GSL FLOATERS CLUB

I am going back in time a bit with this post, but certain experiences need to be shared sometimes.  On my way to Vermont from New Zealand a group of very close friends picked me up at the SLC airport and we began to drive.  We all knew where we were headed and we were giddy excitement, and mixed in for me, the sheer joy of leaving airports for a couple of hours.  These 3 very good friends and I are members of the GSL Floaters Club.  I am not exactly sure how we started this club, but I know the one thing that drew us all into the lake for the first time.   Floating.  The feeling of being able to enjoy water without inhaling large gulps while trying to stay afloat.  The ability to float effortlessly in a large body of liquid, in fact to be able to relax in water!  It was a concept none of us had ever even dreamed of, but yet, here we were doing just that.  So we left the airport and drove to the spot where it all started.  We pulled on our bathing suits, and walked towards the water.  Again, that need to relax in water pulled us towards the shore, through the sand fleas, towards the smell of pollution and chemicals.  And....

...we all jumped in.

Pollution always enhances the sunsets...

And then, we relaxed some more.

Because we knew that tomorrow we would be back in the Saddle. (Sarah MacCarthy, "Smac")

Photos Courtesy of: Pete Vordenberg and Barb Jones

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BOARDS

Rule 1: You must smile and you must love the boards.

Step 1: Uncover the pile

Step 2: Carry the boards

Step 3: Brush the sawdust off the boards

Step 4: Paint the edges of the boards

Step 5: Stack the boards in a new place

Step 6: Keep picturing how cool the barn will look

Step 7: Watch all sunsets from the cupola

Step 8: Paint all sides of all boards...to be continued Saturday

Step 9: Repeat

Last 4 days in Never Never Land

I am into my last 4 days at the Snowfarm, and it has gone by way too fast.  We had some storms last week and are expecting more tonight through Thursday, but the snow has been amazing.  The team arrived a week ago and so training has taken a step up, not to mention the social aspect they bring.  We went down to the Cardrona Hotel on Saturday night and had a dinner off the rock and spent our off day on Sunday in Queenstown.  We geared up for a time trial today, a classic sprint for most of the team, but Morgan Arritola and I did a 10K classic.  Overall I think it went very well for everyone, as it is July and most of us have not done too much really hard workouts yet.  

Intervals with Bird and Kristina Stranberg.  Just in case you are worried about how Bird's training is going, he is just chilling in Level 1.

View of the ski trails from the lodge.

Whitcomb doing some video.

Sunset off of Mary's Trail!

Not sure if you can pick out the skiers in the distance, but they are skiing in perfect tracks.

New Zealand Part 1

Over the last 2 months, some of you may have been worried that I fully dropped off the edge of a cliff never to be seen of heard from again.  Fortunately, that is not true, although short of that kind of story, an excuse as to why I have not posted becomes meaningless, so I will not even try.  After a good two months of training in Park City, Utah, I am now in New Zealand, training at the Snowfarm.  If you are a cross country ski enthusiast, there is pretty much nothing about this place that wouldn't interest you.  Let me explain...

The Lodge: This is the Lodge.  It is situated on the top of a mountain, and all around you, every direction you choose to look, there are mountains.  These are Lord of the Rings vistas, they are scenes of paradise, and the best part is, all of this placed on 50K of perfectly groomed ski tracks.  I have come to the Snowfarm a week before the rest of the team will arrive, as my cousin, Josh, is getting married to a wonderful lady named Kate, so I have been hanging out with the locals and the fellow enthusiasts.  Meet the crew:

Bernie.  Bernie has been coming to the Snowfarm for the past 6 years.  He is from a town right outside Rochester, NY and coaches cross country running, skiing and track at a high school there.  He simply loves to ski and is here to do just that.

Andi and Ben.  Andi is from Wellington, but splits her time between Vernon, Canada and "The Farm".  She started skiing 2 years ago and went to World Champs last year!  Quick learner.  Ben owns land about 2 1/2 hours from here.  He mines for gold on his land, parts of Lord of the Rings was filmed there, as well as one other movie.  He is a biathlete and a cross country skier and owns a movie projector and an enormous screen.  He's dialed.

John and Tim.  They are the TORO guys.  They are the snowthrower guys, not to be confused with snowblower guys.  They are here simply to test the quality of a given snowthrower.  The other day they put in 13 miles with these things, and not on simply flat ground.  These guys were throwing snow up and down steep hills. through slush and powder, and no problems reported yet.  But we had to see for ourselves...

Bernie and me trying out the machines, and boy did they run like a charm!!

More to come later, including ski pics!!

-Lizzo-

PS: If you want to be Kiwi, all you have to do it add a Y or an O to the end of any word and you will automatically sound like a local.  Cheers!

Bend Part 2...

So, let's see, doing a bit of catch up......we had an off day a week ago and went golfing at the premier golf course in Bend, courtesy of Jason Adams, a local skier in Bend.  I golf once a year, always here in Bend because we play best ball and without the wonderful rules of that game, I could easily still be out there!  A few days later we went on my favorite ski of the year, a crust cruise up to Brokentop Mountain.  It was a perfect day for it, bright and sunny and the snow was ideal for it.  We just finished up our camp with 2 days on the coast of Oregon, staying at Andy Fecteau's (another Bend local who helps us out a ton) house in Pacific City.  We surfed, trained and spent some quality time together as a team.  It's a great way to end a camp.  I will update more with pictures if I get any from my teammates.  I am not hanging out in Bend with Morgan Arritola for another 4 days before heading back to Park City to start school (one class at Westminster College in SLC) and work again.  

The smile after Morgan Smyth's first time golfing.

Mo getting her golf on.  As you can see, we have some real talent!

The group heading out over the lake on our crust ski to Brokentop.

Quite the view....

Newell showing off his moves

Kuzzy and me

Photo's are courtesy of  Torin Koos, Noah Hoffman, and Pete Vordenberg.

Bend Camp

Girls team!!  We are working on our ups!

Bend, Oregon is a pretty neat town.  We have come here for the past 3 years for an on snow camp and this year, as with the other years, we have incredible snow and so far, the weather has been unbeatable.  It is the typical ski in the morning and drive down the hill to sunbathe in shorts in the afternoon.  We are getting in a pretty big training week, around 20 hours, which is my biggest of the training year so far, and what a great place to do it.  Great people to train with, both my teammates and XC Oregon, members of the CXC team, Sun Valley and others, so the living is really good.  Kikkan was here until this morning when she took off for Croatia.  She is one of two nordic athlete representatives for the coming year, a really important job, and so she will be in FIS meetings, giving input for our sport for the next 2 days.  Croatia shouldn't be a bad place to be!!  Taz is also here which is great, as we don't see our Alaskan teammates as much as we would all like to, so it is great to get a little training in with them before our Whistler camp in September.  I only have these two pictures, both taken by Pete Vordenberg, but there are a few more on teamtoday.org if you want to check them out.  Carina Hamel, my idol and the person who I followed around for my entire first year on skis came by for a ski on our first morning here.  It was great to see her again and to click her heels a bit as well, just for old time sake!  Carina is now working in Portland, Oregon in production for Keen Shoes parent company!  In the next few years there may be a shoe line out called the "Carinas".  If you see them, she is the designer, and I promise you they will be amazing!

Carina Hamel and I skiing on our first day of snow in a month!

Spring Flings...Snow to Desert back to Snow

This spring has been a time of real adventure for me.  As athletes, we are "on" from the middle of November through the end of March and so when April rolls around, we are ready for a bit of a break.  This year, Noah Hoffman, Sarah MacCarthy, Zoe Roy, Mikey Sinnot and I set out for a 5 day backpacking trip in Escalante, a part of the southern Utah desert.   Here is a snapshot of our trip.

This is a gas station.  The store is actually inside a mountain, 

and they have awesome ice cream sandwiches!

As we got closer and closer to our camp site for the night the temperature kept dropping...

and dropping....

and dropping!

What is Mikey thinking about right now?  Arizona.

But, the snow disappeared for our sleeping, and though the temps were not 

what we had hoped for yet, we were still smiling in the morning.

But the weather warmed up and we found this guy sunbathing on the rocks.

Sarah and  Mikey psyched about the warm sand.

On one of our days we climbed up and over this arch (Jacob Hamblin Arch).  It required a bit of a repel, and conquering a few of my fears, but we made it.  Our campsite for the night was actually in those green trees that you can see through the arch.  Beautiful mornings!

The five of us (Noah, Sarah, me, Mikey and Zoe) standing at the edge of the Escalante river.

And back to the snow...Last tuesday and again this Saturday a few of us SLC/PC folks set off to find some powder at the end of April.  As you can see, we found some, and it was perfect.

Pete Vordenberg loving the day, as usual.

I have to admit, it's hard not to smile on days like these.