Thanksgiving Camp!!!

A report by Akeo:

This year marked the beginning of what looks like will become an great new Thanksgiving camp tradition for Harvard’s nordic ski team. This year we went to Craftsbury, VT instead of making the customary Thanksgiving break trek to Canada. In Vermont we stayed at the local outdoor center in an olympic-village like setting, with skiing out the door, weight facilities, and an excellent dining lodge. Our first day was spent dry land training, but thanks to a large snow that night we were able to ski twice a day for the rest of the week. It was such an amazing time being back on snow after the long summer months, and spending so much time bonding together as a team. Our first few days on snow were dedicated to easy distance skiing, with lots of technique work to transition and adapt all our hard work from roller skiing to snow skiing. The week built in intensity culminating in a 4.5km skate race.  This was a great opportunity for everyone to push themselves and get a in a really good hard effort.

Off the trails we also had a fantastic time. After a few months of Harvard dining hall food it was a nice change to have home-style cooking. We also had a suite with a nice common room where we were able to spend lots of time together studying, watching movies, talking about skiing and baking pies and cookies! Everyone was sad to leave after such a fun camp, but with only a few more weeks before local skiing, spirits are still high and the air is filled with excitement for the upcoming races.

The Air was Sweet and Fragrant...

...on the van ride home from practice yesterday.
More scintillating conversation from Esther and Chris:
Chris: "What's the French word for air?"
Esther: "Err?"
Chris: "No, I mean, what's the word for air."
Esther: "Err? Huh, I don't know."
Chris: "No, air, this stuff."
Esther: "Oh, air!"
Chris: "L'air?"
Esther: "I thought you were talking about err!"
Chris: "No, I meant air."

The past few weeks have been busy for the ski team!

Chris's backyard on October 27

As most of you probably know, New England was hit with October snow this year!  There wasn't enough for us to ski on, but it was still exciting!  Chris and his wife had already put their daughter, Maggie, to bed when the snow started, but Chris insisted that Maggie needed to be woken up to see her first snowfall.

Maggie's Immediate Reaction to the Snow

A few days later, the Stocks graciously hosted brunch for us at their house. We were all impressed with Professor Stock's cooking abilities. Pumpkin pancakes and french toast have never tasted so good. As good as the food was, the highlight of the brunch was the babies! Both Sara's and Chris's children came.   Maggie was quiet and cute, while Sara's son Loki spent most of his time rolling around on the ground. 

Everyone was very sleepy after brunch

This Sunday (November 6), was the annual CSU classic rollerski race. Chris Stock and Akeo took turns leading during the race, but Chris came out ahead to win the overall 15 k title. Alena was the second woman behind Alex Jospe to be the top Crimson female finisher. The weather was great, sunny and 50 degrees, so everyone enjoyed the day. We were happy to return to Cambridge with pumpkin, apple, and blumberry pies.

Two weeks until we're on snow!

JRR

Skicircus

Update from Innsbruck, Österreich
After navigating through blogspot in German- yes the language of all the websites change while I'm over here- I have finally figured out how to log in (anmelden)... Even the facebook ads are in German:

Singles auf Facebook

Mit über 50.000.000 Singles ist Zoosk die grösste Dating Community auf Facebook. Füg die Zoosk Anwendung jetzt hinzu!

Yeah pretty cool. Mein Deutsch is getting a little better here everyday, but I fear my English is getting worse, so it could be problematic when I return in January.

It's been a while since my last blog post so I'll give a rundown of my journey thus far.

On 19 September I left Vail with my parents and headed off to the land of yodelling, frolicking in the hills, and weinerschnitzel- of course! After a long 2 days of traveling I finally arrived in my new home, Innsbruck! I was greeted by towering peaks and 40cm of snow. For us Americans that means something like 16 inches.. Not bad for September, and I was already getting pumped to ski. From there my parents and I did a little bit of traveling in the Austrian state of Tirol. We first went to Alpbach, then Höchfilzen, and Gerlose. All three were gorgeous ski towns, but as far as I can tell every town in Austria is a gorgeous ski town and there is a lift on every hill, so it makes no difference where I am as it is all wunderbar! In Höchfilzen I was lucky enough to shred their rollerski track... yes I did say rollerski track!

The cow above was one of many (approx. 400) my mother took a picture of. Why she likes cows so much... ? 

But yes there are tons of cows with pretty bells that make lots delicious milk (@Chris Stock). Maybe I'll bring one back so that the Elliot house milk dispenser doesn't constantly run out.

The picture to the left is atop a peak in Aplbach. Note the cheesy sign that the study abroad office wants me to hold. Clearly, I'm "Outside the Yard!"

From there orientation began and I met my group from New Orleans. They are a pretty cool bunch, so it's been fun hanging out with them. During the first weeks I also met tons of international students from everywhere as far as Brazil and Taiwan to as close as Sud Tirol (~30km away in Italy). It is amazing how international Innsbruck is and I am constantly making friends from all over the globe, so it is tons of fun.

 

Earmuffs Chris and Scush... 

During the last day of orientation I ventured over to Münich to experience the famed Oktoberfest! I may or may not of had some beer and enjoyed the Gemütlichkeit (english equivalent of a cozy feeling of happiness experienced while drinking or being with friends) of the Hoffbrau Haus. 

Yes I am wearing lederhosen! My German friends are wearing Dirndls (traditional decorative dresses in Bavaria and Tirol)- I'm a big fan!

The next day classes were suppose to start, however, due to some scheduling miracles (all class meetings on Wednesday and Thursday!!!!), I managed to have my first class on Wednesday the 5th of Oktober. It was the longest summer ever, but I'm not complaining. Since then I have been attending the occasional classes, and been exploring Innsbruck and Austria during my long weekends!

The photo on the left is of Emperor Maximilian who ruled the once expansive Austrian Empire from 1486 to 1519. Below is a cow decorated for an Almbtrieb (the Austrians have a huge Fest to celebrate bringing the cows down from the mountain pastures at the end of every summer).

As far as training goes, it has been really great over here. Between the hikes, rollerskis- on actual tracks- and cool runs, there has been no shortage of training.

Some highlights include running a half marathon in Söll, bounding up the Norkette, and most importantly SKIING on the Dachstein Glacier with the Swedish marathon team Exspirit!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to train with team Exspirit from Thursday until Saturday in Ramsau. I got there about noon on Thursday, so that day we just did an easy afternoon run. The next day we got up on the glacier and joined the entire Eastern Block with some on snow training for the upcoming season. When I say the entire Eastern block, I'm being serious. Roughly 150 Russians (still can't figure out how they are all on the national team, but they all had the race suits on and were super legit and even more scary), a bunch of Ukrainians, Poles, Estonians, Czechs, Slovaks, Turks, Belorussians, and of course all the Scandinavians! I had never seen so many world class caliber skiers on one 5km loop, so it was an amazing experience for me. I tried to ski around with the Swedes, but their "easy" pace is roughly my level 2+/3, so after 2 hours of fighting to stick with them I was about ready to go into hibernation. That afternoon we had an interval session 4X9min threshold with 1min max efforts between minutes 3 and 4 and 7 and 8 in each interval. Once again I tried to stick with the big boys, but after 2 minutes of pushing it an promptly blowing up, I was struggling to fend off the girls. So so fast. The next day we did some classic skiing and then hit up the world renowned Ramsau rollerski track. Talking to both the Swedes and the Austrians, they all assured me it was the wildest loop they have ever rollerskied. Needless to say it didn't disappoint: 30 mph downhills, crazy banked S-turns, and a bunch of padded trees that did little to boost my confidence. 

I also had the pleasure to run and hang out with former Harvard skier Dave McCahill here in Innsbruck. Great times!

 Morning skiing at the glacier..

 Train Station and sign. Pay special attention to the route name top and center, just right of OBB. I feel it is a most fitting description of my semester here.
Me with the Dachstein in the background.

Last but not least... a barbed wire toilet seat??

This quite literally scared the s*@t out of me!

Miss you all and can't wait to see you in January, but until then keep up the good work and I'll do my part here in Austria!

Tschüss,

Tony

Erratum

The post entitled, "Fall Camp!," dated Sept. 30, 2011, erroneously attributed to Esther Kennedy a thought about the so-called environmental lapse rate. This is in error, for although trusted sources refer to the effect as such, Kennedy herself would have followed other trusted sources in referring to it as the atmospheric lapse rate. This dispute over nomenclature is unresolved and may prove to be a potentially divisive issue in further blog posts.

Reached the Beach! (a while ago, admittedly)

 **I'm currently in North Carolina with sketchy internet, so no pictures will be forthcoming, but I'll upload some later**
  It all started on a gorgeous spring day in April when Tor and I were out for a run and saw some fellow runners with Reach the Beach relay shirts.  Intrigued, we did a bit of research and learned that it is a 200 mile relay race that starts at Cannon, NH and ends at Hampton Beach.  A team of six people or less qualified you for ultra(cool) status.  "We are in good running shape now, ergo we will be in good running shape in September after probably not running too much over the summer," we reasoned like the rigorous scientists we are.  I gathered together a motley crew of six, we signed up, and went our separate ways for the summer.  Come September, people were having second thoughts.  Specifically, four separate people either backed out of the race or agreed to run then rescinded that agreement.  Ten days before the race, we finally had an official team and even a reluctant and bemused blessing to run from Chris City.
  The day before the race arrived, and disaster struck!  Tor's trusty soccer-mom van rolled its last few inches and locked up for good.  While we had had since April to come up with a back-up plan, there are very few soccer mom vans lying around New England.  We cobbled together two cars that were too small for the whole team for transportation, one from Maine and the other from Boston, and breathed again.  We also thanked our lucky stars that 4/6 people on the team could drive manuals since neither car was automatic.  "Statistically speaking, how slim are the odds that Esther's team could possibly escape with no other major problems?" Chris Stock thought to himself in his bed that night.   His concern was well founded when, then next day, two competent drivers were speeding far ahead to catch some rest before our next legs while the third was out running.  Just as we were wondering in the leading car whether Taylor would be comfortable driving and assuring ourselves that she was, a phone rang.
T: "I can't turn the car on."
Me: "Do you have the clutch in?"
T: "I can't get the emergency break off!  I can't get into reverse!  Why am I moving forward?!  WHY AM I MOVING FORWARD?!?!?"
Me: "We're coming back right now!"
Needless to say, 200 miles with 6 people, 2 cars, and 3 drivers was unappealing, but what could we do?  The next 25 hours were somewhat surreal as we loped through the backroads of NH, caffinating--not sleeping-- as needed.  Two blown exchanges, a few minor injuries, and a frosty morning later we had reached the beach!  I'm pretty sure the drivers were no longer speaking English at that point, while the other three looked like they had been run over, but we were all still alive which was, frankly, a surprise.  After some predictable debacles getting the two cars back to their respective homes, the adventure was over and we were left to return to the much more predictable wilds of Cambridge.  The rosy glasses of retrospect are already on, though, so I'm definitely already planning next year and on the hunt for some automatic cars.

Watching for some epic finishes

Fall Time Trizzle: BRING ON THE HURRICANE

Yesterday was our first rollerski time trial of the season. We did the usual 5km uphill course at Littleton. It was a beautiful, sunny and crisp fall afternoon. Akeo picked enough apples to fill up his shirt. It looked like he was carrying a pile of tiny hamsters. Akeo had a great debut finish, Tor killed it as always, and Chris and I posted some new course records to beat. Tanner had a great day, and skied to a time a minute faster than last year! Esther, Clare, and The Byrnester all had great days as well, and rookie girls Emily '15 and Ainara '14 kept it rollin' fast up to the finish. As "Stocky" eloquently put it, in one month, we will be much closer to ski season!

Shooting the breeze post-TT

Results:

Chris - 0:13:47 
Akeo - 0:14:59 

Tanner - 0:15:08

Tor - 0:15:54

Alena - 0:16:49
Esther - 0:17:12

Clare - 0:18:27

Ainara - 0:19:26

Addie - 0:19:42
Emily - 0:19:54

All in all, it was a great workout, and we're all stoked for some of the good stuff, visible just to your right.
Check it out.
Thanksgiving Camp is in a month and a half!!!!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ADDIE AND CLARE!!!!
Love,
Nudibranch

Fall Camp!

The team after a long hike

Last weekend the team took a jaunt up to Waterville Valley, NH, for our annual fall camp. With the weather mostly cooperating, we got some terrific training in and spent a lot of quality time together as a team.

But before I get into that, here's a hyperlink summary of the weekend's cultural highlights, by category: Movie. Song. Infant.

On the training side, we started the weekend with a hard hill-bounding interval ascent of the Waterville Valley alpine mountain. Through the 100% humidity, we could see hints of the foliage turning around us and glimpses of beautiful views across the valley. By the time we reached the top, the hot weather at the base of the mountain had given way to much more comfortable temperatures. "Thank goodness for the environmental lapse rate!", Esther thought to herself.

That afternoon, we explored the valley roads in town on a recovery skate rollerski, which ended with an awesome but tiring half-hour climb back to the rental house under a bluebird sky. And in the evening, over a hearty meal of beef burritos, we had a super talk about our team values and goals for the year, followed by a  film screening (see above).

Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early for the highlight of camp - a run/hike of Cannon Mountain. The summit was hidden in fog, so we avoided it and instead opted for the ridge trails, which were gorgeous. The picture above is from a refreshing excursion into Lonesome Lake at the end of the hike. (In the Fun Facts department: other people, like CSU master Wes Denering and Tanner's SLS 20 teaching fellow, also thought that this particular lake would be a great place to be on a splendid Sunday in early fall. Who knew?)

Running down the mountain turned into a vicious race akin to Game of Thrones when we realized we were competing for a limited supply of Gatorade bottles at the bottom. ("Everyone who isn't us is an enemy," Alena was overheard telling Addie.) Luckily, it turned out there were enough Gatorades to go around, and there was even time a lovely picnic lunch before piling in the van and heading back to campus.

That's all for now! Stay tuned for Esther's update on her Reach the Beach relay experience.

Happy Autumnal Equinox tomorrow!

The ski team appears in the Harvard Crimson!

Esther G. Kennedy ‘13 and Chris H. Stock ‘14

RR: What are you doing here?

Chris: Well, I’m trying to find my PAF and I literally ran into Esther.

Esther: We’re on the Nordic Ski team.

RR: How is the Nordic Ski team?

Chris: We had some of our best results last year.

Esther: The athletic director here is still not sure we have a ski team.

(Unprompted)

Chris: Don’t you think Esther here could beat you up? She’s a rock climber, so she’s got giant lats.

Esther: He came up to me at the beginning of the year and said “I wanted to introduce myself, but I was worried you would beat me up.”

Chris: ... Ski team is a good time.

Across the interwebs

BOZEMAN, MT - Remember that 20-mile race that Tanner mentioned, the one that ranges between 4900 and 9600 meters in elevation on technical terrain? Sources are reporting that Harvard Nordic freshman Akeo Maifield-Carucci, the youngest out of hundreds of racers from the Bozeman area, placed third overall with a time of 3:27:47.8. This reporter is super duper impressed!

The blogosphere is alight with rumors that wunderchild Akeo, dissatisfied with his accomplishments to date, will move on to completing his entire FOP route in a mere eight hours.

xoxo Gossip Girl

"Owt and Abowt" (Out and About)

Checking in from the Big Sky Country! Akeo and I just got back from the magical land of Canada. After jamming 40 hours of training into 10 days, I think I can speak for both of us when I say that rest weeks are the bomb! We were in the Canmore/Banff, Alberta area working at the nordic "centre" and exploring the breathtaking Canadian Rockies.

We got to work with some guest stars on the trip: Leif Zimmermann, Bettina Gruber (Swiss National Team Athlete), and Torin Koos. It was an awesome opportunity to chase these guys all week and hear stories about world their impressive world cup and olympic experiences!

It was a great trip, but I'm not sad to be home dialing it back for a few weeks! I can't believe how soon we'll all be back on campus! I know that Akeo leaves this weekend(!!!) but not till after he runs a 20 mile race across the top of the Bridgers with more than 5000ft vert in gain to the ridge before dropping 7000ft on the other side! Wish him luck everyone!

See ya'll soon!

T

Spotted: Harvard skiers

Location: Kalispell, MT

Tor O'Brien and Esther Kennedy were spotted on a rare break from their geological pursuits (aka observing rocks), touring through Glacier National Park. They were later seen leaving a Mexican restaurant with another Harvard skier, rumored to live nearby, at which point the three of them strolled the scenic streets of Kalispell, discussed the great outdoors, and spent a considerable amount of time laughing and chatting in the Motel 6 parking lot. According to sources, Tor and Esther will return to the wilderness (and their scintillating rock studies) for two weeks, at which time they will adjourn to a romantic getaway on the tropical beaches of Hawaii. Paradise? Or merely another "working vacation" for the adventurous duo? Tune in next week to find out...

xoxo Gossip Girl

This weekend, at a restaurant in St. Petersburg, I bonded with a Swede over his accent, aka a Minnesota accent. If I am ever in Europe and miss home, I will go Sweden, and all my problems will be solved.

JRR

Hello from Canada, eh!

My darling pterodactyls,

I am consistently amazed by the experiences Harvard deems educational…and thus funds. For example, I am currently languishing in the spectacular Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, ostensibly “researching for my senior thesis.” Seeing as how I am surrounded by majestic peaks rising thousands of feet above me, secluded tree-lined trails and welcoming sunny skies, my “research” has included a lot of “getting to know the area.” I took my brand-spanking-new road bike out for a spin the other day and rode to Canmore, about 15 miles away, where I suffered up the MASSIVE hill to the nordic course and managed to catch the tail end of the Canadian Mountain Bike Championships before rolling back toward Banff (Nordic skiers: I tell ya, they even make you work for your tourist experiences. Gluttons for punishment, all of them). I’ve also taken plenty of time to head out into the hills and wander about, competing with the millions of other tourists to see who can get the best photo of the same stunning vista.

Besides Banff, I’ve also had a little bit of time to bum about Montana, exploring my native Glacier National Park with Anne and making a trip to Yellowstone (where I just so happened to run into Mr. Tanner Wiegand in Bozeman). In America’s first national park, I hung out in a real-life Old West town, saw loads of wildlife, active geysers, amazing scenery, and the ever-elusive “tourist in the wild.”





I hope you’re all having fantastic summers! Keep training, keep blogging, and I’ll see you in the fall!

Peace, love, and rainy summer days,
Clare

Salmon and spaghetti.

Hi all!

Things have been bustling here at FRI (that's the Fisheries Research Institute) since I last posted. While the fishing season was still going on, we had all sorts of bigwigs in the fishing industry come to visit, including Alaska's Director of Commercial Fisheries and some execs of one of Bristol Bay's salmon canneries. Now that the fish have mostly moved inland and the fishing season has drawn to a close, we haven't had as many visitors. But that isn't to say that we haven't been busy.

The lake here is bordered in places by impressive mountains. On an off day, we got the chance to climb one of them. It was one of the steeper hikes I've done:

But the view at the top was pretty incredible.

A Fourth of July tradition here is for all the guys to get haircuts -- mohawks, actually. I figured Tanner had already set a precedent and I wasn't about to be left out of this hallowed tradition, so I gamely bared my head for the razor. As one observer noted, what emerged was less reminiscent of a mohawk than an indie rocker hairdo. (Don't worry, we fixed it later.) I was a little perplexed by my new identity, though.

>

A few days later, I had the pleasure of meeting up with fellow skiers James Crimp (Bowdoin) and Neil Liotta (MSU). James's family is from Anchorage but comes to Dillingham every summer to fish commercially. Though it's difficult and exhausting work (they fish with the tides, so they have to be on call around the clock), his whole family is involved in the process, which seems incrediblyrewarding. I very nearly got to rollerski with them, too, but plans changed and that didn't work out.

Ever since my arrival here, the amount I eat has attracted some attention. It's not just me, though: there's another undergrad here whose extensive appetite had also raised some eyebrows. To settle the matter of appetite once and for all, the grad students here arranged an eating contest: pounds of pasta (with red sauce) in an hour. After my experience finishing a bucket of pasta at Senior Nationals, I couldn't refuse the challenge, and trained extra hard that day to work up my appetite. In the end, I was able to eat 5.26 pounds in the allotted hour. Alas, my opponent was strong and beat me by nearly a pound. Yet we were both dwarfed by the legendary Cookie Jarvis, a competitive eating champion who holds the world pasta eating record of 6.67 pounds of linguini in ten minutes. I suppose I should stick to ski racing, then.

Now that the fish have moved out of the bay and into the inland lakes and streams where they will spawn, the work around here is shifting from run prediction to in-stream monitoring. There is a certain stream that we survey daily, counting live fish and collecting data on carcasses (sex, length, mode of death). Sometimes we would grab live ones too, just for fun:



That's all for now! Keep on bloggin'!

Chris

I saw Lenin's body this weekend. I was going to post a picture, but you can look it up yourself. Creepy, but fascinating.

JRR

Western REG

Hi everyone. I just got back from Western REG a couple weeks ago and thought I should try to give a report on how everything went. Overall it was a great camp in beautiful Park City. The camp was from June 20 to 26 with skiers from all the western regions: PNSA, Far West, Rocky Mountain, Intermountain, and High Plains. It was a great experience and a lot of fun spending 6 days training with many of the top skiers in the west. We got to roller ski with Billy Demong, Simi Hamilton, Rolf Figi, and Miles Havlic, plus play Kickball and Whiffleball with the rookies inluding Tad Elliott, Noah Hoffman, Jessie Diggins, Ida Sargent, and Saddie Bjornsen. On top of working out and having fun with all these great athletes we had great coaches to learn from. with an athlete to coach ration of about 3 to 1, every skier got lots of personal attention and technique advice. This included some one-on-one technique work with Matt Whitcomb and some pointers from Pete Vordenberg and Brian Fish. At camp we did some OD classic rollerski and running workouts and we did some higher intensity work. We had a spenst workout and three competitions for NEG. The NEG competitions consisted of agony hill climb, a roller ski sprint/agility course (I am in the red shorts at the beginning), and the Canadian Metals strength test. Each of these were scored separately with World Cup scoring system (100 points for 1st, 80 for 2nd, 60 for 3rd, and so on) and the 6 highest scoring girls and guys from all 4 REG camps then get to go to NEG. While I was bummed I did not qualify for NEG I still had a great time and learned a lot. Hope everyone's summer is going well!

Akeo

Helloz to all from the Forest...

...Harvard Forest, that is. Harvard Forest is about and hour and a half into Western Mass. from campus, and is a research site focused on forest ecology. I'm learning lots of useful things this summer, like how to drive a cherry picker (otherwise known as a bucket truck), push water through sticks and work with and build small electronics. Here are pictures from the fire tower of Mt. Monadnock, sunset over the Forest, and a typical day up in Bucky, the friendly neighborhood bucket truck. Bucky can lift us up to 80 feet in the canopy.



Besides training and working, I'm doing lots of relaxing things here -- in fact, we've purchased an inflatable kiddie pool for our living room, in which we watch Planet Earth (typical, I know), Game of Thrones or the Tour, read, fall asleep and generally become slug-like post-work day. The pool is also known as the FCRC, or the Food Coma Recovery Center. The food is wonderful here. Much of our supply comes from local farms and businesses. Newest discovery: Ginger ice cream. I just went wild raspberry picking last night while walking the border collie I'm currently dog sitting. Nighttime here is also relaxing, with only fireflies and crickets and tree frogs breaking the starry quiet.

I just got a present from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation -- brand new pavement, a whole mile of it, stretching from here to my favorite rollerski road off of the main drag. Sunday ODs have typically concluded with a few hours of sleeping in the warm sand at Queens Lake, which is a beach just down the road. I've been running a lot, and also using rocks for my strength work. I'm happy to be out here, and though an occasional jaunt into Boston is great, I prefer the pace and atmosphere here. I also discovered Harvard Forest has ski trails (!) so maybe I/we can come back out sometime this winter to check them out (hint, hint...). I'm excited to see you all soon!

-ANT

Alaska!

Hey all,

About a week ago I arrived in Aleknagik, Alaska, a small village in the Bristol Bay region, about 20 miles north of Dillingham. You can't get here by road from Anchorage -- just plane and boat. This is the one I flew in on:



The two real live Alaskans on the team are probably yawning about this, but I think it's pretty cool.

This time of year, the only thing on everybody's mind around here is fish. That's because the biggest sockeye salmon fishery in the world operates out of Bristol Bay. This year they're predicting an average-size run of around 36 million salmon. Turns out that one of the biggest side industries to actually fishing the salmon is predicting how many will come and when... this way the fish processors know how many workers to hire, the fishermen know when they have to go out, and the district managers know how much fishing to allow so that they can meet their sustainable fishing goal. The Bristol Bay salmon fishery, unlike most fisheries in the world, is well-managed and thriving. I learned a few days ago that it's actually unconstitutional in Alaska to manage natural resources in an unsustainable way. Wild!

Anyways, I'm working with University of Washington researchers who try to come up with an accurate real-time forecast of the salmon run. For the most part they have the models all written and it's just a matter of running the code, but there's also a fair amount of human evaluation and heuristics that go into it.

As I write this at 1am, it is legitimately dark out -- perhaps the equivalent of 10:30-11:00 at night in Boston right now. This is the first time I've seen it like this, and it's probably a result of particularly thick clouds. Here's a picture I took of the view from the dock a few minutes after midnight the evening I arrived:



The first time I went for a rollerski here, I left at 9:30 PM and got back an hour and a half later in comfortable daylight. Since then, I've transitioned to a morning schedule that feels a little more natural to me.

The availability of training facilities here is not too bad. There is exactly one paved road that goes 19 miles into Dillingham, and it is pretty well-paved, low-traffic, and fairly rolly... definitely V1 material in a few places. Unfortunately, even though there are a bunch of mountains around here, none are easily accessible from my location and getting the vertical in is my biggest problem right now.

I've also been told to keep an eye out for bears and moose while I rollerski. I'll keep you posted on this, but so far the animals that have caused me the most trouble so far are mosquitos. Really, though, they're not that bad, particularly with judicious clothing choices and application of DEET as necessary.

The most fun thing about training so far has been coming up with my strength routine. This is a pretty well-stocked camp and I was lucky enough to find a pair of 12lb dumbells and a gym ball. There's even an installed pull-up bar and stationary bike! But, with no med balls to be found, I assembled a collection of rocks and a concrete block to use instead:


Not a bad view for core strength.

I'll keep you all updated!

Chris

Update from the West

Friends, Romans, Teammates,

Lend me your ears:

After weeks of continuous rain and tenuous cloud cover teasing us with the promise of blue sky someday, the weather has finally broken and it is summer in Montana. I have spent the past month roaming the pine-wooded mountains and swimming in its cool ponds. Everything is so green here and it feels impossible to stay inside with the sun luring now me out at every chance.

I have been teaching boot camp as a personal trainer 3 mornings a week. It's been a rewarding experience, but also an interesting one trying to direct someone else's training besides my own. Most days I am up around 5 to make boot camp at 6:15, before hustling to training at 8. I nap, have lunch and hit afternoon training, then dinner and flop into bed exhausted. In honor of the recent sunshine, I cutoff all (but a stripe) of my hair:

My mother's not crazy about the look, but in my spare time I have been re-watching Glee on Netflix (which I have decided was a terrible idea to sign up for, because it's too easy on a lazy day). So the inspiration for my cut was Puck from Glee:

Disturbingly similar in our many perfect attributes: I know. It's pretty much been a perfect summer here. The lack of schoolwork has relaxed me completely and my lack of responsibilities and obligations have me feeling like a young kid again. I forgot how much I love summer training. We have a large group of athletes training with us this summer and it's good to have some fast guys to chase through the forest. I stepped right back into Dragan's European eccentricities, but it's been priceless training in the Big Sky again for a while.

Akeo and I have been training with our high school teammates here. Mainly OD runs and rollerskis, but we've been hittin' the gym and gettin' ripped too. Coach Hess would be proud. I hope... I didn't really realize how much the elevation change was gonna suck, but I figured it out about 3km into a 10km running race just after getting home. So note-to-future-self: ease into elevation after a year at sea level.

Clare Miller swept through town on Tuesday night and we got a chance to go out for ice-cream, living it up on the longest day of the year! I hope that all is well, wherever you are and whatever adventure you are on!

From the Big Blue Sky Country,

Tanner

CXC Elite Camp

Hey guys!

I just spent the last two weeks at the CXC Elite camp at Telemark Resort in Wisconsin. That's where the Birkie starts.

Telemark Lodge, Brian Gregg, and Igor's ever-present CXC van

I had a lot of fun meeting and training with the CXC elite team (these guys) and I got a ton of hours in. I was there as a guest along with a few other junior skiers from Colorado and Minnesota. Chris (City) also came for the first half of the camp as a guest coach.

By the end of the camp, Jessie Diggins had a nickname for me: "Harvard."

The focus of the camp was on technique and moderate-intensity hours, so we did a lot of video review and a few interval sessions in between OD rollerskis. Particularly valuable was the VO2 max test we did a few days into camp and the lactate tests that the coaches ran during interval workouts. I learned a lot about how to do a proper threshold workout!

They were all complaining about the food, but after two semesters of HUHDS, I honestly didn't see what the big deal was.

In about half an hour I'm leaving for the airport to fly to Alaska, where I'll spend pretty much the rest of the summer. I'll be sure to post some photos when I get there!

Chris

Hey all!
Instead of traveling east and across the pond like some of my other teammates I decided to take my talents west back home to Vail and then to Spring/ Summer training camp with SSCV Team HomeGrown in Bend, OR.
May and June in the lands west of the Mississippi look similar to New England in January and February, except for the ample snow and sun!
Vail pass June 5th with Dan Weiland and Tad Elliot (SSCV/ USST).

While home/ traveling the Wild West, I ran into some recent Harvard Alumni.
Trevor Petach '10 took me on an incredible rafting trip through escalante canyon in southern Utah. He nearly killed me, but I still love him.T-revs and I rafting a huge waterfall!

On June 9th I set out on the Oregon trail with my local Vail club to go to Bend. In Bend we have done tons of skiing and spent a lot of time on and off the trails with Ollie Burruss '08.
Here is a short video make by Sylvan Ellefson (SSCV Homegrown), both Ollie and I star in it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOo4MECprOg&feature=channel_video_title

Summer and Training has been awesome so far this summer! I head back to Vail tomorrow for a dose of work and the real world.

Happy Travels,
Tony

Hello Harvard Nordic. Greetings from Russia. I left the cord that connects my camera to my computer in the US, so I have no pictures with me in them.

The first place we went to was the Peter and Paul Fortress. When Peter the Great decided to build St. Petersburg, he started with the fort on this small island. Dostoyevsky was imprisoned here. I live in one of the apartment buildings to the North of the island.

I haven't actually been inside yet, but here is the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. It is the only Russian style church in St. Petersburg. They sell really beautiful souvenirs outside the church. I am planning to buy some, but I like all the things so don't count on me getting any of you anything.

This is the square right behind the Hermitage. On the other side of that walkway is Невский Проспект (Nevskiy Prospect- I knew you were waiting for me to throw some Russian in).

This picture is from inside the Winter Palace/ Hermitage (Зимний Дворец/ Эрмитаж). We went yesterday after class. This room is one of the most gorgeous things I have ever seen. The staircase is bigger than my house. Russian couples get married every day of the week, and take pictures on the Нева River, Peter and Paul Fortress, and at all the other beautiful historic sites. We saw a couple getting their wedding photos taken on this staircase. Of course, tourist groups got in the way 95% of the time. I felt like I was at home at Harvard. If you ever get a chance to go to the Winter Palace, go, because it is really sweet. Each room is huge and unique.

So now you know the touristy things you have to see if you ever come to Russia.

JRR