First Ski at Prospect!!!

Evan Dethier and Toffer venture up the ungroomed Mountain Trail.


Mark Johnson and Sam Kapala finish the last few km's in the last of the sunlight.


Sunset through snow-laden branches



Natalie Joffe lovin' the fresh powder!



After a snow squall left Williamstown with a beautiful 6" layer of snow, we had high hopes for our home course, Prospect. As we drove the last couple miles into the hills of Vermont teh snow just kept piling up, and we arrived at Prospect's parking lot to find at least 12-14 inches o' the white stuff, and fresh-groomed tracks!! Quite a spectacular first ski on extra blue kick, with the sunset filtering through the trees and lighting up the last few kilometers of our ski. No complaints here!!

The Big Splash, ESPN College Game Day, and Homecoming!!

Above: Day 1 of "The Big Splash", in which the freshmen learn that Day 1 is also the Last Day!
Below: Senior Scotty McClellan shows off his Cow Truck

What a Weekend!!! Captain Kapala let the cat out of the bag after a painfully tough interval day on sheep hill, breaking the news to the freshmen, to collective sighs of relief, that they did not, in fact, have a 15 and 20 km time trial the following (Homecoming) morning.

What they did have was a home baked and griddle-fried breakfast spread including veggie and cheese scrambled eggs, fresh raspberry muffins, and wheat waffles with maple syrup: fuel for the long day of cheering ahead!! Everyone decked out in their purple and gold, they headed to the football field to catch a bit of the game-day fever: ESPN was airing live, and had a huge-screen TV set-up so that everyone could see what was being aired ( and hopefully catch a glimpse of their own face in the crowd!)

Above: Fif, Caleb, Ali, Maddy, Aubrey, Mark

The ski team, nordic and alpine, had a combined four cars set up at the tailgate - including Scotty McClellan's hand crafted Cow Truck, gold horns gleaming in the early morning sun.

There was, overall, more grilling and eating and hooting and hollering ( and kazoo playing?!) than football watching, as the game was not too close a match. The end score was 20-0, and all Williams fans left the game with full bellies, sun tanned faces, hoarse voices, and overflowing pride.

Above: Sam Kapala, Gabby Joffe, Morgan Goodwin

Happy Halloween!

Another fun evening of Pumpkin Carving at the Fisher-Kourajian household! First the selection of pumpkin, then the selection of teams, then the plotting of design, followed by the cutting open and scooping of slimy innards (the reward being the fresh pumpkin seeds that Barb roasted and supplied us as energy while we worked), and then the careful tracing, carving, and sawing of design.
The Finale was when everyone set their pumpkins on the porch, lit the candles, and stood back to marvel at the glowing orbs of orange!
So who had the best design??
Well, the competition was fierce while the designing and cutting was going on, but everyone forgot about the top artistic honor as Barb dished out her homemade pumpkin pie topped with real whip cream . . . . We were all soon grinning wider than toothy jack-o-lanterns!!!



Maddy: totally absorbed in her art.

Nattie and Ali sample the medium



The team stands on the Coach Fisher's porch, with their mastery lit up before them.

It Rhymes with Orange

Alice, Katie, Maddy, Nattie, and Ali pose under a matching backdrop after skate intervals up the long steep hill into the apple orchards.

Bud and Sam talk shop (or Red Sox scores) as the rest of the team (below: Keith, Atay, Scotty) bounds 15:15 intervals on the Phelps Trail.

Scotty, Mark, Sam, Evan, and Aubrey help Bill transfer the Giant Pumpkin to President Morty Shapiro's front porch.

Of Orange Leaves and Rollerskis, Birthday's and Cut-Up Knees

(above: Maddy and ? pass a church on the way to their own sacrifice of body and mind on River Road; Sam Kapala showing off war wounds incurred while fighting off a rabid squirrel which went after his good friend Morgan Goodwin. Below: Atay, Keith, Mark, and Robbie show their tribal allegiance; Dave Hansen encourages teammate Katie White to stop smelling the roses during the last interval up Petersburg)

Happy Birthday to Caleb and Robbie! Both freshman are a big 1-9, and as a result have quite a worldly and distinguished disposition about them, as well as the usual amount of sass, which today drips out of them like wax from a candle on a birthday cake which has too many candles because the candles had to spell out the letters R and C and therefore took much too long to light and kept getting blown out so that most of the candles had to be relit again and again, causing them to drip wax like crazy. . . .
This week the colors have exploded in the Berkshires and the oranges and reds come from the trees, not just our reflector vests and bloody knee-caps . . . . It made for a spectacular show during the third and last interval session last week - bounding intervals on Petersburg Road - and today's O.D. skate rollerski down River Road.

Official Practice Begins!

It’s that time again! When the leaves turn gold, the apples turn crisp, and the skiers search longingly into the extended forecast for any sign of winter’s pending arrival.
It is also time to break in the new freshmen! With ten freshmen added to this year’s roster, the upperclassmen on the William’s ski team have quite an opportunity to pass on their superior knowledge (ie how to get free snack bar points). Heading up the Purple Ski Cows are Captains Natalie Joffe (‘08) and Sam Kapala (‘09).
In the second week of Official Practice, the Ephs have dealt with multiple colds, sore throats, and the usual barrage of sicknesses related to college campuses. But spirits remain high, and complaints are nil, even when Coach Smith leads the team on a series of unflattering warm-up exercises in preparation for even more unflattering spenst drills.


Coach Fisher explains the dynamics of the Perfect Double Pole.
(pictured L-R: Robbie Cuthbert, Sam Sterling, Sam Kapala, Marc Johnson, Evan Dethier)

Fiona Worcester strides into the fog on Petersburg Pass.

Team run across Stone Hill.

World Apple Eating Championship, here comes Alice Nelson! Watch out Takeru Kobayashi!

Greetings again to everyone. It's been quite entertaining to hear from all of you and the crazy quests for a semblance of winter that you've been up to. So the latest news is: I'm kinda surprised that I'm still in one piece and my legs haven't given out on me quite yet. Two weekends ago (and by "weekend" I mean Tuesday and Wednesday because those are my days off, it gets pretty crazy when you're trying to talk with people who have a different "weekend"...which is pretty much everybody) Dillon and I decided to go for an adventure out to this beautiful drainage just north of the Alaska range called Pirate Creek. So of course we dressed up with bandannas and eye patches and told everyone "arr matey, we be goin' to pirate creek, arr". Threw a big bag of gorp, a few fruit leathers, a container of butter, few slices of bread, and an apple into our overnight bags and took off on the 8:45am bus heading east. Denali was out in full glory and it was looking like it would be a great day for the first stage of our adventure which was crossing over 2-3 miles of the Muldrow glacier covered with gravel that is only a few inches thick in places. We spent a little bit of time traveling up Glacier creek in order to find a section that could be crossed without getting our feet wet and then set out across the glacier. Only a few minutes into our trek we came across a huge sinkhole that was filled with water and icebergs that Dillon insisted on swimming in.

No sooner than he had jumped in, but the sky darkened and we were pelted with a drenching downpour, so much for our dry feet. For the next several hours, while trying to navigate the sketcy terrain of the glacier, backtracking several times to avoid chasms or exposed ice, it poured, and poured. Finally across to the other side we were blessed with, not sun, but...pea sized hail. Could it get much more miserable? (maybe) We hiked for a few more hours until the rain took a break long enough for us to set up tent and attempt to dry out our sleeping bags and extra "dry" clothes. Day 2: we had intended to circle behind this series of mountain peaks, re-cross the glacier or the river bar where the headwaters of the McKinley would be smaller, and then whack our way up through the brush to the road around lunch time. What actually happened: climbed around the mountains, went up this one that looked like fun (it sort of was), scouted out our route across the river bar from the top choosing sections of river crossings that were really wide, and started down.
View from the top:


For those of you who haven't encountered a braided glacial stream it looks something like this:

Not only is it a maze of streams, but the water is about the color of cement and moves with about as much pressure. So if any of the streams are deeper than mid thigh it is almost impossible to cross alone and anything waist deep is not to be attempted. Therefore it is best to cross where the branches are really wide (and thus might be shallower) and you have to test the depth by chucking in a softball sized rock to listen to the sound it makes. If it immediately hits rock, you're good to go, if it sounds like a giant swallowing something (kinda sounds like "lump") turn right around and choose life. So anyways, we thought that this one bend in the river would be totally doable and besides, there was no way we wanted to spend hours on the glacier and miss lunch. It's funny how things always seem smaller when they're far away. Needless to say, the "little" river was a raging torrent with standing waves about 1.5-2 feet tall, and that was at the "shallow" section. Since crossing the glacier was out of the question, our only option was to walk the 10 miles down the river bar and try to cross it once it spread apart into all the braids, then walk another 2 miles through the trees to wonder lake where we might be able to catch a ride back to camp or walk the 5 miles if we couldn't. Yay. Crossing the river starts out ok, we manage to find a few short shallow braids, but then quickly run into the main channel that forces us back across the small distance that we had already gained. Finally, after a few hours of this leapfrogging back and forth, we are almost across the main channel. By this point I'm soaked almost up to my belly button, my feet are a constant 35 degrees and of course it starts lightning all around us. Let me just say, I have never been more afraid in my entire life. Not only were we the tallest things around for a good two miles, but we were soaked and surrounded by water. In a desperate attempt at saving our lives we lay down in the deepest (dry) ditch we could find for almost half an hour. As soon as the storm seemed to be quieting down we make a break for the shore. The rest of the hike was fairly uneventful except for another lightning storm that made us start crouching while hiking without meaning to. Sadly, not only did we miss lunch, but dinner as well. I clearly remember saying that night, as I always do after an epic adventure, "never again, never again." However...
This last weekend we decided to take it easy by heading to the eastern side of the park, do a few easy strolls into the wilderness to check out how different 80 miles can make and then return by lunch. Doesn't that sound familiar? It started off ok, we camped out tucked into a stand of willows and didn't get up until 9:30. As usual, it only went downhill from there. You see, unlike the western part of the park, the east is just a huge mass of willows, alders, and streams that wind together into a mass that I have dubbed "scenic hell." After managing only 5 miles in just about as many hours we turned tail and walked down the stream because we were going to get out of there so no need to try to keep our feet dry anymore. Sadly, we turned tail about half an hour too late and just barely missed the last bus that travels within 5 miles of home. Since we didn't want to hike back into the bush to camp, we took the last bus that got us half way home figuring that some sort of a park vehicle would be traveling the road and we could hitch for a ways. Sadly that we weren't quite so fortunate. We did get to camp out a few hours in a broken down bus on the side of the road but were kicked out at about 1am by the tow truck driver (who promptly put the bus into a ditch that he couldn't extract it from) So instead of the easy trip back to sweet soft bedding as anticipated, I had to walk over 25 miles through almost steady rain during the absolute dead of night (I had many hallucinations that there were bear following me down the road). You might wonder why I wouldn't just set up tent somewhere, and the reasoning is that the whole park is divided up into sections that you have to get a permit to camp in each section and you have to always be out of sight from the road. Plus, we got dropped off by the bus a mere 5 miles from one of the ranger stations and it was going to be a busy night for the rangers because the night before there was a huge mudslide that covered the road with about 3 feet of gravel/mud and in the process of cleaning it up a 18 wheeler side-dump truck flipped over into the ditch (nobody was hurt thankfully) so the rangers were almost certainly going to be working. My feet still hurt and I have no intention of doing anything this next weekend, but I'll just have to wait and see what "nothing" turns out to be. Oh, I almost forgot that the whole epic night hike was pretty much made worth while by the 5 bear (4+1 cub, from the bus), 1 moose, 2 golden eagles, and 3 wolves that came to check us out while we were walking the road. Hopefully next time I'll be able to tell you some more about the actual place that I'm at, not just my attempts at putting myself out of being able to walk. Oh shoot, I just remembered about the talent show two nights ago, shucks, that'll have to be another post some other time. Hopefully once I track down someone with photos. Until next time...
-Alex

Here's some other random photos that you might enjoy.
Going hiking with my brother at about midnight:



The two bear cubs:



Cool interlocked moose antlers: (how much would it suck to get stuck like that?)

California Running

Hey team! It is hard to believe how fast summer is going by.. I have been splitting my time between Lake Tahoe and Marin, enjoying the California sun and summer training. Over the past few weeks, I have done some great runs on the Pacific Rim Trail with my dad and his ultra-running friends, training for the 50km race we will be doing in August.

The Rim Trail is a roughly 160 mile loop around Lake Tahoe with amazing views and varied terrain. (Fun fact about Lake Tahoe: if you emptied the lake, California would be covered in a foot of water!)

Yesterday, I joined my dad and three of his friends on a 23mile segment of the trail from Spooner up to Tahoe Meadows.

We ran for 5 1/2hrs mostly above 8,000ft. This was the longest run I have done, and the last hour was pretty painful. It was interesting to feel what parts of my body decided to break down first. My knees decided to rebel after 4 1/2 hours, and after that my mind started wandering away.

Whenever I thought of mentioning how my legs felt like they were falling off, I just thought of the Western State 100mile racers that were currently racing on the Pacific Crest Trail west of Lake Tahoe. I also reminded myself that the four people I was running with were between the ages of 55 and 60, and the only other women who was with us had just started running in April!

Needless to say, I survived... and have never been so happy to see a parking lot trail head in my life! Finishing the run gave me a lot of confidence in knowing I can complete the 50km at the end of the summer which is thankfully not at altitude but runs along the Marin Headlands.

..... More stories from me later!!! Great to hear from you all : ) -Natty

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

Wahoo!! The snow is still thick on some of the mountains around Seward and I've tried my luck at skiing across and down some of them! The top pic is hiking up Tiehacker to do a little tele skiing on my cc skis and the bottom is cross country skiing on fish scales over the hills and through across a lake of one of my favorite mountain bike trails, which obviously is not bikeable right now( you can see the town of Seward in the middle background)!

Hello from Alaska

Howdy folks!

As most of you already know and the rest of you just found out, I'm currently situated at the end of a 90+ mile dirt road in Denali National Park, Akaska. The place I'm working for is called Camp Denali and North Face Lodge. The former sits up on a hill and consists of about 20 one room cabins that guests come to stay in for 3-7 day stays and a whole slew of staff cabins, and common buildings such as the lodge, dining room, showers etc. This division of all the different buildings is more of the traditional rural Alaskan building technique because it reduces the risk of having everything burn down in the case of a fire. North Face on the other hand is more of a motel shaped structure that, as we joke, is only being held out of the black hole beneath it by the layer of permafrost located about 9-16" below the tundra surface. Over the summer I'll try to do my best in giving you a little bit of a tour around, so first off is where I'm living this year. The cabin is called Arnica (everything has a name out here including all of the vehicles) and it's probably one of the oldest cabins around and therefore sways considerably when the wind starts picking up. However that only makes for lying in the hammock an even more enjoyable experience since it swings itself in a very soothing yet sometimes unnerving manner.


Right now the view out the window looks something like this:

Well...it looks like that if you take out the moose, throw in a whole bunch of gray ominous clouds, and add the imminent chance of rain. Actually, it's been quite overcast alternating with crazy localized weather for most the time time it seems. Just yesterday I headed to change out a huge propane tank at a cabin down the road (that you have to lug up 32 huge steps, I've counted) and was hit by the hardest rain storm that I've experienced in a couple of years including some pea sized hail balls hurtling to earth. Of course I had been "smart" and cleaned out the van the day before of all my random clothes that had accumulated over the last few weeks, so instead of hanging off the back of the driver's seat my rain jacket was hanging on a chair in my cabin. Yay! The really crazy bit is that while the cabin I was at is no more than a mile away from the rest of camp, nobody else knew about the rain or hail.
This year my weeks entail a combination of waking up at 5:30am to clean cabins twice a week, two days of serving morning and night with work running up and down the hill as trash and firewood woman (only the main buildings have electricity), a day of maintenance which can mean pretty much anything, and two glorious days off. And boy oh boy are those two days off glorious.
Tuesday night is our first staff fun night. We try to have one every couple of weeks to keep up moral and give people something to look forward to when their 10hr work day starts at 5:30 in the morning and doesn't get done until 9pm at night. So Tuesday we have our traditional Unbirthday party/Costume party followed by a contra dance (Woo Hoo!). Costumes are obviously encouraged and are commonly made out of everyday materials. A sample photo from last year:


Ok, that's about it for now, hope everybody's getting a chance to have at least a little bit of fun and aren't too bogged down with work/training/life in general. If you have any questions for me or suggestions of the sort of stuff you want to hear about, send me a message at ambrosa@gmail.com
Peace out!

In Remembrance of Katie Craig '08

It is with heavy hearts and fond memories that the Williams Nordic Ski Team wishes to communicate the loss of one of its members, Katie Craig ’08. Katie took her life on April 4, 2007 while at her home in Cumberland, Maine, after a valiant battle with mental illness.

Katie was a vital part of the ski team, and we view her passing as a devastating loss. Katie had one of those personalities that you couldn’t help but love – she was always happy, always smiling, always spunky. Teammates and coaches viewed her as a bright light for the team and a big ball of energy, and she was truly both. Katie was always ready for whatever the workout was for the day, and her enthusiasm for training was so infectious that it was impossible not to be motivated and inspired to train hard. Off of the trails, Katie kept us laughing with her never-ending comments, stories, and jokes that brightened many a long van ride.

Besides being a great skier and a fantastic teammate, Katie was an extraordinary person. All who knew her appreciated her kind and funny personality, and many envied her beauty. On the ski team, she was named the perfect woman and most likely holds the record for most Valentines or Carnie Crushes received at the Dartmouth Carnival. Katie had a deep love for the environment, so much so that she created her own contract major in Environmental Science and Ecology at Williams. In addition, she was also an amazing artist, and she blended these two passions seamlessly, creating art about nature that was used to support environmental protection efforts. Yet despite of all of the amazing talents she possessed, Katie was an extremely modest person who never believed herself to be better than anybody else and saw the gifts and beauty in each person she knew.

On Sunday, April 8th, over 100 of Katie’s friends, peers and mentors gathered at Dodd House on the Williams campus for a memorial. A candlelight vigil was first held outside Dodd, followed inside by a beautiful photo slideshow and a sharing of memories of Katie from her friends, teammates and teachers. They gave many funny and thoughtful tributes to her energy, positivity, beauty, talents, modesty and spirit. It was truly a great experience to see the multitude of ways in which Katie had affected so many people, and being able to share memories and grief seemed to help many of those in attendance in coping with Katie’s passing.

Although under unfortunate circumstances, these events have resulted in truly wonderful amounts of bonding within our already family-like ski team. ’06 alums Amelia Bishop, Joel Bradley, Elissa Rehm, and Gillian Sowden all attended Sunday’s memorial, and it was fantastic to see them again. We have also been communicating with those ’06 alums who were not able to attend the memorial, including Elise Henson, Aaron Bloom, Dan Moccia-Field, and Mary Iaculli. Whether in person, over the phone, or via email, their thoughts, memories and tributes have been immensely helpful in sorting out our own thoughts and dealing with this sudden void in our team.

Katie Craig was a fundamental part of the Williams Nordic Ski Team, and we miss her dearly. A memorial service for her will be held this Friday, April 13th, at 3:00pm at the St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church (http://www.smary.org) in Falmouth, Maine. We and Katie’s friends and family would appreciate your support and hope that you will join us, either in person or online, in remembering and celebrating the wonderful skier, fantastic teammate, and above all, extraordinary woman that Katie Craig was.

Pictured: Top Left - Katie Craig '08 at Craftsbury, VT in 2006; Bottom Right - Sam Kapala '09 and Katie Craig '08 in 2006

SPRING SKIING!!!

Silky tracks, sparkling fresh corduroy, blue skies, 25 degrees, birds chirping from snow-laden branches . . . .. . . . .
Was I dreaming??
Had I gone to bed after single-handedly finishing off an entire three-cheese pizza . . . .OR . . .

Was this actually Prospect in late March ?

(I'm a happy camper, skiing across Beaver Pond.)

Alex Taylor skiing the relay at Middlebury

Despite Fiona's best attempts to trip up the competition, Williams came in 5th in the Middlebury relay race. Simi Hamilton raced hi Midd team to first, winning a remote control truck. Here's Alex being cheered on by the wild fans...



note: this video was taken on my phone. lessons learned: technology is amazing but the quality sucks

Mr. Williams

No, not skiing, but why not share this with you all...

Ephs Take 5th at Williams Carnival!

The team stepped up big time for our home carnival to snag fifth and defeat Bates for the first time all season. Lurking a scant sixteen points behind fourth place New Hampshire, the team looks poised to strike at our final carnival of the season this Friday and Saturday.

The top finishers in Friday's 10K freestyle race for the purple cows were Christina Perron '07, skiing in her last home carnival, placing 19th with her third top-20 result of the season and Mark Johnson '10 in 25th, leading a pack of three Ephs into the top thirty.

The classic sprints on Saturday were dominated by the Nelson siblings who led both teams with the top placing of the day--Jack '07 snagged 12th place, while Alice '10 finished 13th, leading the men and women to 6th and 4th place team scores, respectively.

Next weekend: Middlebury Carnival at Breadloaf.

Friday: 10:00 Mens 10k Skate
11:15 Womens 5k Skate
6:00 Carnival Banquet

Saturday: 10:00 Womens 15k classic
11:30 Mens 20k classic


Pictured above in Thursday's course inspection for the Williams Carnival: Katie Craig '08, Emily Olsen '09, Liz Kantack '09, Alice Nelson '10, Christina Perron '07 and Fiona Worcester '09.

Carnival Blizzard

Wednesday, February 14:
High winds and heavy snow was the V-Day gift given to the nordic skiers this Valentines Day by Old Man Winter. It was a gift that the skiers were not going to turn down! While the rest of the town and campus holed up in their houses and dorms for the day, the ski team donned their rock skis and snow gear and headed out into the storm. With barely a soul or vehicle in sight, the campus and roads were theirs to ski! Nothing was safe - stairs, rails, statues, roads, banks, fields, piles . . . . the ice-blasting winds could not wipe the smiles off their faces nor keep them from breaking into song and shouts of glee as they toured the campus, skiing everything in sight!

Clockwise: Morgan practices on the rails, Sam sports his new euro style, Crosby atop "the eyes", Katie can't contain her smile

The Bet was Made, the Stakes were High . . .

"If we get a snow storm I will sport a Mohawk" So said Coach Fisher, bummed about the lack of snow this season.
And Snow it Did . . . . . . .

Before: (Feb 12)


After: (Feb 14)