Monday, January 29, 2018
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
More Photos from the First Two Weekends
Hey sports fans! We have had an exciting two weekends of racing and waiting to race. I have loved getting out on the road, watching my teammates really go for it, and putting everything out on the line. We enjoyed two nights of delicious pizza this weekend and gorging ourselves on the food table. Thank you to the parents for the nourishment and great cheering these past two weekends. I am so pumped for the rest of the season! The women tied for fourth with SLU on Sunday and are close to our goal of a third place team carnival finish.
Carmen posing with the purple cow on the truck after her first top ten finish in the 10k skate!! We are looking forward to many more.
Nick with a top ten as well getting ready to throw a snowball. Watch out Perry!
My good friend and teammate Lucy!
Just silly food table things. Luckily it was warm out so Elowyn's tongue didn't get frozen to Lucy.
2/3 of the Freshman class. We are looking forward to Emil, Maggie, and Andrew's colligate debut this upcoming weekend.
Another member of the freshman class.
Two fine Mid-A men.
Look, they even are super helpful!
Elowyn loves dinner.
Hi Franklin!
All smiles
Ivy and Evan
Even though the race was cancelled last weekend, the bibs were still put to good use.
Peek a boo!
"Does this make my head look small?"-Elowyn
Cheering for the Skate 5k at Colby.
This weekend we travel to the Supertour at Craftsbury for the classic sprint and skate 5k. We are praying for snow and no rain.
Monday, January 22, 2018
First Carnival Weekend and the First "Real" Carnival Weekend
Well I think that the entire team can agree that it has been quite an interesting start to the Carnival season this year. Our first weekend of racing took place last week in Waterville, ME. In the days leading up to the carnival, the course was in great shape and we were all looking forward to the new improvements that were made to the trail systems at Quarry Rd. Unfortunately that all went to waste when nearly 2 inches of rain fell overnight wiping out pretty much the entire trail system. When Jay and I made it up to the race site Saturday morning it was a grim sight! The stadium where they planned to have the start and finish was under about a foot of standing water. The race officials and coaches all agreed that it would not be feasible to run an event that day and ended up cancelling the race.
Day 2 comes around and you can guess what happens when a lot of rain falls and then temperatures drop to single digits the next day. The race crew pulled off a miracle and managed to put together a race in as good of conditions as you could possibly expect. While the course was an ice rink, it was a safe race and ended up being a great day of racing! While our crew had some difficulties staying on two feet, there were some great results from the entire team. Performance of the day would probably go to Jack Consenstein who had his first top 20 carnival finish and scored points for the first time in his short career at Williams College.
All things considered, the organizing crew at Quarry Rd. put on a great event! Mother nature sure knows how to throw a wrench in the system. Our athletes pushed through adversity from the strange event, and I am sure that they all learned something valuable from the weekend. Check out the pictures further below from Sunday's skate race!
After the first carnival, we were definitely all ready for the first "real" carnival weekend where we had 2 full races. Due to cancelling a race at the Colby Carnival, the EISA decided to switch the relay event to the classic individual start race that was missed on the previous weekend to make sure all the NCAA qualifier races happen in the season.
The venue at Sleepy Hollow was also hit hard by the rain event from the week prior and their course took some damage. They had to shorten the classic course from the proposed 5km loop to an easier 2.4 km loop. The loop had very little climbing, which lead to the debate of what technique to use, striding or double pole? The conditions for the mens race were very fast, but have kick wax was not so significant that it could not be used. While most of the field decided to forgo kick wax and double pole, there were still some that decided to stride and used it to great success. Congrats to Nick on taking his first top 10 of the season double poling his way to a 10th place finish. Standout performance from the mens team was Henry McGrew striding his way up to 30th in the college field.
While the conditions for the mens race were fairly straight forward, mother nature again decided to test the womens field. The temperature rose only a couple degrees between the mens and womens races, but it was just enough to change the wax from hardwax to klister. The issue with moving from hardwax to klister is that it made the kick wax option a bit slower in comparison to double poling. Our early starters definitely got the short end of the stick while Jay and I were racing to find a suitable option to kick on. Our first started (Carmen) got a very quick klister job applied to her skis with very little testing. She made the most of it, but ended up having to double pole most of the race. Jay and I were still struggling to find a good klister option for Ingrid who decided to use her skate skis and double pole (with great success!). After Ingrid, we started to get a handle on the situation and our later starters ended up having great races on the klister combination we went with. I am personally really proud of Ingrid for having the courage to tell me she was double poling when I offered her klister skis (roughly 45 seconds before she started!). Ingrid finished with a PB 14th place and was within striking distance of the top 10!
The second day of the St. Mikes carnival was also very exciting. They were able to patch together a 5km loop for the interval start skate race, and while it was pretty thin cover, it was a much more difficult course than the day before. Warm conditions led to slower skiing and it was a hard day for the atheltes making their way up the 2-3km long sustained climb from the bottom to the top of the course. We had more great finishes today including a trip into the top 10 for Carmen Bango finishing in 10th place!
Great work to all of the Purple Cows out there! We are all looking forward to the next set of races this weekend at the SuperTour in Craftsbury.
Day 2 comes around and you can guess what happens when a lot of rain falls and then temperatures drop to single digits the next day. The race crew pulled off a miracle and managed to put together a race in as good of conditions as you could possibly expect. While the course was an ice rink, it was a safe race and ended up being a great day of racing! While our crew had some difficulties staying on two feet, there were some great results from the entire team. Performance of the day would probably go to Jack Consenstein who had his first top 20 carnival finish and scored points for the first time in his short career at Williams College.
All things considered, the organizing crew at Quarry Rd. put on a great event! Mother nature sure knows how to throw a wrench in the system. Our athletes pushed through adversity from the strange event, and I am sure that they all learned something valuable from the weekend. Check out the pictures further below from Sunday's skate race!
After the first carnival, we were definitely all ready for the first "real" carnival weekend where we had 2 full races. Due to cancelling a race at the Colby Carnival, the EISA decided to switch the relay event to the classic individual start race that was missed on the previous weekend to make sure all the NCAA qualifier races happen in the season.
The venue at Sleepy Hollow was also hit hard by the rain event from the week prior and their course took some damage. They had to shorten the classic course from the proposed 5km loop to an easier 2.4 km loop. The loop had very little climbing, which lead to the debate of what technique to use, striding or double pole? The conditions for the mens race were very fast, but have kick wax was not so significant that it could not be used. While most of the field decided to forgo kick wax and double pole, there were still some that decided to stride and used it to great success. Congrats to Nick on taking his first top 10 of the season double poling his way to a 10th place finish. Standout performance from the mens team was Henry McGrew striding his way up to 30th in the college field.
While the conditions for the mens race were fairly straight forward, mother nature again decided to test the womens field. The temperature rose only a couple degrees between the mens and womens races, but it was just enough to change the wax from hardwax to klister. The issue with moving from hardwax to klister is that it made the kick wax option a bit slower in comparison to double poling. Our early starters definitely got the short end of the stick while Jay and I were racing to find a suitable option to kick on. Our first started (Carmen) got a very quick klister job applied to her skis with very little testing. She made the most of it, but ended up having to double pole most of the race. Jay and I were still struggling to find a good klister option for Ingrid who decided to use her skate skis and double pole (with great success!). After Ingrid, we started to get a handle on the situation and our later starters ended up having great races on the klister combination we went with. I am personally really proud of Ingrid for having the courage to tell me she was double poling when I offered her klister skis (roughly 45 seconds before she started!). Ingrid finished with a PB 14th place and was within striking distance of the top 10!
The second day of the St. Mikes carnival was also very exciting. They were able to patch together a 5km loop for the interval start skate race, and while it was pretty thin cover, it was a much more difficult course than the day before. Warm conditions led to slower skiing and it was a hard day for the atheltes making their way up the 2-3km long sustained climb from the bottom to the top of the course. We had more great finishes today including a trip into the top 10 for Carmen Bango finishing in 10th place!
Great work to all of the Purple Cows out there! We are all looking forward to the next set of races this weekend at the SuperTour in Craftsbury.
 |
| Heidi ripping off a good race in 35th. |
 |
| Lucy looks a little tired after finishing a lightning fast 5km! |
 |
| Ingrid powering her way to a great race! |
 |
| Carmen rounding one of the icy corners on the way to a 18th place finish! |
 |
| Ivy pushing her way to a great finish in a SKATE RACE! |
 |
| Jay is prepared to hand out poles like people hand out candy on Halloween! |
 |
| Guess what? It's RACE DAY FRANKLIN! |
 |
| Syben. Smooth, calm, collected. |
 |
| Connie moving his way up to a 19th place finish |
 |
| Carr, getting the hang of this "snow thing" after a semester in Namibia. |
 |
| Without a doubt, one of the highlights of carnival weekends! Tanks to all of the parents for organizing the food table! |
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Ready for some racing!
We have our first week of official ski racing in the books and are
getting for some fast racing today and tomorrow! Just a few weeks ago we
were freezing in Quebec and now this past weekend we found ourselves in
days of rain. Today the sun is shining and we are ready to tear it up.
Below are some photos from our second annual variety show in Quebec!
The sophomores give us some beautiful singing.
Some first years show us how to pronounce a long word.
A Buff fashion shoe, who knew you could wear a Buff in so many ways!
Sonya and Nick tearing up the dance floor with some swing dance.
Jay shows us his new mind reading skills acquired this fall.
Syben shows us how to feed a sourdough starter.
Jeremy impresses us all with a magic trick.
While the race was cancelled last week, some of us went for a tour of the Colby campus.
Friday, January 12, 2018
Alumnus Report #3: My Week as a Tour de Ski Groupie
Greetings from Andorra!
It has been hard to hold back on a blog post since being inspired by Eli's and Jordan's first couple of alumni updates, but hopefully I will make up for it with some riveting content for you all to read while you are en route to the Colby Carnival or enjoying what I'm sure is an unbeatable lunch at the Becker residence.
For those that don't know, I am currently living in Andorra, a tiny mountainous country between Spain and France. While most of this post will be focusing on non-Andorran adventures, below I have included a map and a photo to give you all an image of where I am.
I was lucky enough to have my family come visit me for Christmas and New Year's and we spent a lot of time skiing, struggling to drive on Andorran roads (thanks Dad), and eating various types of chocolate. When my family returned to the US, I took off for Germany and Italy to watch the last four stages of the Tour de Ski and strap on my cross country skis for the first time this year.
Destination #1: Oberstdorf, Germany (classic sprints and 10/15k skate)
I have very few pictures of Oberstdorf, as a combination of rain, more rain, a thunderstorm and hurricane force winds somewhat dampened the experience (literally and figuratively). However, this did not stop me from cramming in a much skiing as possible on a 10k pancake-flat loop. Unlike Quebec, you are not allowed to ski recreationally on the World Cup course while athletes are warming up, so the skiing was limited to this one trail. Another interesting thing about Oberstdorf was that I could not find a lodge to put my things in, so I stashed my backpack in some guy's woodpile while I skied. Finally, and perhaps most unfortunately, the sprints were cancelled due to large trees falling all over the trail. Think about the worst weather we've had at Middlebury, multiply it by 10, and that's what it was like.
Destination #2: Val di Fiemme, Italy (10/15k classic and Alpe Cermis)
So needless to say, I was not too disappointed to have to leave Germany and head south to the Dolomites, which turned out to be the complete opposite (thank God). If I had to sum up Val di Fiemme in three words, they would be GO THERE IMMEDIATELY. The food is amazing, the skiing rivaled Norway (though I am biased because I was so desperate to ski), and the venue is top-notch. Furthermore, Alpe Cermis is a truly absurd, electrifying race to watch. It is quite humbling a) to actually stand on that slope, because cameras cannot capture how steep it is, and b) to watch some of the world's best athletes coaches skate the uphills and then double pole the flats because their legs don't work anymore. If you ever have the chance to go watch the final stages of the Tour, I would 100% recommend it. Also, please tell me if you do because I will join you.
That's all for now and ROCK THE COW this weekend!
I'm looking forward to seeing you all in Norway, where I can't wait to ski double the k's, catch double the rays and eat my weight in wafflers.
Love,
Benson
It has been hard to hold back on a blog post since being inspired by Eli's and Jordan's first couple of alumni updates, but hopefully I will make up for it with some riveting content for you all to read while you are en route to the Colby Carnival or enjoying what I'm sure is an unbeatable lunch at the Becker residence.
For those that don't know, I am currently living in Andorra, a tiny mountainous country between Spain and France. While most of this post will be focusing on non-Andorran adventures, below I have included a map and a photo to give you all an image of where I am.
 |
| There's Andorra! The red dot is probably 10 times the size of the country itself. |
 |
| This is the view from where I go skiing after work. |
I was lucky enough to have my family come visit me for Christmas and New Year's and we spent a lot of time skiing, struggling to drive on Andorran roads (thanks Dad), and eating various types of chocolate. When my family returned to the US, I took off for Germany and Italy to watch the last four stages of the Tour de Ski and strap on my cross country skis for the first time this year.
Destination #1: Oberstdorf, Germany (classic sprints and 10/15k skate)
I have very few pictures of Oberstdorf, as a combination of rain, more rain, a thunderstorm and hurricane force winds somewhat dampened the experience (literally and figuratively). However, this did not stop me from cramming in a much skiing as possible on a 10k pancake-flat loop. Unlike Quebec, you are not allowed to ski recreationally on the World Cup course while athletes are warming up, so the skiing was limited to this one trail. Another interesting thing about Oberstdorf was that I could not find a lodge to put my things in, so I stashed my backpack in some guy's woodpile while I skied. Finally, and perhaps most unfortunately, the sprints were cancelled due to large trees falling all over the trail. Think about the worst weather we've had at Middlebury, multiply it by 10, and that's what it was like.
 |
| A summary of Germany: gray, bad klister jobs and general chaos. |
So needless to say, I was not too disappointed to have to leave Germany and head south to the Dolomites, which turned out to be the complete opposite (thank God). If I had to sum up Val di Fiemme in three words, they would be GO THERE IMMEDIATELY. The food is amazing, the skiing rivaled Norway (though I am biased because I was so desperate to ski), and the venue is top-notch. Furthermore, Alpe Cermis is a truly absurd, electrifying race to watch. It is quite humbling a) to actually stand on that slope, because cameras cannot capture how steep it is, and b) to watch some of the world's best athletes coaches skate the uphills and then double pole the flats because their legs don't work anymore. If you ever have the chance to go watch the final stages of the Tour, I would 100% recommend it. Also, please tell me if you do because I will join you.
 |
| Bliss |
 |
| I went on this four hour ski with no water and no food (oops), but I did buy some chocolate at this little chalet. |
 |
| I'm usually morally opposed to selfies, but considering Eli's abundant use of them I thought I'd include a few. This is me pointing down to Alpe Cermis in the background. |
 |
| Pretty darn exciting to see an American leading a distance classic race! |
 |
| Weng ripping near the end. |
 |
| !!!!!!! SO PROUD !!!!!!!!! |
 |
| I had to do it. |
That's all for now and ROCK THE COW this weekend!
I'm looking forward to seeing you all in Norway, where I can't wait to ski double the k's, catch double the rays and eat my weight in wafflers.
Love,
Benson
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Holiday Ski Camp Highlights
Our annual camp at Mt. Saint Anne is always a special time, and this year was no exception. MSA delivered with perfect corduroy, bomber tracks, and frigid temps while offering some time for relaxation and a chance to catch up on our first-year men's Youtube presence. We welcomed Evan Carr back from Namibia, rung in 2018, and celebrated Isabel's 19th birthday while putting in some km's on trail 24. A big shoutout to Jeremey's fiancé Kayla for putting up with our shenanigans all week, and to our supportive parents for organizing a delicious dinner. Here are some more highlights from a memorable camp:
Lowest Temp: -17 (though this didn't keep us from doing a 3+hr OD!)
 |
| Sonya, Isabel, and Lucy bringing the positivity on yet another cold ski. Can't hold us down! |
Most popular game: Code Names
Boxes of clemmies consumed: 4 (women's team only, men's record unknown but likely comparable)
Current leader in the Tour de Ski fantasy league: Syben
 |
| Watching the tour while Franklin holds court among the ladies. Note McGrew is also captivated. How is he still single?! |
Favorite tea: Bengal Spice
Wax of the week: Rode Green
Fastest Speed Clocked: 36 mph on trail 24's infamous downhill
Most Creative Meal: Pizza night!
 |
| Elowyn's visionary olive oil, garlic, pear, arugula pizza assembled by Sonya & co |
 |
| Ingrid proves a [pizza] pro, per usual |
I remember all my years at MSA, and each has brought me closer to the funny, compassionate, hardworking, and humble humans I am lucky to call my teammates. While it was admittedly bittersweet to know it was my last year at MSA with the team, I know I'll be back to this special place in years to come.
 |
| Until next time... |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)