Back to Bates, back to blog

It's been many long months since this blog was last updated. The blame for this lack of communication could be attributed to any combination of laziness on the part of blogmaster Max, thesis writing, internet problems, and simple forgetfulness. But instead of dwelling on my mistakes, I'll try to give an idea of what the Bates Ski Team has been up to in the 125 days since the beginning of school.

September:
In September, the captains led a series of awesome practices which were well received not only by the team, but by anyone who happened to be lucky enough to watch us work out. Highlights include an absurd amount of laps around the rollerski loops near campus, and a failed attempt to organize a trip to New Hampshire to bag some peaks. In addition, we got to know our new first-years (there are seven of them last I checked).
October:
In October, the coaches took over and the season really began. Practice slipped into a fun routine, and we enjoyed our annual camp in Rangeley, ME, where I got to sleep in a bed larger than my room. Also, two of our teammates celebrated their 21st birthdays with seltzer water and rollerski intervals.
November:
In November, we got a real taste of a Maine fall, as in addition to rollerskiing in increasingly wet and cold conditions, we got to go to the Milliken's house on Mt. Desert Island. This trip was, as usual, awesome. The Milliken's spoiled us, we ate lobster on the beach, saunaed (is that a verb?), and got to hang out with Lucas. We also went up to Quebec for Thanksgiving camp, where the mens team rocked little black dresses so we could be cute and classy.

The boyz in Acadia (photo by Newt)

Focusing on lobster (also by Newt)

Seniors in black dresses. Sorry mom (can't remember who took this one)

December:
To be honest, the first half of December is a little bit of a blur highlighted by too much thesis. What sticks out is wet and cold intervals in between snow storms that never really dropped enough snow to ski on. In short, it was yet another experience of how New England makes you tough. The second half of December we all returned to our respective homes to celebrate the holidays with family.
Now:
In the last few weeks, a significant portion of the team came together in Colorado for a brief altitude training camp before going to Senior Nationals in Soldier Hollow, UT. Special thanks to the McDonalds and Blakslees for their hospitality and kindness.

In Utah, we raced a distance skate and sprint classic on back to back days. The distance race was a 15k for the men and 10k for the women, and took place on a rather difficult course. The men were led by Parker McDonald in 83rd place and first-year Graham Houtsma in 103rd place. Laurel Fiddler put up an awesome 53rd for the women, followed by Halie Lange in 102nd. The field was a little stacked.

The second day was a classic sprint in wet and sloppy conditions that had many of us using our zeroes on the course. No one made heats, which was a bummer, but I think that coach James Upham might have been glad not to have to find a kick wax that works for 37 degrees and a rain/hail/snow mix.

Halie crushing it (photo by Sandy Gray)

The last starter for the men (S. Gray)

P$ looking real athletic (S. Gray)

(for more photos go to Sandy Gray's Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/146561453@N07/page1)

After those races, we all headed back to Bates to begin a whole new semester and race season. We will be racing the Eastern Cup at Quarry Road this upcoming weekend, so keep an eye out for a blog post on that, as well as the first installment of first-year introductions.