A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Then no additional commentary needed.

Another podium at Whiteface

Congrats to Nicole Anderson PG13' for her 2nd place finish in the GS at Whiteface. Nicole currently leads the Eastern Cup points with 527.

Whiteface Eastern Cup Win

A huge congrats to Lisa Schroer for winning today's Eastern Cup SG! There were 2 races today and in the other race Lisa was 3rd. Onto GS tomorrow.

U16 VT States Day 2 (girls)

Burke girls were fast again on Sunday! Fueled by a lot of great home cooked meals (thanks Cristina, Lisa, Barbara and Jonathan!) Burkie girls went 1-3-6 on the second day of U16 States at Killington. Current US Ski Team members Nolan Kasper BMA class of '07 and Chelsea Marshall did a brief Q&A with the athletes, and then presented awards.

Madison and Chelsea Marshall

Olivia and Chelsea (background: Madison and Chuck Hughes!)

Bridget, race winner, receiving her prize from Nolan

Top 10, plus Tiger Shaw, Nolan and Chelsea

Fencing for Burke Eastern Cups

The coaches were up on the mtn getting the training hill and dippers ready for the upcoming GS races and SG training. Fencing is good for the soul.

Burke U14 Race Day

Burke hosted a Northern VT Council U14 race yesterday, after heavy snow blanketed the mountain and proved to give us a good load of work! But we got "down to the hard stuff," which is always great for racing and the Burkies took advantage of the home hill with great results and great skiing! Below are a few photos from the day.

 Girls Top 10, BMA girls had a strong showing! Isabel 2, Avery 3, Lizzy 9, Lucy 10

U14 Boys podium - Andrew takes 3rd, Shamus 8th (not pictured) 

BMA U14 Girls

Cranmore EC podium

Congrats to Maisie Ide BMA PG 12' and Mardi Haskell BMA 12 and current PG on their podium at Cranmore. Way to go girls.

U16 VT States (girls edition)

BMA finished 5 in the top 10 after 2 runs of slalom here at Killington. Pictured is the awards ceremony: awards (super sweet trail sign awards, one of the coolest prizes ever, in my opinion!) were handed out by past Burke parent Chuck Hughes, current US Ski Team member Julia Ford, and past US Ski Team member (and Burke alum!) Megan Hughes Traynor '01. Congrats to the girls and more to come tomorrow!

And we're back!

The U16s are beginning the two-weekend series of VT state championships this weekend. Boys are racing at Okemo tomorrow, while the girls are racing at Killington. Paige, Olivia, Jordan, Bridget, Nicola and I are staying at the beautiful home of a friend of the Katzes in Killington. This is a shot of our dinner party for 9!

Thanks to Jonathan, Barbara and Glenda for hosting us!! Race news tomorrow!

U18 Nationals Team Named

At the end of the most recent race series at Sunapee, the U18 national team was named. Fifteen girls will represent the eastern region at Mammoth in March. All of the Burke U18 girls qualified in the top ten!
Pictured is the qualifying group, not including Lexi and Eliza.

Dartmouth carnival

Well the wind was strong. How strong? It took the lift out so athletes either got towed by the snowcat or did it old school style and hiked. All in all it was a fun day. Enjoy your break everyone.

Cleanup!

Last dining hall crew before break!

Congratulations Sophie!

Congratulations to Sophie Wood, Audrey O'Brien and Dani Brownell-Patty on their podium yesterday at Mount Sunapee, also finishing in the top ten- Lexi Calcagni 5th, and Moriah Wilson 10th!  Well done Burkies!

Sophie, Audrey and Dani

The Race That Never Happened

The BMA U16 men were at Stowe today for the State SG Championship. A few of them got in one training run but the race ended up being postponed due to a soft hill. It has been rescheduled for Friday, March 1st.

A few of the Burke U16's waiting for the jury's decision.

Training with the DTeam USST

Nicole and Mardi were lucky enough to train with the women's DTeam this week. A special thanks to Seth and Prado for making space for our girls.

Can't get enough

From the hill to lunch, to the dorm. Lizzy and Parker ski it up! We finally have enough snow again to ski down from the mountain! YAY!!!

Sam Coffin's Letter to the Juneau Empire

Hi everyone,

Sam Coffin wrote a letter to a newspaper in Juneau that ended up getting put on their website. Juneau, Alaska. Sam Coffin, Hinesburg, VT.

Way to go Sam!

http://juneauempire.com/letters/2013-02-11/concerned-about-pebble-mine#.URlVmKUgI20

New equipment

The gym has (many more!) new pull up bars! Thanks to Darrell, Greg, and Rob for pulling this off! (...pun intended?!)

 The U14s realized how fun these "monkey bars" can be... (Pictured: Lucy and Parker)

Avery and Lizzy getting STRONG!!!

Taking Jake Home

We returned last week from a great trip to Collingwood, Ontario.  Above shows not only great skiing from Jake but the culmination of patience, focus and hard work as Harry's first race back from ankle surgery got him on the U18 podium and his best score in North America.

 

 

Jake skis himself into a new pair of shoes.

 

 

Charlie in second place. Letter in his hand is an offer to claim $150 CAD. Doing work, pretty sure you have to donate the prize to you coach though, right Lauren?

 

 

 

 

Blanchard wins GMVS SL

Jack Blanchard won the GMVS NVC U16 SL yesterday at Sugarbush North. BMA has five boys in the top ten.

Double victory at Sugarbush

The last U16 NVC race of the year wound up being a double victory for BMA - congrats to Jack and Bridget!

Middlebury Eastern Cup

Congrats to Mardi Haskell who finished 3rd in today's slalom EC. We had a great time watching the girls go for it.

A Mike Kenney Sighting!

Today, Mike Kenney visited us up on the training hill. Mike is a native of Franconia, NH and has been working with the USST in some capacity since his nephew, Bode Miller, started with the team... a while ago. Hard to believe how long it's been...

Anyway, Mike wanted to see what was going on up here and so he spent the morning on the training hill, skiing around mostly with Charlotte, but interacting with whoever was around. It was a lot of fun to see Mike and talk with him. He's an incredible base of knowledge, both for his work with the USST, but also for his work as both a soccer and a tennis coach. Mike truly believes that the best athletes make the best skiers, so don't forget to keep playing as many games as you can growing up and whatever you do, learn to kick that soccer ball with both feet!

Here's a pic of Mike, Char, Nina and Bridget:

Safety first

Training hill pics take 2

Char and Eliza

The Williams Sisters, Lizzy and Char

Sophie "The Hammer" and Olivia

Kai, PK, Liam

Sven, Timmy

Poma Superheroes!

I know you all probably feel like you hear a lot about the Poma, but the truth is that we live and die by the trusty ol' Poma here at BMA. Here is a glamour shot of the dudes who keep it all running (or fix it when it's not running). As some of you know, the cable is being tightened today and tomorrow, so these guys are getting the work ready for the splicer to come and work tomorrow. Thanks to Brian, Chris, Trevor, Steve and everyone else who makes the magic happen.

Midweek Group, aka MiniBurke!

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons, we have a group of kids from our Junior Program that ski with us for extra training. Here are Maggie, younger sister of Abby and Aleck; Daphnee, our resident French speaking U12; Lili; and Julia, younger sister of Matt and Lexi! They are clearly PSYCHED!

BMA Unplugged

Yesterday BMA went retro with Technology free Tuesday.  Students and many staff gave up their laptops and phones for the day. Last night we celebrated with old school fun and games.

Follow this link for more photos:
BMA Unplugged photo album

Old school fun at BMA!

PG Men SL

Jack and Chris are running SL from Pavilion to the Little Dipper cut. Tough course in some relatively new snow. Tactics will be critical. Will they be able to show Cole Janco how it's done?

Snow Flew on Upper Training Hill

It's been a rough winter with some very damaging thaws. However, when the temps go low, the staff at Burke Mountain looks to replace some of what Mother Nature took away. Here are some pics of the mounds on Upper Training Hill. We should be back to all systems go up there by the end of the week.

 Finally, the sun was shining bright!

Technology Free Tuesday at BMA

We are going retro tomorrow! Students have been challenged to give up their phones, laptops etc. for the day. In the evening we'll hold a community night for students and staff with all kinds of old school games-Pictionary, Monopoly, Scrabble and Scattergories just to name a few. We are going back to Darrell's first days on campus in the 90's before cell phones, laptops, Facebook and blogs.  We'll be back online on Wednesday.  This should be interesting!

U14 Duals

The BMA U14s often train with the Junior Program U14s on the weekends. With the hill to ourselves we set a Dual Panel SL (just like Moscow!!) and the athletes had a blast.

 Isabel on the blue and Lizzy on the red, square off

Junior Program racers - I'm going to say the view is better than the WC City Events....

Podium shots from Stowe

The U16s made their way to Stowe today for an NVC GS. I believe these photos will speak a thousand words! Thanks to all the parents who came to support the kids (and feed the coaches...it's always welcome!)

L-R Madison, Sophie S, Anna E-B, Abby

Cole, (Sebastian from GMVS), Sven, Jack

Boys Podium: (L-r, not finish order): Liam, GMVS, GMVS, Patrick, GMVS, Kai, Cole, GMVS, Sven, Jack

Girls Podium (L-R, not finish order): Anna E-B, Abby, Sophie, Madison, GMVS, Bridget, GMVS, Paige, Nicola and Olivia, the birthday girl!