favorite Forrest Service road set up over the past few days to provide a surface as hard as pavement, yet as slippery as ice and when your skis glide on this medium you can't help but smile.

Newer skiers can learn a lot from skiing on fast snow. Here, Gracie Baker, from New Jersey gets her first taste of skiing on natures finest. Just glide and step your way up the hill, cause what goes up must come down.

Isabelle Jamieson rowing on her poles and making it look fun.

This one is pretty special, Anna Jamieson, poses with a smile as we stop for a water break. Just behind, a good old friend and one of America's best skiers, Jesse Gallagher, looks on -- refinding the joys of striding and gliding in the woods of Vermont. "Beechnuts, balsams, and moose tracks."

Devlin got a chance to check out the Rainbow Field in rare condition during his warmup for intervals. The Breadloaf Wilderness looms behind with a sky that promises more wintery goodness is on its way.

Our group gathers for some water and an M&M feed.
Added bonus points if you can nail the ski-tip-flick-to-mouth-catch! Rob Williams, BKL Coach, and parent officiates the doling out of the goods!

These moments are great to share with new friends, Vermont, NJ, maybe your old dog JJ!

Somebody is excited to be out in the woods with fast snow and good friends. Hip, hip, hooray for the Mad River BKL.

"So... when do we get to go downhill?" After an hour or so hanging on the poles starts to feel a little better.

Snow inspection is an important part of loving the sport of cross-country skiing. "What makes this stuff so cool?"

"Okay guys, its time to get going again." Every time the group seemed to need a break they got a boost of energy and before you know it they were out of sight and around the next bend.

New duds from NENSA. Making the New England Bill Koch crowd well equipped and looking sharp for winters to come.

Watch Out! The academy kids are coming through on their workout for the day. Today it's the mid season fav -- 4x4 minutes at race pace. Nothing like hammering on fast snow -- go Dev and Ryley.

Shucks.

Double Shucks.

Shucks with flair.

"Is this thing on? Cause this is sweet!"

Mr. Dethier leading a telemark lesson. It's contagious out on the skis, on the upper reaches of the trail a thin layer of cream cheese graced the crust making edging and turning oh so fun.

A natural teacher. On to film class.

Oh yeah, and technique just comes naturally after a few hours. Hang on the pole, push the knee forward -- and voila we're off and running!

Kaitlin got in on the interval action too.

Mr. Mascot or Mr. T? Always a good time with Theron Williams!

Sweet! Now we get to go down. After climbing for several miles of rolling terrain the way back down feels oh so good. Earn you miles and enjoy the ride.

Kate Willaims. The Director of all things Mad River BKL.

Jeremy (best workout of the day), Sally, and Silas (biggest smile of the day, even though you can't see it cause I'm hiding in my polk under a sheepskin blanket) Gulley made the trek!

JJ Jamieson is eyeing up the long road home and wishing his paws had a little bit more P-tex.

Nice applied pressure there Anneka!

And the release of the glide. Gracie getting a little V2 alternate going.

Heading home under the afternoon light, out of the woods and back to the comforts of home and the "food bags" in the van. Sunday was one to remember and hopefully the start of many more long skis for this group of young skiers.

Special thanks to all for coming -- if you missed this ski and it looks like fun to you -- get in touch and join us for our next adventure. You never know what tomorrow will bring. If it's like today it will hold a bit more snow. If your winters has you down, you should come visit the East Side of the Greens. The mountain's shadow always has something to share.

Time Trial with SMS at Trapps

2012-01-30T08:49:00.000-05:00

Stratton came up for a few days of skiing at Trapps, and we thought it was a good opportunity to get a fun time trial in. The format was 5 km classic followed by a transition to a 5 km skate. Conditions were a little scratchy, with icy snow covered by a little powder in places and there were no classic tracks, but it was a fun race all around. The camera was stuck on a weird setting so the photos are all pretty funky, but here they are anyway.

Reynolds Continues to Fly!

2012-01-27T07:36:00.001-05:00

http://fasterskier.com/2012/01/reynolds-leads-craftsbury-to-1-2-finish-in-minneapolis-sprint/

Adventure Ski in the backwoods

2012-01-26T13:05:00.000-05:00

Rolling with La Nina

2012-01-25T08:17:00.002-05:00

Rolling with La Nina

In so many ways we have been incrediblylucky here on the East Side of the Green Mountains this winter. Thismorning was just one of those times and one of my favorite kinds ofskis. The temperature rose last night in the Valleys into thefifties and many ski areas with groomed tracks were forced to shutdown at least grooming if not skiing for the day. The rain saturatedthe snow to such an effect at these places that skier traffic wouldruin the precious remaining snow. It's days like this that you needto think outside the box.

A lot of that is knowing where youmight go. One of my favorite spots just to the south of Waitsfieldand Warren is on a Forest Service Road. The drive is a welcomechance to talk about geography, as we are leaving our home watershed,the Mad River, which flows north eventually to the Saint Lawrence,and dipping into the top of the White River which takes a southerlyjourney through the Connecticut. All this transition takes placeas we drive South on Route 100 through an area known as GranvilleGulf.

As we head over the watershed gap andinto the Gulf proper, winter seems to shut in around us, thethermometer in the van dips into the mid-thirties, and ice flowscreep over the bedrock lining the small canyon. The pavement isfrozen with water that has been cooled from the frosted roadbed andone always needs to use care on this section of road. There is stillevidence of the Flood that followed Irene, complete with a newlystraightened wayside stream. As the walls of the Gulf widen and weenter into the Granville Valley the stream is littered with piles ofdebris and erosional deposits where the small stream used to meander.

Our destination is a just a mile belowhere where we will take a right up West Hill Road, and eventually aForrest Service road leading into the back of the BreadloafWilderness. The road along this stretch reminds one of a hobbitland, as it is carefully carved into the hillside, Patterson Brook(one of the highest reaches of the White, draining water from the topof the Green Mountain Ridge) is to your left and it's hard not topeer over the edge to catch a glimpse of the clear waters runningover and through ice and snow. The road is slick today and my eyesstay towards the right side of the road where groundwater ice flowsgrace the mossy road bank.

I had scouted the trail earlier in themorning and the VAST Trail Groomers had done a top notch job, with afull double pass with their drag. With an average width of 30 feet,nearly FIS legal, we set foot into our own manicured-personalwilderness. Our ski takes us gradually upwards, following the banksof the river and winding through a set of old cabins, beyond theClark Brook trailhead, before looping onto the southern flanks of thePatterson Valley.

After nearly an hour of skiing we reacha height of land and discuss our options; we can simply turn aroundand wind down to the van, or we can press on a little further and tryour luck at a steeper and perhaps more adventurous descent that wouldplace us at the bottom of the Valley. Several of us chose the latterand stepped of off the groomed surface onto a day old skin track. The trail descended into a swamp, moosey country, with ample hoofprints to trick your mind into thinking that any of the upturnedstumps littered around the swamp might actually be one of thesemegafauna.

We slipped around the swamp on a quitegraceful trail, with light rises and swooping turns, hoping that ourintuitive compasses were bearing in the right direction and that wemight arrive back at the van in a timely fashion for lunch! Soon wewere greeted by a series of steep descents that were only manageablebecause of boot-deep sticky snow. We hooted and hollered, andoccasionally face-planted on our way through hardwood and hemlockgroves and to our surprise emerged from the woods at the base of WestHill Road, hardly a ten minute walk back to the van.

We skated through another warm patch inthis La Nina winter – the cold Valleys and the snow-shadow of theGreens making our experiences as skiers in this new era possible. Our desires for skiing and our love for exploration and adventurekeep us coming back and as we head back to do a track workout atTrapps our minds our open and our bodies are crazing speed!

Valley Cup Results

2012-01-23T10:38:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we hosted the Valley cup at Ole's in Warren. This is one of the oldest races in Vermont with a 37 year history. There is a very cool trophy with the names of the winners, which includes Olympians, Mike Gallagher, Bob Gray and now, Garrott Kuzzy! We had an awesome field of skiers show up, including Ford Sayre and Frost Mountain Nordic. There were 35 men and 9 women in the 10km and 8 skiers in the 5km Junior Event. We also hosted a BKL Race, pictures and results available on the MRV Club Website!

The men's start.

Winner, Garrott Kuzzy.

Results:

Men

1. Garrott Kuzzy -- 29 -- 23:46

2. Tim Donahue -- 42 -- 24:07

3. Evan Dethier -- 22 -- 25:03

4. Sam Merrens -- 16 -- 25:27

5. Hans Halvorsen -- 18 -- 26:00

6. George Voigt -- 17 -- 26:01

7. Hugh Prichard -- 43 -- 26:02

8. Reid Greenberg -- 38 -- 26:31

9. Devlin Shea -- 17 -- 26:41

10. Dan Greenleaf -- 44 -- 27:00

11. Malcolm Groves -- 16 -- 27:05

12. Bryce Wing -- 53 -- 27:08

13. Damian Bolduc -- 34 -- 27:12

14. Keith Woodward -- 61 -- 27:18

15. Sam Rossier -- 17 -- 28:27

16. Mike Kavanaugh -- 45 -- 28:38

17. William Conlon -- 17 -- 29:00

18. Tom Strasser -- 57 -- 29:32

19. Will Gochberg -- 27 -- 29:38

20. Steve Crafts -- 40 -- 29:45

21. Jon Miller -- 35 -- 30:08

22. Alan Cote -- 45 -- 30:21

23. Rob Rosen -- 55 -- 30:24

24. Jarleth Oneil-Donne -- 37 -- 30:30

25. Larry Martel -- 55 -- 30:45

26. Jon Jamieson -- 44 -- 30:53

27. Pepi Guggenberger -- 47 -- 31:24

28. Steve Messier -- 51 -- 31:40

29. John Lazenby -- 62 -- 32:18

30. Scott Harding -- 44 -- 32:44

31. Eric Lindbeck -- 52 -- 34:00

32. Perry Bland -- 62 -- 34:49

33. John Witmer -- 48 -- 35:49

34. Luke Foley -- 30 -- 41:59

35. Tristan Leggett -- 30 -- DNF

GMVS Coach, Athlete and Earth Science Teacher, Evan Dethier.

Hans Halvorsen

Heidi Halvorsen charging to a victory in the women's 10km.

Women

1. Heidi Halvorsen -- 16 -- 28:26

2. Alia Johnson -- 17 -- 31:36

3. Emily Miller -- 18 -- 31:38

4. Marilyn Ruseckas -- 52 -- 33:25

5. Jessica Bolduc -- 36 -- 34:27

6. Caitlin Haedrich -- 17 -- 35:22

7. Kate Willaims -- 45 -- 35:33

8. Amy Jamieson -- 41 -- 36:29

9. Sarah Landergraf -- 16 -- 37:55

Junior Race:

Boys

1. Forrest Hamilton -- 12:53

2. Tucker Cadon -- 13:37

3. Colin Pogue -- 15:56

4. Noah Eckstein -- 16:14

Girls

1. Elizabeth Goss -- 17:06

2. Alexi Kim -- 17:08

3. Ava Kendrich -- 23:03

4. Chloe Riven -- 24:09

It's all about having fun and enjoying the snow!

Local superstar, Noah Eckstein.

Madeline Strasser skating to a BKL victory.

Devlin and Kaitlin skiing as rabbits for the J3's.

Carl Kellogg and Mathew Ellis getting instructions.

A weekend of Community Events

2012-01-23T10:05:00.002-05:00

Saturday MK Cirelli and Kaitlin took a trip to Mountain Top for the Annual Paintball Race.

MK took the Victory in the Adult Race and Kaitlin took Third in the High School Division.

Good racing and good times for sure!

Intervals at Trapps with Burke

2012-01-18T22:27:00.001-05:00

The skiers from Burke drove down an hour and a half to meet us in buster conditions at Trapps, and we made the most of the meeting, getting in a solid interval session in a "wave" format. The wave is a style of intervals without real rest: instead of going down to level 1 or below, the "off" time is level 2. It makes for good continuous skiing and forces us to be more conscious of our bodies as we ski. Always a good thing!

Here are some pictures from the day. The skiing at Trapps is great: even though we were dodging quite a few tree pieces today, there is a ton of snow and the conditions promise to improve in the coming days.

GMVS Eastern Cup Weekend: lots of photos!

2012-01-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

The Eastern Cup weekend at Titcomb Mountain in Maine dawned cold and beautiful and pretty much stayed that way throughout. The course was not long, but we have gotten used to skiing loops this year and it held up well for all the races.

Our first race was a classic sprint: two times around a pretty flat loop that allowed most of the men and some of the women to double pole instead of using kick wax. Hans ripped around in his first action of the year, qualifying an impressive 20th before shutting it down to rest his back.

Dev just missed the open rounds, qualifying 34th, but skied strong all the way through his loops.

Friend and summer camp attendee Luke Costley worked the double pole kick, electing to go on waxed skis.

Ian Moore, another summer camp attendee from Maine, cruised around the sprint course but was even more impressive in the skate race on Sunday.

Ryley returned to action, skiing well in the sprint, even though he doesn't think it's his best discipline.

MK didn't feel like she had her best qualifier, but made it into the junior rounds and cleaned up, winning each of her heats to take the crown!

She skied on wax until the final, when we made her and Fitzy double pole for practice, and to see what it was like.

Fitzy in qualifying.

Alums Elena Luethi and Kristin Halvorsen both qualified for the open rounds, and in a twist of fate skied every race together: quarterfinal, semifinal, and B-final. Elena was 10th and Kristin was 12th after a long day of racing. Congratulations to a good weekend of skiing for both of them.

On Sunday, Kristin skied her first skate race in two years, ending up 28th. Nice!

GMVS alum Tim Reynolds was also in action in the main heats. He finished second to Dakota in this hotly contested A-Final.

Dev led much of his semifinal before running out of gas near the end, finishing in fourth for his heat. Sprint racing is always wild, and we always come out of it with an idea of what to do next time.

MK with a sizable lead in the semifinal.

And coming around the final corner in the A-final for juniors: she pulled away for the victory in the home stretch!

Here's Fitzy skiing the next day: she had a great weekend of racing, winning the B-final by a landslide once she switched to skate skis, and skiing to a strong 33rd place in the 8 km skate race on Sunday.

Hans and Ryley toughed it out through a difficult 13 km course that climbed up the lower slopes of Ticomb's alpine hill 8 times in single digit temperatures. The course was a challenge for everyone who stepped on the boards, but they both skied consistently throughout. I don't have a photo of MK from Sunday, but she skied a great race, finishing 12th overall!

Photos from Nationals: Eastern Cup weekend recap to follow

2012-01-16T18:52:00.001-05:00

It's crazy to think that we're past the mid-point of January already... It's been a week since the end of Nationals, and we had another successful (if cold) weekend of racing at Titcomb Mountain in Maine. Full race report to follow, but for now here are some pictures of our girls at Nationals, courtesy of Anthony Cirelli (MK's dad). Thanks!

Snowy Day at Trapps: Winter is finally here!

2012-01-12T17:38:00.003-05:00

It was a glorious day for classic skiing at Trapps, and with it came the first real signs of winter: a classic heavy eastern snow storm made things dreamlike out on the trails today.

We had a small group today, but we worked on sprint starts, cornering, and did some speed work with 30 30s.

The snow was falling fast and hard the whole time we were there, and continues as I write even now.

We did some tele turns in the powder to cool down. Nice! Now off to the Eastern Cups in Maine.

Great skiing for GMVS at Trapps

2012-01-12T08:28:00.001-05:00

It was a beautiful cold day at Trapps, and we got in some great skating yesterday in the sunshine.

It's nice to start getting back in a rhythm of training after the week of racing at nationals... and great to be on real snow and a trail network! There isn't much snow anywhere, but there's enough to ski on up at Trapps.

Today we did some dynamic drills to work on balance and commitment to each ski. Dev here is actually hopping up and down on one leg, but I couldn't catch him mid-jump.

Reuniting with Hans has been awesome!

He's got a wild side.

Hans and Ryley worked on balance before Hans peeled off to do some skate intervals.

Pretty great skiing available.

Justin demonstrates that the snow is deep enough even off the trail: this is a big deal after all the time we've spent on man-made loops at Rumford and Craftsbury.

Got the band back together.

Nationals Recap

2012-01-11T13:57:00.000-05:00

We just wrapped up a successful trip to US Nationals in Rumford, and are back in Waitsfield recovering and preparing for the next thing coming down the pike. But before we put Nationals in the rearview we should recap the week that was. And what a week it was!

We started with a skate sprint, delayed a day because of rain the night before the original date. Undeterred by the delay, Heidi, MK, Fitzy, and Dev all posted strong qualifying times. Heidi and MK each earned spots in the junior heats and finished 6th and 21st, respectively. Both Dev and Heidi ended up as the 8th J1 skier for the day, a great accomplishment for both of them!

GMVS alumnus Tim Reynolds advanced through the heats, but his day was ended by an unfortunate fall at the end of his semifinal. Nonetheless, he skied to 12th place overall on the day.

Next up was the open skate race: 10 km for women, 15 km for men. Heidi was once again the 8th J1, as well as being the 16th junior. MK was not far behind, coming across the line as the 27th junior, and Fitzy skied a great race, finishing in the middle of the field. Dev didn't feel like he had his best race, but skied four hard laps (4 times up High School Hill!) and finished as the 22nd J1. Alums Tim Reynolds and Peter Kling were right in the mix, finishing 20th and 22nd, respectively.

The third race of the week was a classic distance race, and by this time everyone was beginning to get a little tired. The fatigue did not show in the results, however, with MK grabbing the 16th junior slot in the 5 km classic. Heidi suffered a fall but still hung on to 21st, and Kaitlin skied another strong race and finished 69th. Alum Kristin Halvorsen got her first racing of the season and skied well to 51st place. On the men's side, alum and Dartmouth sophomore David Sinclair skied his best race of the championships and was only 9.3 seconds out of the victory in 4th place. Devlin finished up his first nationals with another solid performance, ending up as the 25th J1and 57th overall for juniors.

The men skied 30 kilometers, nine laps around, and nine times up High School Hill. Tim Reynolds and Peter Kling were undeterred, skiing with the lead pack for much of the race. Reynolds finished 15th, less than a minute off the podium. Kling hung on to the pack for as long as he could, and ended up in 30th.

The final race of the week was the classic sprint. Heidi qualified for the heats with a 29th place finish in the qualifier, and skied a great quarterfinal, finishing in 5th, right behind a pack of skiers led by Jessie Diggins! Her result was good for 25th overall, 3rd J1, and 6th junior on the day. MK qualified for the junior heats and skied a great semifinal, overcoming two skiers in the final stretch to move on to the final. Trying to execute the same game plan in the final, MK got boxed out settled for 4th place. An excellent result after she was disappointed by the results of the skate sprint heats.

Alums Tim Reynolds and Peter Kling once again did their alma mater proud, finishing 10th and 24th in the sprint heats. David Sinclair was 9th place in the junior heats.

It was a furious week of racing in Rumford, and we had some excellent results. Heidi qualified for the J1 Scandinavian trip, and will be heading overseas later this winter. Congratulations! The rest of us skied hard the whole week and are now recovering with some great distance skiing at Trapps, where the snow is better than anywhere else in New England!

Valley Cup 1/22

2012-01-09T12:57:00.003-05:00

The Annual Valley Cup Race Will be held Sunday, January 22 at Ole's, with the first races starting at 10AM. For grown-ups, this year's race will be a 10k freestyle race; there will also be a 5k race for J1 and J2 youths and a BKL race for the littler kids. This is totally a fun race -- no NENSA, World Cup or brownie points earned -- for racers of all ages and abilities. Just a race for the heck of it, with trophies and prizes at the end of the racing rainbow. You can register on-line at skireg.com (the reg page should be up soon) or call Ole's, 802-496-3430, for more info. Entry fee is $20 pre-reg, $25 day-of. pass the word around.

Inspiration.

2012-01-07T20:52:00.000-05:00

Rumford Sprint and Distance Skate at Nationals

2012-01-05T21:48:00.001-05:00

Hello from Rumford! It's been an exciting few days of racing here. The courses have held up well under the pressure of hundreds of racers, and we got to race the 3.3 kilometer loop today for the first time. 4 times up the fearsome High School Hill for the boys and 3 times for the girls. No small feat! We have had stellar results so far: Both Dev and Heidi were the 8th place J1s in the sprint!

Heidi in the sprint qualification.

Heidi skied away from her quarterfinal and semifinal heats, winning each by several seconds, but was done in by an early fall in the A Final. Still a great day of racing. Dev's qualification left him just 1.3 seconds out of the junior heats, but a strong OJ field took most of those 24 spots and Dev was 8th on the list.

MK in qualification.

MK also qualified for the rounds, gaining valuable high-level sprinting experience. Though her quarterfinal left her disappointed, she skied great all day! Fitzy skied well in the sprint, but had a better race today, skiing three strong laps in the women's 10 kilometer skate. MK and Heidi also skied well, separated by only a few seconds. Heidi was once again the 8th J1 across the line!

Dev, Josh, and I crushed 4 laps in the 15 kilometer skate race, though we all feel like better racing is in store for us tomorrow. The skis have been great all week, and promise to be again tomorrow. A huge shout-out to our waxers Janice Sibilia from NENSA and Ben Husaby from Bend, as well as to Justin, who has been paying special attention to the GMVS boards.

30 kilometers for me tomorrow (yikes!), 10 km for the boys, and 5 km for the girls. Time to rip some classic skiing!

Rumford: Cancellation Hike up White Cap

2012-01-02T14:43:00.001-05:00

After today's races were cancelled due to heavy rain last night, we laced up the hiking boots and set off on an adventure up White Cap, Black Mountain's neighboring peak.

Despite last night's rain, the day was sunny and beautiful: perfect weather for a hike.

We were joined on the hill by the Bend and NENSA groups, and we had quite the colorful gang cruising up the mountain.

The trail was icy like nothing we had ever seen before: inches of smooth ice covered most of the walking surface. This is a shot of a stream bed perpendicular to the trail, but it looks pretty similar to most of what we were walking on.

Bella (from Bend) and Dev stick to the good traction, while Rafter lives on the edge, climbing up the ice.

No problem.

MK leads Janice up the side of what looks like a frozen waterfall.

Justin makes an attempt on the ice before sliding back off it.

Heidi and MK, sporting the new GMVS threads, go ledge hopping with Janice and Holly.

Josh Harrington is joining us for Nationals, he skirts the ice and reveals a sweet view back towards the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

Justin and Bend coach Ben Husaby discuss what direction we're looking.

Dev leads the charge to the top.

The top of White Cap offered an amazing 360 degree view that included a mountain that more deserved the name.

The wind was whipping up there, but we stopped to take a group photo. Black Mountain is directly behind us.

The view down into Rumford. The paper mill looks small from here!

The way down provided entertainment for everyone, as the ice proved far easier to descend than to climb up. Many of us slid the majority of the ledgy section.

We must have been a crazy sight, 20 colorfully dressed skiers hurtling down from patch to patch, surfing the ice and skidding to a stop on rocks and patches of brush.

That's some Oregon coast surfing form.

Ben hanging ten.

Justin pretended he was on a kayak, and ran the "falls" to the delight of the onlookers.

Whoa, buddy!

It was a different climate down below: warm and soft conditions greeted us in the lower sections, but it is supposed to freeze hard tonight. Should be fast racing tomorrow! Stay tuned.

Timed Workout at Craftsbury

2011-12-27T16:20:00.002-05:00

Today we regrouped post-xmas for a timed effort with a strong group of skiers making the rounds up in Craftsbury on a new coat of snow. The hard work of the Craftsbury community is paying off in spades, with families, teams, and recreational skiers enjoying the heck out of that snow. We were able to do our workout on the race loops, which gives some good feedback on pacing. Our gang was instructed to hold back at the beginning with the goal of having the last lap be fastest.

(4x approx. 1.75km) Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4 Finish

Sam Tarling	04:05	04:01	04:09	04:07	16:22
Andrew Clemence	04:06	04:09	04:08	04:11	16:34
David Sinclair	04:03	04:08	04:12	04:17	16:40
Sam Marshall	04:13	04:10	04:09	04:12	16:44
Adam Terko	04:03	04:14	04:26	04:22	17:05
Jon Dixon	04:07	04:23	04:30	04:28	17:28
Jared Supple	04:16	04:33	05:00	04:40	18:29
Devlin Shea	04:37	04:46	04:42	04:32	18:37

Heidi Halvorsen	04:47	04:50	04:53	04:59	19:29
MK Cirelli	04:47	04:56	04:50	05:06	19:39
Cate Brown	04:43	05:07	05:16	05:24	20:30
Kaitlin Fitzgerald	05:05	05:20	06:20	05:10	21:55	lost pole

Skiing in the Valley

2011-12-20T17:56:00.001-05:00

Skiing in the Valley

This morning David Sinclair and I did a power workout on snow thanks to the Sugarbush Resort. We were able to ski around the base area of Mt. Ellen and we pushed ourselves to the top of the new GMVS Poma three times. Each climb took about 10 minutes. We practiced traversing techniques and fast transitions as we switch-backed. The surface was fast and easy to ski on.

What goes up must come down:) The bottom of the area provides pretty darn skiable terrain and they are going to have the base area smoothed out this evening.

Visions of the wax room and preparation for the first Eastern Cups. The marks of a good time all around, Flex Term, the Catamount Trail, Fischer skis and fast wax!

Did I say Fischer skis??

Wax art.

Craftsbury Pictures!

2011-12-19T21:26:00.000-05:00

Some great shots from MK's dad! Anthony Cirelli.

Yes!

Craftsbury Eastern Cup Recap

2011-12-19T20:38:00.001-05:00


Kris Dobie photo.

Due to the amazing work of the Craftsbury community we were able to get the Eastern Cup Season off and running. Alum and current GMVS mentor, Tim Reynolds stole the show and led an impressive crew of current and alum skiers with a big Double Victory on Saturday by double poling both the Sprint and the Prologue.

It was great to see skiers from throughout New England and Canada getting after it right out of the blocks. Many juniors and some college programs have had limited time on snow so far so it was interesting watching it all come together. We had six current GMVS skiers out on the trails racing and all had some great moments. We had Peter Kling, PG alum and APU skier, racing off our wax bench too and he had two solid 7th place finishes in the Sprint and Prologue.

Other alums out there racing included: Doug Debold (Middlebury) with a fifth and sixth in the Sprint and Prologue respectively, Dylan Grald (UVM), David Sinclair (Dartmouth), Ryan Kerrigan (VTXC), Antoine St-Louis, Daniel Moore, Robin Anderson (VTXC), and Emily Stitt (Middlebury).

Doug Hardy photo.

Heidi led our current crew with two impressive 11th place finishes on Saturday finishing second and third for J1's in the the Sprint and Prologue. Devlin Shea was the fourth American J1 in the Sprint and fifth in the Prologue. Coach/athlete, Evan Dethier suprised himself a bit in the sprint and pulled off a 26th place finish!

Sunday, MK had an awesome skate race, pulling 23rd. Heidi was 28th. Kaitlin had a very consistent weekend and has gained some ground on her peers since last year, she finished with 48th, 50th and 53rd in a field of over 150 women.

Ryley is recovering from a hip injury and raced Saturday and trained and cheered on Sunday.

Craftsbury photo.

It was a solid start for the Gumbies. We will have some pictures up in a few days. Most of us are going to see our families this week and get a well deserved rest before commencing team practice on Thursday to start a last intensity block before Nationals. We have some skiing available to us at the base of Sugarbush which I am going to check out tomorrow morning with a few of our local club skiers. Keep up the snow dances:)

Craftsbury Snowmaking: a classic day on the race loop

2011-12-13T17:20:00.002-05:00

Hans described it best when he said it was like skiing at a world cup venue: dirt and moss in the woods, but a foot of snow on the trail. We can't say enough about the job that the Craftsbury snowmakers are doing: the 1.5 km race loop is ready to go and they are still working.

We had good tracks all the way around today, and skied on race skis without doing any damage.

Alum David Sinclair is on break from Dartmouth, and will be joining us this week. It's always fun to have David around!

The workout today was loop specific: we did a progression beginning with no pole (4 loops), then 1 pole (2 loops each pole), then exclusively double pole (2 loops). We finished the structured workout with three timed loops—one at levels 1,2, and 3—to work on pacing. Here Hans strides it out up the big climb in L2.

Fitzy finishes up her L2 lap in the field.

Eventually the sun came out and the track started warming up, but we had great kick for the whole morning. MK strides up the final climb into the field.

Heidi finishes her L3 loop while David tries desperately to get in the photo.

Dev's tongue has become almost as blog-popular as Dev himself.

Fitzy was all smiles in the sun: we're lucky to be on manmade snow, but we're still hoping for the real deal!

Offday special: Coach Beckwith old school shwag

2011-12-12T10:50:00.000-05:00

Coach Beckwith taking it home in a high school time trial.

Craftsbury TT Results (UPDATED: with pictures)

2011-12-10T13:44:00.001-05:00

Huge Props to the work being done by the Craftsbury Community!

Amid hard working snow-makers we were able to get off a time trial on some cold snow this morning. We're in good hands looking forward to the Eastern Cups next weekend! (Pictures of many of the racers are below the results)

Craftsbury TT.
(3x2.5km women)

1. Amy Glen                       24:49

2. Megan Killigrew            25:21

3. Tara Geraghty-Moats      25:45

4. Heidi Halvorsen              25:49

5. Hannah Dreissigacker     26:07

6. Anja Gruber                    26:29

7. Caitlin Patterson             26:39

8. MK Cirelli                      27:07

9. Caitlin Curran                 27:10

10. Gage Fichter                 27:14

11. Alicia-Rose Pastore      27:22

12. Janey McClelland         27:37

13. Hannah Miller              28:30

14. Alexandra Zakrzewska 29:05

15. Danika Frisbee             31:09

16. Silke Hines                   34:10

(4x2.5 men)

1. Sean Dougherty              30:10

2. Bryan Cook                    30:44

3. Alex Howe                     30:51

4. Pat O'Brien                     30:54

5. Cole Talbot                     30:55

6. Dylan McGuffin             31:25

7. Rogan Brown                 31:35

8. Scott Patterson               31:47

9. Mike Gibson                  31:49

10. Devlin Shea                 31:50

11. Nils Koons                   31:52

12. Pete Hegman               32:00

13. Tim Reynolds              32:29

14. Antoine St-Louis         34:44

15. Ethan Dreissigacker    34:44.2

16. Alex Schulz                 34:58

Many of the top skiers from the region showed up to do a hard effort this morning. Most were on training skis and a few people were just working out, but it certainly felt like a race.

Fitzy did approximately 5 km, twice around the loop.

Here she charges down the hill in Murphy's field, getting in a solid forward position.

MK is still feeling the effects of three consecutive races at the end of an altitude camp, but she still finished well in a pack of strong collegiate and post-collegiate skiers.

Heidi and Toine found each other at some point out there and skied much of the race together.

Heidi was a strong fourth place, only four seconds off the podium.

Ryley's hip has been bothering him, and he only skied one lap. We'll get him going for the first Eastern Cup, here next weekend.

Hans skied a two-lap workout, working on engaging his core and getting in good positions while going fast.

It's always great to have Antoine around. He came down from Canada to race and to wish Dev a happy birthday. Not too long a drive and it was fun getting to hang out in the van with the team after the race.

Dev turned 17 today. Nice! Here he churns it up in front of the barn in Murphy's field.

Dev took bib 1 and skied an awesome race, finishing in the middle of a pack of great skiers.

Heidi and Toine celebrate working together on the course after a hard effort.

We were joined on the course by several different teams of skiers:

Nils Koons, Dartmouth

Alex Howe, UVM

Pete Hegman, UVM

Nils Koons hammering through the snow gun section.

Amy Glen, UVM

Alex Howe, chased by Heidi.

Scott Patterson skis in front of Franz Bernstein, who wasn't racing, and MK.

Hannah Dreissigacker, Green Racing Project.

Tim Reynolds, GMVS alum and GRP skier, heads into the wall of snow.

Amy Glen follows him down into the lower section of the course.

Caitlin Curran, UVM

Alex Howe

Tara Geraghty-Moats, skiing in Craftsbury Nordic colors.

Alex Schultz skis on his home course.

Tim getting after it.

Amy Glen, UVM

Patrick O'Brien, GRP and Caitlin Curran, UVM

Nils Koons rounds the corner in the sun.

It was a gorgeous day in VT!

Tim leads a small pack of skiers through Murphy's Field.

Dylan Grald, GMVS alum, gets in some intensity.

Nils Koons

Pete Hegman

Gage Fichter, UVM

Schultzy, pre-race.

Tim is cheered on by Mad River Nordic skiers Gracie and Noah

Ethan Dreissigacker climbs the hill towards the snow guns. Thank you Craftsbury for such a stellar early season option!

Craftsbury Skiing: Speeds on Snow in Vermont

2011-12-09T14:10:00.001-05:00

It wasn't glamorous, but it was snow, and pretty good snow at that. The crew at Craftsbury has been working hard to prepare the trails for early season training and racing. They fired up the snow guns and got a little help from this week's snowfall: we were able to cruise around on at least 5 kilometers of groomed trail. We shared the tracks with the Dartmouth Ski Team and the Craftsbury Green Team, including our friend Tim Reynolds.

We're in a low-volume week coming back from altitude, but we want to keep our edge, so we've been working on speed. Today's workout was 15 seconds on 15 seconds off for five minutes, repeated four times. Everyone is looking pretty snappy: good to see after a two-week block at 7000 feet.

Kaitlin hammers over the top of a little hill and back down.

It was fun to have our friend Gracie along: she's from New Jersey but will ski with us on weekends when she comes up. Here she's working on some balance on skis. First time on snow this year!

Dev and Hans skied the whole workout together, alternating leads the whole time.

Another friend, Terry Kellogg, also joined us today and even jumped in a few of the intervals. Terry skied for Middlebury back in the day and he's still got it.

Heidi cools down post workout: we skied the speeds on a 1 km loop, but there were plenty of trails to ski on before and afterwards.

Time trial tomorrow, then we'll see where the snow goes. Craftsbury looks pretty set to hold the Eastern Cups next weekend, and we'll be familiar with the course by then unless it decides to snow hard somewhere else!

The snow poem and chant worked!

2011-12-08T15:38:00.001-05:00

A wonderful morning to wake up! After 48 hours of relaxing warm weather after camp, now there is snow to play on in the hills. We took a jaunt up Mad River Glen this morning.

Tomorrow and the next day we will be skiing at Craftsbury. Tomorrow the menu calls for skate with speed and intensity. Saturday we are going to have a 10km TT as they have cancelled the Opener to focus there efforts on getting ready for the first Eastern Cup. A nice little bonus of our location -- training at the site of the first races!

Please get in touch if you would like to join us up there during the next two days. We are taking a few club members along already and we'd love to have you join us for training and or some early racing!

Contact: Justin Beckwith -- beck@gmvs.org

Return from West: Back in VT

2011-12-07T16:02:00.001-05:00

We had a spectacular trip out West, and now we're back to kickin' it in New England. Vermont is not snowy yet, but with several inches forecast and the potential for snowmaking the next few nights, it looks like skiing will be in the cards sooner than we thought.

After a recovery day yesterday, we ran out to Number Nine for some ski walking/bounding intervals. The workout was designed to get our bodies fired up again after our big camp and the travel home. It was a cool foggy morning, suggestive more of mid-Spring than December, but it was perfect for speed on foot.

As always, we worked on technique as we workout. The focus today was pushing off a flat foot, simulating the kick phase in classic skiing.

The light was quite eerie this morning as the cold air pushed the clouds down on us. Temps dropped three degrees during the workout.

Looking for a more relaxed shoulder.

Day or night.

Getting the lead out.

Evan going 3x1min in duck boots.

Pacing Hans through the clouds.

Kaitlin getting dynamic.

And LIGHT.

Heidi got some good foot speed by the end of the workout!

Always forward.

Shoulders pulling you down the track.

2x5min ski walk for warm up.

A big goal of this week is to recover and let our bodies accept the effect of a hard camp. Plus, if we stay healthy we are sneaking in two speed workouts! We will more than likely ski at Craftsbury Friday and do intensity/speed on snow. It looks very promising for us to get in a 10km on-snow effort this weekend!

Very excited for this gang to get on snow here and hopefully our BKL Practice yesterday and the Snow Dance Poem we read will bring in a nice plug of snow!

We will travel to Craftsbury Friday and Saturday if conditions permit. Hope to see you out there!!

good results for the girls in bozeman

2011-12-07T15:32:00.001-05:00

Bozeman SuperTour 2011, December 3, 2011 - Bohart Ranch Women's Results - 5K Freestyle 1 Kinsey Loan 19 FJ APUNSC 0:16:11.1 2 Cambria McDermott 18 FJ MSU 0:16:13.2 00:02.1 3 Heidi Halvorsen 16 FJ Green Mountain Valley School 0:16:42.10 00:31.0 4 Mary Cirelli 19 FJ Green Mountain Valley School 0:16:53.80 00:42.7 Bozeman SuperTour 2011, December 3, 2011 - Bohart Ranch Women's Results - Prolog 1.4K Freestyle 1 Kinsey Loan 19 FJ APUNSC 0:04:52.4 2 Celia Haering 17 FJ APUNSC 0:04:58.0 0:00:05.6 3 Heidi Halvorsen 16 FJ Green Mountain Valley School 0:04:58.4 0:00:06.1 4 Mary Cirelli 19 FJ Green Mountain Valley School 0:05:04.3 0:00:12.0 Bozeman SuperTour 2011, December 4, 2011 - Bohart Ranch Women's Results - 10K Classic 1 Cambria McDermott FJ MSU 0:38:37.6
2 Annie Liotta FJ MSU 0:39:03.2 0:00:25.6 3 Mary Cirelli FJ Green Mountain Valley School 0:39:14.2 0:00:36.6

and cool link

Second SuperTour in Bozeman

2011-12-04T18:26:00.001-05:00

We've had quite the successful camp. At yesterday's award ceremony Heidi received two medals for one day of ski racing! She was the third junior in both races.

Today we headed back out for one more day of racing, though only MK and I were going to jump in.

Hans was his usual jovial self trailside, cheering us on.

Racing at altitude is tough!

MK skied great again, good enough for third junior despite running into an altitude wall on her third lap around in the 10 km race.

It was an inspiring setting: big mountains and good skiers all around.

The rest of the team skied in the morning while Coach Beckwith did a superb job with the skis, and then everyone headed out onto the course to cheer. Here MK goes over the top of the final brutal climb for the last time, as Dev offers encouragement.

Another podium! Nice job, MK!

Bozeman SuperTour Day 1

2011-12-03T16:35:00.001-05:00

It was a good day on the trails up at Bohart today, with cold temperatures in the teens, sunny skies showing off the Bridger Range, and just enough snow to have ski races for the SuperTour weekend.

The race format was a little quirky: a 1.5 kilometer skate sprint was almost immediately followed by a distance skate race.

It was a spectacular day in the mountains, and many of the best skiers in America rocketed around on 0-3 inches of packed powder. It was scratchy in places, but on the whole the course held up incredibly well considering the lack of snow.

The stadium before the start of the women's 5 km skate.

We had four racers today: Dev, Heidi, and MK all skied both races, and Kaitlin just skied the distance race.

Dev had an unfortunate fall on a brutal corner in the sprint race, but skied great in a field full of the best junior (and senior) skiers in the country.

Kaitlin skied smoothly and powerfully through the 5 k, and kept the skis moving the whole time. Skiing at altitude is an immense challenge for us Easterners, and everyone has performed great since coming out west.

MK is skiing all three races this weekend. She was the 4th junior in both races today, a very impressive feat at altitude. She improves technically every day, and seems to ski best when racing!

Despite not feeling 100%, Heidi was our top finisher in both races. She skied hard and left it out there on the course, executing her game plan in the sprint and the distance race.

It's been a great run out here, and we've had an incredible training camp, both building fitness and getting good early season race experience. Tomorrow is the final day of competition: MK and I are strapping on the classic boards for a 10/15 km individual classic race. As usual, Coach Beckwith will be manning the wax station and keeping us fast.

We head home on Monday, and we're hoping for snow as soon as possible in Vermont!

West Yellowstone to Bozeman, Big Sky in the Middle

2011-12-02T21:10:00.001-05:00

It's been hard to find the time to take pictures these past few days, but we had an excellent wrap-up to our time in West Yellowstone, capped by a moonlight ski alongside the Madison River. We took the time to lie down in the snow and feel the world around us, listening to the river flowing past and the wolves howling in the distance. It is always nice to be able to stop for a moment and try to clear the mind, and what better place to do it than Yellowstone.

After packing all of our things and our team into the Expedition, we drove to Bozeman for the SuperTour races this weekend. The drive was highlighted by a stop in Big Sky, where we went for a short walk on the South Fork of the Gallatin River.

As a geologist, it was very cool to see these formations: relics of ocean deposition during high sea level in the Cretaceous, ~100 million years ago.

Since, the Gallatin River has cut down through the old sedimentary rock and lets us walk through and look up at history. Pretty amazing!

On a hunch, I wiped away some snow to find interference ripples, showing that there were two directions of flow (probably in an intertidal zone near a beach) back when these sediments were laid down in the Cretaceous.

We got to walk down the river bed and explore on the way back. It was a great way to stretch our legs on our way to Bozeman.

I'll leave off with a video from West Yellowstone. Dev jams on the guitar and we all sing along. What a talented bunch.

Race day tomorrow! Stay posted.

West Yellowstone Tri-State Adventure

2011-11-27T20:02:00.001-05:00

Today was our first true rest day of camp and we took a drive to the west to see some sights, do some animal hunting (spotting), and clear our heads from the grid of roads and trails of West Yellowstone. Today was another beautiful day with a clear and crisp, sub-zero morning, but it warmed up super fast. We drove west on 20 out of town towards Henry's Lake, Idaho where the landscape opened up before us in a large basin.

Looking out over Henry's Lake towards the Tetons.

Our destination was Quake Lake, a geologic marvel caused by an earthquake in 1959. The short story is a massive landslide was triggered by the tremors of the quake. A vertical layer of dolomite had supported millions of tons of less stable rock above it, and the collapse of this dolomite allowed all that rock to charge down the mountainside. The side of the mountain rode across the Madison River Canyon and up the other wall, depositing 300 vertical feet of rock over the former river bed. This dammed the river and completely changed it's course of travel. This tree, like many others, stands in its original position trapped in the new path of the water as a reminder of what took place over fifty years ago.

We all had a lot of fun roaming around a closed park site perched on the rubble from the slide. Two huge dolomite boulders stand at the top of the debris on the opposite side of the canyon—an amazing display of the force of the slide. These two house-sized rocks literally surfed the wave of the landslide and were placed like monuments.

Hans had some fun posing for shots on the rocks with the dramatic background.

Heidi, Dev, and Ryley taking in the view from the top of the other rock, a 3,000 ton behemoth that has a plaque to commemorate the lives of twenty-seven people who were killed by the slide while camping along the Madison on that fateful evening. In a matter of a few minutes over 300 million tons of rocks slipped.

Heidi was the first to the top of the windswept vista. The snow-covered foreground was covered with tracks from small mammals, like pica, fox, coyote or wolf.

Looking West from the earthen dam area the rerouted Madison heads towards the Atlantic. During our drive we came from the left side of the shot where we crossed the Continental Divide at 6843 feet of elevation.

Always time for a few lessons of about the snow -- checking out roller balls of snow caused from the suns intense warming of the snow. Coach Beckwith has a large one in his hands and and there are many more in front of the group.

After a boost and a careful spot.

Another mountaineering shot.

Enough of the non-living science! Animal hunting or spotting is a fun game we've been playing as a team on drives. We were greeted by a surreal scene on Hebgen Lake, with a small flock of Trumpeter Swans sitting on mirror-like ice and then flying along us on the road. Evan was able to catch some neat shots.

Our list from today's drive: raven, Swainson's Hawk, elk, mountain goat, hairy woodpecker, fox, trout being caught by an angler and a magpie.

Mountain Goat.

Red Fox.

Bald Eagle.

Magpie.

Swainson's Hawk.

West Yellowstone: Race Time!

2011-11-26T17:53:00.001-05:00

It was a beautiful day out here in West Yellowstone for a classic race. Post race photo of GMVS past and present: Heidi, Devlin, Coach and Athlete Evan, Kristin (Williams), Ryley, and Peter (APU).

I got out to the stadium early with skis and waxing equipment to find rock hard tracks, sub zero temps, and gathering masses of teams from throughout the West and Canada. I prepped our skis last night through top coats and ironed in base layers for kick which proved important with abrasive, cold snow. After a quick test I found a top coat for the girls and got to work.

MK and Heidi were in the B seed this morning which started in front of the A seed (B, A, C) so they had a unique opportunity to take to the course as rabbits. As they arrived in the stadium they were present with the situation at hand, very collected, and ready to ski their own race and focus on technical and strategic goals instead of being overwhelmed -- I was very impressed.

The temps rose steadily through the morning--at least in the sun--and the wax didn't change that much by the time the boys went out. Devlin was giving a new pair of Fischers their first competitive ride and adapting to racing at altitude. Somehow he handles this stuff with grace: a smile? a shout out to MJ? the satisfaction of skiing the best first 2km of classic "in my life?" Solid work.

Evan dusted off his old cow suit and pridefully ran the dual tags of Williams College and GMVS for the first time in competition today. Evan is in fantastic shape and is a boon to our training group. Today he led the boys with a 58th place finish after helping the girls warm-up.

"Uncle Dave" Chamberlain also got into the action today and skied a fantastic race, placing 23rd in the suit of his new employer and GMVS Sponsor, Boulder Nordic Sport. Dave traveled to Italy with us last fall and always provides good energy to our team.

Ryley is making gains in his his classic technique. We are working on flexibility and moving dynamically on skis--he is as strong as an ox and with continued work he will be a force.

Heidi had the team's highest result with an impressive 28th place finish. She was the top 16 year old and the first J1 not from altitude. We did a specific workout on the race trail a few days ago and she had a definite strategy for pacing -- she nailed it and skied a strong race.

MK has been focused on technique refinements in classic and skate as she comes from a running backround. Yesterday we had a great session on Double Pole which seems to have paid off today. Here she charges up the last hill in a dynamic and forward position.

Kaitlin had an awesome effort today too! Here she takes to the course under a cloud of smoke from the fire the starters were using to keep warm. We've been working on her motions too -- and we have seem to have made great strides in reducing some of the back pain she experienced last season in classic. Her only comment at the end of the race was that she could have gone out harder because she still had some left in the tank at the end -- a great problem for sure!

Hans took the day off today and helped with wax testing, cheering, and taking photographs. He is recovering from a back injury and has had a super solid training block over the last seven days -- his upbeat attitude was awesome out there today -- here he and Middlebury first-year Heather Mooney cheer in the bright sun on Telemark Hill.

We've created a great mobile strength routine which will appear on the blog and fasterskier over the coming weeks. Evan and I have been working with Brie Pike-Sprenger, a former DPT for the Women's US Ski Team Speed Team. She has extensive knowledge in rehabilitation and preventative exercises and a huge asset to the team.

Tomorrow is a much needed day off and we are going to take a team van ride to see some sights outside of West!

Our Thanksgiving ski towards Old Faithful

2011-11-24T16:59:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We're thankful for so many things out here: great family support, great team dynamic, great skiing, great living situation... the list goes on!

And the whipped cream on the pumpkin pie was that we got to add another memory to the ever-expanding list. Dev, Ryley and I decided to try our luck with the Yellowstone Park road, and we were not disappointed!

The start of our ski was on glazed hardpack, the result of park ranger SUVs, snowmobiles, and a little freeze-thaw cycle. We were afforded incredible views of the surrounding mountains, as you can see in this video (apologies for the tilting!)

At the 7-Mile Bridge over the Madison River we were warned not to disturb the trumpeter swans. Sure enough, there were four swimming in the river right in front of us.

We skied in front of the Sun Valley crew, then eventually pulled slightly ahead and saw almost no one for the rest of the ski.

Herds of elk and buffalo grazed on the vegetation that still pushed up through the snow. Pretty cool.

We made it 17 or 18 miles out, within 13 or 14 miles of Old Faithful. After an excursion down into Firehole Canyon (video below!) we returned, skiing over a lot of pavement that the hot sun had exposed while we were out there. Here's a commemorative selfie at about mile 32.

Thanks to everyone who has made this trip and this team possible! We'll keep you posted as camp continues.

Threshold intervals in West: Day 3

2011-11-23T16:07:00.001-05:00

Today is our third day at altitude, and we celebrated with some threshold intervals around a loop away from today's sprint races.

Alum Kristin Halvorsen and UNH skier Elizabeth Guiney joined us for the workout. It was great to have them along.

Hans ripped around on skate skis: 3x8 minutes level three is a tough workout at altitude.

West Yellowstone

2011-11-22T19:41:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Wild West!

We showed up in Big Sky country on Sunday night and woke up to beautiful blue skies and snow in Bozeman, Montana.

Our minivan took a stone to the windshield roughly four minutes into our trip from the airport and we used that as an excuse to trade up for a bigger ride. 8-passenger Ford Expedition, baby! And we packed it to the gills with everything imaginable.

The guy greeting us at the hotel in Bozeman gave us directions to Sourdough Canyon, and we cruised up a tracked trail that followed the contours of Bozeman Creek into the mountains.

We spent some time getting the feel for skiing on snow, and enjoyed the sunshine.

Coach Beckwith demonstrates some awesome weight transfer. Look how committed he is to that glide ski! Boo-yeah!

Fitzy pauses in the horse tracks on the trail: there were all sorts of animals rollicking around in Sourdough.

After our ski, we headed down into Bozeman. When this van pulled up alongside our car we could tell something great was about to happen. And while Fantasy Decks and Custom Interiors didn't make our fantasy reality, we had a pretty sweet time making a budget wax bench yesterday afternoon. Here's how it went down:

Steve was ready to help out with our needs at Ace Hardware. We wanted to have a functional ski bench with minimal cost. We found a locking, aluminum bench which cost 19.99, which needed a 2x4 stud to attach to the top so we could affix our Swix form with standard clamps. In comes Steve and his skills with a chop saw. Watch those fingers Steve!

The handy horse and 2x4 in the shop at Ace.

Two thumbs up -- the bench is coming into form and we've done nothing but crack some jokes and some brainstorming.

At the checkout we were really starting to have fun. Here we met Mellisa who was happy to help with the creation of our project.

Where's that bar code?

Total cost = 33 and change. No baggage fees.

How about a balloon for the effort?

And back into Big Ski Country with a solution to our wax bench woes -- 10 minutes and we are in and out.

After a snowy drive down to West -- which included a spectacular view of a forest fire near Big Sky Resort -- we were greeted by the Halvorsen's and an awesome chili dinner.

Four sheet metal screws later -- the bench is finished and ready to go.

Even a little room for an iron holder!

The GMVS team in front of our accommodations at the Faithful Street Inn. Conditions are great and we've started our second training camp for the year on snow. We've already had an adventure ski and two technique sessions on snow. Heidi got in some killer intervals yesterday and we are all excited to watch and compete in some of the Super Tours.

Lots of smiles as we meet up with old friends and make new ones. Tonight alum Peter Kling stopped by to offer some advice and say hi.

We're in West until the December 1st and then up to Bozeman for Super Tours and more fun in Big Sky Country.

Stay tuned!

Testing out Recipes for West.

2011-11-17T10:27:00.001-05:00

It's been a quiet week here in Waitsfield and we are getting rested and prepared for our big fall trip to West Yellowstone and Bozeman. Today we are headed to Rutland to run our final 3k of the fall with the Rutland XC Team and have a team dinner at the Cirelli's.

Speaking of dinner, we've been laying out our menu for camp. Look at this Turkey Burger creation by Coach Beckwith! Shredded cukes and carrots, minced onions and garlic, and an egg mixed in with the paddy with melted cheddar on top. Put down on a bed of toasted bread with avocado and topped with a chocolate glaze:) Not too shabby and much improved from "man surprise!"

The weather forecast for Yellowstone is looking good and we are gearing up for what looks to be a great trip. Most of our skiers will race a 5/10km classic in Yellowstone and then race again in Bozeman the following weekend. The general goal of camp is to get some good time on snow.

Building up to Yellowstone: Max Speeds on Bragg Hill

2011-11-15T16:44:00.001-05:00

"Why are we still rollerskiing?" Dev seems to ask as he cruises by me on Rt. 17 with a Budweiser can stuck on his road tip. It's a pretty good question: here it is November 15th and the promise of an early winter seems to be fading with every successive 60-degree day.

While we're still out here, though, we're going to make the most of it and have fun any way we can, whether that fun comes from cleaning up road trash with ski poles, or exploring a new route back to school from the top of Bragg...

This time of year is always the hardest: the daylight fades in mid-afternoon and we jealously hear daily updates from the alpine team, who have been busy shredding the gnar in Vail for more than a week. Meanwhile, our skis are freshly ground (an in-house operation orchestrated by Todd Carroll, the alpine ski guru) and ready for West Yellowstone next week.

Until then, we're going to keep getting after it, and what better way than to take out some rage on the pavement. We once again took to the big hill out back for our max speed workout. 6, 8, 12, 6, 8, 12, 6, 8, 12.

It's always nice to be able to ski together as a team. We traded leads up to Battlegrounds and back to warmup.

Ryley leads the pack: Heidi, Dev, Justin, and Hans.

"Carpe skiem" is a pretty sweet motto.

After skiing midway up Bragg, the warmup is over and everything moves pretty fast until the end of the workout. These four skied neck and neck for most of the speeds.

We had some sibling speeds going early in this workout: Heidi and Hans with game faces on!

Pausing for a laugh after pole-planting frustration.

Dev almost goes down in back, after Justin had almost gone down out of the start: this was a race to the yellow sign, our marker for the top of the workout.

Hans went so fast he scratched the pavement with the bolts on his Marwes.

Heidi makes big motions to the top of the valley.

Then down we go.

Gettin' angles.

Dev, Ryley, and horses.

Rafter always likes to guard the van from the front seat.

Horses.

Mad River Ascent

2011-11-15T15:40:00.001-05:00

GMVS coaches are helping out the local, Mad River BKL Club, and getting the kids motivated for the upcoming season. This week the young skiers met up for two practices, one at Mad River Glen and one at GMVS. Both involved a little adventure and a lot of smiles!

Youngsters from the Mad River Valley are super fortunate to have one of the best backyards ever. With three alpine and two nordic areas right here in the Valley it's hard to grow up without two planks on your feet.

Looking down into the Valley from Birdland.

Tim Reynolds Racing in Finland

2011-11-13T13:49:00.001-05:00

Tim Reynolds of Bristol, Vermont and GMVS alum is currently racing in Muonio, Finland. He led the a small American contingent racing with the Green Racing Project from Craftsbury. Here is a link to an article about the race from fasterskier.

Time will be back in Vermont in the beginning of December where he will be recovering from this racing trip and helping out with our team and the newly formed Mad River Nordic Club.

Good job Tim we're cheering for you!

11/11/11 @ 11:11:11

2011-11-11T13:51:00.001-05:00

MK refueling at the junction of the Jerusalem and Long Trail.

Most of us woke up today sore from yesterday's tough double session. Thursday morning we did running intervals with an emphasis on time progression through the intervals. The first set of four was approximately 1200 meters on wooded running trails and then we shifted to the track for a set of four 200's. The kids did great work and improved their times from the end of September -- spending some time in the pain cave in the process. The afternoon session started with soccer for warm-up and then a devilish (3 sets of 6 reps) strength session focused on the upper body. We concluded the set with 100m repeats on the SkiErg in prep for the World Champs this weekend. There was great comradery in the gym, with coaches, alum Preston Butler, and the team pushing each other to heavy metal music -- something to do with this mornings soreness...

Baby Gap Morning Light.

In hopes of finding mental and physical relief yesterday's intensity we loaded into the vans and headed to the hills. The goal was an adventurous distance session to round out our last volume week before heading to West Yellowstone. Maybe it was the great phenomenon of 1's lined up on top of each other, or maybe it was just by chance, but there was a nice blanket of snow coating the mountains this morning. Above Mad River Glen we stashed bikes in my truck and shuttled to the west side of the Greens in the van, where we parked at the base of the Jerusalem Trail. We hiked and jogged upwards into increasing whiteness and reflected on the last year, Dev was quick to remind me that on this day (11/11/10) we had skinned and skied Mad River Glen, and the stark change in the weather over the past two days -- we'd worked out in shorts and t-shirts in the past days.

Raf's reflective-anti-hunter-garb was a hit with the kids.

The cold air always feels nice and the new snow makes the heart of nordic skiers race -- we couldn't help push the pace a bit as we ascended to the ridge and the junction with the Long Trail. After 2.5 miles we were right up in winter and we took a left -- to the north -- and headed toward Mad River Glen. We left our bikes at the top of the Practice Slope so we could roll down Route 17 and return to school under our own power.

Dev and Ryley headed into the white.

Atop the ridge, the sun was poking through the clouds, affording brilliant light contrast.

A happy crew poses for the camera.

We reached Mad River Glen and the Starks Nest where Coach Beckwith took advantage of some perfect snow angel conditions. Rafter stayed true to his desires of being as human-like as possible, "Dad, that looks like fun."

Looking out the window of the Starks Nest down into the frosty Mad River Valley.

The boys decided to take a run down Chute, while the girls opted for the work road which wraps around the mountain.

MK and Heidi checking out the lifts.

After lacing our way down the slopes and slip-sliding over the snow covered moss and grass we arrived at the bike stash spot just in time for the magical 111111111111 moment that was spent airborne (blog top photo). We changed into dry layers and prepared for a quick, but cold decent to the Valley floor and a hot lunch awaiting us at campus.

I don't think any of us expected to be hiking in the snow today, but it was a welcome change from the third summer we experienced this week. We spent the morning with contagious smiles and wandering imaginations ... what will this season bring, how lucky are we to live in this beautiful place, and how long till we can ski again in the VT?

Monday, Monday: Sweet Mad River Monday.

2011-11-07T20:51:00.002-05:00

Today was a great day in the Valley -- a nice heavy frost in the morning, and clear, dry air all day.
So nice to see morning light after changing the clocks! At breakfast, Evan and I talked about ideas for the new club we are forming to promote cross-country ski racing in the Valley. We're stoked to share the fun we are having training, racing, and exploring on skis.

Pigs getting BK at the Gaylord Farm.

After breakfast I took a trip down to the farm to drop off a weekend's worth of kitchen scraps to the pigs. The "scraps" are food preppings, and plate scrapings from the school kitchen. As a result of our Pig Bucket program, we have diverted tons of waste over the past two years. Not only are we reducing our waste stream, but we are linking our school with the greater community.

A part of what makes Waitsfield and the Mad River Valley so great for living is the community that is built around around mountains and rivers. The hills make for awesome recreation and they define a community that enjoys exploring and playing outside. The river winds its way through the Valley and allows for agriculture, more recreation, places for reflection, and occasionally shows its awesome force (check out the link to some flooding pics).

We've been using Monday mornings for recovery sessions, which include a short adventure jog out the back door, looking for logs to scurry over, and stream beds with rocks to skip across. Today we tried some ski imitation about four feet off the deck on a fallen hemlock in the sharp morning light. We ran for 25 minutes and returned to a body-scan form of yoga. For the past two Mondays we have spent a half an hour in silence following our breath through our bodies, noticing sensations of tightness or aching in our athletic bodies. This week we moved into a new and more dynamic stage of body awareness.

We've been doing a lot of work on becoming aware of and firing the deep supportive muscles that link our frame or "skiing muscle" together. As ski racers we can find ourselves in compromised positions where we develop momentum by forcing our bodies through the motions. Think of the nagging aches and deep soreness we experience during ski races and hard training. Stronger "core" muscles mean more efficient motion, faster ski speed, and less chance for use injuries. C-spine, tucking hips, pulling the belly button towards the spine, or ... "turning off the flow of urine," are all common terms we use to try and activate strong positions.

Dev must have been really fired up today because lunch was pulled pork sandwiches.

The afternoon session called for specific strength on classic roller skis. We headed to a great new stretch of pavement on a quiet road north of town with reflective shirts and ready bodies. To increase mobility and balance we forced striding technique as a warm-up. Even thought the terrain dictates KDP or DP we force the technique, thinking of reaching forward and popping down on the ski to produce a long and free gliding stride.

After that we put our legs together and single stick up a slightly steeper grade for 10 minutes. The movement feels easy at first, but soon the hard work sets in. When fatigued in single stick it is common to let the weight bob up and down, and gain momentum by dropping the weight on the poles -- effective, but inefficient. We hold strong and pull the hips up with our abs and glutes.

As we finish our single pole we start to get a view into the upper basin of North Fayston. We can see the opening on Burnt Rock and dashes of snow that linger on the top of the ridge. We kick double pole (KDP) to the top of the pavement, again focusing on strong body motions -- pulling the hips up to the hands -- and enjoy the late autumn scenery. The dirt above the pavement is smooth, and its slick surface yields a more "snowlike" feel as we head up using mixed techniques at a brisk and light pace to flushing the lactate from our arms. We get to a height of land and pull up next to a fellow who is splitting wood in his front yard. He's drawn to our arduous activity and knows exactly where we are from. The community might be small here, but the community is big and strong like the mountains rising above us.

Oh, yeah and it's snowing in West Yellowstone! A few more running races and ski prep are on the calendar. Waitsfield, Vermont -- not a bad place to spend your days.

Stay tuned for more info on the club and look at these awesome pics of Elena Luethi, alum '11, killing it down south at Williams Colege. More here.

Mt. Elmore TT with Burke

2011-11-04T10:26:00.000-04:00

We trucked up to Mt Elmore last Saturday to run up with the Burke kids. It's always fun to mix it up with another squad, and this day wasn't about competition so much as it was about hanging out with some new faces and having a good time. That's not to say we weren't going to try hard...

The whole group, including Tanner, on top after the race. Thanks for coming down, Burkies!

Two Burke kids charge up the final pitch as Tanner looks on. This is the final climb of the course, and we were all in the pain cave by the time we got here.

Coach Beckwith made me do all the time trials this week, and I was suffering by this point. It was a tough week for the whole gang, with a lot of hard efforts and our first real exposure to cold temperatures.

Heidi cruises up the final pitch. Though she didn't feel as though this was a great effort, she nonetheless improved on her time from the early fall. Not bad!

MK ran Elmore, ran to victory in a road race in Montpelier, then joined me in the "Beep Test" with the Alpine kids after our max speed workout early this week. It's time to recover!

Alva Swing crushed Mt. Elmore on his first trip up. He's an alpine skier who wants a little variety in his life and it was great to have him along on Saturday. His enthusiasm was contagious.

Ryley gets his pain face on for the last 100 meters... 1.8 miles feels like a long way when it's all uphill and you just finished a week of testing.

Cool down and crazy stretch!

Max Speed/Power

2011-11-01T21:31:00.002-04:00

Today we stepped out the backdoor onto some fresh pavement to do max speed/power work on foot and on roller skis. After warming up on the classic boards, we launched into the workout, designed to develop fast, explosive impulses.

We started with the running component: 6, 8, and 12 second max efforts repeated three times.

The workout is deceptively hard... we brought some pain faces out to play.

Dev... killing it in bare feet.

We were all channeling our inner Usain Bolt.

After the running, we strapped on the skis, rolled up the hill easily, then returned (with skis still on!) to the start line in the van. Three more sets of max speeds and we were done. A solid workout all around.

It was all about speed today: first raw speed, then trying to go as fast as possible while holding together some classic technique!

And it was beautiful in Waitsfield to boot!

Alum Highlight: Tim Reynolds

2011-11-01T21:23:00.000-04:00


Tim Reynolds and fellow Green Teamers, Patrick O'Brien and Dylan McGuffin training in Finland.

We are happy to spotlight and welcome Tim Reynolds back into the GMVS community as a Club Coach, mentor, and promoter of the sport of Cross-Country Skiing. Tim grew up in Bristol, VT and skied withBreadloaf BKL. He transferred to GMVS during his sophomore year ofhigh school, because his local high school did not have a skiteam and and he realized he wanted topursue skiing at a higher level.

Tim took full advantage of the many opportunities available at GMVS, playing soccer and lacrosse alongside his skiing. He also ran cross country during hissenior year in addition to captaining the soccer team. During this year he represented Vermont in the annual Twin State soccer game andwas runner-up at VT State XC Championships, alongside being a three-timeAll-American in XC Skiing.

Beyond athletics Tim was his class' valedictorian, a VSAC scholar, andclass president.

Since graduating, he has maintained close ties with the Nordic program, helping out at summer camps and falltraining and participated in GMVS xc events each year since Igraduated in 2004.

Tim is excited to be a part of the institution that helped his development:

My goals working with the team aretwo-fold. GMVS was like home for me. When I visited campus lastmonth and caught part of the soccer game on the quad against my oldschool and perennial rival Mount Abe, watched the kids take off fromthe post game cheer straight to the powder room to get their make-upfor that evenings theater debut, I was overwhelmed by nostalgia. This school was the place I became independent, where I learned howto learn, how to ski, how to achieve my goals. I’m excited to helpother people understand that GMVS is an excellent place to grow bothas a person and an athlete and build a solid foundation for asuccessful collegiate experience.

I’m also looking forward to helpingbuild the local Nordic ski program. I was very active with FrostMountain Nordic while at Middlebury, and assisted in thetransformation of a growing BKL program into an all inclusive clubthat has become an integral community asset. I hope to encouragesimilar growth in the Mad River Valley.

Tim is currently at a camp in Finland, getting some early snow and readying himself for the 2012 ski season. Here is a letter he recently wrote to us from camp:

It’s hard to believe, but it’ssnowy in Vermont and warm and rainy in Muonio, Finland, about 300kmnorth of the Arctic Circle. It seems a cruel trick to travel so farto find snow only to have it fall at home, but despite theunseasonable weather in this true north country, my team fromCraftsbury has had some solid skiing conditions on a 3km loop.

The track has held up surprisinglywell, considering the hundreds of skiers making laps all day, and allnight, or rather the night time that is still technically considered‘day.’ We have a training camp here for twoweeks, followed by the Finnish FIS Openers which should see a numberof national teams and Russian and Finnish club teams vying for thelast World Cup start spots in the first few Scandinavian World Cups. Following the races we head south to Rovaniemi, the officialhometown of Santa Claus, for another weekend of very competitive FISraces.

I’ll part ways with Craftsbury afterthat and spend a long day on the train via Umeaa and Oestersund,Sweden, en route to Aare, Sweden, where I spent a year abroad aftergraduating from GMVS before matriculating to Middlebury. I’vemaintained some really close connections in this town, and I’llspend two weeks, hopefully on snow if the weather turns around,before wrapping up my Scandinavia preseason racing the first SwedishCup Opener in Boden, Sweden with my old club from Aare.

It’s great being able to race andtrain in Europe for such an extended period of time. The skiing isat a different level here: everyone is fast. The differencebetween an on day and off day can be from the first to the fourthpage of the results. It’s a much deeper game than at home.

That being said, I’m excited to getback to Vermont and start working more formally with the program atGMVS. I’ve skied my whole life, but got serious about racing whenI began attending school in the Mad River Valley as a sophomore. Looking back, it was the source of a path I’ve been following forseveral years now, chasing this skiing dream: from a year abroad inSweden, to 4 years skiing in college, to pursuing skiing full-timewith Craftsbury’s Green Racing Project.

It’s a path I’ve found veryrewarding. I’m looking forward to encouraging others to follow it,and helping the skiers at GMVS who have already started along theirway.

Testing Week at GMVS: and first snowfall in VT!

2011-10-27T23:06:00.000-04:00

The fall is flying by, and it's Testing Week again already. In fact, the week has gone by so fast that Testing Week is almost over. As Coach Beckwith likes to say, "where'd that day go?"

We've been getting our money's worth, that's for sure. After the play set was packed away for another year, we got out on the classic boards for the October edition of our Plunkton uphill DP test.

The light was pretty dramatic, with a mix of bright sun and dark clouds making everyone look good out there.

Warming up is critical for such a short test, so we did some start progressions working on explosiveness but also emphasizing fluid motions.

Dev and Ryley duke it out.

Once the test started we didn't get any pictures but it was a great effort by everyone involved. After the initial max effort we cruised back down and immediately skied the course again using double-pole kick instead of straight double pole.

Yesterday Dev once again led the boys' soccer team to victory, this time in the first round of the play-offs. The rest of us chugged through a 3000 meter test on the Harwood track, then got out amidst the snowflakes for a fun workout this morning.

Dev figured it was too early for snow and insisted that the white stuff all around us must be pollen.

Coach Beckwith builds some fast twitch with MK and Heidi.

Snow in the trees... must be getting on towards winter in VT!