Postcard from Taiwan: Kirsten Johnson

'11 Alum Kirsten Johnson is currently studying Chinese in Taiwan. Though she is having fun in Taiwan, she also writes that she didn't know how much New England grew on her until she left. . .

Excerpt from Kirsten's letter:
"Taiwan is still hot. Rained today, but last week was 80 degrees F. I was looking at photos of you all getting an early October ski in (!!!) and had the most strange feeling of disconnect. It's like I'm waiting around for a New England fall to hit here, with apples and pumpkins and cider donuts . . . but apparently the leaves never change here. Yikes!"

She sends hugs to the team!

Where's your beard

Four relatively good-looking Ephs headed to my extended family's condo in Bretton Woods this week to discover what having a beard is like in the real world, and did a little training on the side. A majority of us had beards and were anxious to find out how they would fare outside of the Purple Bubble. Our conclusive findings were that we are extremely good looking, beards are awesome, and we can only feel sorry for Vanya that he did not participate in the having of a Novembeard. Where's your beard, mate?

The skiing was quite good considering...I've not skied for all of Thanksgiving break except for once in high school, and never with grooming. Bretton Woods' nordic center had already groomed by the time we got there Wednesday afternoon, and for the most part we were able to train like we do in Quebec, with double distance sessions every day. The best part: Dimits, Will, and I discovered that beards are an excellent facial accessory to keep warm in the winter. Thursday and Friday were split half skate and half classic, despite the temperature getting fairly warm on Friday and preventing further skiing at the Bretton Woods nordic center.

Friday afternoon we decided to climb Mt. Rosebrook via the Bretton Woods alpine area. A couple double black diamonds and more than a few patrons' sideways glances later, we arrived at the summit, where we surveyed our victory and checked out the USGS station at the top. Skiing down brought back some great memories of my brief days as an alpine skier, although unfortunately we couldn't really rip down the mountain because Vanya broke a ski and had to one-ski it down most of the way (worth lots of g.n.a.r. points).

Saturday we made the trip down to Jackson, where we found ourselves skiing in surprisingly nice classic tracks for most of the day. Our Saturday doublesession wasn't really a doublesession...we just skied in the morning, scratched our beards and ate my mom's homemade pesto pizza at lunch for about 25 minutes, and then immediately headed out for more. We even managed some surprisingly pleasant shirtless Rossa Special klister skiing in the afternoon as conditions got sloppy...perhaps a very early start to spring skiing in New England.

On a serious note, a great many thanks this break go out to my aunt and uncle—Heidi Janes and John Deveau—for providing lodging and food (including a turkey dinner that was to die for), to my parents for providing luggage management, more food, and canine entertainment, and a special thanks to my grandmother Judy Janes for cooking her unbelievable lasagna dish on Wednesday night, which we really could not stop eating. (that's an understatement, we never stopped eating)

Thank you so much John and Heidi!

Photo opportunities were more plentiful than I could keep up with, but we managed to capture some candid moments, like Dimits's Thinker with Beard and Vanya's Russian Sublime (both by Wicherski), Shirtless Hanoverian Man, Scandinavian Man With Beard, The Pensive Beards, and Bearded Fall (Spring) Skiing Bros (See below).

Russian Sublime (by Wicherski)

The Pensive Beards

Shirtless Hanoverian Man

Bearded Fall (Spring) Skiing Bros

Thinker with Beard (by Wicherski)

Scandinavian Man with Beard

While it's not awesome switching back to dryland training, this little taste of winter kept us hungry for more, and put Canada in our sights. Next stop, Mont-Sainte-Anne, QC, CAN.

Happy Birthday, Hannah Hausman!!!

This photo could represent Hannah at any age, I think   :)

Alums out West! The cow suit races on.

Mark Johnson and Evan Dethier were in West for the first Super Tours of the season. Mojo, who is training for the biathlon season, showed his current fitness by placing 21st in the skate race. Evan, who is teaching and coaching at GMVS this year, says "I'm not as fit and strong as Mark but I had a fun time racing around on an exciting course at altitude."

Mark Johnson. Rockin'.

Evan Dethier. Hasn't lost that nice stride!

Bretton Woods (Ac)cords

I don't apologize for bad jokes. The Prius made it through the storm in good time, and we arrived in Bretton Woods yesterday to find that our plans to rollerski and hike had been completely foiled. We've got a few photos so far but stay tuned for more as I'm not too keen on typing on my phone.

Happy Birthday, Casey Jones!

Twenty + One

Giving thanks for new roads in new places with new friends

Today Maria Stuber and Bryan Cook joined us for an O.D. ski on a loop they had recommended to our team. Rolling hills, farmlands, and lots of great pavement.
We wish there was snow on the ground, but if we have to train on dry land then this is the way to go!

Rolling through the hills

Skiing through farmland

Maria Stuber and Hannah S. say "HI" to the llamas on water break

Finishing up the ski on a downhill cruise

CORWIN impresses class and professor with unusual transportation to field trip

As printed on the Cover Page of   "Fifth Volume of Essays for American Landscape History and Contemporary Landscape Architecture", written and taught by Professor Sheafe Satterthwaite

Maybe more notorious, in any course annals yet to be written, CORWIN becoming the first Sheafe student to cycle long-distance in order to attend a field session, and it happening to be the all-day Forced March, 4 November 2011. (Maybe the ride was to make up for missing a Nordic Ski practice?) Picture an assemblage of ten students with their teacher facing the Rensselaer County Historical Society curator (and Smithie), Stacey Pomeroy Draper, and she alone from the stoop facing, as it were, the street (or students), while the class itself was standing on the sidewalk, facing also (and learning from?) the marble facade of Richard and Betsy Hart's 1820s manse at 57 Second Street, Troy - and into our midst between paralleled parked cars arrives Ben, in cycling garb but stashed away in a backpack with Forced March attire too, and he accomplishing the thirty-six (or more?) miles from campus to downtown Troy in two hours or so. (He estimated his speed at 17-18 miles an hour, replete with two summits to cross, namely Petersburg Pass and Grafton Mountain, and a snow squall to endure, as well as a change of bikes, since going up Bee Hill Road before 8  o'clock on his mountain bike, he decided a road bike would be better, and hence returned to campus.)*  Maybe uniquely in the history of the Marble House, Ben's bike immediately stowed away in the front hall, as a temporary (but uninterpreted) exhibit!

*After the next class session, 7 November,  MIKELL informed S.S. that he thought no one else in the 201 class, with many athletes could accomplish what CORWIN  did: "Getting up Petersburg Pass, you know, is really hard in itself. Would runners ABSOLO  and SMITH demur?

Ben Corwin: Man of Many Talents

2011 Ski Erg World Championship Relays

Since school was cancelled the day we were going to participate in the SkiErg World Sprints, we decided (on Hannah Hausman's fabulous suggestion) to hold SkiErg Relays instead.  Four teams of five athletes, each completing 1000 meters on the Ski Erg and then running across the gym, up the staircase, around the indoor track, and back down the stairs and across the gym to tag off to their next teammate.  Teams A and B competed head to head, followed by Teams C and D. The race between C and D was tight, coming down to a sprint finish between Dimitri and Vanya, Dimitri just edging Vanya by a half foot.  Team A was the overall winner of the Relaysl: Casey, Jenna, Ian, Elena, Kalle, and Sarah, who beat their competition by a solid 45 second margin.  Elena and Kristen had the fastest women's times, Elena just missing a sub-4, and Kristen clocking 4:05.  Phil had the fastest men's score, with 3:19.0, closely followed by Erik and Dimitri, just two tenths apart, at  3:20.7 and 3:20.9 respectively.
  What everyone remembered, just one minute into their pull: this test is TOUGH. It is hard to stay upright after finishing the 1000 meters alone, as every muscle in the body is spent.  So to make the body then run, scrambling up and down stairs, was a feat that put most of the team to their knees.

Hannah H and Jenna

Aftermath of Ian and Erik's race

Elena: after missing a score in the 3's by one second. . .

Kalle and Mitch

Phil uses a bike to stay upright

Coach Fisher cheers Will and Ben on

Will sprints across the gym to the tag zone

Hannah and Kristen

Holly and Knappster: spent

Final Carnage: Dimitri

  

2011 Ski Erg World Championship Relays

Gold: Team A:  24:20

Casey Jones: 3:29.4

Jenna Maddock 4:32.3

Ian Nesbitt   3:32.2

Elena Luthi  4:00.4

Kalle Jahn  3:31.7

Sarah Abramson  4:12.0

Silver: Team D:  25:05

Patrick Joslin    3:44.0

Christina Knapp  4:12.4

Ben Corwin  3:43.6

Hannah Smith  4:13

Dimitri Luthi  3:20.07

Bronze: Team C:  25:06

Phil Tosteson  3:19.0

Holly Whitney  4:16.2

Will Wicherski  3:35.9

Kristen Halvorsen  4:05.0

Vanya Rybkin  3:44.5

Team B: 25:10

Isaac Hoenig  3:25.6

Hannah Hausman  4:09.4

Erik Anderson  3:20.9

Becca Bell  4:38.4

Mitch Prevot  4:21.4

TODAY: Drive For 25

http://ccgeneralfund.causevox.com/

Postcard from Sarah Tory

'11 Alum Sarah Tory is in Switzerland, following the footsteps of '10 Alum Alice Nelson in teaching at a high school program in the mountains of Zermatt. Here is her recent postcard.

Gutentag!  Greetings from Switzerland. I wanted to say hi to the team and tell you all how much I miss Williams skiing - even though life in Zermatt is pretty sweet.  It's basically Mountain Paradise (I really don't understand how Dimitri ever left :) ).  I went mountain biking last weekend and saw two rollerskiers on a beautiful paved bike path so I got all nostalgic for fall rollerskis in Pownal and thought of you all getting geared up for winter. Good luck and I can't wait to visit   - Sarah

Williams Today: Pause, Think, Share, Listen. Take Part in Positive Change.

I wanna know one thing
What's love? Who are we?
Are we all brothers and sisters?
Our blood is the same color

We people gotta stop all the hate and the shame that we're bringin'
We're all the same, we all feel pain
some of us don't even know what we remain
This is the life, the life that we're livin'
With a little respect, we should all be givin'

- R.A.R., I Wanna Know 

Happy Birthday, Ian!

Ian Nesbitt: Happy Birthday!

'11 Alums Evan Dethier and Alice Nelson came to practice yesterday to cheer the team through specific strength.

Happy Birthday, Maddy Wendt!!

11' Alum Maddy Wendt, here for homecoming weekend, went on the sunrise hike with me this morning on her birthday. It was quite foggy on top of Pine Cobble, but it looks to clear into a gorgeous day. If you see Maddy walking around campus today, wish her the best!!

Me and Maddy

SHOUT OUT TO ALUMS!

This Homecoming Sunday we hope you will meet our current team for a 2 hour trail run!  We will meet at a very reasonable 10am at Mission Park.  If you have questions email me at asmith2@williams.edu.  Looking forward to seeing you!

Bounding Through the Terrain Garden

The "Terrain Garden": a rough-thatched figure-eight loop on both sides of a place called Sheep Hill, which is 2 miles from campus. We never know what kind of fun we are going to encounter there: will it be muddy? thorny? not recently mowed? All three?! What we do know is that we will get one of our hardest bounding workouts: 30 minutes of non-stop bounding fun - each hill is just less than 1 minute long, a short resting jog down before hitting the next hill, and by the end of 30 minutes you don't have an ounce of juice left in your body. Lovin' It.

Will, Phil, Ian, Kalle bound one hill while the women are seen bounding the other part of Figure-8 in the background

The women's team bounds up Sheep Hill

Knappster and Hannah S

Vanya: Nah, its not blood - just muck of an unidentified source. . .

Saturday O.D. through NY farmland

The team starts their OD on a gorgeous Saturday morning

Holly

Will

Men's team cruises through farmland and hills