General Holla'ins from California

Summer recap up to this point:
-Left Maine (duh).

-Came home briefly before going to San Diego for my grandparents' 50th anniversary, which was awesome. Additionally, got the worst sunburn I've had in as long as I can remember - punishment for leaving sunny CA to go to school in New England, I suppose.

Toasting by the Pacific

-Returned to Truckee just in time for the glorious arrival of "CAP'N" LUCAS MILLIKEN AND NOAH BRAUTIGAM (of Middlebury skiing fame), who are living in my crib this summer. Having a Midd kid around means that we are playing lots of pickup B-ball, and Lukie and I are totally getting our skillz on point and soon (key word) will be unstoppable.

-SKIED. ON SNOW. Since we got here, Auburn Ski Club has been grooming every weekend. We're talking full coverage, clean snow, and cold nights making for bulletproof tracks in the morning yielding to soft corn later in the day. It's like glacier camp...but there's no glacier, just stupid doo doo dumb amounts of snow. Lucas described it just right in his post: perfect. Myself, Lucas and Bowdoin skier Spencer Eusden even got out to a sweet backcountry spot in my neighborhood the other week and earned some turns; so sweet.

Lucas did a casual double backflip off the cornice in the background, no biggie.

Truckee Sucks.



Home Sweet Home: Auburn Ski Club

-Besides being on snow, we've done some extreme dryland stuff: rollerskiing, running, biking, and training with the junior teams.

Captain Beth, DOINGIT (photo shamelessly stolen from Mark Nadell's MacBeth Graphics)

With summer starting for real yesterday (happy solstice everybody!), things are just getting rolling, and the Bates contingent here - myself, Lucas, Beth, Gretchen and Andrea - will do our best to keep everyone updated from the deep west. Shoutouts to Bill Clark for grooming, everyone who is housing a skier, and ASC and Sugar Bowl Academy coaches Ben Grasseschi and Jeff Schloss, respectively...not to mention the legendary Coach Martin Benes. INTOIT.

Truckee: Where Winter goes for the Summer

Beth, Gretchen and I have all been in Truckee, CA for at least a week now. Andrea is coming out soon. We are all spending the summer in Truckee and training with Martin as part of Auburn Ski Club. This morning we skied ON SNOW. Yesterday we skied on snow! The weather here also happens to be just about perfect. Every day it has been sunny and warm, and every night it gets cold enough to make the snow firm again.
We also have a great crew to train with. Noah Brautigam and I are living at Alex Hamilton's house, Spencer Eusden is staying at Alex's friend's house, Kelsey is here when she is not rafting, Caitlin Curran is living with Beth and Casey and Phil from Williams are here as well. All in All it is lining up to be a great summer.