This weekend brought another installment of chillin' at Wheeler Pond. Within moments of arriving, Yale motivated the crew to go climb nearby Wheeler Mountain. On the summit, his powers of observation led him to a big insight: the little black specks on the snow were jumping around! The Snow Fleas were out! After it got dark we did a little naked-eye astronomy out on the pond. A nice meteor burned up right under Jupiter as we were all looking right at it. Despite Fredrik's dire prediction, the fire in the wood stove was rekindled at 4am and nobody froze to death.

How does a Burkie spend a free ½ hour before dinner?

Bug, Lizzie and Isabel scrounged up an assortment of Nordic gear from around campus and gave skinny sticks a shot yesterday evening. Once clicked-into the bindings, Isabel declared “This is just like telemarketing!” (We know what she meant).  Although Lizzie’s boots were two sizes too big and Isabel’s were a half size too small, the girls quickly declared themselves intermediates. Bug, whose first time on cross country skis was three days ago when we held the Campus Sprint Showdown, has quickly picked it up. She’s a skinny stick whiz! 

I think we've got a Stowe Derby team lined-up for next year!

Scenes from a Super G

U16 Finals...

U18 National Champ!

Because awards are tomorrow, we don't have any photographic evidence of the awards ceremony yet. What you'll see once that happens is that Eliza Rolfs won with a commanding lead! Despite the changing conditions, she toughed it it to win both runs! With two other Burkies (Audrey O'Brien [7th] and Moriah Wilson[10th]) putting it into the top ten, it was a strong showing all around from our ladies. We'll be hoping for the best from the guys tomorrow!

U18 Ladies Public Bib Draw

This evening in the village of Mammoth Lakes the Eastern Region team participated in a few exciting public events. After a Parade of Nations through the village, the girls participated in a public bib draw. The Eastern girls who made it into the seed made friends with some very cute litte mammoth mighty mites who presented them with their bibs.

The Training Hill & Visitors

I always think the hill looks cool when it's packed with all slalom or all GS gates. Yesterday was a SL scene, and today GS. (See below) But probably more cool is when elite racers come to our hill to train. The past couple days the Quebec Men's Team has been training here. They have had some excellent results this year and it's been fun to watch them ski. They are prepping for Nor-am Finals in Nakiska next week. I asked why they chose to train at Burke and they said - quick turn around on the Poma, moderate consistent pitch, and it's a good, easy set up. That's why we like it too! The Quebecois are the most recent in quite the list of elite racers who've ripped turns on our hill this year - others include the Women's US Development Team, Women's Ontario Team, individuals (CAN) Eve Routhier, (USST) Julia Ford, (USST) Kieffer Christianson, and college teams from Dartmouth, Middlebury, UVM, UNH, Harvard, Williams, and Boston College - to name a few!

Ladies U18 Nationals Podium

The Eastern Ladies got off to a strong start at U18 nationals with three girls in the top six. Our own Audrey O'Brien had a great showing coming in second ahead of a charging group of girls!
Although it is a little too snowy to get any type of racing off today, everyone out here is psyched for the rest of the week!