Carnival Season Update

It is FLYING by!! I (tara) realized we haven't given any carnival updates yet... but we have been busy and spending a lot of time on the road.

Our first carnival weekend (the Bates carnival at Rumford!) was a blast. We started off the season with a 15/20k mass start classic and we had a lot of bobcats working together out there. And for our first years, first carnival!! AND we reclaimed the Chummy cup, beating Colby by 1 point. Great day! Saturday was also the E cup combo with a 5/10k skate ind. start. It was freezing.

Second weekend was the UVM carnival at Stowe. No E cup or supertour this year... just us! We arrived on Thursday after sunset and skied the course in the dark... the ladies thought the hills were much less intimidating when you couldn't see! Friday brought a 5/10k skate individual start which was fast and furious, and Saturday was a hard but fun classic mass start 10/15k. Again, it was awesome that so many of us were able to ski with and work with teammates out on the course. Strong day for bobcats!

This past weekend was the St. Mikes carnival at Sleepy Hollow. Friday brought a 5/10k classic individual, with a whole bunch of bobcat PR's (yeehaw!!), and one highlight being a third place finish for the Bates women. It was a tough course and everyone skied with heart. Saturday was a bitter cold but beautiful day... perfect day for some relays! 4x3k mixed gender classic relays. It was a blast.

I don't have many photos but here's a little tiny taste of what we've been up to.
Next weekend we head to Craftsbury for a skate sprint and skate distance... the carnival/E cup/Supertour. See you there!

All the bobcats at our carnival!

(photo 1 and 3 from Steve Fuller... thank you!!)

Heading up high school hill

reclaimed the chummy cup

Max rippin' at the UVM carnival in stowe

Corky in Stowe at UVM

Tired girls... van ride back from St. Mikes

The Grossmans always feeding and taking care of us

thank you!!

Parker at UVM in Stowe

Snow Day, Skiing to Denny's, and Becoming Famous in the Process!

A huge and much needed storm hit today, bringing all of the Nordies out to play! We suited up in our ski gear and ventured into the storm.

Britta prepares to enter the blizzard

The conditions were amazing everywhere! We shredded Mount David, getting some great "turns" in.

Max conquering the summit

The beautiful view from the top

Hallie takes a break

Amy scopes out her descent route 

Next, six of us hit the streets of Lewiston in pursuit of a high-quality dining experience at the one-and-only Denny's. The streets proved to have great hard-wax conditions and we blazed our way across the river to Auburn. We got lots of cheers from passing pedestrians and cars, and of course lots of stares. We arrived at Denny's, each devoured tasty lunches (I personally went for the $4 all-you-can-eat pancakes!), and enjoyed some time quality time together.

Dylan makes himself comfortable 

Hallie and Halie enjoy some hot chocolate

The Crew (Condor, Bria, Halie, Hallie, Max, Dylan) 

Now for the best part of the adventure: on our way down Main St. en route to Denny's a local Portland news station was filming right as we skied by. Once we arrived at Denny's and ate lunch, we joked that we were going to be on TV. When we got back to campus, my friend from home (Truckee, CA) sent me a link to a video of all of us skiing by on the news! We are all international super stars now and encourage the rest of humanity to use skiing as a mode of transportation. Not only is it environmentally friendly, but you will also become famous, like us. Click here to watch our defining moment.
Thanks to Halie for all of the awesome photos!

Happy Snow Day!
Bria

Houghton, MI: Where your toes turn blue and the sky does not.

While the rest of our team was at Sugarloaf, eight of us ventured out into the most Northern part of Michigan. From the beginning, the temperatures were not so hot (literally) and we eventually figured out the best ways to brave the cold (taping our faces with weird things, covering our feet with weird foot cream, which is apparently the best selling product in Europe).

We did do some awesome skiing, though. As a team, we had our fair share of "good" and "bad" races, but our good ol' coach Jupham (we figured we needed a new nickname, after he told us we couldn't call him Jimmy like all his college buddies) kept us on our game, reminding us of the positive learning experiences we were having. 

Hallie hammering

Amy attacking

Snorel shining

Parker prancing

Sadie striding

Connor crushing

Corky cruising

Bria bombing

Parker took some time out out of his race to have a friendly chat 

In fact, Jupham was crushing it so much, we made a detour to Burger King before our last race to get him a YUMBO (a ham sandwich, basically) and a giant Pepsi. It was love at first sight to say the least.

We really did have some good times in Antarctica. The two of us skied a cool down one day when it was snowing really hard, and ended up on the ground in the powder rolling around and laughing. We took a few selfies, went on some windy runs, drank 14 cups of tea a day, and had some major sing-a-long sessions with James on the guitar. 

Today is Friday, and not to our amusement, we are still in Michigan. We might be here forever, but at least we are all together am I right?! (no)

Tonight we went out to dinner and Snorel ate a big slice of Peanut Butter Explosion. It was awesome.

Also this selfie James took is awesome.

#batescollegenotraction

We send our love to Maine and our families, and hope that we get back there someday. But for now, we will keep pushing our Chevy Malibu around and hope that tomorrow the wind is blowing 100 miles an hour instead of 10000. 

xoxo,

Amy and Hallie 

Thank you to skinnyski.com for all of the skiing pictures and to iPhones all over for the others!

Last week of break- bobcats all over the place

Happy New Year!!

In just a few days we will be entering our last week of winter break, and the nordie bobcats are beginning to congregate in a few different locations.

James is with the crew racing out at US Nationals in Houghton, Michigan. This group is made up of Hallie, Sadie, Laurel, Amy, Bria, Corky, Parker, and Connor G. They say the snow is great out there and they are all gearing up for their first race tomorrow, Sunday. Send fast thoughts their way!

so ready

here's a quick shot of snorel on her stretching game before some work out on the course

Becky is with the rest of the gang- Nate, Nick, Condor, Wade, Ben, Max, Dylan, Chris, Halie, Britta, Gracie, and Helen at Sugarloaf for training camp. They are running a few TT's this weekend and are looking forward to hunkering down and getting some K's in at the outdoor center.

Maddy and I are a bit in between, enjoying the last few days of abundant powder before flying back to Maine to meet the Sugarloaf crew. Today we did a beautiful ski tour at Hyalite canyon, with a break in the middle to play in the huge amounts of snow.

some fun skis

bohart 

and bozeman creek

So we've got another chunk of time here for training and racing, and then we are back! Beginning a new year, new semester of classes, and new season of racing (EISA/NENSA 2015 baby!). The winter is a wild ride around here, back to back weekends of racing straight through... we have goals to accomplish, homework to be done, fun to have. It's a ride, but a heck of a fun one.

So enjoy this last week of focus- on racing, training, recovering... because we have busy and fun times coming up soon!! I can't wait.

Happy new year, Tara