Winter Break in the Northeast

After the rain washed away a bit of the wonderful snow in Vermont, the Grossman family decided to embark on a search for snow. We decided to go to a little ski area north of Montreal, called Far Hills, in Val Morin. We found out about this town because we went go-karting nearby this summer! First, before finding snow, we went exploring in Montreal for a morning, at my sister's request, who was much more excited for that than about than skiing. We went to a giant "open air market" that was like a massive farmer's market, but in the winter, and under cover. Montreal was covered in snow, and we all were thinking that this is probably what the race organizers envisioned Quebec looking like for the World Cup last December. It was beautiful. After being touristy for a bit, we went to Far Hills. We had a short family ski on Tuesday afternoon, where my brother quickly found the little kids hill, complete with stuffed animals in the trees. He had fun beating me down the hill and doing tricks.
We were staying with family friends, who we traditionally have spend winter break with in Mt. St Anne, so we went out to dinner with them. Finding somewhere to eat on Christmas Eve was a task, but eventually we found a restaurant and had wonderful dinners after deciphering the French menu.
Christmas Day dawned, bright and (really) cold. We were are all excited to use our polar wax. I did some exploring by myself and found some cool things. First, at one point I took my ski off and ended up in snow that was deeper than my knees! Second, I found a trail called Condor and a mountain called Mount Condor- who knew Connor had a mountain named after him?! Third, I went on a neat narrow single track trail, complete with steep downhills and hair pin turns. I've never skied in Europe, but it made me think of a trail in Scandinavia that could go on for kilometer after kilometer. In the afternoon, a group of us skied again and it was great, especially because it had warmed up a bit and it was really fun to ski with other people after a morning of skiing alone. My brother, sister, and dad carried on a family tradition of alpine skiing on Christmas day, finding on of the many tiny ski areas in the town we were in.
It was a short trip and I returned in time to do some lovely intervals and strength with Britta and Gracie at Rikert on Thursday. Rikert has awesome snow, especially considering the recent weather! At the gym, I met a guy who graduated from Bates a few years ago, and his parting words were "It's nice to see so many Bobcats around!"
ITS A GREAT DAY TO BE A BOBCAT!
Love,
Hallie

The little kid hill- look at the animals in the trees!

Single track!

Cold and sunny!

So many good things: Family, Racing, Believing, and Fried Eggs

            It’s the day after Christmas, I’m at home and thoroughly enjoying the presence of my biological family (but missing my ski family). My mom, brothers, and I just shoveled a few inches of fresh powder off the driveway. The sky is a pale pink color and everything glitters in the light of the setting sun. This break has been so much of what it should be; with lots of time to relax (and play video games with my brothers which is relaxing despite the loud bangs and explosions), fun with the family, good food, cooking, baking, and just enough snow to ski on (something rare for this time of year here in Massachusetts). Still, even in all of this splendor, I think many would agree with me when I say that I’m ready to get racing!

Last weekend’s race was such a tease, preceded by a note from Sylvan reminding us of what it means to believe and followed by an inspiring post by Britta; it has left me thinking about the passion we all feel for skiing, the way it brings us all together, and the positive influence of a strong and dedicated team.

Those of us here in the East had quite a day at Craftsbury. It was cold, wet, and definitely fun (although the second race was cancelled due to the weather). Chewy and Lucas made our skis rocket ships and coached us through a great day of racing where we ended up skiing the sprint course upwards of five times. For a few of us it was our first time racing in the heats, which meant that we needed some good advice on warm ups and tactics and I at least, needed Lucas’ calming presence to remind me that qualifying isn’t anything to loose your head about. Which brings me to some sports-psych stuff and the topic of believing.

The night before the race Lucas and Chewy asked who would make the heats the next day, we all raised our hands although some of us more tentatively than others. I don’t know about the others in the group, but I was mostly raising my hand because I wanted to qualify and I knew that confidence is a key component of racing fast. Deep down inside though, I couldn't honestly say that I was confident that I would qualify for the rounds. I tried, but I just couldn’t. I asked myself afterwards if this mentality hampered my performance, it may have, but I don’t know if it did. I thought about Sylvan’s words in an email to the team, “Anyone who has skied for more than a year competitively has the ability to change their ability just by tweaking their mentality (i.e. believing in yourself).” I turned these words over and over in my head and finally, I realized that he said, “believing in yourself,” not, “believing in the result.” It occurred to me, that I honestly believed and felt completely confident that I would go out race as fast as I could. I believed in myself and I believed in my ability, even though I wasn’t sure what the result of that would be, and this made all the difference. 

Anyway, after that ramble I will give you some results. The menz at the Eastern Cup were as follows; Connor (32), Nate (84), Emmet (89) in a field of just over 200. The women at the Eastern Cup were; Hallie (8), Jane (12), Britta (22), Gracie (33), Sadie (55) in a field of just over 150. At the Crested Butte Solstice Showdown Wade Rosko was 17^th. And congrats to Laurel, who won the Tennenbaum 10km Classic and beat her mom for the first time in a ski race (by 9 seconds)! I don’t have any more results for you, the other bobcats did time trials and intervals last weekend, so rest assured that we’re getting prepped and revving our engines for racing season!

Much love and happy skiing,

Jane

And here are some photos:

Laurel and Filly

Eggs on the new fry pan!

The cookies I baked and painted

The Tao of Skiing/Finals

Hello World! I am pleased to report that all the Bates Nordic Bobcats have clawed their way through another tough finals week and emerged on the other side, bright eyed and bushy tailed, into the wonderful world of vacation. It is easy to move on to leaving tracks on the trails instead of butt-imprints on the library chairs and chew marks on our pencils, but, if you chew hard enough, it seems that learning and skiing go together! Synergy!

Here we go: For my final paper for an Education class. I chose to write about Humanism and its role in teaching. As I started reading different humanist psychologists, I realized they were articulating something I had been thinking about with my skiing for a long time. Abraham Maslow in particular seems to really be a nordic skier in disguise. In his book Towards a Psychology of Being, he writes about how people sometimes think the primary human goal is to get rid of all of our "needs" and achieve instead an "state of rest," "equilibrium," or "lack of pain," and towards a state of not wanting. In this way, we motivated by deficiencies towards a state of "not wanting."

                                         Filly's Movember mustache is actually a Maslow imitation

However, being motivated by our deficits and merely coping with what is thrown at us is not the right way to be living. Maslow talks instead about being "growth motivated." This is not "goal oriented." It is a state where the goal and the result are synonymous. When we define things in terms of goals, we tend to consider an endpoint which justifies the means, but instead, Maslow suggests that we should live like children who find, but do not search. We are not "preparing to live, we are living," we are being, not becoming.

So how does all this psychobabble about a dead guy relate to skiing? My boy Maslow says "We don't do it because it is good for us (we don't do it for the muscles), because psychologists (Becky) approve, because it is good for the species (because it makes us popular,) or because it brings external rewards (bragging rights,/cash money) we do it for the same reason we pick one dessert over another, choose to kiss one person over another." The easy thing to get from this is that we are not skiing for the results. But what was more interesting to me was how it influenced my idea of racing. When I reflect on my best races, they are not the ones that hurt the most. I was not pushing, I was not "coping with the pain," I was not grimacing. Like the child Maslow suggests, I found the results but did not search for them. It is very similar to the Taoist idea of "effortless action." We have been training for years to ski fast, we want to ski fast, and the next step, it seems, is just to let ourselves ski fast. It is glamorous to think that the person that tries the hardest wins the race, but in fact, it is really just the person that skis the fastest-and often that person is relaxed and released from any dichotomy of mind and body, process and result.

                                             Despite what it looks like, this was not a great race. See why above.

So, after a long finals week during which I unfortunately wrote more pages than I skied kilometers, I at least came away with some sweet skiing related knowledge, the ability to use dichotomy in a sentence and at least 4 hours procrastinating by looking at pictures of Maslow's mustaches.

Keep your eyes out for an action packed recap from Jane about actual racing and snow!!!

Thanks for reading! Go Bobcats!
Britta

P.S. If you aren't interested in reading this whole blog post, here is a summary via Pooh Bear.

“To know the way, 
we go the way, 
we do the way.
The way we do,
the things we do,
it's all there in front of you.
But if you try too hard to see it,
you'll only become confused.
I am me and you are you.
As you can see; 
but when you do 
the things that you can do, 
you will find the way.
The way will follow you.” 
    -The Tao of Pooh

HOME STRETCH

HOME STRETCH

Hey there!  Things are going in full gear here at Bates. We’ve had some great training since we’ve been back from Canada. Tuesday offered some specific strength back on roller skis. It was a bummer to be back on the pavement rather than the crisp white corduroy of Foret, but it was great training nonetheless. On Wednesday we had a killer set of intervals at Lost Valley- a bit of snow and ice on the trail added a whole new element to the game. Shout out to Nate for absolutely crushing the intervals, even without Sean there to keep pace with him. On Friday Becky surprised us with a much-needed stress relieving game of speedball in the Grey Cage. It was awesome!! Saturday capped off a great week with some level four skate roller skiing intervals at Pineland. We were all pretty tired from hard studying and training all week, but we all definitely showed how deep we could dig by putting up some great times during the intervals.

Now it’s time to dig deep academically and rock the socks off of finals week. After that we all get to head home! Here we go Bobcats.

Mustaches: Gone but not forgotten

Reminiscent of some great football in Canada. Here's Filly with a great one handed snag

SOON TO COME, a Freshman Feature of the Sixpack:

Wade “F.” Rosko

Henry “Alaska” Loeffler

Max “Random Trivia” Millslagle

Ben “Big Foot” Pratt

Nate “Silent but Deadly” Moreau

and myself, Emmett “I’m so Vermont I sweat grade A maple syrup” Peterson

All the best,

Emmett

CANADA

Like Maddy said, we couldn't have been more excited to ski on Sunday morning. It was so amazing to get back on snow and get all the kinks worked out from those 8 months (or 5 if you're Max) of not being on snow. Everyone seemed to have a permanent smile on their face as they skied around and around for a little over an hour. The skiing has been absolutely incredible. The first three days we were on a 2k loop, but luckily, we got about 10 inches of snow on Wednesday and Foret groomed out over 20k!

Not too bad for November!

Of course, Thanksgiving dinner was incredibly delicious. The girls joined in on Movember (see the photo below), we had a White Elephant with gifts including a stroll with Wade Rosko, a 30 minute back massage from Filly, a back scratcher (don't get Gracie started on it), a questionable Christmas tree, and a pair of size 13 cleats; the last two were both found in a Foret dumpster.

Happy Movember from that Bates Women's Team

Tomorrow we're doing a 5k/10k skate "mini-carnival" with all of the other teams that are up here. After that, we're heading back to Lewiston for a day to settle back into everything before classes start again on Monday. We have one week of classes, a week of finals, and then we're back on break in exactly two weeks!! A short amount of time to get a lot of work done, but we'll make it!

Happy skiers: Jane, Nate, Connor, and Hallie

We somehow fit 27 of us in here!

Happy Thanksgiving!

xoxo Sadie

thankfuls

Happy Thanksgiving! -tara

Thanksgiving is a special time

one that I believe deserves a rhyme

Though I don’t care for the holidays, not really at all,

this day is one of my favorites of the fall.

I feel so very blessed to be here with you all.

I think we’re all excited for the changing of seasons,

but snow or no snow, I’m thankful for the following reasons:

That calming presence reminding you everything’s going to be OK,

you look around, wondering, and realize it’s J

Filly seems to always put things into perspective

and the look on his face during lost valley is when Sean’s drive is reflected

Connor will tell you about supply and demand,

and Nick removes stress and tension with shoulder massages, an ability only possessed by the kindest of hands

Caroline has only one speed and it’s zoom… I’m pretty sure she was even hyper inside of the womb

and Gabby’s laugh creates smiles, turns heads, sometimes even making people leave the room

Hallie inspires all with being the best that she can be

and Jane asks for a van-bathroom stop when, let’s be honest, we all have to pee

Corky makes the cool factor of nordic exponentially grow

and somehow the right thing to say, Gracie always just knows

Helen is a rock with her quiet, kind, stoic ways

And Britta tells you what you need to hear, unless she senses, which she often does, that it’s ‘one of those days’

Nate is thoughtful,

Henry quirky,

And Emmett’s a blast

Ben works hard,

Max skis fast and in commons does mingle

and y’all better watch out because Wade Rosco is single.

Amy’s smile stretches miles wide

And outside and having fun is where Maddy thrives

In Laurel, not a single mean bone can be found

And Sadie’s presence helps keep all our feet on the ground.

There’s no technique problem Chewy’s not willing to help fix

and Becky is proof that high expectations and loving kindness can, in fact, mix

Look to your left, now your right, this group is unique

not to mention good looking, all gems, with nice skier physique

We have home, happiness, health, this that and the other

But most important of all… we have each other.

November 11-23

The week following our adventure to Acadia was another volume week with big training hours. The team kept a positive outlooks and pushed through doubles for most of the week as well as some awesome lost valley ski bounding intervals and a tough week in classes. 6:30am Saturday morning the team skate-rolled out for a long L3 interval session. Why out so early? It's not a standard practice, but the team wanted to have time to drive down to Gorham (Maine) in time to watch the Bates Men's and Women's cross-country regionals races (that determined if they would go to nationals) and cheer on our favorite bobcats.

The courses for the two races were pretty cool from a cheering perspective; with multiple opportunities to watch the runners on course. Both the Men's and Women's races were very exciting and the energy from the cheering fans as well as the racers was really cool to be a part of. The number of racers was overwhelming. The Batsies were holding good places in the pack and the men's team as well as one girl, who qualifies as an individual, headed to Indiana for nationals this weekend. Way to go Bobcats!!!!!

On the ride home Emmett fell asleep again- as usual.

Between the women's and men's races we played some touch football (Shoutout to Hallie for much improved football skills) and a couple of the Colby skiers joined us and we learned some of their top secret plays (this will definateley give us the upper hand as we take them on in a Thanksgiving Bobcats- Mules game).

Sunday we headed out on our last OD classic rollerski of the fall. Backy and Matt pulled up about an hour and a half in with some delicious cookies that gave us the energy we needed for the rest of the ski! We finished the week exhausted but stoked at the amount of training we fit in.

This past week (November 18-23) has been a good recovery week as the team got ready to head to Canada for Thanksgiving camp! This morning we packed the vans with a ton of food, lots of ski clothes, SKIS and excited skiers and embarked on a journey to Stoneham, Quebec. The chalet where all the teams are staying is made up of cozy, colorfully painted condos in the midst of full-blown winter. And LOTS and LOTS of snow.
The high tomorrow is 9 degrees and we couldn't be more excited to get on snow.
Stay tuned for more on our Canadian adventures, I know Emmett has some artsy pictures coming up!

BOBCAT WOLFPACK FOR LIFE
Love,
Maddy

ACADIA (sorry Henry)

After a pint of Ben & Jerry's phish food downed in Jay's van, a midnight bowl of chowder, and Maddy's soothing (...terrorizing) snoring in my ear, Acadia was revealed to us in the beautiful sunlight of Saturday morning.
The day was off to a good start by the time 7:45 rolled around and we were practicing sun salutations on the beach, and became even better when Maddy and I unknowingly walked into the caretaker's house, expecting breakfast at the Milliken's, and were instead greeted by 3 of the cutest dogs I have ever seen and a very friendly woman in a bathrobe. After eating a delicious breakfast in the RIGHT house, we rolled out onto the coast to hammer out some 1k classic rollerski intervals.
This workout may have been the best one of the year. Almost everyone was negative splitting on most of the intervals, and Becky was pretty pumped with the team's performance. Later that day, we did some major wood-stacking (Emmett was in his backwoods Vermont element), some wrestling, and then played some girls on guys football which we DOMINATED.
The next morning, we did a sweet run through the park, a success because the girls only talked about horses for 10 minutes of the 2:45 workout.
Some stats:
42:0- the score of the football game
1:1- the score of Britta and Caroline's wrestling matches
1- the thankful number of photos Chewy instagrammed
8- the number of hashtags on that one photo
30-45- the approximate number of minutes we spent in L4-5 on Saturday
90- the approximate number of minutes we spent stacking wood
9- the largest number of lobsters Lucas has consumed during one sitting
6- the number of 1.5 quart containers of ice cream the team ate in one night
12- the number of pairs of danskos we had in the house

WOLF PACK.
xoxo Amy

Crunch Time

At around 8:30, every week, I open my Bates email and die a little inside. My brain is exhausted from class, homework, and everything in between. I consider marking all as read until I see the training schedule. Then, it sinks in, the undeniable fact that it's going to be another busy week as a college athlete.

Every day I tell someone (usually the same people over and over again) that I can't believe it's already November. Three weeks until Thanksgiving break, five until finals, six until Christmas break.. Yikes! It's officially that time of year, and I'm not talking about the holidays, even though they will be here before we know it. The academics are picking up fast and at the same time we are in the midst of a huge volume block for training. It's crunch time.

Last week was the first of our volume block. We had double workouts, two tough interval sessions, lifting, an OD, and somehow we managed to get to class in between. I got to thinking on my cool down after Level 4 intervals in Lost Valley on Wednesday. I realized that it's pretty impressive what our team is able to do on a daily basis. After a morning workout and a long day of classes, the team was still able to "bring it" to the workout. Everyone was able to let go of their days and focus on the goal of the workout. It was awesome to see the MENS and women's teams working together as we bounded up the access road, encouraging and pushing each other to new limits. More than anything, I recognized the effort. On everyone's faces I saw pure determination because we all knew that this was a workout that would make a difference.

This effort sustained through the whole week. On Sunday morning, the team was up bright and early to put on the 5k race. We ended up getting more participants than we thought we would and it ended up being a great event. Despite the cold, the team showed their nordic pride and were all smiles during the event. Afterwards, we headed out on a skate overdistance from campus. Even at the end of a hard week, everyone's spirits were still high. The girls were still able to play telephone and laugh our heads off and the boys were all smiles when they returned from four hours of roller skiing.

It's bound to be another busy week, especially the weekend when we'll head out to Acadia for a mini training camp. I can't wait. Our team as a whole is really stepping it up for this busy time of year. I know we're all ready for the challenge and that everyone is going to give it their best every single day. It's this spirit that keeps us all going, that reminds us what we are capable of when we put our minds to it. To be honest, it's pretty inspiring.

-Laurel Fiddler

October update... the unit

October flew by and November is around the corner. But although it seems the time escapes us, we are accomplishing a lot. We spent October break in Rangeley (which Filly will recap at some point in time, he’s just trying to keep you on your toes) and the camp was blessed with beautiful weather, PR-smashing improvements, and high quality workouts.

This past week was spent by most on getting back into an academic routine and focusing on physical recovery. On Saturday the group headed out to North Haven island by ferry with the other Maine college ski teams (Colby, UMPI, Bowdoin, UMO club) for a 15 kilometer freestyle rollerski effort. For some it was an opportunity to take bites out of a previous time, and for others it was an opportunity to race 15 k’s for the first time. For everyone it was a great learning experience; we discussed the lessons taken away from the (long) day on Sunday morning after another great combo OD effort. The highlights were working together with teammates on the course, figuring out what was too hard and what wasn’t hard enough, and putting in a hard effort on the wheels... which for some was also a new experience! And we got those mountain-dwelling western creatures out on the ocean for a fresh breath of salty air and, for all of us, a real change of scenery.

What I have been thinking about since Rangeley camp wrapped up is the power of “the unit.” Each effort I am amazed at what unique strengths everyone brings to the table, and these strengths hold hands with humility and respect. When we can put these strengths and qualities together and add in Becky and Matt’s support, the potential for success is high and the potential for fun limitless.

Last week at Bates I heard a South African judge speak on human rights. What stuck with me from his presentation was the African philosophy of “Ubuntu”. Ubuntu is a philosophy about respecting and supporting your fellow humans; one who practices Ubuntu does not feel threatened or jealous when others have success, realizing that he or she is part of a larger whole which is greater than he or she can be alone. In South Africa, Ubuntu means, “I am what I am because of who we all are” or simply “I am because we are.”

Skiing may be an individual sport, but there is beauty in being part of something larger and more powerful than any individual. Look around, see the opportunities... and get after it! -tara

roller ski to condor's a few weeks ago, thanks for lunch Deb!

wadey whatcha wanna do (when you're feeling a little seasick!)

big mens must be skiing.. but here the womens team loving the freshmen boys

these are some #artsy shots from wade... look at that black corduroy (good pavement!)

[...they did actually race... must have been too fast to capture the moment]

Check This Out...

Bates Skiing Slideshow from Nate Fuller on Vimeo.

We've spent a lite bit of time pulling together this video for you all to enjoy. We found a lot of old pictures in the Muskie Archives, and even included some more recent pictures and interviews with current skiers. After what we like to think was a well received debut at reunion today, it's now online for you all to see.

Alumni: If you have pictures of your own time here at Bates, let us know! We'd like to see this movie grow every year, and love to hear from all of you! You can even film your own answers to the questions our current skiers answer in the video and send those in if you're feeling really ambitious.

Stoweaways

Carnival Weekend 3: the first of our 3-in-a-row race weekends in Vermont. 

Friday morning we made the drive to last year's home-away-from-home, Stowe. The Saturday-Sunday Carnival races also doubled as Eastern Cups, making this one of the biggest weekends of racing in New England - there were almost 500 skiers out on course, and we brought the entire squad of Bobcats out to race.

It was great having the full crew out - as our boy Jerry Lynch says (and Becky quotes): "The strength of the wolf [read: bobcat] is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf."

In fact, the only thing not familiar about this weekend in Stowe was the course: the standard loop was, shall we say, a little snow deficient. The organizers did a great job, though, and were still able to pull off a full 5k loop using parts of the standard 5k as well as the 7.5k loops. Luckily for us, the major climb (affectionately referred to by the Bobcats as "The Financial District") was still there - just in the middle of the course rather than the end.

Becky making fast skis

Saturday was a 5/10k skate. Hallie led the ladies in 20th on a course that was crowded (15-second start intervals), twisty and icy, with lots of racers struggling to stay on their feet - and on some corners, stay on the course itself. Gretch finished 28th and Margaret 33rd to put our girls in 6th. Worth mentioning: Grace, Janey and Gabby all finished within one second of each other.

Of Note: Jordan in 3rd is still taller than Patterson in 1st

Corks charging

Jordan led the men on a stellar day in the 10k with his first ever podium in an NCAA event, leaving with a big bronze medal (and a bottle of Trapps maple syrup!). Not to be outdone, Lucas entered beast mode to place 10th in his first ever top-10 carnival finish and Corky skied to 28th, breaking into the top 30 for the first time of his career. Their efforts put the guys in 3rd overall for the second time this season - can we even eat this much cake?

That's one proud Coach!

Who's a bobcat?

Sunday was a 10k CL for both men and women. Like Saturday, it was a long day: with J2s racing early and fields that not only included carnival skiers but nearly the whole New England ski racing community, the men's races didn't even start until 12:45.

The ladies kicked things off again. Jane put together a strong race to lead the girls in 27th on a tough day; Gretch and Hallie were 31st and 32nd, respectively.

Jordan continued a strong weekend with a PR classic result in 12th; it was definitely a "strength of the pack" sort of day for the rest of the boys, with Alex, Sean, Lucas and Corky finishing 32nd, 34th, 35th and 36th respectively, all within 10 seconds.

Tron Woods: half machine, half alllll natural

Lucas

Britta receiving some sort of deep wisdom

This guy....

More photos forthcoming shortly! (particularly of the girls)

PROTECT THIS HOUSE

Weekend #2 was the Colby Carnival and also, perhaps more importantly, the Chummy Broomhall Cup (AKA the Maine State Championship). As the defending champions of the Cup, we showed up to Colby's new Quarry Road courses prepared to PROTECT THIS HOUSE (as inspired by this video).

Day one was a 5/10k Classic interval start, as well as the Chummy Cup. Due to the lack of snow, it ended up being 2 laps for the ladies' 5k and 5 for the men's 10k, which meant a whole lot of skiers out on the course all at once.

For the girls, Hallie led with a strong 10th place finish, followed by Jane in 19th and Gretchen in 23rd to round out the scoring for a 4th place finish on the day. Big Jordan finished 13th, followed by Alex in 27th and Lucas in 32nd to put the men in 6th.

(All photos are from Steve Fuller and flyingpointroad.com - there are lots more to check out and order from there!)

Jay

Filly

Hallie

Danny

Nick

Andrea, just having a good time out there (?)

Gracie

Marge

The Bates results were strong enough for both the women and men to score decisive victories in the Chummy Cup, and we stacked the Maine State second- and first-teams with Bobcats.

A VERY happy Becky

What winners look like

The next day was a 15/20k Freestyle mass start. A fast, windy, crazy course led to a serious amount of carnage on both the men's and women's sides.

The girls kicked the morning off, and Hallie and Margaret worked together in the lead pack for nearly the entire race - Hallie finished 12th and Margaret 15th after an unfortunate broken pole on the last lap. Gretch rounded out the scoring for the Bobkittens with a season-best 21st, putting the girls in 5th.

The 5-lap men's race was wild and crazy from the start, but the boys skied relaxed and worked together. Jordan led in 19th, Seanie followed with a PR 24th, followed by Lucas in 25th. Corky and Filly worked together and were close behind in 30th and 32nd.

Janey

Strength of the Pack

And there were fans!

Condor

Corky

Captain Lucas