Nordic Ski Team Winter Camp

I'm alive, I swear! I haven't posted in far too long. After Christmas I got incredibly sick and after spending far too many hours on the couch watching chick flicks and drinking orange juice I was back at it with skiing. There was next to no snow in Vermont, but I was able to find it here or there.

All packed up...for two days.
We may have overpacked...

A week and a half ago my dad and I packed up my car and headed to Rumford, Maine for Nationals to watch my brother and various others. While there was little snow elsewhere Black Mountain did a really good job keeping the course well covered and well groomed.

Last Thursday I made it back to campus where I've been staying with the ski team since then. Our schedule hasn't been all too complicated. It looks a little something like this:

8:15 - Drag myself out of bed, go downstairs and decide what to wear from my floor closet where I put everything out to dry the night before, and eat breakfast
9:00 - Head to Trapps
10:00 - First ski of the day. Sometimes intervals depending on the day.
12:00 - Lunch. PB&J. Every. Single. Day.
1:30 - Second ski.
3:00 - Back in the van, back to school
4:15 - Big man nap, waxing skis
6:15ish - Dinner with the team at Bear's house
10:00 - Bed time

Emery and Colin playing Checkers in the lodge.

We've been having a great time skiing and there has been more and more snow as the week goes on, but I'm EXHAUSTED. I basically spend all of my free time zoning out in front of the TV or sleeping. Plus, my house is an absolute disaster. My roommates come home this weekend and they're going to KILL me! While the other three girls of 309 coming home means I have to clean, I am excited for the spring semester to start up and to have everyone back on campus!

Things are about to get really crazy with skiing. When classes start we have six weeks straight of carnival racing. I'll keep the blog updated and, maybe, write about other things like life at SMC. But for the next six weeks I won't really have one of those so get ready for some skiing posts. It's my last season and I'm going to be making the best of it!

Now That I'm Home: Top 5 Things I Miss About SMC...already...

I've been done school for about five days now. I've only been home for about three days and I've been all on my own for two of these days. I'm already dying. I need work to start or something because I'm going absolutely crazy over here. I've watched far too many episodes of The Office.

I already miss St. Mike's. Yikes. It's going to be a long summer.

So here it is, the Top 5 Things I Miss About SMC...already...

1. Alliot. Yes. I said it. I miss the dining hall. At home I have to make my own sandwich? What? There's only like one option? Really? I do enjoy fending for myself from time to time, but I do miss how easy it is to waltz into Alliot and grab food.

2. Living away from home. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of freedom at home, but it's nice to be at school and not have to tell anyone where you're going or what you're up to. Plus, my bed was much more comfortable at school, which I'll never understand.

3. Having something to do all the time. I've been so at a loss as far as finding things to do while I'm home alone. Like I said, too many episodes of The Office. I should not have been able to get through a season and a half in like three days.

4. Being so close to Burlington. I'm so used to being able to drive down in five minutes and just wander Church Street or the Waterfront for something to do. I hate to spend the money on gas to get there just to keep myself occupied for a little while. St. Albans is lovely, but it's not quite the same...

5. My friends being literally right outside of my room. I'm not used to not having someone to hang out with whenever I'm bored. What am I going to do without all of my fabulous friends ALL SUMMER?!

I do miss SMC, but I'm excited it's summer (although I don't think VT knows yet...it's SO COLD out) and I'm even more excited to start work at the Tyler Place. [Read this post from last summer if you want to know about my incredible summer job.] This summer's going to fly by and all of a sudden you'll be able find me at Townhouse 309!

It's Spring...I Think...

Yesterday was the first official day of spring and we've had snow coming down all morning. There are a lot of complaints, but I don't know what people really expect living in Vermont. It's still March. Hopefully April shows us some nicer weather.

It's been quite a while since the last post. This is mostly because since skiing ended my life has slowed down a lot and I didn't think anyone cared to read about all of the math I've been doing. It's also because SMC just had Spring Break and I spent the whole time relaxing and spending time with friends from home.

I wish I could say I went somewhere exciting like two of my roommates who went to Ireland to visit one of our roommates from last semester who's abroad or at least somewhere warm like Florida. Luckily, the past week in Vermont was absolutely gorgeous and gave us a little teaser for what spring will be like once Vermont remembers that it isn't supposed to snow this time of year.

This is what Galway would look like if I were there.
Thank you, Erin for this stolen picture.

This isn't to say that sitting around doing nothing with no work to worry about was a terrible way to spend the week. I had a good time watching too many movies and too much tv. On Thursday a group of us went up to Montreal for St. Patrick's Day. A lot of people go from St. Mike's for something to do every so often, but for whatever reason, even though I live EVEN CLOSER to Canada when I'm at home, I haven't been since I was little. I had a lot of fun wandering the city and it was nice to get out and go somewhere, even if it was only for the night.

me and Hallie during a quick pitstop to
take a pic with the big man

Mikki, me, Hallie
This is me pretending to be even a little bit Irish.

It's nice to be back at school, but I'm not looking forward to this whole homework thing I'll have to do tonight. Ah, well...only six more weeks of school. Craziness. We do housing on Wednesday for SENIOR YEAR (WHOOO LOTTERY NUMBER 17!!!) which is absolutely terrifying. I can't even imagine only having one year left. Sad. On a happier note, 40 days until P-Day!!

Update from LP

It hasn't been that long since my last post, but a lot has happened. It's been a busy week or so for SMC Nordic. Last I wrote we were staying at Larissa's house in Jackson and skiing at Bretton Woods just half an hour away. The conditions there were absolutely perfect while every other ski area was hurting for snow. We had sunny days and hard tracks. We got in a day of intervals, a double session, and a really successful long ski. We were all absolutely in love with the place and were sad to leave. I'm completely in love with the hotel. It's basically a castle and it's amazing.

Mount Washington Hotel

Larissa up at the Yurt

Kat and I

From New Hampshire we headed back to school for a few days. We spent a good amount of time up in my area. We skied at Dickenson's, which is where I skied in high school, and had chicken parm made by my Gram at my house.

Dickinson's

Kat, Silke, Larissa, and Gabbi at Dickinson's

Yesterday we had a quick ski at Sleepy Hollow and then made our way to Lake Placid. We had dinner at Colin's which was nice since it was the first time in a while our whole team together. Colin's been M.I.A. with a broken ankle from ski jumping and Silke's leaving soon for World Juniors for biathlon. Clearly straight up nordic skiing is the only way to stick around for extended periods of time. Last night it started snowing and pretty much didn't stop. It let up for a while, but is now going steady again. Things are looking good for the carnival this weekend hosted by SLU.

Kat shoveling away this morning

Excitement on the way to ski this morning

Races on the bridge

Whoops.

Kat and I pretending to be Silke

Check out the team blog for Larissa's account of our day in Placid! Tomorrow's an easy ski on the courses for the weekend and then Friday we start our carnival season. Busy busy.

What He Said...

For the first day of camp we had a super busy day though we were all spread out until everyone gathered at Larissa's around dinner time. Bear and I were with my dad all day. We met up with Larissa at Bretton Woods after leaving VT around 7. We did some good intervals in a very short amount of time and then the three of us booked it over to Rumford to watch the men's 15k at Nationals.

Instead of repeating all of what Adam had to say about the Nationals race yesterday I'll just say go HERE to read about it.

After watching the races we headed to Larissa's for a home cooked meal and a night of Bananagrams.

We're heading for Bretton Woods in just a minute for a day of skiing on some great snow.

Some pics from yesterday's race:

Evan

Steve

Kyle

Break's Over/Nationals

I'm doing laundry (thanks mom) and packing up my stuff so I can head out for our winter camp. We're heading to Larissa's house in Jackson, New Hampshire for a few days on Wednesday morning. With the lack of snow we'll be one of many schools heading in the direction of Bretton Woods for some solid k's. We'll be back in Burlington on Friday and will head out for Lake Placid early next week. We'll ski for a few days there before the St. Lawrence carnival marks the beginning of our colligate race season.

The few days leading up to the big move back to school have been relaxing and it's hard to believe the break's just about over. Most of SMC still has two weeks, but with all the skiing they'll fly right by and before you know it I'll be heading into my nice and roomy 13 credit semester.

It's been incredibly warm and the Northeast has had a major melt down. This has been problematic for pretty much everyone. It's probably safe to say that those scrambling most are the people in charge of US Nationals at Black Mountain in Rumford, ME.

The YouTube clip is an interview with the chief of course, which should give you an idea of the predicament they've been in.

It seems Black Mountain has been making it happen, which is pretty impressive. There's a chance I may be heading up on Wednesday to watch the 15k as it's only an hour or so from Larissa's. I've been keeping an eye on results and blog posts (particularly Adam's) and following my brother and others as they race through the wet conditions. The most impressive finish to me was the 18th place finish from Colby's John Dixon. I know him through Adam and have seen him race since high school. His results just keep getting bigger and better.

For now I'm baking brownies, watching a movie, and enjoying my last real time at home until March.

My brother, Evan, skiing for BMA at Nat'ls.
("Borrowed" from Adam)

Private Trails

Being home for a while is nice in a lot of ways, but not so good for skiing sometimes. I'm only a half an hour from school, but I'm half an hour north, which is the opposite direction we drive in for good skiing at Sleepy and Trapps. This means that the 45ish minute drive to Trapps for training turns into an hour 15 min. It's do-able, but I like to be able to actually spend time at home during break. Skiing isn't on the back-burner, but the ski, eat, sleep pattern some people get into isn't for me. I prefer the ski, eat, bowling, game night, sleep kind of day that I had yesterday.

Luckily, St. Albans has more to offer than one might expect. Within a 10 or 15 minute drive max I have three different options for training. (I have pictures that I was going to put up, but I forgot the cord for my camera, so they'll have to wait.)

The first is half a mile down the road at a family friend, Mike's house. Mike, my dad, and my brother spent a good portion of their summer cutting trails at his house a couple of years ago. The result was a solid 5k + trail system that winds its way along Mill River. The system is longer in the summer with fun, windy single track through the trees - a little narrow for skiing. While it might be a little short for a real distance ski there's a particular section of trail that I'm really fond of for a 4 - 6 minute interval. It's also fun to ski by the horses and feed them a bit on the way around the loop. (Again, I have great pictures that are stuck on my camera.)

The second hidden gem is only hidden because it's so new. Hard' ack is a rec area in St. Albans that's been open for years. In the winter there's sledding, an outdoor hockey rink, and a tow rope. Just recently my dad spearheaded the process of cutting new trails for running and skiing. This winter is the first time they've been open for skiing. Like Mike's, the trail system isn't extensive, but for something local and free it's pretty awesome. The trails are nice and wide and ski really smoothly. There's a good sized uphill, which makes for a good interval and if you wind around the trails you can get in a good length ski without feeling like you've done everything 25 times.

Downhill skiing/Snowboarding w/ tow rope to the left
Sledding hill to the right
Nordic trails extend into the trees on the right

The third trail system I'm able to use, which, like Mike's, is private property, is my old high school stomping grounds. With Hard' ack now available and closer to my high school, BFA, the team now tends to ski there more often. However, when I was at BFA we went just over St. Albans hill into Fairfield to use Dr. Dickinson's fields adjacent to his farm. (Note how ridiculously Vermont this is...using a local dentist's fields, on his farm, for nordic skiing. He also sugars. Obviously.) I can't count the number of times I've been on each individual trail. The trail system is a little bigger than the other two, extending into the woods from the three separate fields. Being over the hill, most of the time when all other areas lose snow and are looking iffy Dickinson's is able to hold on and St. A is one of the only parts of VT with actual skiing.

Pictures from my first time back home freshman year.

VT scene with Mt. Mansfield visible-ish in the background.

While it's easy to be a little jealous of people in the Burlington area during winter break (aka Adam when I read his blog...) I have to consider myself lucky. I think it's safe to say that not everyone has three (fairly) private ski areas in their backyard.