First Carnival at Rumfo...No Waterville

Written by Calvin Swomley'17 and Dana Hatton'18

After a almost white out 5 hour drive from Canada to Maine, we arrived at Colby College on Wednesday, January 13th.  Originally, our first carnival was supposed to be at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine, but was moved to Quarry Road at the last minute. The wind was howling and the temperature was frighteningly cold.  We skied the trails and unloaded the trailer; we then drove half an hour to our hotel in Augusta, the capital of Maine! This was new news to some. 

We carried our 1000lb duffel-bags from our breaks at home and Canada camp, into the hotel lobby and up the stairs to our hotel beds, where we flopped down and rejoiced with the wifi.

                                                                       Anna Izzo'18 in front of the SLUhaul

Thursday was prep day; we classic skied the sprint course, waxed and later went to Big G's for lunch.  The best and biggest sandwiches in Maine!! 

                                                                                  Dana'18 at Big G's
                                                                               Photo Cred: Liz Pete
                                                                 
Finally, race day came! Friday was a 1.5k classic sprint!  Erin Perryman '16 crushed it and was the only one on our team to make the heats! The course consisted of one big uphill, a slightly twisty downhill, and a flat cruise into the finish.  It was definitely a course for strong double-polers.  The day was clear and very chilly. Our coaches tested lots of wax in the cold conditions, although the day heated up nicely and turned to out to be beautiful.

                                                                   L-R: Dana, Anna, and India all smiles
                                                                                         PC: Taren
Sprint Results here:
http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results16/bat2016-3.htm
http://www.barttiming.com/eisa/Results16/bat2016-4.htm

Saturday was the carnival, mixed with the Eastern Cup.  Women raced 5k skate and men raced 10k skate.  It was the sprint course all over again, but this time 3 laps for ladies and 6 laps for guys.  It was challenging, but very exciting.  It was very snowy and seemed to get colder as the day went on.

5k Skate

Skate IS and Classic MS Results here:
http://www.barttiming.com/XCski/bmec2016.htm

Lizzy, Matt, India, Dana, and Erin W all stayed for the Eastern Cup 10k classic mass start on Sunday, while the rest of the team skied at Jackson on the way back to SLU to break up the eight hour drive. The day was spectacular and very warm! Etown and Liz stayed to help wax, and Bob drove the crew to NH in the Transit. Jackson was busy with a lot of other college teams who all had the same idea. The Jackson group ate at Hot Tamales in Canton for dinner, a restaurant started by one of  Henry Jarvinen's '19 distant relatives. The resemblance is unreal:

                                                                                           Henry

Meanwhile, the Eastern cup crew finished racing and repacking the trailer and left around 2pm.  We didn't get in to SLU until 10:30pm at night...what a day! Liz drove the van and we heard lots of very cool, funny stories from her, which made the drive go by a little bit faster. 

Bate's did a great job pulling the weekend together, along with the help from Colby.  We start the second semester tomorrow and leave Thursday after classes to head back to Quarry Road for our second weekend of carnival racing!! Pheww..stay tuned!

Winter Camp: Gettin' stoaked for Carnival Season

Written by Calvin Swomley'17 and Dana Hatton'18

The team spent seven days of intense training in Beaupre, Quebec. Beaupre is a prime training location wedged between the St. Lawrence Seaway and the very big European Mont-Sainte Anne. Conditions were excellent all week.  Everyday we would ski in the morning until lunch, head back to our two condos and eat poutine and fondue, and of course sandwiches.  It was so nice being ten minutes from the venue. In the afternoon, we would go back to ski or go for a jog and then wax our skis in the trailer. 

                                      MSA in the background                                                 Terrific Conditions
                                     Photo Cred: Kyle Curry '16                                            PC: Erin Perryman'16

                                                                             Ski venue

                                                                                         PC: Liz Pete

L-R: India Harvey'18, Taren McGray'16, Erin Perryman'16 and Lizzy Landry'18

Kyle's sister, Reed, who is among the top rated chefs and who would put the guy from Hell's Kitchen to shame in a competition, made us excellent soups for lunch and meals for dinner. We want to thank her for all her help and prep to make our camp much more bad@$$.

Warming up inside the lodge

PC: Liz

On Friday and Tuesday, we did intervals and on Sunday we had a Time Trial on trail 21, starting in the stadium.  Here are the results from the time trial:

Girls 5k

Erin P. 15:37

Taren 17:21

Dana 17:24

Erin W. 17:38

Anna 17:45

Celeste 18:11

Lizzy 18:25

India 19:17

Men 10k

Kyle 27:36

Phil 28:04

Calvin 28:19

Ruben 28:52

Dustin 29:40

Morgan 31:19

Matt 31:25

Lots of Pictures!!

Celeste '19 and Waters '19 crushing the intervals

PC: Liz

                                                          Dustin'19 and Ruben'19 hammering
                                                                                              PC: Liz

Warming up for the TT: Slu train

PC: Liz Pete

                                                                            Coach Townsend and EP
                                                                            Photo Cred: Kyle Curry'16

                                  L-R: Matt Young'19 and Morgan Holland '16 at a ski hut on Mt. Ste. Anne Trails
                                                                            Photo Cred: Kyle Curry'16

                                                            L-R: Morgan H'16 and Ruben Castren'19 on trail 24
                                                                                 Photo Cred: Kyle Curry'16

In our spare time, we were fixing the wifi or just waiting for it to come back on, which meant a lot of time was spent doing absolutely nothing.  Nonetheless, we found things to keep us occupied, such as playing salad bowl (Kyle and Calvin's team won: Team Alaskan Bush) and drinking LOTS of milk. We also spent time keeping up with very important news on the TV, such as, the Power-ball drawing, the Alaskan bush people, and the State of the Union address.  We watched the World Cup and followed many of the US ski team members big wins! Bob even took us into Quebec City for a few hours so we could explore and we even stumbled into the previous mayors funeral service in front of a church.

We mainly focused our training on intensity, to prep ourselves for the carnival season. Due to the lack of snow in the States, we craved to keep skiing all day, so we got in a good amount of volume as well. However, we also made sure to dial it back for the races. On Wednesday morning, it was snowing; we packed up both houses, the trailer, and both vans and headed out at exactly 9am.  Coach Etown drove the truck and SLUhaul while the rest of us caravaned with coach Bob Washo, who drove one van and coach Liz Peterson who drove the transit.  After 5 hours, we made it to Quarry Road in Waterville, Maine for our first carnival..