Taking to the trails...errrrr, the base?

With the great lack of white stuff here in NH the nordic skiing is scarce, if nonexistent. This week Gunstock has been kind enough to open their base area to nordic skiers before the lifts open in the mornings so I've had my morning training sessions done by 8:30 and suddenly had a lot more time in the rest of my day! Here are some pictures from the awesome ski session we all shared this morning:

 

My cousin Emily (center) skate skied for the first time ever this morning and did awesome! Despite the early wake-up our ski was thoroughly enjoyable. Now if Mother Nature would just let up on the rain or significantly drop her temperatures, we might have some real xc trails to conquer!

LET IT SNOW!

Some photos from my last few days here at home in New Hampshire for Christmas:

The whole gang on Christmas Eve: LtoR Isaac, Nicole, Andy, Martina, Alex, Seth and myself

Again, this time inside (and with a dorky face and three dogs)

Kaiya hiding out with her new lemon toy...

Tired puppy at the end of Christmas...

The turkey my parents feed on our deck...

Our Christmas tree...

Isaac and Nicole

My mom and I on top of Piper Mountain on Christmas...

Stockings all hung by the chimney with care...

Seth and I on Piper Mountain enjoying the sun on a very cold bench...

Working on a Russian Church puzzle that I got my brother...

Emily, Seth and I on Piper...

Alex and Omi, my grandmother at her house on Christmas Eve...

So far my first few days at home have been hectic but enjoyable. Lots of Christmas shopping to start with, then wrapping, visiting, eating, and enjoying. The weather has been good so far but Mother Nature has some icky stuff lined up for us now so hopefully she'll change her mind before it actually falls. The trails at Gunstock have nothing yet but my dad has been making snow like crazy and there's a sledding hill forming in the middle of the race stadium. I skied this morning with some of the Gunstock Nordic (my original ski club) members at the base of the alpine area. It wasn't much terrain but it was good snow and real skiing (i.e. not rollerskiing) so I can't complain. I will surely be back there again tomorrow...bright and early: 7am. It's tough to get up that early but nothing beats being done with morning training by 9 a.m. I'm hoping to stay home until the 29th or 30th, at which point I will head to Jericho, VT until the next series of trials races mid-January.

Time to get my Snow Dance on....

Oh, There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays....

So who's up for morning training at 7 tomorrow??? Gunstock is letting nordies ski around their base area in the mornings from 7-8:30 so that's when I get to train tomorrow. And since I have to scrape some skis before I can ski, I get to leave the house at 6:30! Hopefully it's worth it! This will surely bring back some memories! I don't think I've skied at the base area since I raced there in high school! 

Also on tap for tomorrow: 

- Reconfiguring christmas baking recipes with my mom to make gluten free egg nog bread (including our own homemade egg nog!), hershey kiss cookies, and maybe some other goodies!

- Wrapping presents....

- Some sewing projects....

- Maybe I'll unpack my luggage from Minnesota...I've been home two days already. Yeah, maybe I should do that. 

and, most importantly:

- Make snowflakes for the windows, a star for the tree and do a huge snow dance!

Happy Holidays to all my faithful readers....hope this season finds you happy and well! 

-Katrina

Three days, three races, three podium finishes! 

I'm finally done with racing here in Minnesota for this year! Tomorrow I start my (long) journey home in the morning when we'll drive south to Minneapolis. I don't fly out till Wednesday evening though, so I get to spend a day and half in the twin cities. I'll arrive in Manchester airport in NH just after 12am on Thursday morning....three days from now. Now much traveling, but lots of time to get there! 

Today's race was a 12.5 km mass start race with four shootings (prone, prone, standing, standing). I skied consistently with my other races this weekend but really threw down on the final of the five loops in an effort to chase down first place but also keep from getting caught by my teammate, BethAnn, who finished a very close third. I missed a total of 5 out of 20 shots, one in the first prone, and then two in each standing stage. 

So on the weekend I finished 3rd in the sprint (7.5 km, 2 shootings), 2nd in the pursuit (10 km, 4 shootings), and 2nd in the mass start! Considering how much better this is than my results at this time last year, I'm very happy. I feel like I've gotten off to a good start this winter and now I'm looking forward to improving my standing shooting and continuing to push harder on my skis. I've always raced slower in the early season (pre-January) so having so good results so early is really encouraging! 

Congratulations to all my teammates....together our team brought home 14 podium finishes! Good work Maine Winter Sports Center!

Minnesooooota: Two down, one to go

Tomorrow is our last IBU qualifier race here in Minnesota and I'm hoping for a good one. So far I've notched a 3rd in the sprint and a second in the pursuit. One more good one, preferably a win, would put me in a good spot. The snow at Mt. Itasca has been really good considering that they've got none of the real stuff on the ground yet. The courses are in great shape, even if they are quite hard. The last hill on the loop is called "The Waterfall" and usually it's a downhill but this year they mixed it up and we get to climb it instead. Makes for a good challenge and will definitely continue to separate the weak from the strong, both on skis and on the range. We shoot right after climbing it, although there is a downhill between this crest of the hill and the range but it's short and fast, providing very little recovery before you hit the mat on the range. 

Wish me luck! Hopefully tomorrow goes well!

Minnesota...The final stretch of 2011 racing

We arrived in Minnesota two days ago after a quick trip from Bozeman via Denver. My trip was uneventful until the few hours we spent in the Mall of America while waiting for a coach and teammate who arrived later in the evening.

That place is stressful! Maybe it's because I've been living in Fort Kent and it's so quiet and laid back up there? I don't know....but I do know that I was overwhelmed in there. I didn't buy a single item to take home with me. My sole purchase was a small bag of popcorn to munch on while I perched on the edge of a bench on the top floor people watching over a balcony. Everything about that place is huge, even the suspended Christmas ornaments - giant round shiny balls about 6 feet across suspended from seemingly clear ropes on the second and third floors. If you haven't been there or heard of the Mall of America, let me give you an idea: It has three floors, containing the largest gross area for a mall in the United States, at 4,200,000 sq ft. You could fit 7 (yes, SEVEN) Yankee Stadiums in there. It has three levels housing around 520 stores and kiosks. A fourth floor on the east side houses a 14-screen movie theatre, restaurants, and a bowling alley, and underneath the whole thing is an underground aquarium. The center of the building is open through the four floors and contains Nickelodeon Universe, a theme park complete with a bamboo log ride and roller coaster. Somewhere on what I think was the second level I also discovered a mini golf course. Surprisingly enough, the whole building is mainly unheated. The entrances have heat between sets of doors and skylights above provide the remainder of warmth needed for the entire space. So....there you have it. An entirely overwhelming experience for someone who's been hiding away in Northern Maine. 

Now I'm in Grand Rapids getting ready for the IBU trials races that start Saturday. The snowmaking loop here is small still but promises to get bigger soon. Today: shooting in the rain and snow that's falling on the brown landscape outside. I was spoiled in Montana by beautiful weather. Time for some toughness training! 

Wonderful West....

Two and a half weeks later....still in West Yellowstone. You might think "Aren't you bored yet?" but I'm really glad my plans worked out as they did. With no great skiing in New England yet, being in Montana this long has been awesome. The skiing here is great, if not perfect. Yes, the first week was very busy with an astonishing number of racers and master blasters taking to the trails, but when Sunday of that first week came the town emptied in literally a number of hours. These last two weeks I've seen fewer than ten other skiers on the trails each day. This weekend we have our first NorAm (North American) Cup races here in West and after three weeks of focused training and a couple of xc ski races, I am ready!

Now....pictures! Because I know that a blog without pictures is probably one of the more boring things to look at!

West Yellowstone Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center

Today Seth and I visiting the wolves and bears that reside at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. They had two packs of wolves and a bunch of bears. The bears are rotated in pairs into a display area so that they have privacy for a good portion of their day. 

They had a lot of educational information displayed for us to read. Here Seth shows just how big a wolf print is compared to his own hand!

Seth eyeing the wolves from the safety and warmth of the building. It was really neat to get so close to them while still feeling that they were actually far enough away!

And the bears.....

Sam and Illie were rescued in Alaska as cubs when their mother disappeared and they wandered into a populated area and began taking food from humans. They are twins however Sam weighs in at 1050 lbs. while Illie is just (haha) 800 lbs. Those are some BIG animals!

Sam hunting for some food hidden in their pen....

Illie following her nose toward an afternoon snack...

They also had an indoor display building filled with educational information. 

Seth posing next to a stuffed polar bear...it was HUGE!

And the biggest bear in the whole place.....

And now for some skiing pictures....because that was why I came here!

Melissa and I are all smiles on a sunny (but cold) day at the range...

Got my race face on in Bozeman....

Photo shoot for Mt. Borah, our new clothing sponsor...

Leading the charge in our new suits....

Look at that spiffy gear...THANK YOU MT. BORAH!

Check back for another update soon with (hopefully) pictures and results from our first races this weekend! And then it's off to Minnesota on Monday! 

West Yellowstone! Skiing in sunny, snowy Montana!

Sorry for the delay in posts....my last few weeks in Maine were very busy before heading out here to Montana. Lots of training and lots of equipment organizing took up the majority of my last days in Fort Kent. I headed out here to West on Sunday, staying the first night with my relatives in Belgrade, MT (just outside of Bozeman) at their ranch at the base of Ross Peak.  

Ross Peak Ranch where I stayed with my dad's family for my first night in Montana....an absolutely amazing place. 

In the morning I went out with Chum, my dad's cousin, to help feed his cows: scottish highlanders. 

One of the bulls....sporting some seriously impressive horns. 

Another of the boys....another set of impressive horns. Despite the appearance, these guys are gentle giants. They'll come right up to you and visit. 

When Chum feeds his herd he rigs the old farm truck to drive itself across the pasture while he off-loads the hay bales from the flat bed on the back. 

Head down to the lower pasture where the "girls" are....

The ladies eating breakfast....

Looking back toward the ranch from the lower pasture....

Early sunrise on the day of the sprint races here in West....

I made my debut as a waxing tech, helping Will get skis ready for everyone's classic sprint races. Here Will gets things going early before the craziness ensues....

One of my teammates heading out in the skate sprint on Wednesday afternoon...perfect conditions and beautiful weather. 

The biggest hill on the trails: down on the left and right back up it on the right. Check out the view into the distance too! This hill was on both loops of the 10k skate race that I did today....rough but I think I've skied up worse! 

All smiles...sun, snow and sweet new ski attire! Thank you Mt. Borah! 

The next few shots are from my drive up to Fort Kent after visiting home for a week at the end of October. My mom and I took a break to enjoy the sun and gorgeous lake view. 

I promise to take more photos soon but posting them is tough right now as I forgot my camera-to-computer cable. (Yes, my computer is old enough that it doesn't have a memory stick port) When my biathlon teammates come on Monday I will get my cord though and then there will be many more pictures on a much more regular basis. Until then, THINK SNOW!