I'm 3,437 miles away and skiing is still pretty cool.

HEJ team/world/mom/dad/extendedfamily/dedicated#batesskiingfans,


I am writing to you from the bustling metropolis of Torsby, Sweden, a town of 4050 people, or, based on my estimations, 4000 past or present nordic skiers, 49 coaches and one guy that runs the grocery store and is probably delighted that his store outperforms all of Sweden in sales of bananas, powerbars and peanut butter. Torsby is the site of the aptly named Torsby Ski Tunnel, where I am training for the week with the British ski team. Thanks dad for the dual citizenship! It has been a wonderful camp so far! Today I not only skied behind but PASSED Hanna Falk, who can be seen here  almost beating our girl Kikkan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1krQWVH77Sg. Admittedly she was skiing L1 with no poles behind her coach and I was doing L3 intervals and was still occasionally getting passed by 6 year old norwegian boys, but an exciting moment nonetheless. Here are some more photos/musings from my adventure thus far!

Hopefully this video works...just me skiing along to a lil John Legend. The music they play in the tunnel is pretty fantastic. Nothing like doing intervals to Dido's "White Flag" or "Wagon Wheel."

 It is a constant -3 degrees celsius in the tunnel which is perfect training "weather." Fashion is clearly a pretty big deal here..it is definitely not that bright but everyone wears their sunglasses anyway.

 I am pretty sure this is an outdoor gym but also a playground for the nearby school... If you look in the background you can see the hill where people bound. Last night walking home in the dark from skiing, I was really excited to see a herd of deer running around on the hill. Except not actually it was like 50 (I'm not kidding) little kids doing bounding intervals. Nordic skiing is cool.

 Here is a sign

 Here is a selfie.

Here I am tryin to look cool, casual n candid in the tunnel. Is it working?



I will try to send along another update at the end of the week! I hope everyone in Maine and beyond is having a wonderful fall! Mucho love!! Time for a nap!
XOXOXOX
Britta

Rangeley in Mug Shots and Random Musings

The Bates crew wrapped up our annual fall training camp with a 10k classic time trial ending in a brutally long climb. After an initial 5k with Max, the boys' new friend sprinted past the pack to take home the big W before Becky and I had to take HIM home. 

 Bria raging up the final hill as Hallie aggressively cheers and Parker poses shirtless in the background.

We spent our evenings gathered together cooking and eating by the fire, and often we found ourselves in short supply of dishes, allowing Nick to casually sip chili out of his gravy bowl.

Our (also) annual pie making contest was a success, and our team COB (Crackling Oat Bran) managed a solid second place, despite the hole we took out of it to eat some, and the chocolate chips we used to patch the hole (lower left, notice the ever so clever #1π )

By the end of the week, many of us had adopted a new facial expression, something we denoted as "the face". These pictures speak for themselves: 

 Tar-dog

H-Lange

Mekey

Briggs

Katz

Nate dawg

PBP

Max

Dylan

P$$

C Gray

Zoe

Sadie James

Hallie

Snorel

We will keep crushing it like we do best, stabbing our pointy pieces of metal into the pavement a lot of times and picking up heavy things and putting them down and stuff... stay tuned for more fall adventures! For now, I leave you with an inspiring image of our fearless leader at his finest:

xoxo Katz 

Bates Skiing 5k Run Results

We would like to thank all participants for coming out to support the Nordic team in our 3rd annual 5k run! Attached bellow are the results. Please note that these are unofficial results and that there may be errors in time, name and rank.

Parents Weekend in Photos

Family weekend... nordie style! 

Parker and Condor manning the 5k registration

sadie, bria, amy, parker, condor- the registration folks

condor absolutely killed the t-shirt sales this weekend!

Becky doing a bit of t-shirt organizing 

ladies, post 5-k skate TT on sat.

Ben was the sweep for the 5k

The Katz family running in the 5k!

Chuckles Humphries and the Fiddler clan 

5k shot

snorel was crushing it as crossing guard

We are now under way with our official season... Rangeley camp is coming up this week after we take some mid terms... we are in business!! Hard WORK is coming... Stay tuned, this is going to be FUN!! 

Love, the Bates nordic family.