Midwest musings

Evelyn

Another Birkie is in the books and I'm back home for a breather before taking off for Europe and the Engadin Skimarathon. For those of you curious, this year was my fifth Birkie (1/4 of the way to my birchleggings bib...kind of scary).
This year, I teamed up with my old club team, XC Oregon for lodging. Ollie's grandmother's college roommate (how's that for a connection?) graciously let us stay at her cabin near Hayward. While Herrm may be just a few months shy of 90, she regularly skis with her dog, Scooter, records family history with a keen pen and tweets and facebooks when she has time between her various projects. Needless to say, she recorded all our bib numbers and ski suit colors so she could cheer for us on Main St.

me, Matt, Ollie, Jason, Herrm

While not my best Birkie finish, I was pretty happy with fifth place. I failed to bridge the gap to Caitlin and Holly after they made a jump at OO and almost put myself in the hole trying to catch them. The pack of chase women also skied past me and for a while I considered pulling up and waiting for a friend -one of my weaker moments and definitely not proud of it. I came to my senses and told myself to stop being such a giant wuss. After chasing the chase pack for a few kms, I latched onto the back of them and realized with some relief that they had pulled up and were playing tactical games with each other. We finished as a group of four and while Jenny smoked us in the finish, Laura, Rebecca and myself finished in a three way sprint. I ended up sandwiched between Laura and Rebecca. Both are moms of multiple children and pretty impressive skiers to boot.

The hardest part about this? climbing up there

After a traditional Moccasin-nap-awards-Sawmill celebration, I managed to sleep through both flights on the way home. Back in good ol' Bend for a bit and enjoying the ridiculous amount of snow we're getting.

Twig tea, frostbite, graffiti and things

I’m back in Salt Lake after two and a half weeks in Europe. My racing definitely had its ups and downs, but it was an awesome and eye opening experience. It’s a different level; there are a lot of fast girls! We ended off in Albu, Estonia with a classic sprint and classic 10km. Once again temperatures were frigid! I frostbit one ear and couldn’t sleep on that side for a few nights! The courses were fun and rolling. I wasn’t feeling very snappy in the sprint and finished just outside of making the heats. At this point my body was quite tired after five races in 10 days, but I rallied and skied a decent classic race. It still wasn’t my best race, but it was good to end that series of races on a higher note.

Maybe we should have skied faster if we can still jump that high... ;) me and my teammate Alana

Twig tea at the race venue...delicious

After the races we headed back to Riga, Latvia for one last team dinner before everyone split up to go their separate ways. I knew hardly anyone going into the trip and it was great to get to know and hang out with awesome group of people for a couple weeks. Most of us headed home while two headed to Poland for this weekend’s world cups.

Translation... cabbage juice....would not recommend using as a feed bottle even though they are the perfect size. Still smelled terrible after washing them out with soap!

The next day after a run through the old town of Riga I flew from Riga to Munich and made a spur of the moment decision to miss my plane back to Salt Lake. I didn’t need to be back at school until Thursday and decided that then was as good a time as any to make a quick visit to my old stomping grounds in Ramsau, Austria! I lived there for a year and a half after high school. I had so much fun visiting old friends, being fed yummy homemade food, skiing with a group of kids that my friend coaches and skiing down a mountain on my nordic skis after a yummy breakfast at a ski hut that my friend’s family owns. Such a good decision and awesome way to end my Euro adventure!

Coaches and wax techs hard at work, they did an awesome job. Thanks Eric, Patrick and Fraser!

Sweet Latvian graffiti

Awesome night ski with the Ramsau juniors!

The height of Estonian fashion. Classy.

Check back soon for Birkie updates!

~ Zoë

Marathon Season

While Zoe's been racing up a storm on the OPA and Scando circuit (7 races in 10 days), Morgan and myself have been hitting up the domestic marathon circuit. Morgan skied to second in the Noquemanon, a 50km classic race held in Marquette, MI.
 Next up for me was the Boulder Mountain Tour. The competition this year was going to be pretty stiff with the Sun Valley gold team girls (Chelsea, Nicole, Mo and Alexa), Rebecca Dussault once again kicking ass, and other top notch skiers looking for a race to fill in the gap this time of year. Right off the line it was pretty hard for me to hang on and I did the best I could to ski efficiently and draft off the other girls. The pace let up after the first couple kms but it was still the most focused I've ever had to be during this race. I was not a contender in the sprint finish in which Rebecca took the win, Mo 2nd and Chels 3rd. I bobbled behind them after getting towed to the line by my Bend buddy, Jason Adams...probably wouldn't have made it there without ya.
Next up was a few days of recuperation, Sun Valley style, before heading down to Colorado. We had two gorgeous days of sunshine and skiing at Galena and Sun Valley Nordic Center.

Found a fellow ski bum in Sun Valley, yes those are gold

Friday brought another day of racing, the Teva Mtn Games 10 km skate. Morgan showed her sprinting prowess and took the preem by a toe over Rebecca. I got unlucky in the start and ended up on the ground in one of those hilarious nord pile-ups. Came out of it with both poles intact but one dangling bootcuff. Rough day to say the least. Morgan skied to a strong 4th place and set herself up well for the Ultimate Mountain Challenge which encompassed a randonee race the next day and a hill climb the day after that.
Morgan's first rando race included 9500 ft of climbing with hairy descents through steep trees and huge moguls. It was an accomplishment for anyone to finish, not to mention put on spiked running shoes the next morning for the Vail hill climb. 
While Morgan was busy putting the hurt on at 10,000 ft, I went over to Aspen to race the Owl Creek Chase, a point to point 20 km skate race. While I was disappointed with result, I was happy to get a good week of hard efforts. Between the Boulder, the Teva games and the Owl Creek Chase, there was some good training for the race beginning with a capital B in a little place called Hayward...

Euro update!

Campra, Switzerland!

The most random thing that happened to me on my way to Europe was seeing my dad on his way back from Munich in the DC airport! I knew he was coming back the same day but I had no idea where or through which airport. What are the odds?! Lucky for me because he was able to pass off a few Euros that weren’t of any more use to him… ;) I met the rest of the Canadian contingent at the Munich airport and we drove to Campra, Switzerland that afternoon.

Classic sprint qualifier in Campra

Me and my teammate Alana

 Campra is a small place, but the mountains are huge and the skiing is sweet. We’ve been good at making our own fun. Hallway bocce, exploratory runs, cards, visiting the local dairy that specializes in squash and fig yogurt…so yummy! Its been fun to see old friends who used to ski on the college circuit, friends from my days living in Ramsau, Austria and a teammate from last year’s World Uni Games who is spending the year in Italy and came to visit.

Hallway bocce. It gets intense.

 The first day of racing was a classic sprint. I qualified 12^th and made my up to an 8^th place finish, 2^nd in the B final. The second day was a 10km classic in frigid temperatures and I’m pretty sure hurricane force wind! The third day was a 10km skate mass start. I wouldn’t say the second two races were my most stellar performances, but hopefully I worked out the travel bugs.

A fashion must in Latvia!

Alysson and Alana in Madona, Latvia

So awesome to find my old Utah teammate Kjersti Bø in the chocolate aisle of the grocery store in Madona!!

We're in Latvia now and getting psyched up for a 15km skate tomorrow and then its off to Estonia.

We didn't get a Latvian stamp in our passports, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an Estonian one!

- Zoë

Switzerland, Latvia, Estonia? YES please!!

I arrived yesterday back in Salt Lake after a 2 week trip to Whistler, British Columbia and Canmore, Alberta. The races in Whistler were qualifiers to travel with the Canadian team to OPA and Scandinavian Cup races in Campra, Switzerland (Feb 3-5), Madonna, Latvia (Feb 8-9) and Albu, Estonia (Feb 11-12). My 4th in the 15km pursuit and 3rd in the 10km classic earned me a spot on the team! The trip leaves on Sunday for two weeks and I'll be traveling with 2 other girls and 4 guys. I'm psyched! A huge thanks to the Rocky Mountain Racers crew who took me on as one of their own, looked out for me, made my skis wicked fast and gave me bomber kick!

One of the many fun things about ski racing...the friends you make from all over the world!

10km skate podium, Canmore, AB

10km skate, Canmore, AB

Speed skating at the Olympic oval in Calgary instead of skiing in the -35C outside temps, brrrrrr

Check back for updates. While I'm in Europe the rest of the Stella girls will be ripping it up at the Boulder Mountain Tour in Sun Valley, ID and Owl Creek Chase in Aspen, CO!

- Zoë

Teton Ridge Classic

Three of the Stella girls made a trip up to Driggs, ID for an awesome weekend of skiing and racing.

Evelyn, Katie, and Morgan
photo credit: Emma Garrard

We drove up Friday night and previewed the 13k classic only loop at Teton Valley Ranch. It was incredible! Not only was it REAL snow but it was also longer than 3k!!! We wanted to keep skiing into the darkness..

photo: Emma Garrard

Saturday was an action packed day of racing! Katie won the women's 14k and Evelyn and Morgan took 1-2 in the 28k. There was a huge crew from Park City up from the race and so there were lots of racers. Katie's fiance Justin gets a special mention for entering the "touring" class... not only was it his first time on classic skis but he also wore a pair of Katie's glittery purple tights!

Sunday we all went for a really nice ski up Teton Canyon. Highly recommend this ski as it looks at the Grand Teton almost the whole time!

Check back soon =)

Morgan

New Years Relay, Mt. Bachelor

The New Years Relay at Mt. Bachelor is definitely the first most important race kicking off the 2012 calendar. And when it comes down to it, everybody knows that winning the costume contest is as, if not more important than winning the race. So I'd just like to throw it out there that Fred and Wilma Flintstone's stellar outfits took home the costume prize! My teammate Skyler, a junior who skis for MBSEF, killed it as Fred and did an awesome job on his skate leg!

~ Zoë

Wilma... please notice her golf ball sized pearls....

Fred and Wilma Flintstone!