Prince of All Media

There can only be one "King of All Media", and I guess Howard Stern has that title wrapped up.

During the last few years, Lasse has arguably been the King of All UAA Ski Team media, but his graduation has left an opening that Étienne Richard seems destined to fill. 

Over the weekend, I had a few errands I needed to take care of in the Matapédia region of Quebec. As I was driving around in my rental car, flipping through the stations, I suddenly heard a familiar voice, talking about life in Alaska and skiing for the UAA Ski Team:  

Étienne's Radio-Canada interview (you need to scroll across to 8h47)

(Be sure to keep listening at the end, after Étienne hangs up the phone when the hosts think he's not listening and start describing him with words like "cute", "handsome", "charming", etc...)

Eventually, I needed to make a stop for gas and donuts and I picked up this month's issue of Graffici (where I get all my Eastern Provinces news) on the way out the gas station door. It didn't surprise me at all when I flipped to page 27 and found Étienne once again hogging the sports page. 

Étienne Richard - Graffici December 2013

Kincaid Snowmaking Update

The good news is we have snowmaking at Kincaid now.
The bad news is we have 66% less snowmaking than we thought we'd have.

Read more here

It's a great day to be a Seawolf!

UAA Ski Team Trivia
Name the skier:

First correct answer gets a start in next weekend's opening World Cup race in Kuusamo, Finland.**
(**I have no authority to enter you in this or any other World Cup Race, but if you get the answer right, you're probably already already on the start list.)

Snowbound!

I missed most of this week's ski practice because I was stuck on Kodiak Island in a snowstorm.  No planes were able to get in or out for a while, so I had to wait for the storm to pass through before coming home. But the storm headed toward Anchorage when it left Kodiak, which meant I was able to fly over it and land in Anchorage just in time for its arrival here. So I got to enjoy the same snowstorm twice!

This morning we did skating intervals in freezing rain at Kincaid. It was raining pretty steadily, but the temperature was well below freezing, so the rain froze solid wherever it landed. We came back to the parking lot to find the cars encased in ice.  It made for a fun drive home.

Everyone thought it was pretty cool that Étienne could roll the window all the way down without the "ice window" breaking.

Marincicle and Synnøvsicle

The rain has now turned to snow, and the forecast is for heavy snow tonight.  Let's hope...

Hillside Living

Over the weekend, the team was invited to Bob and Koni Arnold's house for dinner, where we enjoyed the most delicious food I can remember, and a panoramic nighttime view over the city's twinkling lights. With Etienne's birthday recently, we even had a little party for him (and got to hear Synnøve sing Happy Birthday in Norwegian). Thank you so much to the Arnold family for letting us tromp around your house and make a lot of noise, and for the wonderful dinner.  Coach Andrew kept asking me, "Have you tried this ham?  Have you tried it!? It's amazing!"

What's more scary - the spooky photo that looks like the team is having a séance, or the one with the lights on where where we look like a bunch of muskrats caught in the car headlights?

Thank you to the Arnold family for a wonderful evening full of epicurean delights!

Ski Team Trivia

Name the skier, the ski team, the race, and the year.
There's no prize for anyone who gets the right answer, but I bet you'll feel proud of yourself.

Friday Fun

Skating intervals today in Anchorage in our new zoot suits.

Alex Loan was focused and strong today.

Étienne Richard bringing a double-dose of style to the Hillside trails in a new ski suit and a new moustache.

A teachable moment: Andrew picks up some post-interval advice from Andrew.

In the Ferry Terminal Parking Lot

Earlier today I had my TV tuned to the Danish channel as I was working on something at home, not really paying attention to what was on, until suddenly the sight of our old friend Lasse caught my eye!  So I put down what I was doing and watched for a minute.

(Click on Lasse's nose for the video)

The interview was over before it began, but it did leave me with a few questions:

-Your parents are still letting you drive the family car, Lasse?  I thought that was a temporary thing back in August.  Now you've talked them into letting you drive it across Scandinavia?  With those persuasion skills, you're going to make quite the lawyer, I guess.

-You stop the car in the ferry terminal parking lot, take all your crap out of the car, rummage around in your ski bag, and then load it all back into the car...  Be honest, Lasse: wasn't this just a dog and pony show?  I don't believe that you actually needed anything out of that ski bag.

-OK, my Danish is a little rusty, but didn't I hear the sports anchor say that the Olympics will be held in January next year?  A little more research next time perhaps...
-And speaking of the anchorman, if you find out what his t-shirt says (under his sport jacket) please tell me.  I'm dying to know.
-ROSSIGNOL!!!  Wow Lasse, who've you been hanging out with?

So Lasse is off to race in Scandinavia.  If he skis fast later this month, he has his ticket to the Olympics.  We're all behind you here in Alaska, Lasse, and looking forward to news of good results in the coming weeks!

Today at Kincaid Park...

...looked like this:

Pati and Synnøve

Synnøve, wearing UAA's new ski suit for 2014.

Mackenzie, Pati, and Synnøve

Just the Facts

Where:  At the end of my driveway.
What:  The beginning of winter, apparently.
When:  About 10 minutes ago.
Why:  Because I bet Lucky is wondering if he's ever going to go rollerskiing again after today.

Today at the Ski Jumps

It went something like this:

No snow in town yet, but the ground is frozen.

Synnøve racing the clock.

Sprints at the jumps.

Today at the Biathlon Range

I'm back from the Nevada desert and California beach today. Back from 75 degrees and swimming in the ocean to 25 degrees and rollerski intervals with the UAA Ski Team at Kincaid Park.

Riding across Nevada. I try to stay off the pavement.

During the warm-up this morning. The women's team, with coaches Andrew and Nicole.

Pre-interval instructions from Andrew at the biathlon range.  No interval photos were taken because I was in the thick of it.

Hvem Kjører Bil Nummer Tolv?

There’s only one freshman left in the “Meet the Freshman” interview series – Synnøve Bruland.  Unfortunately, I haven’t managed to get together with her for an interview yet, and I’m currently traveling out of state for about a week.  So in order to satisfy your intense curiosity about Synnøve and your thirst for frequent, consistent blog posts even while I'm traveling in the desert, I’ve dug through the archives and have found an old interview Synnøve did in 2012.

First, some background:  Here on the UAA Ski Team, we occasionally have situations when the coaches aren’t available to drive the vans to practice or races.  For example, the coach may need to miss a practice or perhaps the athletes need to drive from the team house to the race venue, but the coaches are already onsite testing skis so aren't available to drive. For this reason, the athletic department gives permission for some athletes to drive team vehicles.  To get on the approved list, however, the athlete must first go through a rigorous screening process.  Driving records are perused, references are tracked down and interviewed.  The physical, emotional and psychological makeup of each prospective driver is assessed. Phone lines are tapped, e-mails are hacked. CIA, FBI, NSA, BSS and KGB data is gathered and sent to NASA for verification, analysis and processing.  In addition, old archived news reports are analyzed to find out if there could be anything in the prospective driver-athlete’s past which may preclude them from being the courteous, proficient, defensive driver that their teammates need to get them to practices and races in a safe and timely manner.  Usually, these investigations go just fine.  But occasionally they do not. 

Take, for instance, the case of Synnøve.

After hours and hours of intensive, exhaustive internet research, poring over the records of news agencies, television networks and printed media, my minions brought me this little gem from Norway:

Synnøve Bruland Discusses Trondheim's Icy Streets

According to a followup news article here, it all worked out OK in the end because the Volkswagen in question had "superinsurance".  But the video leaves me with one question:  Why was the warning ribbon strung across the street halfway down the hill where it was too late to stop anyone from attempting to drive down it?  I bet Synnøve was wondering that, too.

Gold Cord

Hey, are you like me?  Do you like videos?  Then why not click the link below and let Etienne Richard guide you from Gold Cord Mine down the switchbacks to Independence Mine at Hatcher Pass.  Come along for the ride- it'll be fun!

Let Etienne be your guide!

And as always, there's loads more UAA Ski Team video at: UAA Ski Team Videos

Chez Dunlap

Today was a two-workout day at Hatcher Pass.  But we needed to rest between outings, and hanging out in the vans in the parking lot for five hours just doesn't seem like good ski team policy.  Rhonda and Russ Dunlap invited the team to come to their house in Palmer near the bottom of Hatcher Pass to eat, rest, and relax between workouts.  It turned out to be a very good, productive, and fun day of training, and we couldn't have had such a good day of skiing without Rhonda and Russ' hospitality.  Thank you so much!

We started out with some classic skiing:

Coach Andrew and the women's team

Erik Bjornsen and Lukas Ebner were freshman teammates on the UAA Ski Team back in 2010. Lukas is now a senior and Erik is on the US Ski Team. Erik joined us for today's training, and I know Lukas enjoyed the opportunity to do some training with his old teammate.

I wasn't going to take this picture until Andrew pointed out that the sunbeam was focused directly on the Dunlap's house - and brunch!

Brunchtime!  If this was my house, there would have been a few slices of bread on the counter, a jar of peanut butter, maybe a little jelly, and a bucket of water to drink.  Fortunately, we were at Russ and Rhonda Dunlap's house.  We feasted on quiche, salmon, and BACON!  I haven't eaten that well in a long time.

Post-brunch, there were songs to be sung by the fireside.  Here's Etienne and Russ; dueling guitars on "Horse With No Name".

Second workout - skating.

Marine and coach Nicole.

Coaches meeting - Nicole and Andrew discussing the issues of the day.

Monday Morning in the Tree Streets

It's a familiar place for current and former Seawolf skiers - rollerski intervals in the "Tree Streets" on the Anchorage Hillside:

Patricia and Marine

Marine and Pati

Merci Beaucoup!

Last summer, when Lasse left town, he stored his things at my house for a couple weeks after he moved out of his place and before he got on the plane to Denmark. When he finally packed up his stuff and went to the airport, he left me a pair of his Swenor rollerskis, saying they were faster rollerskis than he he needed this fall in France.  And besides, he said, I'd need a faster pair of rollerskis so I could keep up with the boys on interval days this fall. I really appreciated it and I went for some nice workouts on those skis during the summer and fall with the team.

But there was a weak link - my ski boots. I was wrapping my feet in 1991 technology, and 22 years have taken their toll on those old Alpina green and purple ski boots. It had gotten to the point that even duct tape couldn't save them. That's why I was so excited when Marine offered me a new pair of Rossignol ski boots so I could keep using Lasse's rollerskis, and so that I can use the team's fleet of test skis this winter with Andrew and Nicole, and help our NNN-shod skiers test their skis before races. (Personally, I've been on the Salomon SNS system for 20 years now.)

So I want to offer a huge thank you to Lasse for the rollerskis and Marine for the ski boots, which fit perfectly!  If you two are still reading this blog 20 years from now, and I'm sure you will be, chances are I'll still be rocking those Swenor skis from Lasse (with replacement wheels perhaps) and the Rossignol boots from Marine. If you've seen my wardrobe you know I'm not kidding.

Thank you Lasse and Marine!

The blogger testing new gear.

UAA Ski Team Media Guide

You've been anxiously awaiting its release, but the wait is finally over; the UAA Ski Team Media Guide has arrived and is on bookshelves everywhere!
Take a gander at it here:   Link to Media Guide

And in other news, we did this this morning:

Photo Credit: Sparky Anderson

Most Knowledgeable Freshman in the World - Mackenzie Kanady

Yesterday at Hatcher Pass, I skied several laps with Lukas.  Eventually, the conversation turned (inevitably) to freshmen, and I ridiculed Lukas (a senior) for not demanding that the freshmen on the team wait on him hand and foot, as is their prescribed burden.  I noted that I had never seen Alex Loan shining Lucky’s shoes, nor had I seen Synnøve bringing him a glass of water. It seemed to me that Lukas, in letting the freshman off the hook like that, is in fact shirking his responsibilities as a senior and a team leader, and that nothing good could come of it. To which Lucky replied, “But these freshmen don’t consider themselves freshmen!  They don’t actually even believe that they are freshman!  They all have fancy descriptions of their class standing.  Andrew Arnold considers himself a “transfer student”. Alex Loan is a self-described “local”. Synnøve thinks she’s a “mercenary ski racer on loan from Norway”.  So any time I try to tell them to do stuff for me because I’m a senior, I first have to go through a whole argument with them about the definition of “freshman”.  It just isn’t worth the hassle!” I advised Lukas to direct any team members with any questions about their class standing to the ultimate authority on such matters – the UAA Seawolf Athletics web page, which lists all the athletes on the team, several of whom have a big fat F for ‘Freshman’ printed next to their name for all to see:  Link to Ski Team Roster

As for Mackenzie, she reckons she already completed her freshman year of college a couple years ago in Montana.  Then she figures she was a freshman again last year when she went to Norway to study at the university in Trondheim. By Mackenzie’s reckoning, if she’s still a freshman, then she’s the “most knowledgeable freshman in the world.”  These are her own words, as announced to everyone in the team van immediately after the interview below.  Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Flat Light

Anchorage is pretty chinooky today – warm, wet, and windy.  So this morning we climbed into the team van and ascended 3,500 feet to Hatcher Pass, where the rain turned to snow.  It’s been snowing for days there, and there’s now three or four feet on the ground. The snowstorm didn't seem to be letting up at all while we were there.

Patricia and Mackenzie

Coach Andrew and Lukas

Davis

Pati and Mack

I know it looks like Lukas is just standing there, posing like a skier, but he was actually skiing past me when I took this picture.  UAA skiers don't pose.