PROSPECT

Today the team had a great bounding session at Prospect. It was awesome to be on the ski trails and to show the freshman class around. Not to be outdone by Craftsbury Prospect had a little excavation going on today with a big widening project on Andy's. Getting ready for our Carnival Races this February 5/10K Classic and Skate Sprints are going to be AWESOME!

Andy's Climb  WAY WIDER now!

A view from the bottom of Andy's

Working on the trails and work getting done!

Positive changes to the trails
and Carmen and Sonya with
positive shin angle!

Sending it at Jiminy!

Today we scoured the land, searching far and wide for some snow. Lo and behold, we found ourselves at the famed Jiminy Peak for some fun speeds and built-in agility practice due to the un-groomed conditions at the base.

Emil walking away from the "course"

Poor Jiminy needs some love from the Snow-Gods

Switching to running shoes for our cool-down post speeds!

Elowyn showing off her knee/cool tights

Photographic proof that there actually was some snow

Feelin' the love

Cool moon! (Waxing gibbous for all those interested)

Too fast for non-blurry photos

Big smiles all around

NENSA Skier of the Week - Nick Gardner

Congratulations to our very own Nick Gardner for being the NENSA skier of the week with his 2nd place finish at the Craftsbury Opener.  The only skier that had a faster time on the 7.7km course was international super talent Jules Burnotte from Biathlon Estrie (QC, CAN).  You'll get him next time Quick Nick!

#skieroftheweek Nick Gardner showed good early form at the Craftsbury Opener. He was the top American, placing second behind Jules Burnotte of Biathlon Estrie. Gardner who hails from Stillwater, Minnesota was drawn to New England ski community and the supportive culture of the Williams College Ski Team. He names his coaches and teammates as his heroes. #teamworkmakesthedreamwork

A post shared by NENSA (@nensa_nordic) on Nov 27, 2017 at 12:40pm PST

Alumnus Report #2: Jordan Fields

Fields here, I'm still alive. Here are some quick life updates: 

1. I live in Sacramento and work for an environmental engineering firm. Our work focuses on redesigning rivers to augment Salmon habitat throughout California and the Western US. The work I'm doing is cool when you look at the big picture, but my day to day is a lot of coding and spreadsheets. 

2. Sacramento is not cool. It is poor habitat for skiers or outdoor lovers, so be warned when looking for jobs. But there is a place that makes sushi burritos for $10, so that's pretty great. 

3. I went skiing in Bend, OR over Thanksgiving. As you'll see in the video below, I may be in a different place doing different things, but not much has changed about me... for better or worse (you decide). 

4. I love the Williams Ski Team and am STOKED to watch you guys crush it this year. 

5. Send me your address if you want a personal Christmas card from yours truly. 

P.S. Jordan has lost access to blog. Person in charge of blog, please reinstate his privileges. (Posted by Eli, who is very impressed with Jordan's cinematography).

Juniors happy about pie

Some Thankful Ephs

Skiing + Feasting + Bonding = Some very thankful Ephs!

So far our time at Thanksgiving Camp has given us so much to be grateful for. In the words of Captain Becker at Thanksgiving dinner last night, we are,"Feeling all the warm and fuzzies right now". But for real, having the opportunity to get on snow, eat delicious meals, and be with each other has me feeling very blessed. So, without further ado, here are some shots of ze Ephs in action. 

Sonya, celebrating her first time on snow this season.

Spotted: some speedy purple cows in their natural habitat.

Isabel, smiling through some morning showers.

Franklin and Henry, poised for success.

Me, skyping the fam on Thanksgiving. Mateo (Bango Brother #3), overjoyed to see his sister. 

Jerome and Jay, ready for one heck of a season. 

Isabel, Jack, Henry, and half of Emil, contemplating the wonders of Craftsbury dining. 

Hull, Syben, and Emil, showing some teammate love.

Elowyn and Nick,  funky and fresh.

Feeling cozy at the dinner table, ft. Elowyn's snowflake onesie. 

Everyone gathered for Team Thanksgiving. 

Lots of Thanksgiving Love,

Carmen

Craftsbury Ski Camp - Day 1

Wow, November 22nd is here already! Thanksgiving is tomorrow and the team has arrived safe and sound in Craftsbury, VT for our training camp. It's the time of year when giving thanks is high on the list for many and we are thankful for such a great venue to train at, the 12 brand new Nokian Hakkapeliitta studded snow tires that got us here and the four+ hours of skiing we got in today, but most of all we're thankful for the opportunity to train and spend time with such an amazing group of individuals. My phone apparently only works when it's above 40 degrees, so instead of having no posts while waiting for a post from someone with a functioning camera I've decided to post a series of pictures from this fall that I do have on my phone (in no particular order). We have 17 incredible EPH skiers at this camp, so each picture will have a 17 word subtitle (don't audit too closely). That's it...Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! - Coach Jay

First day of practice off to
Stony Ledge classic speeds. Go hi vis. ROCK THE COW. yep

New Hallway picture of Eli Hoenig class of 2017.
Great to see him at Homecoming. The GOAT?

Rollerskiing up Greylock with a backpack? No time
not to study says captain Sarah Becker. DOJO Anyone?

Alum Luke Costley came out of the woods
a couple times already this fall. Greylock
ski day.

Another beautiful sunset in the Purple Valley
Pretty hard to beat the warm fall training
this year.

Team Goals meeting. This was before everyone
had to put away their smart phones. ROCK THE COW!

Caitlyn and Rogan cheering loud for the team
at the Alumni 5k race at Greylock
High School.

Do you know how to skip? Elowyn, Schrupp, Gardner and Syben
can! Petersburg Rd bounding warm up. 

Nine times three minutes bounding with poles. Yep, Ouch!
Gotta get tough somehow. Saturday
morning quality work!

BE ON TIME, COMMUNICATE,
WORK HARD, SACRIFICE, BELIEVE, LOOPING, EMPOWER
MENTAL STRENGTH, COMMITMENT, LITTLE THINGS
enough said

Sunday rain. Soaking wet and putting
in the hours. Captain Becker leading a pack
of the women.

Birthday ski up petersburg pass for Ingrid.
No better way to celebrate then ski up the pass!

Ladies in the snow hole. Jeremy probably
should have stayed in here to scare us. Just sayin.

Jayvin, Caitlyn and Rogan
turning the screws on dad here. How could we ever
hurt ourselves, dad?

Really, I mean how can you not
buy one of these for Rogan. Looks
like a natural!

Pretty Thankful to be at ski camp this
week. Nice break from the hi vis
and traffic!

Last Sunday over distance ski before camp
Is it 50 degrees or 30? Yes. And it's
snowing.

Dining hall expansion. Everyone secretly
wants one of these machines and Craftsbury
has one around every corner.

At Craftsbury Camp playing Catch Phrase
with my friends. Skied four hours today.
THANKFUL FOR OUR TEAM!

Alumnus Report #1: Eli Hoenig

Homecoming has come and past, and so of course my nostalgia for Williams has been sharply rejuvenated. So here's a blog post of my time post-Williams in the far-away state of CO in the not-so-demographically-dissimilar city of Boulder. As most of my time has been spent solo, most of the pictures are selfies.

Here's one of me and Will Wicherski. Will was actually really happy at that moment in time.




Here's one of me and fresh pow. Don't worry, I got a haircut soon after I took this photo.

I took a bus ride to the CO national monument in Grand Junction. Preceding a long bus delay and getting stuck in a flash blizzard in the mountain passes of Vail, I ran around some rocks.




One of my projects at work was to help shoot lasers from a van (pictured) at a drone, and map gas plumes.




(The title of this post is slightly misleading. I have no idea if any other alumni intend to blog in the near future)

Props to Joey for killing, plucking then feeding me a delicious chicken.

Eli

BIG SPLASH Cont.

Here are some more pictures of the homecoming and Big Splash festivities.

Elowyn enjoying make your own sundae at Driscoll on Thursday night homecoming dinner.

Some of the freshman very excited for Big Splash.

Love

Major points for Miguel, waking up early and running in the cold!

So great to have the alumni back

I am really looking forward to getting some time on snow in Craftsbury next week and sharing Thanksgiving with the best team!  I hear the food there rocks.

Winter is coming!