Monday, December 14, 2015

Silver Star NorAm

This past weekend thirteen MVNT racers and accompanying parents and coaches travelled back to Silver Star BC for the first race of the season. The race was a NorAm held at Sovereign Lakes Nordic Center and had participants from all over Canada as well as the US. This being a race with high level athletes and focused more on the older skiers, some of our team members had to race up in age categories in order to compete.  This made for some exciting competition and all our skiers rose exceptionally well to the challenge.
Skiers prepping for their starts!
 We left the valley Friday morning and made our way up North arriving in time for a preview of the courses. Saturday was a sprint race around the stadium and Sunday a distance race with distances varying from 2.5km to 15km on the World Cup course.
On the sprint day we had most our skiers make it into the rounds with good performances from everyone. Both Ella Hall and Novie McCabe made it to the B Finals in their age categories and ended up placing tenth.
A happy Novie
The following day proved to be mildly challenging conditions with snow and wind adding a little fun to the race. Again, everyone did very well and we had several podium finishes.
Emerson starting his 5km strong
Results can be found via the following links:
http://zone4.ca/results.asp?id=7774 - Sprints

http://zone4.ca/results.asp?id=7777 - Distance
Tired at the finish..
All and all it was a great weekend with lots of experience, fun and fast skiing! Stay in touch for updates on our next adventures!!


Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Silver Star: training camp

This past week many Methow Valley Nordic Team athletes, coaches and family traveled to Silver Star, British Columbia for some on snow training and a generally great time. The lucky members who were able to get out of school arrived Monday and spent an extra two days enjoying the superb conditions before being joined by the rest for the camp's official start on Wednesday.
We enjoyed staying at the Pinnacles once again!
There were twenty three total kids attending the camp including some skiers from Leavanworth and Ellensburg. Also, the Momentum Northwest and MBSEF team were up there as well so we were able to run into them out on the trails. 
Enjoying the view from the top.
MVNT director, Leslie Hall, said “The conditions were the best they have ever been, we had a great week of training. All the athletes seemed to put in good effort and make gains with technique as well as get in a good volume of training. We had fun interacting with Momentum Northwest and MBSEF teams and look forward to a great season!”
Some of the group at Sovereign one day
Besides general training, the team also got to participate in a time trial on Friday in conjunction with MBSEF and Momentum. The biathletes on the team opted out of this and raced in a local biathlon race on Saturday.
Time trial start. Picture: John Mccolgan

Micheal Mott headed out of the start in the biathlon race. 
All and all it was a great week filled with sun, great snow, lots of skiing and tons of fun! Keep in touch for more updates on the team's next adventures!

The whole gang in Silver Star village. Picture: Susan Prichard