NORWAY

Hello Eph Nordic Fans! For the first week of spring break the entire ski team plus a group of Williams ski alums took a trip to Sjusjøen, Norway. A longer blog post is needed, but to sum it up it was a TRIP OF A LIFETIME! Unbelievably perfect skiing, great company, great food and a great time! Here are a few pics for now.....more to be posted soon. Thank you to everyone who made this trip a reality for the team and for the alums. It was an experience that we will never forget and we feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience Norway together.

Alums Will and Gina leading the charge
on a pre-dinner ski the day of our arrival

Morning ski #1 with the whole crew

Classic ski with the men's team

Skate train heading down to
Lillehammer

We had a sprint relay race. Here's
a post race pic of the crew in the
Lillehammer Stadium

50K Classic loop with
the women's team. Here
we are heading toward Losjheim

Carmen enjoying perfect tracks!

Heading back on the
Birkie Trail

I hope everyone is enjoying their second week of spring break. More to come soon!

Spring molting

From Stanford Ecology:
"Molting is timed to meet various needs. For example, resident temperate-zone birds require more insulating feathers in the winter than in the summer. The number is changed in the process of molting; winter plumage may contain more than half again as many feathers as summer plumage. Since the feathers, which carry the colors of birds, are "dead," a bird cannot totally change its colors without changing its feathers (although its appearance can change substantially just from wear). Therefore a male bird usually molts into his most colorful plumage prior to the breeding season."

Emil Graf, everybody.

   

     

Steamboat NCAA 10K Classic

Yesterday was the NCAA 10K Classic race for Braden. Early in the morning the wax was extra blue, by the time Braden started we were into klister. It was great to have Jordan Fields ('17) around to help us test skis. Braden started early with bib 3 and set a blistering pace. He skied extremely well and ended up finishing in 15th place (6th American) and only 16 seconds from the top 10. The coaches were impressed and with that result he managed to score enough points to tie MSU and to beat another 4 teams that had a full 3 skiers qualified for the race. Nice work, Braden and way to ROCK THE COW!
I was too busy waxing and cheering to take a picture until after the race:

Jordan Fields ('17) and Braden Becker
soaking in the post race rays

Eli Hoenig ('17) shows up tonight, so we'll have 4 of us working hard to make fast skis for Braden tomorrow in the 20K. Race starts at 9AM. Send Braden fast thoughts!

I also have a few pics from the banquet on Tuesday night. We rode the Gondola up to the Champagne Powder Room for the event. It was a beautiful evening and the views were great!

Braden and Marc surrounded
by coaches

View looking SW

View looking toward the summit

Steamboat NCAA Update

Hello Eph Nordic Followers!

It's been a busy couple of weeks wrapping up the EISA Circuit and packing up for NCAAs. Williamstown is bracing for the biggest winter storm of the season and conditions at Prospect are the best of the season so far. We are all looking forward to being in Sjusjøen, Norway in less than two weeks!

In the meantime Braden, Jeremy and I have spent the last three days suffering with the conditions in Steamboat Springs, CO. You know, it's a low snow year in Colorado, see below for proof!

The view from the house

This morning Braden and I skied at Lake Catamount Touring Center:

Notice the snow pebble in the left track
I mean how are we supposed
to ski in such conditions?

The conditions were brutal, but we managed to survive. Jeremy had a similar experience testing under layers on the race loops. Don't worry too much though, we'll be okay:)

We'll be testing skis like crazy tomorrow in preparation for the 10K classic on Thursday. Send fast thoughts to Braden!

All the best,

Jay