Slapshot

I was out rollerskiing around the city in the rain this morning when I came across a few UAAers doing the same thing.  Why is it that I am reminded of Denis, the Chiefs goalie, every time I hang out with Étienne Richard?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XbL7lG0Su8

Changes

Migration. 
The sun turned to rain a week ago and it seems it's going to stay that way for a while.  The bears are starting to move from the fishing streams to the blueberry patches. It snowed in the Brooks Range last night. The birds are starting to think about flying south. And the UAA skiers are returning to Anchorage this week. Things fire up around here starting this weekend. I'm looking forward to it!
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Hey, check out this cake.   Happy Birthday, Patricia!

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Dévouement.
Next time your teammates start bitching about the condition of the ski trails, remind them that if they lived in the Gaspé, they'd be making their own damn tracks.
click here: Étienne Richard dans son habitat natal.



Tropical Training Camp

The UAA Ski Team blog needed to escape the record heat and sunshine in Anchorage (check it out here) for a little two-week training camp in Hawaii.

"training camp" mostly revolved around biking

On the road up Mauna Loa

 A lot of the lava around here is only a few years old.



Though the UAA head nordic ski coach grew up at high altitude in Colorado and has a natural affinity for low-pressure air and an ability to breath easily and comfortably at high altitudes while under heavy workload, the UAA blogger did not, and thus needs to occasionally climb 11,000 volcanos by bike to stay in touch with his inner nauseausness.


The best snorkeling required a little hiking.

 

There was time for the beach, too.
 

Competition

I have spent a little time racing in Europe in my day, and I always thought it was pretty competitive over there.  If you were a few percent behind, there were likely to be a lot of people between you and the winner on the result list. But apparently it's only gotten more competitive since then. By the looks of this photo, if you were just a couple seconds behind the winner, you got beat by a bunch of Schwarzwälder running fans, including some old geezers and little kids!  Fortunately, it looks like Lukas (127) was on the right end of things.

But what I really want to know is, did the race course go up or down the ski jump in the background at some point?

Videography

The UAA Ski Team Blog is still trying to find its way into the 21st century, but UAA Ski Team is technologically much more advanced. Thus, this video from Andrew:

http://vimeo.com/71465866