World Cup Action ...

Mikaela Shiffrin is in first place and the second run is about to begin. On a different note, my daughter Lucy had her second top ten this morning in the Junior Nationals.

Lucy gets to light the Olympic torch and finished 14 in the sprints

Just missed a Lucky Loser spot into semifinals.

Who knew ... Behind the scenes at Patagonia

I have had a few Patagonia items repaired, that frankly were way past any reasonable warranty. Who knew that that operation was such a big article. An interesting - behind the scenes article - about the company and their huge Reno store and warehouse.

https://www.wildsnow.com/22071/patagonia-worn-wear-warehouse/#more-22071

Junior Nationals ... first race top ten

Lake Placid is hosting the 2017 Nordic Junior National Championships.  Lucy finished 9th in the U20 women's 5k skate with a time of 15:02 on a very hilly and challenging course. She went out a tad too fast but hung on to earn "All-American" honors. She is looking forward to the sprints tomorrow.  You can watch the action live streamed ...

https://livestream.com/xcountrylive/events/7098123

Ski Mo Race on Whiteface ...

Unfortunately I'll be in China; hopefully next year I can do it.

Beautiful Day ... nice run on a dirt road

How many days on snow have you got so far?

Unfortunately, the number of sessions may be up, but I believe the length of those sessions is down ... work has been killing me this year!

From red klister to burrrr in the blink of an eye!

I skinned up Whiteface this morning, and even in the sun it was pretty darn cold. Tomorrow morning it will be -12 with a high of -1 degrees.

Junior Nationals Coming To Town

This will be one of Lucy's favorite days. Teams arrive tomorrow. The first races are Monday.

BLAST FROM THE PAST ... NCS nordic skiers in 1986

A week-long project about ski history dug into our archives for video and photographs going back to the 1940s at school. They found this photograph of me teaching a few of my better skiers during a skate workout in the NCS pasture.

NCAA regional championships

Lucy finished her freshman college season with a 9th place finish in the 15k skate ... reaching her goal of both a top ten distance and top ten sprint result. She ranked 25th overall in the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association.

On to the junior nationals!

Western Land Use

An excellent short essay ...

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/02/opinion-lands-fight-utah-symbolism/

Power still out ...

The rain-sleet-heavy snow brought down all kinds of trees.

Power Outage for the past 13 hours ...

and still no word when it will be back. However, the temperatures dropped we got several inches of snow, and it looks like winter again.

Definition of a hayseed ...

But beautiful and intelligent despite her outfit for chores!

Vintage Adirondack Posters

Nordic World Championships ...

What a great start for the USST; silver and bronze medals in the sprints.

Still skiing but ...

The sugaring season has started!

Stockpiling snow

Several days of very warm temperatures are reducing the snowpack. And although all 50k are tracked they postponed the loppet. I assume there are concerns about the junior nationals next week. So, they are making snow 24/7 to be sure they have reserves for the junior nationals. This is the second or third pile so far that is roughly 40 feet long and 15 feet high.

Ode to klister ...

Klister signals the coming of spring and the end to winter. Klister is messy as hell and hard to get off your skis and hands. Klister needs your body heat (arm pit, groin, or stomach) to help spread it on your skis out in the field. However, there is nothing faster than blue klister and no kick more bombproof than red klister.

Make sure you have a good supply of hand cleaner!

Middlebury Winter Carnival

A short video about Saturday's team sprints; Lucy gets a quick start and has a good day.

http://vimeo.com/204755982

Skimeister

This week we had the 34th annual intermural competition. When the school started in 1938 skiing was a much simpler sport. Whether you cross-country skied, ski jumped, ran slalom gates, or tucked a downhill course, you always used the same set of gear. And so if you raced you were a four event skier.

To pay homage to this concept, we always take one day in February to be outside on her skis and snowboards all day. We always hold an informal nordic and biathlon race, set up a small slalom course, and do some freestyle jumping. The bronze – silver – gold medals are chocolate chip cookies, as you can see in the picture below.

Fantastic. View from Fairhope Farm

Skiing Mount Marcy

One of my trustees came over with some buddies to take advantage of the awesome new snow ... unfortunately I had to work.

Spectacularly beautiful 90 seconds

Skimeister

Back in the old days, ski racers competed in four events. For the past 34 years at NCS we honor that tradition with a skimeister intramural competition and celebration of winter ... Nordic, biathlon, slalom, and freestyle events.

A ski profile of Lucy

India, one of Lucy's buddies at SLU is a film major.  She also gets paid by EISA to do the weekly video summaries of the college carnivals.  This profile was done as one of her course requirements.

Artist residencies in the wilderness

Excellent article ... https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/02/get-paid-make-art-public-lands/

Winter Olympics ... one year away

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/travel/pyeongchang-south-korea-skiing-2018-winter-olympics.html?hpw&rref=travel&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Another good weekend for Lucy

In the 3x5k skate relay she had the 12th fastest leg of all collegians. In the classic 5k on Saturday she finished 22nd, closer to the big dogs than in the past, so it may have been very good for her USSA points.

How do we convince climate change deniers?

An excellent short essay ... bottom line ... Changing hearts and minds about climate change is not about the facts, it is about the values.

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/02/trouble-climate-change-truths-dont-like/

Climate Change Is Real, Not A Chinese Hoax

https://vimeo.com/198306286

The sagebrush rebellion continues

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/02/outdoor-industry-flexes-muscle-utah-public-lands/

History of bouldering grades

http://www.climbing.com/news/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-bouldering-grades/

UVM Winter Carnival Sprints

Campus tour and ski hill laps with my AT gear

OLD SCHOOL ... skiing the way it was almost 70 years ago ... Mad River Glen

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_SqK9OJyrHo&ebc=ANyPxKr6h59NmOuR7LiovArh60iNh9jFlmtaQGgdFSF172W_tx6E-10cuVP4pHk8-NSbXeUb9NIikz7ctN-buaNoOpYcwt-_jw

UVM Winter Carnival ... Lucy takes 5th

Here she is wining her quarterfinal heat.

Michael Franklin and Mike Brochu ... BLAST FROM THE PAST

Now, almost 40 years ago!

Old Mountain Road

Trying to run once a week so that the transition in the spring won't be so painful.