Checking in from Down Under!!

 Hello all my lovely ephs!! I hope that you all have settled back in on campus and are enjoying the start of classes! Down here in New Zealand we are just wrapping up our mid semester break which seems crazy to say. 

But first let me catch you up on my short lived Minnesota summer! I spent the month spending lots of quality time with friends and family. Highlights include training with the MPLS ski club pro project, some camping, my sister Hanna's high school graduation and family time up north!

Then at the end of June, I packed up and headed down to Dunedin, New Zealand to study abroad for a semester at the University of Otago! Ann and Chip both did a great job sharing highlights from the first half of the semester so I'm going to pick up where they left off. 

At the end of August, Ann, Chip, Ben and I drove up to the Snow Farm in Wanaka to ski the Merino Muster race (with our friends Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern of course). It got shortened to an 8 lap 22.4k race which was perfect for us -- we're pretty good at skiing laps 😉. Ann and I got to ski the whole race together and Chip snagged a spot on the podium!

From there we dropped off Ann at the airport where she joined her parents in Australia, and the rest of us drove off in our trusty car (Princess Chateau or Chat for short) to join some friends on a week long road trip!

Maximizing every square inch of space in the car

Pancake Rocks! And some epic beach camping on our way up the West Coast of the South Island.

After some days of driving + exploring we reached Abel Tasman National Park where we embarked on a 2 day/1 night backpacking adventure on the Abel Tasman Coast Track. We lucked out with the weather and enjoyed sunny skies, beautiful shorelines, and lots of Weka (a chicken like bird) sightings!

Start of the track and one of many beautiful beaches in the park!

Shoes off at a tidal crossing!! And one of many sand dollars found on the beaches.

More beach views! And the curious and feisty Weka.

After a lovely one night stay in a hut (quite luxurious for backpacking!), we hiked out back to our hostel. The next day post sunrise viewing, we hit the road for our 10 hour drive back to Dunedin. Of course we made a few stops on the way back including Arthur's Pass where we spotted some Kea birds -- they are endemic to New Zealand but are endangered with only an estimated 3,000-7,000 individuals left. Pretty special to be able to see!

    

Sunrise in Abel Tasman, View of the Otira Viaduct, and Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall.

The Kea! Very interested in the cars and any food it might be able to snag from park visitors.

Now we are back in Dunedin and about to begin the second half of our semester! Then we'll head back to the states to reunite with the team at Thanksgiving camp! I miss you all and can't wait to be back together again. Until November!!

Love, Chloe 😘🫶

P.S. Here's a few random pics to finish off my update! 

reunited with the WEST and more

HOWDY, HERD!

First, I'd like to formally apologize to Chip for completely forgetting about my blog duties; summer has been flying by at an unexpectedly quick rate! That said, the Vermont drizzle has finally tied me to my chair for some summertime reflecting. A lot has happened since we last said goodbye in May, but I'll try to keep this lighthearted: plenty of reading to come in the upcoming weeks :)

CHAPTER 1: Wild West 

As many of you know, I spend the majority of my summer in Boulder, Colorado, learning the ins and outs of “adulting” alongside the one and only Lilly Bates. While a typical day consisted of 6 am wake-up → hastily made breakfast → workout → many hours of interning → workout → delicious dinner, I would rather tell you all about some of my Wild West highlights! 

One thing that struck me was that Boulder never stopped moving. The streets are overrun, and this is a good thing, with cyclists, runners, of every age, even the occasional rollerskier, which brought a smile to my face. What I’m trying to say is, it wasn’t too hard to spend an entire day outside doing the things I love. This included many thrilling, but vertical-heavy, bike rides, brutal trail runs, smooth rollersking, and of course, plenty of coffee stops to rest those tired legs :)  

            crushing km's with Lilly and Co! Also met one of my favorite F1 drivers, Valtteri Bottas!

en route to town in PC ft Cooper

Crested Butte never fails to impress: views that never get old!

Four Loop Pass: epic day in the mtns with Molly and Lilly

CHAPTER 2: Sunny East 

After two months of Wild West madness, it was time to settle down near our East Coast roots again. The change of scenery was a pleasant surprise; no more gasping for air at altitude, and lucky us, the western sunshine seemed to follow us east as well.

bagging "peaks" and enjoying east coast dirt :)

discovering family heirlooms ft tan lines + honorable mention to yummy summer food

CHAPTER 3: Maine

After 11 long weeks of data analysis and AI system development, a well-earned vacation was calling. Lilly and I spent almost a week in Camden, Maine, enjoying some downtime at my family's home. Having been landlocked for the entirety of the summer, we took full advantage of both the lake house and the nearby ocean. Lots of laughter, good food, and drinks rounded out what I thought was a pretty epic summer! 

Maine Life: not pictured, the overload of oysters in my belly

As summer draws to a close, I’m getting super stocked to see everyone back on campus and meet the new members of the herd! 

Until next time, keep stacking skulls!

-  Janne

On the loose

 Hey fellas,

It so happens that the blog organizer forgot to do his blog... so here we are a week late. I'm looking at my camera roll and I'm seeing a lot of beach pics so bear with me. Here's the quick summer rundown and then a photo dump for ya.

Started out my summer with two graduations (Sage's and the seniors) which were both brutally long but featured many things from Angus streaking Stone Hill to playing pong with my high school friend's dad. Many goofs

Hung around home for a bit, worked at my grandparents farm for a couple days, caught up with all the fellas around home for the summer, and then headed out to Bozeman to spend a week with Sage and Tzevi and their glorious housemates Will and Jorie (of Bowdoin)

Went up a couple cool mountains, got absolutely fried in the sun, and got in a quality ride and burgers courtesy of C-Boner. Then I was headed home again for a week or so then off to NZ!

Many many many cool things have transpired down here. Lots of cool camping, experiencing living in a flat with some cool flatmates (surrounded by broken glass and on the corner of Butts road importantly), lots of mountain biking, absolutely radical running adventures, a little skiing here and there, and not to mention scoping out the night life around here which tends to start on Wednesday every week and never stops. Getting in lots of quality time with Ann, Ben, and Chloe of course and also making many new friends from all over the place!

Coming up are plans for the Merino Muster this weekend and an epic spring break road trip around the south island. 

Oh yeah we also go to school on occasion... but rarely.

Sage grad!

Willies Grad!

Bozeman w/ Boner

Bummin around Auckland

Various running situations as one does

Flatmates Finn and Rachel (Rachel here executing the classic sprinkles on celery) 

Things over in Wanaka (snow farm and dope ass river wave)

One of my only biking pics but its lit trust me

We get out and about... exploring my karaoke career

seriously

And here's the promised beach pics. Unfortunately I still suck at surfing but working on it

Finally a little faceplant cuz despite the rumors I do have flaws

Thats all from Chip for now, so incredibly stoked to see all you fellas back in VT for thanksgiving camp and get in some good goofs for me this fall!

😘😘😘 - Chip

Welcome to my 6-9

Hello from Utah! I miss you all! I have been back home in Park City this summer and it has been lovely to see my parents and my little bro, Ian. I've gotten into quite the routine the past 2 months and it has been awesome and at times a little too busy.

Family vacation to scuba dive

After our awesome family vacation (shoutout Grandma and Grandpa Champion), I have settled into my day to day life here at home. So most people work a 9-5, but my summer has consisted of business from 6 am to 9 pm. Let me run you folks through it. 

First, I wake up. Good start. I get up early and get outside! Next, I get to wrangle around 15 middle schoolers. I'm coaching for Park City Ski and Snowboard's Devo Nordic summer (that's a lot of words). It has been so fun, and they're great kids, but they are actually kinda fast so that's humbling. But I've learned a lot about things like Labubu's, the new lingo (like skibidi toilet), and how to cheat on middle school summer classes...

After the morning of being outside, I go inside to my internship at a PT clinic. I expected to mostly be cleaning table off, doing laundry, and shadowing while I was there, but it has exceeded all expectations. I get to guide patients through exercises, and the PT I'm working with, Ryan, is INCREDIBLE! I ask him so many questions and just love learning in that setting.

A couple days a week, I go from the internship to my second workout, which is always good to get outside again. Some days, I get to go keep 2 and 3 year olds from drowning. I'm teaching swim lessons at the pool near us, and the kids are just so cute. Bad at swimming, but we're working on that. They can all float now! Huge progress.

Finally, I am taking an anatomy class and lab online. Which is interesting, but quite a bit of memorization.

So after this insane day, I eat and go to sleep and get ready to do it all again!

LUCI😘

Now, if I haven't rambled enough, some highlights. My friend Emily and I went up to Sun Valley and got to see LUCI! It was so awesome and we camped a couple of nights and did a fun hike and got in the lake and saw some art and it was great!

California beach and climbing

Then, I went to California for a week and got to see a friend and we surfed and climbed and went to a Caamp concert (my FAVORITE!). So that was also epic. I averaged around 4x in the water per day.

Peak Day!

What's next: heading to Switzerland for a hut-to-hut and Portugal to see cool things, then off to Croatia for the semester! I miss you all dearly, and can't wait to see you and our new first-years at the end of December!!

💜💜💜