Intervals at Waterville

by Spencer

With the brown winter continuing, the team took advantage of February break and made the trip to Waterville Valley.  It was one of the very few times this year where there was more terrain groomed than we could ski in a workout.  4x4 intervals went well for all, and then we took the chance to enjoy the classic tracks and nice snow.  The air was warm and the klister sticky - perfect spring skiing!  (click any picture to view a larger version)

powder!?!  in the winter of 2012??

top of Snow's (Retired) Mountain

Silver Fox Trot and Cheri Walsh Eastern Cup Weekend

by George, Helen, Emily, and Sam R.

the ENTIRE team!

speeds at twilight

This weekend we headed up to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center to partake in the final Eastern Cups of 2012.  After skiing the course, we drove back to the rented house: not such an easy task.

45 minutes, and what seemed like 45 detours later we arrived.  Eventually after some key troubles we finally ate and slept.  Thank God we did not have to get up until 8:00!

Earlier in the week we had christened our van “The Yeti” and decorated it with various upbeat knic-knacs.

The Weekend began with the Williams Carnival Saturday morning; the Silver Fox Trot was in the afternoon.  It was a classic race this year with distances ranging from 5k for J2 boys, J2 girls, and Women, to a 10K for the Men's field.  Paddy Caldwell, one of our alums, had an outstanding performance on Saturday and won the Eastern Cup, beating many accredited college skiers.  Three of our J2s raced their first Eastern Cup on Saturday, and all thoroughly enjoyed the jazzy experience.  Colin described his pre-race, race, and post race experiences as feeling “jazzed as a cat!!!!”.  Well done Colin.  Thanks to the coaches, who double as equally amazing wax techs, we had most likely the best kick and glide of all competetors.  As one of the timers for Sunday's race, Dennis had to stay for a meeting.  Three hours later after we had all eaten dinner and cleaned up we decided he must have lost the car keys, and went to go look for him, but just in the nick of time he pulled in the driveway.  It was a long meeting...

Sunday began at 6:00. The Cheri Walsh memorial race:5k for J2s, 10k for women, and a long 15k for men.  Despite the incredible conditions, and the firmness of the snow throughout the day, it took a lot of energy to get around the course 3 times.  We all managed to keep our poles intact, even with the mass start for all races and the assortment of baskets left on the race course.  The only causualty of the day was the squirrel that Helen hit while speeding down the last hill of the course.  It survived the collision, but the same cannot be said for Helen.  As the fog was burned off by the persistent sun, many people rocked our new trucker hats throughout the weeked and in the races.  The crew had some decent and quality races throughout the weekend, and were cheered on by our new, slightly unsettling team mascot: the Horse Head.

Many goals were met, and many more to work on.  Let's hope that the bobble hula dancer on the dash keeps the gas cap together until repair!  On our return trip we had our traditional annual stop at Dunkin' Donuts.  This tradition is thoroughly enjoyed by all.

the van is FULL when the whole team travels!

First Van-less OD!

by Noah


Today the JNT Team started our OD at a leisurely 10:00am at our favorite spot in Lyme.  It was our first OD without using the van (wow...)!!  The J1 boys and girls skied for around three hours, while the J2s skied for around two and a half hours.  We were graced with the presence of youth olympian Paddy Caldwell who skied for about an hour with the J1 boys.  He regaled us with stories of skiing in the Austrian Alps.  I, for one, was quite tired by the end.  Overall, a solid OD in a scenic place.

Paddy, Noah, George (Sam M photo)

most of the gang at the Smarts cabin (Dan photo)

Stowe Photos

Thanks to Greg for these great photos of current and alum JNT skiers!  (Click on any photo to see a larger version.)

Dylan

Phil

Paco

Sam R

Paco

George

Spencer

Noah

Stowe Eastern Cups

A great weekend!  Lots of skiing, not a lot of blogging or picture-taking, so here are some quotes and random photos from the weekend.

"I skied so hard I blew my contact out and it stuck to the lense of my glasses.  I couldn't figure out why everything was blurry!" - Emily, after Sunday's skate race


"I have two things to say: thank you for cheering for me on those hills... and I really didn't like you then." - George to Scottie, after Sunday's skate race

we seem to have the van loading thing down... except that part about keeping stuff off the door mechanism...
(aka, where's Isaiah when we need him?)

Coach Alice!  FS BKL & JNT alum, now coaching Mt Mansfield BKL and Masters

and thanks to Eric and Sam M for this video from Sunday's race: 2012-02-05 FS Stowe

NH Series #1

by Spencer
Most years the first new Hampshire series is the third or fourth race for the high school team.  With the limited snow this year, it was the only the second classic ski of the year for some beginners.  All in all however, it was a successful race.  The Hanover High School girls team continued their winning streak, while the Hanover High School boys finished 4th.

by Sam M
The New Hampshire Series races are always crazy and fun for us skiers that normally only race Eastern Cups.  This year's race was no different.  With over 700 racers signed up, the Gunstock venue was a zoo.  Because of limited snow, only A racers were allowed on the course for a single warmup lap.  This made it all the more interesting when we went out from the start for two laps with 150 other boys.  People were crashing all over the place; passing required forethought to avoid getting tangled up.  After the first few waves of boys, the tracks were almost gone on most of the course and the downhill were sheets of ice sided by huge banks of snow.  Despite the chaos,  Ford Sayre had impressive finishes; Helen, Emily, Caitlin, Spencer, George, Sam and Tucker all posted top 15 finishes in their respective races.

Skiing at Tucker Hill

"easy ski with speeds"

Sunday OD at Trapps

The weather at Trapps was amazing on Sunday.  We were able to use hard wax which was a great break from the klister at Saturdya's race.  The J2 girls went with Scottie and explored the field across the street where we worked on no poling.  The boys went with Eric and the J1 girls went on their own.  No matter where everyone was skiing, it was a beautiful sight with the flurries of snow.  J2 boys did a warm up loop around the Sugar Road, then came back to the van and then went and did strength around the Pasture Loop.  Boys went no poles down the Sugar Road to finish it off.