so cal winter break

Receiving battle wounds from wind, sun, and snow here in J Tree. Climbing with Felix Venturers, seeing an old man roller skiing in the park, running at altitude. What more makes a perfect spring break?

Hawaii, Part 1

After we played a few hard-earned games of Halo the weekend after classes, Kalle, Elena and I set out from Williamstown for an epic Spring Break adventure. Before we knew it, we were on a plane from LA to Hilo, counting down the hours until we were on vacation in a true geologic paradise. This may not be the white-sand-and-palm-tree paradise that comes to mind when you think about "paradise," however—at least not for this first week. Talk about a strange and distant land. One of the most unbelievable differences is just the fact that eruptions are such a common part of life here. Not only are they a large part of the native religion, they are a part of life as a local in parts of the island. Back home in New England, I've always thought of volcanoes as something you have to stay as far away from as possible, but here in Hawaii, you can't get too far away from them even if you want to. Who says geology is boring?

Our first few days involved walking through pit craters, finding recent lava flows from Kilauea, hiking around Mauna Kea at 12,000 feet, Gordon Smith (the lone biologist on the trip and Hannah's cousin) explaining interesting island flora, touring kipukas, and expoloring my personal favorite features, lava tubes.

For the first week, we've been living in rental houses at a small B&B in the town of Volcano, on the border of National Park land. We do have a blog, but it's rather inundated by inside jokes and may not be that interesting to the outside reader. http://hiloandstitch.blogspot.com/.

 

Looking out across Kilauea Iki crater floor, the last eruption of which occurred in 1959

A lava hook

 Diving into shallow water...with shoes on

 Stand back, science is dangerous

 Inside a large lava tube

 

 Trying to get those extra few inches up to 13,900 ft

 Four of us working on extreme photobombing skills

 Kalle tries and fails to take one of those pictures where you pretend to hold something in the background in the palm of your hand

Kalle drives recklessly into some lava spilt across a road

Kalle drives recklessly off the summit of Mauna Kea

Kalle drives recklessly off a cliff and into the ocean

More updates are coming. I've already learned more from sight and experience in the first five days than I have in a full semester in almost any other class. However, Paul (Karabinos, the professor in charge of the trip) says that once we move to Puako next week, the pace of our trip will slow down considerably. Apparently that means: beach in the morning, geology for the middle part of the day, and beach in the afternoon. Some of us here may never leave!

From One Water Sport to Another

This spring break we have three skiers testing out crew. Jenna and Hannah S. have been taking their first strokes with WWC in preparation for the first regatta in a little over a week. We have all gotten in some good cross training in the sunny weather, and have even had time to catch up on sleep and check out the nearby beach.

The Extended Williams Family - Keepin' it Real on California Snow

Keith Kantack sent me this photo recently. . . .It's a real small world when Ski team alums and the dads of ski team alums and the dads of non-ski team Williams alums all get together on a sunny Californian day to go skiing!

Keith Kantack ('11), Mr Joffe (dad of Natalie('07) and Gabby's (11) dad), Morgan Goodwin('08), Mr Lee (dad of Nick Lee;'11 Williams grad))

Sarah Tory bikes Patagonia!

Bud and I received an email from '11 Alum, Sarah Tory, before we left for NCAA's.  Those of you who were on the team last year may remember all the crazy bike-trip schemes the Torinator was coming up with. .. . . Well, she is actually living out those dreams right now! Her blog is: www.bikepatagonia.wordpress.com.

She says:
Just wanted to say hi and congrats to the team for finishing up the season - seems like it was a tough winter snow-wise. But looks like you guys still found ways to rock the cow. Right now I'm in Bariloche, in the Argentinian Lakes region of northern Patagonia. It´s beautiful here with lots of mountains, turquoise lakes, rivers, and even a ski resort (and rain and wind too, but no need to dwell on that part!) The bike trip has been incredible so far and we're about to start the most epic part i.e. biking through remote stretches of southern Patagonia with fall´s colder temperatures and unpredictable weather fast approaching. Needless to say, for the first time in my life I´m not praying for snow. For more pictures and stories of the trip, you guys can check out our blog if you{re interested. It´s tough to post regularly - not to mention with quality content - but we do our best: www.bikepatagonia.wordpress.com. 
Special congratulations shout out to the seniors and good luck to the NCAAers!

Will in 11th and Dimitri 20th in NCAA Classic!!!

What a day! When Coach Fisher and I pulled into the Bohart stadium at 7am it was already 36 degrees, and the just-rising sun lit the white ridge of the mountain backdrop in an orange hue.
The day only got warmer, but for the men's race, at 9am, the track was humid but still firm, and we were able to find a good klister kicker.  Dimitri and Will had a clean start, Dimitri starting in bib 15 and Will in bib 35.  It took less than 15 minutes for the men to ski each 5k lap, and Bud and I had to hold our breath, as we stood in the stadium waiting to give feeds, to see how the race would change through the next lap.  Will kept moving up on each lap, from 35th to 21st, to 11th, to 10th - - - as he arrived in the stadium for the finish sprint he and a Utah skier were duking it out for the last All-American spot.  Will gave it everything he had, but his Utah competitor beat him at the finish kick, and Will ended in 11th.  FANTASTIC!  This is the second best showing by a Williams nordic male, and fourth best overall by any Williams nordic skier!
  Meanwhile, Dimitri Luthi, despite having a tough second lap, rallied in the fourth lap to pass a lot of racers. He had a rough fall going into the last kilometer downhill, but still managed to ski back to 20th place as he crossed the line.  A great race by both!
   The alpine team came out to watch the races, and several alums - Scottie McClelland, Nickie Kimball, and Alice Nelson, were in cheering attendance as well.
   Also exciting was the women's race, which resulted in the East taking the top 6 places, and 7 out of the top 10!

Early morning stadium pano

asst. alpine coach Kelsey Levine rests after driving our men to the races  in the early a.m.

Dimitri skis in a pack at 2k

Will in a pack of skiers through the stadium

Will laps through the stadium and grabs a feed from Coach Fisher

Coach Fisher cheers Dimitri into the finishing 400 meters

Ski team alums Scottie McClelland and Nicki Kimball, trailside

Women's alpine team and nordic alum Alice Nelson, trailside

Geordie PODIUMS!!!

Junior Geordie Lonza took THIRD in the Giant Slalom yesterday!!  This is the first time since 1994 a Williams female skier has been on the podium!! Sweeeeeet!!  She and Laurel will race the Slalom tomorrow - you can watch it live at:
THIS LINK

Geordie Lonza and Laurel Carter

Mountainous Days

A beautifully extra-blue morning at Bohart

Dimitri and Will :course-side chillin'

mountainous views on course

Will 25th, Dimitri 35th in tightly contested NCAA 10k

It was a mountain-shine smile of a morning at Bohart Ranch for the first NCAA race.  The wind did pick up a little before then men's event started, but the temperature was a balmy 30 degrees and the track stayed pretty solid through the women's race at 9 and into the men's race at 11am.  Wearing bibs 5 and 8, Dimitri and Will put their altitude tolerance to the test around two laps of the tough 5k course.  There were some steep climbs out of the start, a couple km's of V2, a straight-up wall just before 4k, and a very long and steep climb near the finish.  A course without respite, but of course the Ephs were tough despite.
Dimitri finished a respectable 35th, just one second off 34th and 20 seconds off the top 30.
In his first NCAA competition, Will made a very impressive showing with 25th place - -   only 4 seconds from 21st place and 7 seconds from 19th!
     It was also great to have nordic alum Alice Nelson ('10) on the course and cheering for the Purple and Gold!

Will

Dimitri

Coach Fisher treats us to lunch at Great Harvest;Williams alpiners show up too

Alice Nelson (center)

More banquet photos

I had to add these photos taken by alpine asst coach Kelsey Levine. . .

Will and Dimitri

Nordic + Alpine: Bud, Aubrey,.Will, Dimitri, Geordie Lonza, Laurel Carter, asst Kelsey Levine, coach Ed Grees

Keeping clean while dining

Native American Drums and Dancing

NCAA day 2: Training Day and Banquet

From Spring conditions yesterday to full on Winter today. We trained on the course this morning, tested skis, waxed skis, and then went to the NCAA banquet.Will still hasn't found his ski bag, which failed to make it back with him from Turkey, but he is borrowing some skis from Fisher for the week so he is still ready to rock.  Both Will and Dimitri did some short, race-sharp intervals today and felt ready to race!
Tomorrow the women race at 9 and the men at 11. Be sure to check out the live feed!

Will and Dimitri discuss training with Coach Fisher

Aubrey, Dimitri, Will, Bud at Banquet

Will and Dimitri (far right) get recognized as Eastern qualifiers

Live Video Feed

It was gorgeous yesterday here in Bozeman, MT, with a temp of 50 degrees and sunny. (Unfortunately I couldn't find my camera yesterday, so have no photo documentation. . .).  It is now snowing and 30, should make for a much different day of skiing at the race venue.

Will and Dimitri have been eating bison with as much dedication as they've been skiing the 5k loop at Bohart Ranch, and getting very friendly with the cute cashier at a nearby hardware store. . .

The 5k at Bohart features some nice rolling V2 terrain sandwiched in between some really killer steeps, one of which can appropriately be termed "The Wall".

Supposedly the NCAA will have live video feed of the races, as they did last year! The more people who check it out, the more likely they will have this feature in the future, so check it:

VIDEO LINK

Spin, Spin Sugar

Congrats to Jenna Maddock for winning the Women's C and Ben Corwin for winning the Men's C2 class at Rutgers Criterium races this Saturday!  After only cycling a handful of times, these two adventurously jumped right into the cycling season and spun it!

When more is better

We had a couple great training days this week with some new snow at Prospect. Dimitri and Will completed their last tune-up intervals in preparation of NCAA's, while the rest of the team keeps training in preparation of Bretton Woods Marathon and Spring Series.

Dimitri, Isaac, Phil; loving the snow

Dimitri completes intervals up Steffan's Climb

Dimitri's pacer on the Climb

Team Photo 2011-2012

Our team photo was ironically scheduled to happen just as the snow started falling here in town. It really looks like winter around here!
(There is a larger version of the photo on the bottom of the page, with listed names)