Survival Skills

Lucy and a friend take advantage of the major snowstorm to fashion an igloo out of the dense snowpack. Lucy has been studying the Inuit and so is putting her learning to good use.

Oldest Ski Mountaineering Race in the World

The Trofeo Mezzalama is held each year between mid-April and early May in the Monte Rosa area. Click on this link to access a short video about the 2009 race. I mention this because, after we complete the Haute Route in March 2011, maybe we should take our heightened fitness levels and enter one of the many popular ski mountaineering team races! This race has a total elevation gain during the event is 9,389’, with descent totaling 10,318’, across 27 miles of horizontal distance reaching a maximum altitude of 13,864’.

Kudos to Brian

On Saturday, April 17 High Peaks Cyclery will sponsor an area premier of "North Face" at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts. This movie has played to good reviews in several large cities. The movie is set in pre-World War II Germany, and while it is fictional, it closely follows much of the early climbing history on the north face of the Eiger. Click on the text to read a recent review.

Skimeister video

This is a short video from last week's traditional NCS skimeister event. Enjoy.

More About Steve House Solo

Click on this text to read Alpinist's coverage of his recent solo ascent of the two classic New Hampshire test pieces ... Repentence and Remission.

Thirty Years Ago in Lake Placid

In one of the most memorable nordic races ever Juha Mieto, the Finnish giant is beaten by Sweden's Thomas Wassberg by one-hundredth of a second in the 1980 15K race. Click on the text to watch archival footage of this amazing race. This race had the closest margin of victory ever in Olympic in cross-country skiing and it led the International Ski Federation (FIS) to round all of their times to the nearest 1/10th second in future competitions.

Empire State Biathlon Championships

Lucy and I skied out on the course to watch the race as it unfolded, it was great to see four of the up-and-coming biathletes from the US Team skiing and shooting. As well as Duncan Douglas - a two time Olympian - who I used to train with in the 1980s.

Lightweight and essential

Matt and Larry turned me on to this tiny, but important piece of gear. This mini ascender should just be clipped to the back of your harness for when you inadvertently get swallowed by a crevasse or when you need to set up a pulley system to rescue a buddy. Click on this text to access information about how to use this superb piece of equipment.

NCS Skimeister

In a nod to the historical nature of skiing competitions, every year since I came to NCS we have had a friendly four-event competition. The goal is participation, and to have students become aware that there was a time when athletes did all the skiing events on one set of gear ... slalom, downhill, jumping, and cross country ... and the real deal was the person that excelled in all of them. So, yesterday all our students were out competing in nordic, biathlon, slalom, and freestyle jumps. The picture is shows me in the capacity of Chief of Course for the biathlon event.

Lamb Chops

Calling all Fossils, please put the third week of next December on your calendar ... ice climbing in the Adirondacks, single malt at the cabin, and fresh lamb on the table!

NCS: alpine skiing on our hill

On most any winter day from 3-4:30 our students are out skiing on the hill ... alpine skis, snowboards, tele-gear, and occasionally nordic racing skis are the order of the day. This two minute video, set to some jazz from the "Big Band Era" captures the ambience of an average day ... riding the 1950s rope tow, building jumps, launching off jumps, and perfecting your telemark turn. I filmed this in between laps up - and down - the hill on my ski mountaineering gear.

Enjoy.

Quote of the Week

As the Olympics capture our attention - justifiably with the amazing skill and technical levels - it is important to remember Hemingway's quote:

THERE ARE ONLY THREE REAL SPORTS: BULL-FIGHTING, CAR RACING, AND MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. ALL THE OTHERS ARE MERE GAMES.

I am up at 3:45 AM tomorrow, for an alpine day trip to Boston, New hampshire, and back to the Adirondacks. As I drift off to sleep my mind is wandering to the West face of Leaning Tower.

Team Ethiopia!

Robel - the nordic skier - carrying the flag, his two younger brothers (Yoseph and Benyam), as well as an uncle parade into the stadium at the opening of the 21st Winter olympics. Selden and I were houseparents to Robel and Benyam, and Yoseph was on my faculty a couple of years ago. Good luck in the 15K skate race on Monday.

My Nordic Hero

Most of the new generation of hot nordic skiers have forgotten or never heard of Bill Koch. If they have heard of him, it is just because when they were little - 5 to 13 years old - they probably skied in the Bill Koch League program. Nevertheless, he is still the only American every to win a nordic medal in the Olympics (1976). (We hope that part changes in the next several weeks.) He also was the only American to win the year-long World Cup title in 1982. He was a role model, inspiration, and of course, fellow racer that left me (and most others) in the dust. My most vivid memory of him was in the 1982 National 50K Championship race that was held on an intensely hilly 10K loop in central Vermont. The US Ski Team had flown him back from Europe to use this as a training day. The coaches were stationed 1K apart all around the loop, and they would tell him to go fast for a couple of kilometers, then back off and cruise for a few more kilometers, he was in totally casual mode ... the nearest US Ski teamer was 15-20 minutes back! During the race he passed me on a tight, technical, very steep, and incredibly icy downhill. Everyone that I saw was snowplowing the hill - including yours truly - Koch on the other hand passed me in a deep tuck. He was truly that good! Click on this text to access a link to an article that reviews the recently passed Olympics.

Carrying The Flag

As you tune in tonight, Robel Teklamariam for the second Olympics in a row will be carrying in the Ethiopian flag. He is an NCS graduate, from the class of 1989. Selden and I were his dorm parents in Woods House when he was a sixth grader and his mother - who was working for the United Nations - was assigned to North Korea. Click on this text to access a link to a New York Times interview filmed for the 2006 Olympics in Torino. (The video shows Robel skiing in Colorado, a short interview with Hock, and some pictures of him when he as a 12 year-old at North Country School.)

News Flash

Yesterday Steve House soloed the two New Hampshire testpieces - Repentence and Remission - on Cathedral Ledge. These fierce NEI V routes from the 1970s are still considered very serious even with today's improved gear. It is thought that Remission has never been soloed.

Whiteface Day

Today was our traditional day of the week to spend the afternoon skiing at Whiteface. It was a spectacular day, with cobalt blue skies and moderate temperatures. We had the mountain to ourselves. Often I am too busy to get out of the office, but today I could not resist. This short video captures our students gearing up, assembling for lessons, and then checking in at 3:45 to get the much needed homemade cookies. It was a fantastic day, and the first telemarking of the season for me.

Documentary about Messner

Click on this test to access a documentary produced by Outside magazine about Messner and his Himalayan exploits. There is fantastic footage from Everest. Clearly this is a guy who walks the walk and talks the talk ... Keeping his "courage in your rucksack," or trying the "murder of the impossible," in the mountains were never his style, it was always "by fair means."

Finally from Mountain #15, I'll quote the final sentences of his famous article, "The Murder of the Impossible" ...

Put on your boots and get going. If you've got a companion, take a rope with you and a couple of pitons for your belays, but nothing else. I'm already on my way, ready for anything - even for retreat, if I meet the impossible. I'm not going to be killing any dragons, but if anyone wants to come with me, we'll go to the top together on the routes we can do without branding ourselves murderers.

Quote of the Week

Now that my students have successfully completed the loppet, I will probably turn my attention - and theirs - to some touring. The Adirondacks in general, and our campus in particular, have some great backcountry tours. Then too, I hope to do some tours in the Sierras come mid-March. With that in mind I was re-reading, Lou Dawson's 'Wild Snow."

The enclosed quote is by Sir Arnold Lunn, the father of British skiing, and the originator of modern ski racing:

GUIDEBOOKS MERELY DESCRIBE THE SKELETON, LEAVING THE MEMORY TO CLOTHE IT WITH ROMANCE.

A Great Event

The 2010 Lake Placid loppet was held on a beautiful day, and a course that was well groomed and quite fast. It was a relatively casual day for me, as my job was to hit the wax (easy to do when its green and blue conditions), and to pace Alex our lead skier for the first 20K, before I put the pedal to the medal. All our kids - including daughter Lucy who was our youngest loppet racer ever - hit their target time goals, and they all took home some hardware, as did some of my staff. As always this is a big accomplishment for middle-schoolers ... 25K with over 1800' of climbing! I skied a 2:19, while our four skiers logged in between 2:25 and 2:59.

Loppets, Loppets, Everywhere

I showed this short video to the NCS students to get them psyched for staffing the feeding stations this weekend at the Lake Placid Loppet. I wanted the students to see that in snowy climates all over the world, people are doing these long distance nordic races, and that often they have great historical significance as the picture of Prince Hakon and the birkebeiners alludes to. The video includes some great shots of not only the Lake Placid loppet which is held on the 1980 Olympic course, but also shots of the Engadine Skimarathon and the Vasaloppet in Sweden.

Not Your Everyday After School Program

Larry took his class up to the crag to work out on the thin and very steep drips, with a bit of dry-tooling thrown in for good measure. This is incredibly hard stuff for 9th graders to be hanging on to, probably weighing in at M6. I would love to get some fossils up to the Adirondacks for one last winter outing. The ice is nice and the skiing is quite good. As always click on the photos to enlarge the images.