Skiing (and jumping!) on the HOME TURF!

December 11th 2011

The Snow that came last Wedneday night let us make a Grand Opening of the Campus Trails today. First thing Thusday AM we had started rolling and packing on the soccer field and on the trails below the field that Alpine coach Darrell Gray had managed to mow one more time. It packed down well and probably was helped along by the ground still being so warm. Just like an old hand Oskar was right at home up on the snow mobile and oversaw the operation.

Today, Sunday the 11th, was bright, clear and windless. We made an early touch up pass with the machine and at 9:00 AM the team was out working on technique, and doing a recovery session after yesterday's hard intervals at Craftsbury. The skiing was surprisingly good. Snow was silky and fast and the underlayer was firm enough to put on the power. Two solid hours of great training...right here at home. No driving and right into a hot shower at the end of the session.

New Uniforms!

We broke in some variations to the trails, people styled the new uniform that was originally designed by Burkie Sam Tarling, AND, perhaps coolest of all we christened Stu Guy's K6 Nordic Jump!

                               Not a lot of Snow, but Darn Good!                                                                             Last season BMA often played host to the new NE Kingdom Chapter of the Bill Koch League, the little kids XC skiing organization that holds the future of the sport in hand. Stu was always ready to chip in whenever he could get out of the business office. The kids are coming again this year and Stu, a former jumper and nordic combined skier, lit up with the idea of a real Nordic jump for the little guys. He had the math and knew the specs and after two days of measuring and tramping he called in the snowmachine and the roller (Thanks again for that to alum Andrew Smith!). We made a couple of passes and did a little shoveling. That night Stu got busy with hammering and sawing and "POOF!" the next day we had a "K 6" (ask Stu how to interpret that) jump.

And today the team christened the hill; quite a few times!. Great fun and the Kingdom kids will love it.  Check out the video at BMA Nordic on Facebook.

Suddenly the BMA Campus Trails have become the BMA Nordic Complex!

A visit from Matt, The Redfish Run, BMA Fish Tacos, and Mountain Fall in earnest

Matt Johnson heard that we were planning the Redfish Lake Run and decided to pile into the old white car and head north from SLC to join us for a couple of days. He is busy with the early season work of his new job with The Utah Nordic Alliance and had to squeeze this visit in. Salt Lake is a five hour drive so it isn't a spur of the moment trip. He surprised kids coming back from the SAT's and we've enjoyed his company for a couple of dinners and two great workouts.

The Redfish Run

Redfish Lake is in the Sawtooth Mountains to the Northwest of Sun Valley. It gets its name from what used to be huge runs of Sockeye salmon that made their way from their typically 4 year life cycle in the Northeast Pacific 900 miles up the Columbia into the Salmon and finally to the lake. As sockeye enter fresh water they rapidly change from the brilliant aquamarine blue that gives them the fishermen's name of "bluebacks" to a bright red body. The heads go green and hook snouted.  Dams, nets, pollutants and natural hazards have whittled the runs to next to nothing, but there are still a few. Just before we arrived the hatchery above Stanley organized a "roundup", a netting of native fish that had made the trip and safely transporting them around some final hazards to the golden pebble bottomed stretches of the the river to spawn. Something in the vicinity of 130 fish were transported up. 900 miles of upstream swim! Some genes!

The run is about twelve miles and covers about 1000 feet of vertical. Three hours is a typical level 1-2 time allowing for a short snack break at the far west end of the Lake. The kids and Matt and Kate headed out about 11:00. I am a bit jealous of that, and of how good the accomplishment feels at the end. Still, sitting on a log, bare feet toasting in the sand, Oskar playing on the beach, some solo time to relax, and the dramatic backdrop of Mt. Heyburn and the Grand Mogul and all the other ragged peaks of the Sawtooths set off by the shining blue of the lake is pretty darn good too.

It should be full blown Autumn but the days are hanging between between an exultant Indian summer and the onset of late fall. We have been on the edge of a weather pattern. On Saturday in Ketchum, 70 miles to the south we finished the last workout of the day in a darkening afternoon with scattered big drops of rain. Half an hour later it came down hard, pounding loose the wonderful smells of leaves, summer grass, and dust; distinct and intense and sharp as though you plucked a bud of sage and crushed it beneath your nose and took it in. Here at Redfish it is sunny and there are summer clouds, all white and cottony looking. The wind is is still warm but as it freshens it picks up a subtle edge. The lake is capping steadily as far as we can see, and some of the clouds gray a little on their undersides. The march of seasons will resume soon. The wind rattles the Aspens leaves and puffs of them release and scatter. There is a voice, hushed and low.

"Enjoy the warm sand and the sun and the blue skies. Enjoy the softness of the wind, but get ready. Its warmth is the heat stolen from the lake. And look at the noon day shadows in the peaks; how long they are and how dark. Be ready. These are the Mountains and I am October."

BMA Nordic Fish Tacos

We wrapped up the Redfish Run with Burke Mountain Nordic Fish Tacos. These have become a favorite. Atkinson's, the local market, prides itself on getting good fish and happened to have a wonderful batch of Pacific rockfish. These are a fish boat favorite for firm white flesh and great flavor. Fresh cabbage, red and green, cilantro, lime juice, a little honey and a favorite hot sauce, a salsa ( we like the Hailey local "KB's" red or green tomatillo versions, and a fresh peach/mango brand) a nice big chunk of hot grilled fish rolled up in a big tortilla...es muy bueno! Dos es mejor!

Matt headed off tonight. The wind blew the mattress he bought up here and the rack off the top of his car so there was a rescue run. We got him underway again minus rack and with mattress and frame secured with lines through the cab and out the doors. Could be a long drive to SLC.

Back here in Ketchum it is late and it is raining hard. Its cold too. Snow, 3-5 inches of it, is in the forecast for Wednesday. The voice up at Redfish wasn't kidding. Be ready.

Fall Camp: Where we are, more on where we've been, and maybe a little on where we are going

Senate Meadows, Galena, Idaho

The "High Piney Country" my Dad called it, and he loved it. I do too. Something deep and enchanting lies here. At the same time it makes you feel small it draws you out and into it. There is an almost visceral connection with wildness. In spite of the warm breeze and the soft dryness of early fall some thing still and unspoken suggests survival, and predation, and patterns of life and death. A small breath of air at the same time can caress and comfort and still raise the hair on your neck.

The day before yesterday the team ran the ski trails at Galena Lodge. It was a low intensity workout and designed give each a metric of how altitude acclimatization is coming along. Galena is high at 7200'. I have often felt I noticed the difference between Ketchum at 6000' and Galena more than I noticed the difference between sea level and Ketchum. The trails are a mix of dirt roads, and broad meadows and when the roads dissolve into forest track it is not always easy to follow them. There is a lot of relief to the land. The team connected two or three of the trails for a 90 minute level one to two run and everyone seemed to tolerate the additional altitude well.

We have the luxury of time to get used to the lower pressure up here, and to spend enough time to have a natural training effect take place. It will be interesting to measure times and numbers in certain set tests we use after we come back to Burke. Another factor that seems to be playing a positive role this year is that everyone on the team has been healthy and seems to be able to build on the fitness level with which they came. While we still haven't put down a serious interval session today's morning work out was a series of speeds finishing with 8 times up a steep 100 meter section of trail. Kate and I were pleased with what we saw and the efforts put in. Tough work well done.

This is Steep!

The Girls do Speeds at Lake Creek's South Bench

We have had Burkie Sam Tarling with us for the last week and that has been good fun for the whole gang. Last night we hosted alum Evan Martell who is spending the year with Sun Valley's post grad program and three of his housemates. They come from programs in Montana, the Northwoods of Wisconsin, and of course,Vermont. A fun and hungry bunch.

SAT tests on October first for five of our seven. That will close a chapter and we can turn our attentions to the last full week. Hopefully there will be some pleasure reading. there will be plenty of good training. On the list is a run around Redfish Lake, two or three more long roller skis, moose hoof intervals, a time trial and whatever else we can squeeze in.

All the best and more soon.

BMA Nordic is Back! Back on the Blogspot and Back in Sun Valley



Sun Valley Coach Rick Kapala and BMA Coach Kate Barton
explain the drill to both teams.



Greetings! A lot has been going on with the BMA Nordic Team and since our return from Norway and what turned out to be an excellent camp, enough balls have been in the air that THE NORDIC BLOG has not received much attention. We will try to bring things up to date over the next little bit and perhaps the easiest way to do that is to start in medias res and work backwards!

OK, here we go. It is about 8:00 AM Mountain Standard Time and the sun has not quite hit the peaks to the west of Ketchum and Sun Valley, Idaho. There is a little chill in the air and it promises to be another bluebird day. We have been blessed with perfect Indian Summer weather. It seems as though the seasons are two weeks behind here, with the trees still green, no frost at night, and long warm evenings. Last night we enjoyed a special meal courtesy of the Great Expectations ranch in central Oregon. The ranch owner is Robert Siceloff who is an old chum and who enjoys meeting us here in Idaho. He provided enough fresh pheasant, and antelope to make a true Game feast. Amazing!



Tom Rabon in the SV Strength Room
One of the best we've seen for XC work!

Today at 11:00 we will join the Sun Valley team for a classic roller ski OD/technique workout. The first week on the ground here is almost over and the team has logged good and varied hours as the acclimatization process from 900' to 6000' does its work. Sun Valley's team has an excellent strength facility and we've taken advantage of that. The hiking trails are perfect for steady uphill work and some of the lower angle loops make for good early at altitude runs. A network of miles of paved bike paths make roller skiing a pleasure.

Yesterday the gang hiked up the main alpine hill, Bald Mountain, which starts at 6000' and rounds off at about 9300, to watch the "Baldy Hill Climb", a run up the north side of the mountain. It is a level 4/5 tough one that wasn't quite right timing wise for our schedule, but the level 1/2 hike was ideal.Proctor Mountain and connected tops to the east was the scene of activity the day before and the guys, including BMA alum Sam Tarling, put in a 3 hour high altitude adventure. Sam attended the summer term at Dartmouth so he could take the fall off to train. He is here with us in the Valley and is providing a good rabbit to the team and a good example of the attitude it takes to get it done.We will be here in Idaho until the 10th of October. It is a perfect amount of time as we will begin to truly enjoy the training effect of living at altitude. There is time to put in a lot of low intensity volume work to properly adjust to the lower pressure, and then there is time to throw in our camp-within-a-camp intensity week before we come home. It is a perfect spot to train before shifting to snow.

There have been big changes on the team in the past few months as well. In short Matt Johnson has moved on to take charge of the Nordic Program for The Utah Nordic Alliance, a junior program based in Salt Lake City. We hope Matt joins us up here in Idaho for a couple of days. Everyone is excited to see hime and to get the latest on his new job. At first it looked as though the assistant coach's position at BMA would have to be a 5 month show, but in July things rolled to together and we were able to offer it as full time. We are lucky to add Kate Barton to the roster filling that role. Kate is from Cape Elizabeth in Maine, attended Middlebury and skied there for four years. She joins us as the assistant Nordic Coach and also is zeroing in on helping with admissions and recruiting. Kate has fired up a BMA Nordic Facebook page which will take the place of daily blogging, and gives a venue for the posting of quick news and pictures.This Blogspot piece will stay up and we promise to keep it more current. The thrust will change a bit to more in depth bits about our year, our approach to camps, academic work, and other Nordic News.

Give us some feedback on what you would like to see, and news you would like to get, and do check out the Facebook Posts...they are pretty fun!

Norway 2011

Greetings from Norway!

We have been here for just about a week now and have been training lots, eating lots, and trying to rest during the time in between. Originally we stayed as the only guests in Hotel Hornsjo. We had the entire place open to us including the sauna, ping pong table, miles of beautiful trails for running/hiking, and the big lake for which the hotel is named. Every night we were served a different Norwegian dish and were given second and third helpings as we wished. I think that everyone is happy to have some solid and hearty Scandinavian food for a while; there is a big difference between the type of energy you get from eating Cheerios's and from eating a variety of cold meats, cheese, and bread in the morning. Trust me, the latter is better and the energy actually lasts.

And we have needed that energy! Just yesterday the group did an uphill high intensity skate rollerski. The workout was not meant to be at race pace, but it was still meant to be hard and we all found it pretty difficult. The younger athletes skied a 5.5 km course and the older group started 2.5 km below in order to make their course a solid 8 km of hard climbing. From talking to the others, I think that everyone enjoyed the workout in some sense and if they couldn't call it enjoyable they at least felt like it was productive. That workout was difficult but from what the coaches have said it looks as though there is harder stuff yet to come.

Excepting the rain we have been extremely lucky with our training. We have done a couple training sessions with a Norwegian club including a skate rollerski, run, and strength session. We also met up with the NTG (which is the Norwegain Academy of Elite Sport) for a timed uphill run. It was great to see the type of focus that the Norwegian skiers have during training and we all enjoyed the opportunity to train with and talk to them. We have also gone to the rollerski track a few times and ran a bit on the trails surrounding our hotel, which are practically unlimited. Overall we have had lots of time for good training and enjoyed every minute of it.

We are staying in Lillehammer for the next few days and will still benefit from the good rollerskiing and running before we head off to Sognefjell to get on snow. We are all looking forward to the next leg of our camp!

Burke Offers Two August Training Camps

Team "Beast" nearing the finish of the mountain run leg of the 2009 Adventure Race

In August Burke Nordic is offering two training camps here on the BMA campus. The first runs from the 11th through the 14th and is designed for ages 12-16. The emphasis will be on "Fun that Makes You Fit" and will introduce xc ski training through up hill runs, orienteering, kayak races on Lake Willoughby and an all-day team adventure race that will keep people thinking, panting and laughing. Athletes will be introduced to some of the tools they need to be ready for the demands of the sport later on; balance work, base strength training and other things they will be able to take home with them. Athletes will live in Burke dorms and we will do our own good cooking at the dining hall. Attendance is limited to 14 athletes. Cost is $325.

The second camp runs from the 14th through the 18th. It is designed for more experienced skiers in the J1 - OJ categories. and is required for the members of the BMA Nordic Team. We will be on campus for this camp as well, taking advantage of the great training opportunities we have here in the Kingdom. Again, a goal of the camp is to provide the athletes with information and training ideas they can use when they leave the camp. We use a set of XC specific tests that can give a good picture of places needing work, and areas that are on the mark with good skiers of the same age. Roller skis are required for this camp. Again a full day event will keep people challenged. The second camp cost is $425 and it is also limited to 14 athletes. An older J2 could do both camps and the cost would be $600.

Burke offers two August Jr. Camps!

Team Beast approaching the finish of the Mountain Run leg of the August 2009 Adventure Race!

BMA is offering two Junior Camps this August. The first, from August 11th through August 14th is for ages 12-16 and takes place on the school's campus on the shoulder of Burke Mountain. Campers stay in the Burke dorms, and we'll build our meals (great ones!) in the campus dining hall. The emphasis for this camp is on "fun that makes you fit". Traditional xc dry land workouts are combined into hikes, orienteering, kayak races on Lake Willoughby, and an all day adventure race that will keep everyone thinking, panting, and laughing. The camp is limited to 14 athletes.

There will be rollerski workouts for those that are already familiar with them and an introduction to them as training tools for athletes who have not yet used them. Camp cost is $325.

The second camp runs from the afternoon of the 14th through the 18th and will also be on the BMA campus. This session is for J2-OJ age groups. The program is more ski specific and includes a series of Nordic specific tests that will give athletes an picture of improvments that have been and that need to be made. Roller skis and bounding poles are needed here. This camp is required for all BMA team members, and would be wholly appropriate for any junior athletes who want to get a jump on the fall's work. Camp Cost is $425.

J2's can sign up for both camps. Cost for both is $600.

Coaches for both camps include Burke Coaches Pete Phillips, and Matt Johnson, as well as several Burke alumni athletes.

Burke Winners!

Congratulations to Sam Tarling '09 on winning the NCAA championship skate race! Burke alums Lucy Garrec, Catlin Curran, Lucas Milliken, Jordan Butow and Janey McClelland have also been proving that Burkies are in it for the long haul, and they only get faster!! Tom Rabon and Mitch Prevot recently competed for the New England in the Junior National Championships in Minneapolis, MN. Tom placed 6th overall in the Classic mass start out there, which is a real accomplishment! From here the team is finishing up the season with Spring Series in Sun Valley Idaho. The blog will be updated lots while we are out there.

Catching Up

Sognefjell in June. Can't Wait!

Long time. It has been busy and we apologize for the silence. It isn't because nothing has been happening. It has been a fun season and even though Junior Olympics in Minneapolis, and the Eastern High School Championships are over we are still in full swing. On the 23rd of March we head for Sun Valley, Idaho and the US Super Tour Finals; four race days with distance, sprint and hill climbing competitions. The field is coming from as far away as Sweden, and it promises to be a challenging show.

The current Burke team had a solid season with everyone showing improvement and putting down some good results. There were podiums, top tens, and personal bests. Three of our ten qualified for the New England JO team, and one was first alternate. We helped athletes from other teams to a slot on the US Scandinavian Cup J1 squad, and came home with distinction in numerous regional races. Most importantly the lessons of training independence and resilience are sinking in. The vets are building strength and technique on top of increasingly good foundations and that shows in the performance of our alumni.

BMA alums have been tearing it up on the EISA curcuit, nationally and internationally. Sam Tarling and Lucy Garrec have been regulars on the podiums at the College Carnivals, and a lot of other Burkie Nordics have also been in the upper reaches of the first page of results; Curran, McClelland, Buetow, Gill, to name only a few. Liz Stephen won the US Nationals middle distance title in January and went on to a 16th place at the world championships in Oslo in late February.

Lucy G finished in 8th in the NCAA champ skate finals and Sam Tarling ended up as the NCAA Champion in Skating. That is a major accomplishment for any American as the field usually includes some hot rods from Europe, and an even bigger accomplishment for a sophomore!

We have skiers on the teams at every major eastern school and it is always great to see them on the road. They ski well, they are having fun, and they are sticking with the game

There is a new "Sweden Trip" gearing up for June, and it looks as though there will be considerable alumni participation. It is really a "Norway" trip this year and will focus on a higher level of training both on and off snow. We will keep you posted on that one. There are not many spaces left.

The Northeast Kingdom BKL cutting it up at BMA!

The winter saw BMA as a frequent venue for the new NE Kingdom Bill Koch League. The gift of a grooming roller and comb from alum Andrew Smith has allowed us to have good tracks here on campus, and the little guys loved it! In the hands of the Kingdom Trails crew and a bunch of enthused parents no program at all turned into one with 60 kids! The Burke Nordic
Team helped out with the kids when we were not away at races, and that was a hit. Maybe one day in the future, we'll start seeing some townies flying BMA colors, and in any case they are out there skiing and we have been able to help 'em get there.

More later, and we promise to do a better job on the updates.