France Camp - Day 3

Another entertaining entry from the girls after a great day  They all skied very well today. We spent much of the morning working on drills and continuing to work on GS skiing.  They have been fantastic so far and are making some great turns!

            Another day has come to an end in Les Deux, France.  We started out the morning with an early breakfast and a pushy line for the chair lift.  Once we got up to the mountain we claimed our spot upon the hill and started out with the shlopey drill.  The snow was firm and fast which was a bennefit on the flats.  We zoomed down the hill time and time again until we finally had a photo/snack break with a very nice view of the surrounding mountains.  We continued to make progress throughout the morning and joined the mad rush to the gondola, tram, and chair lift.

Top t-bar 

Amazing condition

 

Snack time!

We enjoyed a peaceful and normal lunch and had a relaxing rest hour.  As an afternoon activity everyone participated in a group volleyball game with us 4 girls as semi unwilling elected captains.  The games were pretty intense (the testosterone was out of control) but overall we walked back to the hotel with smiles and sand covered bodies. 

The day has concluded and everyone is eager to climb into bed.  We are exhausted and preparing for another early morning in the Alpes!

Quotes of The Day:

Neza:  "My calfs hurt.  (one minute later)  my calfs really hurt!"

Elly:  "I wonder if the french have a word for joeys?"  Topher replies, "Americans"

Ingrid:  "Why does everyone think I'm from Canada?...oh wait, my GS suit..."

Sandra:  "This desert is gross....i'll try another one!"

Tomorrow we will be continuing with our GS progression.  The girls are being quite vague with their description of the morning lift line...I think I might video it tomorrow...

France Camp - Day 2

Tonights blog comes courtesy of the girls!  We had another fantastic day, enjoy their blog entry...

We’ve discovered that the French are very patient people. Early mornings are so peaceful. It’s a perfect way to wake up. There’s no pushing and shoving, but definitely no cutting in line. You don’t get ski boots to the cheeks, and definitely not elbows to the stomachs. And don’t even worry about the sharp edges of skis surrounding you. Do you think you could fit 75 people with all their ski equipment in a 5’ by 5’ area? Well the French think you can. Despite morning difficulties, we always end up late to the mountain and always get ditched on the T-Bar. However the weather has been beautiful, proved by our many instagram photos (over 50 likes not a big deal-which we are proud to tell you). The snow is impeccable. However we would not recommend falling, because there is great chance you are falling on cement as Topher and Ingrid have shown us. Some more good news, we can actually turn our GS skis, which came as a HUGE shocker, considering Topher prepared us for the worst. To conclude the morning, Sandra and Ingrid sprinted using their intense speed and strength in the high altitude to arrive at the chairlift 3^rd to avoid the mad rush of foreign people. Elly and Neza trickled in slowly, getting swamped by Italians.

Did you know you could play soccer on a tennis court? Cause that’s what we did for an afternoon activity. Some suffered painful losses, others great victories. 

Just a little thanks to all of our parents, I know we are all a little tired but we really thank you for sending us out here because this trip is totally worth it!

Remember to check in every day to read our quotes of the day!

           

Quotes of The Day:

Neza: “damn you slow internet!!!”

Sandra: “Oh my god I have so much homework!”

Elly:  “Hey anyone want to go for a run?”  (Everyone else, “NOOOOO”)

Ingrid:  “I set 3 alarms so we would wake up on time today!”

Topher:  “ Is Lorant wearing Shants?...Hey look, that guy is wearing shundies!”

*Shants= man capris *Shundies= man undies mixed with shorts(so super short shorts)

Everyone:  “My shins hurt…and I am soooooo tired!”

Top of the glacier!

Snack time

Mid-station of the gondola

Looking down the tram line

Waiting for the tram

We are looking forward to another day on the GS skis tomorrow.  Today the girls moved into some drills and we will continue with our GS progression for the next couple of days.

France Camp - Day 1

The blog is back live, this time from Les Deux Alpes, France!  This place is absolutely beautiful.  Hopefully the pictures will do it some justice!  We are traveling with a group of 20 MMSC athletes and coaches.  Lorant and Pat are here with 13 athletes from the men's program and attending the camp for the women's program this year are Elly, Ingrid, Neza, and Sandra.  I am sure they will all tell you...put this camp on your schedule for next summer!  We departed Montreal, CAN for Lyon, France at about 8:45pm on Monday night, flew through the night to arrive in France on the morning of the 30th, which, coincidentally is Ingrid's and my birthday, so happy birthday to us!  We finally arrived at the hotel around 2:00pm and ate lunch, unpacked, went for a walked around town to get some fresh air, had dinner at 7:00pm and then to bed!

Here are a few photos from traveling, our arrival, and the birthday cake!

Montreal

France

The view from our hotel

Clearly, she is pumped!

We just completed our first full day of camp and it was a great success.  It was the first day for the girls on the new 30 meter radius GS skis.  The skis are also significantly longer than their GS skis last season so they will take some getting used to before they are comfortable.  The camp will give them a great opportunity to get on the new skis and simply work on technique, without the pressure of upcoming races.  We free skied all morning with limited direction except to make turns of different sizes, rather than trying to make "cookie cutter" GS turns.  The amount of terrain open here is shocking so we were able to get many runs on different terrain.  I was very impressed with their ability to adapt to their new skis and they all looked like they were feel comfortable by the end of the morning.  The skiing was incredible.  The snow was very firm to start of the day and as the sun warmed the surface, it softened a bit but it was still very firm throughout the morning.  It was only on our last run that it seemed to get a bit soft.  That is simply not the case at Mt. Hood.  Not to mention they have a subway that runs to the midpoint of the mountain...yes, a subway (see below).  I took a ride t-bar ride with an Italian coach who told me this is the best he has seen the snow here in 20 years!  Lucky us...

Step 1 - walk to the lift

Step 2 - after riding said lift, get on the tram

Step 3 & 4 - after riding the tram, fight your way into the gondola, then put on your boots

A few of some of the training lanes from the first t-bar

This random group of athletes got in the way of my picture...still nice though!

A view of the upper part of the mountain

A helpful warning sign to not fall head first into a crevasse

Another helpful sign...

The subway...inside the mountain

Conditions are amazing

After skiing, we made the entertaining and challenging trip back to town.  I will let the girls describe that experience when they write the blog...

This afternoon, we went for a hike to a lookout point that I can't quite put into words...good thing I had my camera!

The view of town early in the hike

The hike required a small bit of rock climbing

The view of town from the lookout point

View of L'Alpe de Venosc

Tomorrow, we will continue working with the new GS ski and figuring out how to ski on them.  We are getting on the lift at 7:00am, giving us an early start to the day!  For now...it is nearing bedtime after a long first day.  The weather is looking good for the rest of the week, we will try our best to enjoy ourselves...ha!

Championship Series!

Things were pretty crazy for the past week and a half with championship series going on for our athletes.  U18 Nationals continued at Mammoth, Eastern Junior FIS Finals were at Stowe, and U16 Eastern Championships were at Sugarloaf.  We had some fantastic results at each championship as the girls represented MMSC/MMWA very well!

At the U18 Nationals, Kelsey and Alita wrapped up their series racing in the GS, DH, and SG.  All reports from the GS were that it was on a painfully flat hill with extremely soft conditions.  Kelsey and Alita had some issues with their day with Kelsey finishing 26th and Alita DNF'd second run.  In the DH, Kelsey missed out on the Gold by just 3 tenths of a second but earning the Silver Medal.  Alita, who admits DH is not her thing, toughed out the nerves and finished 37th.  In the final event of the championships, the SG, Kelsey had a very respectable 11th place finish, moving up from a start number of 20.  Congrats on a great series!

Kelsey on the DH Podium

At the Eastern Junior FIS Finals, we had some very exciting results and one very exciting crash.  On day 1, Elly came ripping into the Horsebarn Pitch jump and ended up crashing through 2 layers of B-Net and ended up under the Sensation lift!  All things considered, she was ok!  She ended up with a pretty good concussion, a ride to Fletcher Allen, and a chipped tooth or two.  Quite possibly the most difficult part of her crash was the fact that she had to spend the afternoon with me!  We are very thankful that she is ok and she returned to snow today!  Sophie Leiter was not phased and raced the SG the next day, moving from start number 40 to finished 17th!  The rest of the girls competed in the GS and SL over the weekend...

Eastern Junior FIS Finals at Stowe, March 9th

Courtney Hayden - 6th

Denali Balser - 11th

Emma Sahn - 27th

Sophie Leiter - 41st

Linley Shaw - 44th

Caroline Armbruster - 47th

For the SL, we saw some challenging sets and a couple of our girls stepped up in a big way!  Check out the bib number for our girls and the places they finished.  That is some serious moving up!

Eastern Junior FIS Finals at Stowe, March 10th

Linley Shaw bib 35- 3rd, 2nd for U18's and she WON the second run!

Lucy Merriam bib 45 - 8th

Neza Stefanic bib 66 - 12th

Linley on the SL Overall Podium

Sandra competed at the U16 Eastern Championships and had a very successful series.  She placed in the top 10 in all events.  Her results were as follows: SG1 - 4th, SG2 - 10th, GS - 5th,  SL - 3rd.  Due to her outstanding results, she was one of 10 Eastern U16's to qualify for the U16 National Project in Park City, taking place in early April.  Way to represent, Sandra!

Vermont Cup Finals took place this past weekend and a group of girls went to Killington to compete in the SL Finals...

VT Cup Finals SL at Killington, March 17th

Kelsey Chenoweth - 1st

Lucy Merriam - 14th

Neza Stefanic - 18th

Sarah Reilly - 19th

Ingrid Klinkenberg - 30th

Molly Danzig - 33rd

Sarah Rowse - 40th

Kelsey wins...again.

We are entering the final push with only a handful of races to go.  Kelsey left for Squaw Valley, CA today to compete in US Nationals.  She will race in the SG, GS, and SL, good luck Kelsey!  Alita, Emma, Court and Denali will be racing Thursday/Friday in the Eastern Cup Finals GS's at Sugarbush.  Alita will continue on to race in the Eastern Cup Finals SL's at Waterville over the weekend.  The rest of the U18/U21 girls will be heading to Whiteface this weekend for two FIS Devo SL's.  Sandra will headed to Sugarloaf for the U16 AM/CAN over the weekend.  Good luck to all!

I leave you with one final picture from training on Monday.  We had a bluebird day, no wind, and a spectacular surface...

Denali Balser is the World's Best Skier!

Yes, it is true!  As many of you probably saw on Sports Center, Denali Balser is the 2013 World's Best Skier!  She had an amazing come from behind victory after finishing 3rd on on the 1st run.  Emma Sahn was poised to take the title but had an unfortunate DNF 2nd run.

World's Best Skier at Bromley, March 2nd

Denali Balser - 1st

Lucy Merriam - 4th

Elly Bengtsson - 7th

Sophie Leiter - 8th

Neza Stefanic - 17th

Molly Danzig - 19th

Sarah Rowse - 22nd

Caroline Armbruster - 24th

Linley Shaw - 27th

World's Best Skier

While Denail was being crowned World's Best Skier, Sandra was at Sugarbush racing in the final weekend of U16 VT State Championships.  She finished 3rd in both GS races over the weekend and ended up finished 2nd in the Overall State Championships with scoring taking place over the course of 2 SL's and 2 GS's.  She is off to Sugarloaf for the U16 Eastern Championships, racing SG/GS/SL from March 7th - 11th.

State Championship GS podium

VT State Championship Overall Podium

This week has consisted of more drills and free skiing.  The coaching staff has been trying to prep the trail for the upcoming Eastern Junior Finals as well as making sure we have a quality surface for the remainder of the season.  They were on the hill until 2am both Sunday and Monday nights watering the hill with snow making hoses.  It is not nearly as glorious as it sounds, trust me.  On Monday, we watered from about 5pm until 2am!  Needless to say, it has been a long week but now we get to showcase our athletes and program as we host the Easter Junior Finals starting March 7th and running through March 11th.

Alita and Kelsey are currently at Mammoth competing in the U18 National Championships.  After a major schedule change due to weather, they raced SL on March 5th.  Alita had a solid performance finishing 6th in a very competitive field.  All reports are that Kelsey was having a ripping 2nd run before taking a tumble a couple of gates from the finish.

Nice jackets, goooooo Bumble Bees!

The girls are involved in a championship series of some sort for the next 5+ days so please send them your good vibes!