UNH CARNIVAL

On Thursday morning we departed the Purple Valley for Jackson, NH, the site of the UNH Carnival. We stayed on snow all week prior to our departure, but had to drive to Mohawk Regional High School to find decent snow conditions. The large snow banks and perfect trail conditions were a welcome site as we pulled into the Eagle Mountain House for our 4 day stay.

Perfect Trail Conditions!

The Men touring "The Wave"

 Everyone waxed up classic skis and toured "The Wave" 5k loop, which we raced on for both races. Thursday evening we had a wonderful dinner courtesy of Peter and Emily Benson (Hannah's parents) at their beautiful home just up the road from the Eagle Mountain House.

A custom cake Purple and Gold on the inside!
Happy 21st Birthday Ben!

Enjoying the time at the Benson Residence

 Friday's races were the 5/10K individual start classic races. It was quite cold, but the lack of wind made for good racing conditions. The men hit the course first. Kalle led the way with his first top 20 result in 20th place. Kalle was followed by Jordan in 21st and Vanya in 26th to round out the top three. Here are the results:

http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results14/unh2014-4.pdf

Kalle - 20
Jordan - 21
Vanya - 26
Will - 29
Isaac - 31
Hans - 50
Luke - 53
Josh - 60
Ben - 69

The women followed in the 5K. Hannah Cole finished in 18th, Hannah Benson in 23rd and Olivia in 29th to round out the top three. Here are the results:

http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results14/unh2014-3.pdf

Hannah Cole - 18
Hannah Benson - 23
Olivia - 29
Laura - 33
Eliza - 41
Elena - 43
Jenna - 52
Tsaina - 53

After a great day of racing the team enjoyed another INCREDIBLE food table spread put together by the most amazing team parents on circuit. Thank you parents!! The team then settled into their rooms for the afternoon and we had a nice buffet dinner. One of the great things about staying at the Eagle Mountain House is that you rarely need to load up in the vans!

Saturday's races were the 15/20K mass start races. My pictures from the weekend are very limited due to the notable absence of Peter Hoenig (our star photographer). He was home with Eli who is recovering from the stomach flu. I did, however take some video and here are a few screenshots from the race:

Will in the 20K on the first climb

Olivia in the 15k on the first climb

Hans in the finishing stretch of the 20K

Luke getting ready for the pack sprint
(he dusted the Dartmouth guy:)!)

In the men's race Will led the way in 12th place followed by Vanya in 20th and Kalle in 27th place.

Here are the results:

http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results14/unh2014-8.pdf

Will - 12

Vanya - 20

Kalle - 27

Isaac - 28

Jordan - 33

Luke - 35

Josh - 55

Hans - 61

Ben - 81

After a quick break the women hit the course for the 15K. 

Hannah Cole led the way for the women despite a couple of crashes and a broken pole in 15th place. Hannah Benson and Elena rounded out our top 3 in 19th and 32nd place.

Here are the results:

http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results14/unh2014-7.pdf

Hannah Cole - 15

Hannah Benson - 19

Elena - 32

Olivia - 34

Tsaina - 54

Laura - 65

Eliza - 66

Jenna - 78

Overall it was an excellent weekend of racing with fitness gains for all, some personal bests for several folks on the team and some great time spent together as a team. We were able to extend the ski weekend thanks to the Benson family offering up there house (s), which allowed us to get in a nice distance ski on Sunday.

Tsaina, Elena and Heidi (Class of 2018) enjoying
a children's movie while we wait for our table

Enjoying the Ellis River/Hall Trail loop on Sunday!

The team skied an approx. 28K scenic loop on Sunday morning before departing for Williamstown. The trail was awesome with some beautiful grooming, some powder touring and a ripping downhill that left us all grinning from ear to ear!!
Next weekend is the UVM Carnival/Eastern Cup on Saturday and Sunday in Stowe, VT. Keep an eye on the blog for results early next week!

COLBY CARNIVAL

This past weekend kicked off the 2014 carnival season! We left Williamstown early Thursday morning and drove through a mostly snowless New England to arrive in Waterville in time for a short ski. Despite the 5+ inches of rain that they received the trails survived well enough and we were able to get in a good racing weekend on a 2.5K loop.
Friday's first race was the women's 5K classic. Hannah Cole, Hannah Benson and Elena led the charge for the Eph women. Here are the results:

http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results14/cbc2014-3.pdf

Hannah Cole - 17
Hannah Benson - 28
Elena - 33
Olivia - 41
Laura - 54
Jenna - 55
Eliza - 64
Tsaina - 65
Sarah - 72

The men's 10K started next. Eli Hoenig, Vanya Rybkin and Will Wicherski rounded out our top three skiers, followed very closely by Kalle Jahn, Jordan Fields and Hans Halvorsen. Results can be found here:

http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results14/cbc2014-4.pdf

Eli - 11
Vanya - 23
Will - 24
Kalle - 29
Jordan - 30
Hans - 31
Ben - 81

Someone will have to check me on this, but as far as I can tell Williams put their 6th skier higher than any other team in the race in the men's field. Great depth this year! Both teams finished in 6th place overall.

Here are a few pictures courtesy of Emily Benson (Hannah's mom):

Hannah B.

Tsaina

Elena

Eliza

Laura

Josh near tent. Check out the
WAXING TRUCK in the background:)

Laura, Hannah, Hannah and Peter Benson

Eli on his way to an 11th place finish!

Jordan

Will cresting the hill

Temps dropped below freezing on Friday night making for some fast skiing for the 10/15K freestyle races on Saturday. Some of the downhills turned into icy "bobsled" runs, but considering the weather leading up to the race the conditions were decent overall.

The women went first and put together some solid performances. Hannah Benson led the women's team. Hannah Cole put together great laps on laps 2, 3 and 4 after losing almost a minute on lap 1 when losing here pole. A sign of good things to come! Olivia rounded out our scoring team in 31st place. Elena started well, but was pulled from the race after a bad crash. Luckily, she is okay and ready to go for next weekend!

Here are the results:

http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results14/cbc2014-7.pdf

Hannah B. - 24
Hannah C. - 28
Olivia - 31
Sarah - 54
Tsaina - 60
Laura - 67
Eliza - 72
Jenna - 75

The men once again raced well with Eli in 10th, Will 19th and Jordan 21st. Here are the results:

http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results14/cbc2014-8.pdf

Eli - 10
Will - 19
Jordan - 21
Kalle - 25
Vanya - 31
Hans - 41
Ben - 79

The women finished in 7th and the men in 5th for the day.

Here are some pictures from the freestyle race courtesy of Peter Hoenig. Thank you Peter!

Jason and Bud putting the new truck through the paces

Hannah Cole

Hannah Benson

Sarah

Tsaina

Olivia

Elena

Eliza

Jenna

Laura

Kalle

Eli

Jordan

Will

Hans

Ben

Vanya

Sarah and Jenna...all smiles.

All in all it was a successful first weekend leaving the team hungry for improved results this coming weekend. The races will be a 5/10K Classic on Friday and 15/20K Mass start Freestyle on Saturday held in Jackson, NH. Keep an eye on the blog this weekend for the next round of results!

Middlebury Classic Time Trial

After a SOAKING wet day yesterday we enjoyed a nice dinner at American Flatbread:

MMMM.......PIZZA

We rested up for the evening and woke to 33 degree temps (much better than the upper 50s when we were at dinner). Rikert took a hit overnight, but the trail was in surprisingly good shape and Mike touched up the bridges for us, so we could put together a 2k loop. Not much skiing in the track was done, but we did pull off a 12k TT for the men and 8K for the women. Several of the Middlebury skiers joined us. Here are the results:

The team did a GREAT job this weekend making the best out of the conditions we had. We're all looking forward to skiing in some REAL TRACKS someday soon:).

This was also the trial weekend for the new truck. It worked really well!

As Jayvin would say, "AWESOME SAUCE!"

Next weekend is a go at Colby. We'll be racing a 5/10K Classic on Friday and a 15/20K Skate on Saturday. The search for snow continues this week, stay tuned!

Middlebury Time Trial

We left Williamstown this morning for a training weekend at Middlebury. Their snowmaking system is quite impressive and when we decided mid-week to make the trip we had envisioned good tracks and a great opportunity for back-to-back Time Trials. However, Mother Nature unloaded on us today and made the day quite interesting. Despite the torrential rains we did squeeze in a Skate TT. Approx 3.5 and 7K distances. The team rallied hard and everyone got their HRs up and went through their race prep routines.

Ben and Vanya at the start (women's team behind)

The conditions were variable and a bit unpredictable, but we did do some timing out there:

 THE RESULTS:
Kalle 16:15
Hans 16:45
Jordan 17:00
Isaac 17:15
Vanya 17:18
Luke 17:21
Ben 18:35

Hannah B. 9:21
Elena 9:55
Sarah 10:14
Hannah C. 10:15
Jenna 10:21
Olivia 10:24
Laura 10:28

A bit wet!

Doesn't look the best from the lodge.

All week we've been looking for snow:

Woodford State Park

Prospect on Tuesday

Prospect yesterday BEFORE the rain
Will and Josh enjoying the snow

10/15K Skate Mass Start Time Trial

We had a good trip home on Saturday and arrived to the Purple Valley right around 5pm. Given the weather forecast and the fact that it was too cold to have our Quebec 5/10K Classic Time Trial on Friday we schedule a 10/15K Mass Start Skate Time Trial for Sunday morning. We arrived to some beautiful snow at Prospect, although it was a bit thin and bumpy compared to the buffed out conditions in Mt. Ste. Anne! The workout went really well and it was nice to see everyone get a race start in and to go hard without wearing 4 layers of clothes, buffs, etc.

Men's team out of the start

Women's team out of the start

Everyone raced on training skis with various speeds due to the conditions and it was very challenging to pass out there, resulting in some tight groups. Here are the results:

Men:
Vanya - 43:40
Kalle - 43:41
Jordan - 43:50
Will - 43:58
Isaac - 44:06
Josh - 47:19
Luke - 47:20
Ben - 47:21

Women:
Hannah Benson - 36:02
Olivia - 36:39
Hannah Cole - 37:18
Sarah - 37:49
Eliza - 38:04
Elena - 38:32
Laura - 40:20
Jenna - 41:40

Quebec Days 4 and 5

On Thursday we woke up to approximately -30F temps. Needless to say, it was COLD. By 12:45 though we had loaded the vans and we were able to grab a couple hour ski. It was -10F, which seems to be a reasonably productive distance training temperature if you're careful not to expose much (if any) skin. Today was originally slated to be our annual 5/10K Classic Time Trial day, but with temps forecasted to only reach -4F for a brief hour or so in the afternoon we decided our time would be better spent getting in a last day of double distance sessions. We classic skied up from the condos in the morning and skated a variety of trails in the afternoon including 22, 23 and 24. It's been an awesome week of training for everyone with some big hours logged on snow. The truck is loaded and we're rolling out of St. Anne at 8:15 tomorrow morning for the 8 hour drive back to Williamstown. Sunday we'll be skiing at Prospect and are having a 10/15K mass start skate time trial. The temps have been so cold that I've been hesitant to break out a bare hand to take many pictures, but here are a few from today:

The trailhead near our condos

Skiers appearing in the distance 

Getting closer

-11F. No problem, just start with a 40 min uphill

Trail 23 second year in a row!
Olivia and Hannah