Summer Training 2012 Program Details!!! BKL program to follow shortly!
Junior Nationals Recap- from the trailer!
Hey Frosties,
I just returned from the 2012 Junior Nationals and am super excited to be back on the best coast and enjoy some epic spring skiing with y’all! My junior nationals recap will be different from most others, as I spent the vast majority of my time there in a 8’x20’ “waxing area”, or more accurately a beat down, flaking ceiling, mobile trailer. It was pretty humorous on the flight back when fellow Delta passengers inquired into my ‘vacation’, and I told them that I flew out to Utah to spend a week in a trailer. All kidding aside though it was an amazing experience, obviously for all of the kids, but also for me. I think I packed a years worth of waxing knowledge into one caffeine, double stuffed oreo, and fluro fueled week. Each day us wax-techs put on the Willy Nelson pandora station and got to work; Nick Klein and myself logged some serious kilometers testing skis, and then relayed the information to Justin Beckwith (GMVS) and Nick Mahood (Woodstock) who picked the winning wax and then delegated tasks back to us.
The waxing out there was pretty straightforward, at least to us Eastern skiers who have spent the entirety of the season skiing on klister, so sticky thumbs and torches seemed as familiar as bacon and eggs. The glide waxing was also pretty basic, with some graphite basewax for dirt-reppeling and durability, covered with a parrafin layer, then a base fluro, and then a top coat, or ‘Toptimization’ as the industry boys call it. Multiply those steps by 53 pairs of skis, and another 40+ of zeros, add a touch of structure, and then you have some long nights and fast skis.
Fortunately for us techs, the New England skiers are the toughest out there and made us all look good. All of the other region coaches were seen scrambling around, vigorously testing topcoats and kickwaxes (rumor has it that AK tested 19 different top coats in one single day), and looking dumbfounded as New England skiers screamed past. The simple truth is that in warm slushy snow, it is truly a skier race, and not a ski race. Our NE athletes proved their mettle time and time again, and convincingly brought back the 4th consecutive Alaska Cup trophy.
I was unfortunately relegated to my mobile waxing home and didn’t get to spend too much time watching the races, but from my glimpses and reports via the radio, Britta skied beautifully. She was bummed that she narrowly missed sprint qualification (31st, .25 seconds out of qualification), but then capitalized on some terrrific distance skiing and highlighted the week with a 25th place. Pat Cote nicely articulated this phenomenon at the naming of the NE team. He said that it is quite common for those qualifying for the New England team in the later positions, to far surpass their earlier results and tear it up on the national stage. Despite qualifying for New England as the 40th J1/OJ girl, Britta halved her Eastern result position and posted a top 25 at NATIONALS. It was very impressive, and huge props go out to her for stepping up her game when all was on the line!
Now we are back in the groove of the championship month and will dial our training in this week to peak at this weekend’s Eastern High School Championships at Mountain Top. Great work to all, lets finish it off strong!!! Yip yip yip yip yip yip
Cam
Utah is awful. I don’t recommend it. There is no snow. There is not 78” of base with 30” of new snow on top. There is not backcountry skiing around every corner.
All kidding aside, this has been a great couple of days and I am super excited for the whole New England Junior National team to arrive! We are going to have one heck of a snow-filled adventure!
Congrats to all Frosties who have been tearing it up at states and internationally at The Midget Championships in Canada. Way to go!!!
Britta Clark Qualifies for Junior Olympics!! Congratulations to Britta for capitalizing on the last Eastern Cup @ Craftsbury and earning a place on the New England team which will be heading to Soldier Hollow, Utah!
The Junior Olympic team is comprised of the top junior racers in the region based on points accrued at Eastern Cups and Out-Of-Region JOQs. Huge props go out to all of the FMN racers who have been participating in the Eastern Cups, as they are truly the toughest races in the country. At the Junior Olympics the Alaska Cup is awarded to the region that has the best finishes in each age group (named the Alaska Cup since AK used to always win it), and New England has won it for the past three consecutive years! So you all have been duking it out with the best junior racers in the nation!
Huge congrats again go out to Britta for ushering in a new era of Frost Mountain Nordic results! Bring on the National Stage!!! Yip yip yip!
In seasons like this, where the weather is being less than cooperative, it helps to take a step back, and in fine Thanksgiving form, remember why we do this and why we are so lucky to have such an amazing facility and staff. A huuuuuge thanks goes out to Mike and the Rikert staff, as well as to Pete and the Snow Bowl staff for enabling us to ski this February! While the fields may be green, the man-made, trucked, and groomed .5km loop around Rikert certainly is white! Thanks to all for helping us keep the motivation up and get our group on snow heading into Championship Month!! Stay Frosty!
Whew what a day! Frosties rallied hard at the Craftsbury Marathon and despite some tricky conditions and tricky waxing they pulled through and posted some awesome results! Dia, Lisa, and Mia made the trek up to the Snowy Kingdom and were delighted to find hard(ish) groomed tracks and technique epiphanies! Especially on long distance races like this 25km, they realized that smooth skiing was important, also when you factor in a trail that has been washed out by 400+ mass start participants, the ability to remain calm and composed is critical. Dia had the first “AHA” moment of the day when the lateral weight shift ‘clicked’ for her! You can get really good glide!! YES!!!!! They also realized that their summer training has indeed paid off, and while perhaps not feeling 100% (lets face it we’ve had less than 20 days on snow this year), they noted that the summer base training paid off and they felt like they could’ve kept going!
If you’ve never experienced the Craftsbury Marathon before I highly recommend going, even if just to watch. The excitement, anxiousness, and motivation is palpable, Bill Kochers through 80+ year olds took to the trails in an array of garments from faux afros, to authentic knickers and sweaters! It is quite a scene! Almost as exciting was the day’s waxing; which due to the icy tracks, fresh cornsnow, raging trail-crossing rivers, and standing pools made for quite a klister-covered cocktail. The really neat thing that I liked about this race was the level of sharing and wax-guru transparency at the venue- it truly was a community effort. All of the coaches shared resources, torches, and wisdom and quickly (and honestly) answered all wax-related questions. In Eastern Cup races teams are confined in their tents, trailers, or secret hiding spots, and even occasionally place out ‘decoy wax’ to lure others to applying a faulty coat. It was a really heart-warming event where everyone was out to have fun and go hard, the advantage truly went to the ski community that banded together and worked as a unit!
Great jobs to Dia, Dorthy, Eben, Jill, Lisa, and Mia for pushing through the conditions and racing great half marathons! We have an Eastern Cup at Traps this upcoming weekend, and will then be sleeping in and enjoying the home-turf advantage of the Romance Half Marathon @ Rikert & Blueberry Hill the following weekend. Come join in the community!
Frosties fare well @ GMVS Valley Cup! The Frost Mountain High School contingent traveled to Ole’s Cross Country Ski Center in Warren, VT for the millionth annual Valley cup! We were joined today by Garrott Kuzzy, 2010 Olympian and Overlook Housemate, who took the overall cup win.
Alia skied a very strong race and ended up in 2nd behind Heidi Halvorsen (GMVS), and led a Ford Sayer racer for 10k, with one heck of an exciting sprint finish to claim 2nd. The time lapse photo above shows Alia’s epic pass with less than 50m to go, way to Northug your way across the line!
Mac and Will arrived to the venue at 9:45, intending to ski the 5km race @ 11. However, upon realizing that the great majority of racers were racing in the 10k instead of the 5k, they hurriedly threw on their equipment, foregoed the course preview and warmup altogether, and scrambled to the line. Props to them for executing one of the fastest arrival-in-sweat-suits to spandex-clad-game-face transitions ever!!! They both skied a great race on the flat open course and are really starting to look like elite racers! Good job boys!
With epic conditions at the venue, G-Kuz and I pulled out some Adirondack Chairs, kicked back, and collected some winter sun! Hopefully everyone else got to get out today and put some kilometers under their belts! Another great weekend, with some top results by our FMN crew! Now it’s time to recover, rest up, and get ready for the Craftsbury Marathon this upcoming weekend! Cheers,
C
Frosties Top the podium at Mt. Top Paintball Biathlon! It was a greatly run, fun, fast paced race! Great skiing by all Frosties, everyone was looking great. Britta and Mac topped the podium, with Alia, Will, & Emma (I don’t have the results and am going by memory) all in the top 10!!! Great work all! Tomorrow we head to Ole’s for the Valley cup 10k Skate! Good shooting!
Yesterday for practice we skated with the high school & masters group on some very fast and hard-packed snow. It was one of those days that you have to actively hold yourself back, the snow was so fast you just wanted open up the engine and let it ride!!!
We did several gradual downhill speeds with an emphasis on lateral motion and THROWING our arms up and forwards. The goal of throwing your arms up and forward is two-fold; by bringing your arms up you bring your overall body position into an upright and forward position, akin to the ‘gunslinger’ which I harp on quite frequently. If you are sitting back (in the metaphorical toilet) while skiing, the quick solution is to stand up straight and bring your arms up in the air. It is better to be too upright than to be sitting back with your butt out! From an upright position it is easy to push the angles forward and get into a solid gunslinger, however if your weight is back you have to really work to pull yourself into a good position.
The second benefit of high hands is the extra momentum that you can generate from THROWING your arms forward. The drill I do to demonstrate this is to stand on a line, and while holding your arms up against your chest and keeping them still, do a two legged “frog” jump forwards while isolating your arms. See how far you go. Next do the same thing however this time swing your arms as hard as you can, chances are you will jump significantly further when swinging your arms. By using the pendulum swing of your arms from the behind ‘follow through’ position into the good ‘forward high hands’ position you will really generate some forward momentum! Check out the picture of Corey Stock from CSU in the skate sprint at this years SR Nationals in Rumford (Corey is only 17 and placed 4th in the Women’s sprint), those are some fantastically high hands!
Good work to all and remember to throw those hands up aaaand forward!!
