Cochran's Night Slalom

Cochran's put on a fun night race yesterday in which many U16s participated. It was an open USSA race though so there was great competition from many of the UVM racers. 

Here are a few photos to show the scene. Lizzy is the racer - sorry it's so blurry! You get the idea. :) The darkness didn't work well for my phone!

 Chris R, Chris O'B, Ian, Connor

 The cheering squad

Go Lizzy!

Burkies race GS at Okemo

Several BMA athletes had a successful day at Okemo on a day that didn't begin with a lot of promise after a night of rain and several days of above freezing temperature. Paige Lorenze won the race, while Parker Biele was 2nd overall and 1st U16. For the boys, Fredi Schneider placed 1st for U16 despite a hip check on the first run, with Will Beney in hot pursuit in 2nd for U16s. The snow was perfect for salting and held up quite well with enough ruts and bumps to provide the boys some character building. It was the first scored USSA race for several of the boys, and they came through with big move-ups in placings. 

Parker and Paige:

Fredi and Will:

The kids and their hardware:

Wrap up from Development Camp

Here are a bunch of photos from the last days of Development Camp. Making cookies and race day!

Burkies: Coach Cate '10, Chief of Course Chase '14, Coach Trevor '12, Coach Sam '12

Burkies Bri, McKenna, Jack, Maggie, Julia, Charlotte, Patrick, Andrew

Burkies & Campers: Jennette, Kylee, Alli, and Katie

Future Burkeis?!?!

Race day scene

The winning cookies

Making cookies

These guys were proud of the massive amount of frosting they put on their cookies.

Thanks again to the Burkeis for helping out - here the girls are helping with registration:
Lizzy, Megan, McKenna, Parker and Jennette
Below

December Development Camp - an amazing day!

We could not have asked for better weather and snow for the first day of the Development Camp. There were lots of smiles and tons of turns! Some groups made it up to the Fire Tower for views from Canada to Mt. Mansfield to NH. 

Back on campus groups watched video, played games in the snow, did obstacle courses in the gym, and listened to Headmaster Kirk Dwyer and alumni speak about BMA, its values, having passion, and the life long benefits of being a ski racer. 

 The Fire Tower on top of Burke in inches of rime ice

 Looking down the training hill, with the Willoughby Gap in the distance

 U14 boys 

Kirk speaking in the Dining Hall

Surprise!

Tory's old training group from last year held a surprise baby shower for Tory last evening BUT, the surprise was on them when Tory had baby Cecelia an hour before the shower!

Heib House Cookie Time!

Some Heibsters getting into the holiday spirit. We missed those of you who weren't around tonight! 

Cole and Drew - making 'Merica proud

Gigi Keeping Campus Safe

Gigi Quimby earns the hero of the day award for proactively removing this monstrously large and dangerous icicle hanging over the Withy doorway.

White and Wintery

It is great to have the mountain open now! Students took advantage of skiing the upper mountain, as well as some glade skiing on their twin tips after training. It is surely looking like winter up here!

10th grade English

The 10th graders tackled a very tough essay in English. By breaking it down paragraph by paragraph they demonstrated a masterful understanding. Here, Gigi and Annie present their paragraph to the class while Parker hydrates.

My apologies, but this really needs to be blogged...

For those of you who don't get to read the occasionally impressive emails that Rolf is capable of crafting, I have to post what I deem to be an instant classic:

From Tory:

Hi everyone who might still be around -

Erica made an impressive smorgasbord (sp????) of cookies and cakes and left them all on my desk "to share" - I'm sure we all can imagine what it looks like when that happens to a woman who is 9 months pregnant (think tears of joy!) but I invite you all to come down and grab some treats before the kids get wind of it or before I eat it all myself!

Enjoy!

Tory

Rolf's reply:

Smörgåsbord actually, but you're forgiven.  Smörgås (smoor-gose) is an open face sandwich (in Sweden), bord (p. boord) is a table, so, literally, a table full of open face sandwiches.  But cookies work too.

More Snow at BMA

Heavy, wet snow might not be the best for gate-training.  But some unknown students recognized it's potential for making a snowman.  So far we're getting more snow out of this system than rain.  A base is starting to develop that will hopefully put us in good shape for the rest of the season.

Wreath Making Second Shift

WOW! Beautiful!

Isabel, Jennette, Megan, Tatum, Sarah and Andrew

Training on a Tuesday

Happy to be back at home, happy for good conditions, happy for an awesome crew!

'Nother day, 'mother dollar. 

These happen to be taken while the poma was down, temporarily...Entertainment, Burke style

You'll notice the U14s hiking...so tough! 

Burkies tend to FLOCK as soon as they see a camera: L-R Isabel, Bruce, McKenna, Shaq, Bri, Sarah, Lexi, Maddy, Raph and Patrick

Student Takeover of Lit 12

Cole thought he could teach a day of Lit 12 so we gave him a shot. He did a GREAT job leading a discussion on Ch 4 of Kafka's The Trial.

Wreath Making 101

A few students and adults from the community gathered to make wreaths on Friday afternoon.  Not all who were interested could make it, but we hope to do another session next week.  This was a talented group of crafters!  Maggie Sullivan, Lucas Sourbeer, Celeste Graham, Jaime Lipka Sourbeer, Tory Amorello, Sophie Sherman, Alex Perreault, Kate Barton, Bay Ross and Kasey Kinsella.

Skiing Cannon

Since Burke isn't open quite yet, some groups free skied at Cannon today. It was a beautifully sunny day and it was fun to ski a different mountain. Here is a photo of some U14s and U16s, which also shows the awesome view of Franconia Notch and Mt. Lafayette behind.

Sammi, Claudia, Maggie, Lili, Corey, Raph, Jack L, Jennette, Charlotte, Sophie, Celeste, Julia, Daphne

Welcome Back!

It is great having all the students back on a snowy campus. Including our new winter termers!

Dave Iverson also welcomed many coaches from around Vermont to a referee update on campus this afternoon. Thanks DI- our VARA Volunteer of the Year!

College Visits

Yale and Bay went to visit the University of Colorado Boulder led by tour guide Dani Brownell and the University of Denver led by Taylor Shiffrin. Both Burke alums did a great job! Here are some pics of Boulder. Our visit to Denver was after the sun set so unfortunately not great for photos.

The U14s Rock

The U14s just make me laugh. I love their energy. First it was all their nick names as they called in over the radio for training... Sambo, The Flying Sword, The Unripe Banana, Unibrow Octopus Charlie, Marg, The Dark Knight, CG Money, and more... I don't know how they came up with these names, but I'm impressed. And I'm sorry I can't remember them all!

Here's to their coaches Feef, Corey, and Justin for keeping it fun. :)

If I have it correctly, L to R: The Unripe Banana, Marg, The Flying Sword, and The Dark Knight

(aka Reed, Maggie, Killian, Raph)

And to top it off, tonight they provided Justin with an awesome birthday celebration, much to his chagrin. The photo isn't great, but you can see how psyched these guys were to sing "Happy Birthday," and present him with a card, beef jerky, and cake. Nice work boys. (I will also add that it was the best Burkie student-led rendition of "Happy Birthday" that I've heard. And that's a challenge Burkies.)

Sunset Cruise over the Divide

Driving over the Loveland Pass and Continental Divide is a must at least once per camp. Tonight we hit it at sunset after the late block of training.

U16 Boys

A day at the races

Hanging with some alums and almost alums at the USST Invitational SG's at Copper
Mikaela ('13), Lexi ('13), DI, Madison ('15), Moriah ('14)

I was the only spectator (one, me, that's it, singular) at the race today.  The finish line was about a half-mile up the mountain.  There was also no announcing, and so I was the only person at the finish who knew what the times were.  That made me popular than I deserve to be.

Study Scene

The girls are - as always - maintaining a productive study environment.

Prime Training!

After 3' of snow last week, and then frigid temps, the snow has set up really well! Well, it's still a tiny bit soft but it will only improve as the week goes on.

Here's a link to the snowfall totals at Loveland - impressive! It just wouldn't stop snowing!

http://www.skiloveland.com/themountain/reports/history.aspx

Here are some photos of the views around Loveland, and the trail where all the BMA groups are training.

 From the top - looking down Upper Switchback

 Looking towards Loveland Basin - the majority of the ski area - and notice I-70, and then it disappears into the tunnels under the mountain...

Looking up the length of Switchback

The U16 boys ready to go on their first day of GS training