BMA Alum Kieffer Christianson Wins NA GS

Burke Mtn Academy alumni Kieffer Christianson '10 wins Nor Am GS with Norways Nikolai Narvestad in second and USST athlete Nicholas Krause in third. CONGRATS Kieffer! This was Kieffer's first Nor AM GS win and his best GS score of his life at 9.3.

Powder Day @ Vail for the Girls.

The Vail NorAm girls just finished up a solid training block at Loveland and were rewarded with a nice powder day.  Smiles all around this week, let's keep it rolling into the races.

Loveland Training in COLD

A cold and snowy day at Lovaland training with the PG girls (and Audrey O)and boys. We had a great day with 6 inches of nice light snow.

Brandon's Winter Term US History Class

Winter Term students give group presentations on nationalism, imperialism, and militarism in History class.

Imperialism-Parker, Lizzy, Kai and Avery 

Nationalism-Lucy, Peter, Isabel and Forest

Militarism-Sven, Mckenna, Shamus and Anna

Spotted

You may remember Sophie, Paige and Olivia from the blog post where they were learning to Nordic ski from Tara....this is their most recent antic. On a separate note, despite high winds and projected rain, the lower mountain lift is running and the snow is great! Rain has held off so far...

BMA Dominates Mont Ste. Anne

 

Most of the men's FIS team returned last night from a successful trip to Mont Ste. Anne.  The boys braved sub-zero temperatures along the St. Lawrence and a hill none of them had ever been on to prove once and for all that Burke Mt. Academy is the best ski academy of all time.

Morning of the first day.

U18 GS Podium day 1.

U18 GS Podium day 2

U18 SG Podium race 1.

U18 SG Podium race 2.

On the ride home Charlie realized we were going to be back for class on Tuesday instead of Wednesday and hadn't finished his physics homework so he tried to call in a bomb threat. Luckily Marcia wasn't fooled.

The reason why the guys won the top(flat) split in the SG.

Scenes from the Warming Hut

It was a beautiful day at Burke today. With 6" of light fluffy stuff on top of perfect grooming and blue sky the Burkies took full advantage of the day, taking MANY training runs. Here are a few scenes from the end of the training session.

 Peace to all: Anna E-B and Harry

 Timmy, Eliza, McKenna

 Bundling the gates

Char, Parker, Tory

Chopstick pros

After a good day of training at our partner mountain Loveland the girls decided to feast on some sushi! It's well deserved after a solid effort. A special thank to the crew at Loveland Racing for all of the support.

Can/Am Gold!!!

Ali Price and Patrick Kenney win GS's at U16 Can/Am's in Collingwood Ontario. We are digging for more tomorrow in the final race of the four race series.

Happy faces on the training hill

We are lucky enough to have several iPad/eye-Fi/camera setups running on the hill this year, which is a really amazing coaching resource. One of the unsung benefits of the nice camera is that it's super easy to also take photos (not just video). I've been snapping some shots in between runs, and it's nice to see so many happy kids - and coaches!

Georgian Bay Lake Huron

Jordan Watts with Georgian Bay Lake Huron in the background. This is a massive body of water and quite a sight standing in the starting gate at Alpine Ski Club Collingwood Ontario.

U16s invade Collingwood

We've started to build a training/racing relationship with some of the private clubs in Collingwood, Ontario. In December, a small handful of club kids came and trained with us on training hill and now, Steve Berlack is up there with some of our kids at a series of U16 races.

Partnerships like these help extend Burke's connection to different programs and regions. It helps provide further resources to our kids and introduces people to Burke that might not otherwise make it to the NEK.

Good luck up there everyone!

Saving Money!!!

A well stocked U16 fridge on the road in Collingwood. Beats a Twelve dollar burger!!

U16 CanAm at Collingwood

Ali and Jordan with a team from SkiQuebec at the CanAm U16 event in Collingwood Ontario.

Getting Creative in the Gym

Although the main winter focus at BMA is skiing, we also spend time in the gym trying to maintain our strength, agility, mobility, flexibility, and power. The following photos show some U14s and U16s attempting a nasty tough balance course, thanks to Greg, as well as some mobility with the hurdles and coordination.

 Anna E-B navigates the balance course

Shamus and Anna E-B, over and under, do not fall!

Parker and Lucy: Once they completed the course, they 'became pirates' and tried the course with one eye!

Parker, Isabel, Shamus: Balance and coordination, ball toss while balancing

Isabel and Andrew hop the hurdles 

Avery and Lucy showing their mobility

Freddy

Freddy might not be skiing right now, but he is going to have KILLER abs by the end of winter.

Skin to Win!

Today's race at Burke Mountain:

1) Skin up
2) ski down
3) hike up
4) ski down

Burke Mountain Junior Program Coach Steve Gennaro ended up on the podium, at least that's what the word on the hill was...

3 wins in 3 days

The girls FIS team traveled to Okemo for 1 GS and 2 SG's. Well we would up with 3 wins in 3 days, swept the podium in the 2 SG's and had the top U18 each day. Roll tide..