Only a Hop, Skip, and a Jump away

Hello again SLUSki fans!

Welcome back to the blog! We're excited to be right back in the swing of things.  With only two weeks until official practice, we thought we would update you on what has happened so far and introduce you to some freshman. As you may know, I wrote a lot for the blog last season and am trying very hard to recruit more writers! I successfully poked the freshman into writing a little something after I shared with them my first post I wrote as a freshman; I think it worked because you'll see it referenced in here!  This week, hear from Lucy Hochschartner from Lake Placid, NY,  Jordan Tanguay from Fort Kent, ME and Jackie Garso from Lake Clear, NY.

-Dana '18

Ps. We are excited for colder weather....

Lovely Lucy from Lake Placid:

Hi! My name is Lucy, and I am a freshman from Lake Placid.  I love to ski and have spent the summer preparing for winter.  In June, I went to the Tahoe area and Yosemite with my dad for a little over a week to spend some time together hiking and running around a new place.

View from Tioga Peak, California 

The rest of the time I stayed around Lake Placid training and working in the office of the summer camp that I live at, since my parents work there (it’s a school as well).

Taken while on a run back home

Although I’m not from too far away, there have been lots of new things in these first few weeks at SLU.  Mainly there are a whole lot of new training partners!  This summer I did most workouts alone or with my ski team, which usually meant being one of two girls my age, and so it has been incredible to have such a large group of girls to train with.  We have 7 freshmen girls (a lot!) and some wonderful returners who show us the ropes, make sure we don’t get lost, and make us laugh!

            Captain’s practices have been awesome.  The roads in Canton seem to go on forever, rolling through fields and farms. It has made roller-skiing a true joy, which if you’ve ever talked to a skier, you’ll know is not always the case.  We have done some distance workouts with the men and women together, which were lots of fun and good for getting to know the team.  All in all, it’s been great, and I can’t wait for the season to start because it's only a hop, skip and a jump away.

Joyful Jordan from Maine:

Hey y’all!

My name is Jordan Tanguay, and I’m from Fort Kent, Maine, a small town at the tip of northern Maine, where I can basically throw a rock and hit Canada.

Canadian Mountains

So far SLU is awesome, and my teammates are truly incredible. It’s so fun to go out on a distance ski and just talk about our days, get to know each other, and take in the miles of open fields and smell the beautiful scent of cows (sarcasm intended..). Being one of seven freshman girls coming in this year, it is nice knowing we are all transitioning to this new place together, and are able to motivate each other too. Everyone is eager to go out each day and kill it, knowing that whatever we do, we’ll always have Dana by our side when we get back (Dana Dining Hall, but of course Dana Hatton).

Over the summer, I was a lifeguard and swim instructor; which basically entails yelling at kids not to splash, and soothing pre schoolers when they FINALLY got their toes wet with five minutes remaining in the lesson. When I wasn’t at the pool, I was training. I did a lot of roller-skiing, running, strength training, biking, and climbing. I competed in a mountain challenge at Sunday River Ski Resort in Bethel Maine, but didn’t actually get to do it, because of severe lighting, thunder, hail, and torrential rain, (so if you see me looking swag wearing a green tee with crossbones on it, don’t judge.) On the bright side, I was fortunate to spend a week at Acadia National Park, and got to climb Cadillac Mountain, the highest point along the North Atlantic seaboard and first place to view sunrise in the US from October 7 to March 6.

Summit of Cadillac

I also had the opportunity to train with some talented bi-athletes, great coaches, and fun teammates as well- learning the art to get back up after miserably failing at a 180 in an agility course, and racing against thunderstorms while sweat painfully dripped into our eyes.

So, besides taking a graceful body slam the other day, when my pole stuck in a crack in the concrete, and making way for honking vehicles whizzing by, I can say that the transition to this new place in these first few weeks has been very reassuring, knowing that I get to spend a few hours a day with kindhearted people who also wish there would be snow on the ground, and skis under our feet.  It's only a hop, skip, and a jump away.

Jolly Jackie from Lake Clear:

Hi everybody! My name is Jackie, and I’m a freshman from Lake Clear, NY.

I spent most of the summer training with NYSEF in Lake Placid. Early in the summer, I got to go down to Waitsfield, VT for REG Camp, which was a nice change of pace and a good opportunity to see/train with some friends from New England who I usually only get to see in the winter.

I also volunteered at Ironman – My high school Nordic team runs the transition area, and my XC team runs a water station, so I was really busy all day! The best part of volunteering at an Ironman is probably running to get bikes for people after they finish; they’re all so happy they don’t have to wander around looking for their bikes and it’s a good way to finish out the day.

LP Ironman Transition Area

The LP Ironman Transition Area at 11:30pm was way calmer than it was 12 hours earlier. I stuck around until midnight and got to see the last finisher come through about a minute before the cutoff!

One of the last workouts I did before coming to SLU was the traditional ski up the Whiteface Toll Road. Because NYSEF runs Climb to the Castle, we all cap off summer training with a race preview. However, this year a bunch of us decided to go from the 4 Corners, making it 8 miles instead of 5.

Lucy and I on the top of Whiteface! Photo Creds: Colin Delaney

I’ve never had more than one or two other girls to train with, so having a team of 12 has been really cool, and that combined with the numerous scenic roller-skiing/running routes have made workouts pretty fun! The other day, we went roller-skiing at Higley, which was a cool way to preview where we’ll be skiing this winter, and a ton of fun to rip around. It’s been pretty hot here the last few weeks, but with the weather starting to cool down, winter seems just around the corner.

Or perhaps it's only a hop, skip, and jump away...