Ski Season

It finally appears that winter has decided to arrive and that of course means that the ski season starts to kick into high gear.
Time to strap on the skis, ski around North Campus and log as many kms as you can while still finding time to study and pass the Medieval History class that you decided to take even though everyone told you it was a bad idea.
It also means, that (hopefully) no more comments like " You know there is no snow" as you head out for a roller ski.

Currently Waterloo has a few cm of snow on the ground and more on the way, which is nice, but not nearly as much as places like London who got like 30 + cm of snow.
But Highlands got even more, so that is a good sign for the up coming Waterloo skiing schedule:
-this weekend Yuletide blast and a Team Time Trial/Qualifier race
-the following weekend, Winter Camp and coinciding with that is the first Ontario Cup

So it will be a very busy next couple of weeks for Waterloo skiers as they get through exams and enjoy the snow and the skiing.

Current conditions at Highlands. Thats a promising amount of snow (http://www.highlandsnordic.ca/snow_conditions.cfm)

Skiing, Waterloo Style

So like a good portion of the rest of Ontario, Waterloo did indeed get some snow over night, which of course meant one thing. Golf course skiing at Westmount.

With about 2 sm of snow on the ground and more falling, it was not kind on par with Kussamo, but it created some solid grass skiing. Since it was nice and powdery it provided a semblance of glide and overall was a very good grass ski experience.

No pictures this time, as the photography staff was worried about their equipment being damaged during the game of snowball tag. They probably made a good decision with the reckless abandonment that Ryan was displaying.

Looks like Highlands is currently getting dumped on, so it looks like there will be some quality skiing there tomorrow.

Rollerski Duathlon "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?"

Editor Note: This blog entry is very much overdue, seeing as this race happened earlier in the month. UWNN would like to point out that other important events have happened since then that have led to its delay. Such as the start of the World Cup season, there was a little race in Gallivare last weekend and a mini tour coming up this weekend in Kuusamo. Which meant that all of the staff was on assignment. If you haven't been paying attention, go to your favourite skiing news outlet and catch up. Oh, and you should probably watch some of the races this weekend, seeing as there are two sprints which are always exciting. Now, on to the race report, with lots of pictures!

UW skiers traveled done to Badenoch to participate in the annual rollerski dualthon organized by the University of Guelph. Entitled "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?", the event tested the shear determination, will and endurance of every athlete, pushing them to their physical and mental limits.
Okay, so it was a little tamer than that with the women running 2 km and then rollerskiing 10km and the men running 4 km and then skiing the same 10km with the women.

The event was well attended with athletes from the University of Toronto and Queen's joining those from Guelph and Waterloo. In all, there were approximately 30 participants, with 6 Waterloo athletes/coaches taking part.

Everyone lined up at the start waiting for the go.

Alison and Katie, among others, running off of the start.

Katie coming into the transition off of the run.

Alison and Katie in the transition.

Katie heading out from the transition into the rollerski leg.

Coach Rhodes coming in from the run to the transition.

Nathaniel (Top) and Ryan (Bottom) coming in off of the run.

Glenn heading out on the rollerski.

At the end, Glenn was narrowly edge out at the line to end up in a solid 2nd place and earn himself some baked goods. Overall, the Waterloo athletes had successful days and everyone was deemed "Bad Enough for Badenoch".

Editorial - No-Good November

For most cross country skiers, the end of October and most of November is useless. This is especially true when you attend a post-secondary institution in Southern Ontario.

You want to train after school? Do it in the dark with the sketchy dude drinking beer by himself on North Campus. You want to rollerski? Wear a vest and a light, or some crazy soccer mom from the suburbs will have you as a hood ornament for her Acura MDX. You want to ski? To &*%$ing bad – it’s Southern Ontario, probably between 5-10 degrees and raining and cold, but with no real hope of snow. Want to go out of town to ski? Tough – you have classes and midterms, or if not, a bunch of lazy jabroni’s on your ski team who say they don’t have time to drive 10 hours each way to Quebec. So what are you left with, you ask?

You’ve come to the right place.

Last year, the UW Nordic Ski Team pulled off a pretty solid November session that involved a figure eight loop, a bunch of shovels, and a shit ton of enthusiasm.

In previous years, we’ve rocked Westmount G and CC with minimal snow, which is more fun that you might think, unless you’re a G and CC member, in which case, those were not my ski tracks on your greens.

But if you’re still without snow in the middle of November, there is really only one activity I can truly recommend to avoid a complete and utter skiing meltdown.

A trip to St. Jacobs Market.

That’s right, eating. Who cares how much ass your workout sucks when you can come home to awesome (and cheap) Mennonite bacon? Or those sausages that you know are legit, because they cut them off a 200 foot roll for you when you buy them? How about 20 lbs of potato’s for $5 from a guy who is still covered in dirt from the field where he dug them out of? Fresh bread? Apples? Or maybe a Sherpa jacket?

November – the month to come home from your miserable, rainy, cold, dirty, not-quite-snowing, school-work-talk-filled hell of a workout and settle into some good food, and not moving for at least an hour. Get it in ya.

Snow! and Skiing!!

Well attending "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?" rollerski dualthon on Saturday (results and post in the near future), word was received that Highlands Nordic had received 10cm of snow and then had panned some trails for skiing!!! Excitement was rampid with all of those in attendance and the very, very easy decision was made to head up early Sunday morning for some skiing. Upon arriving back from the duathlon, most members of the ski team obviously went and checked the Highlands website to verify the snow and no one was disappointed as this is what greeted them.

Photo credit: Highlands Nordic (www.highlandsnordic.ca)

So a couple car loads of skiers headed out at 7 am to make their way to Highlands and get some early season skiing in. What greeted them did not disappoint, as there was in fact snow and the trails were in good/excellent rock skiing conditions.


The trail leading up to Larry's Glacier had some water/mud portions, but it was possible to ski up. The good skiing was at the glacier, as the yellow, along with portions of the orange loop were panned and very excellent for early season skiing. Overall, the loop was long enough to ski about 20 min continuous on the loop. And so the skiers went out putting in numerous loops in order to take advantage of the snow.

Lots of snow and good coverage on the trails made for some excellent skiing conditions, considering it is only November 7th. Now the countdown begins until their is consistent snow, but obviously everyone was very excited to get the opportunity for some skiing this early in the season.

Trail Building at Bechtel

This past Saturday was the annual trail building day at Bechtel Park where the team helps to maintain the trail system at World Cup levels, at least by Waterloo standards.

Generally, the tasks entail spreading wood chips on the trails. There were a lot of wood chips to be spread this year and in the picture, Martha and Katie are hard at work spreading out some of the many wood chips.


Coach Rhodes is also seen spreading some wood chips, however this was one of the rare moments he was in one place long enough for a paparazzi to snap his photo, as he was constantly running around helping to organize the entire endeavor.


Another project that was undertaking was of the drainage nature, as Derek, Glenn and Ryan were tasked with trying to prevent a reoccurance of the Ice Crisis of 2010. That is prevent water from going over the trail instead of under it, on the bottom corner of the figure eight loop. Many a Waterloo skier was almost lost on this corner last year while doing intervals, and so action was desperately needed.
So they stuck three engineering students on the task, gave them shovels and said fix it. Surprisingly enough, the three actually knew that a shovel was not just for leaning on and went to work. The end goal is a valley which will help to direct the water in the culvert and additionally prevent dirt and debris from clogging in the culvert. Only time will tell if it is a success, or if the civil engineering student in the group should look for a new career path.

Picture Profiles - Returning Athletes

And here are some picture profiles of the returning members of the team.
For their picture (the none skiing one), we have tried to guess what they were thinking at the moments that these pictures were taken.
Please add your own (appropriate) captions for these pictures in the comment section below.


Alison

"I'm a caterpillar"


Derek

"Damn, ANOTHER concussion? Eric Lindros, here I come!"


Jess

"I think this should count as training!"


Martha


"Holy s*&t, these targets are SO small!"


Nolan
"

"You got me all of the running race results from the last year, SWEET, oh wait the Office?"

Ryan

"I have a back-up plan in case my career as a skier doesn't work out"

Tim Rhodes

"Damn, this cat has everything going for it right now, I am so JEALOUS"

Team Profile Photos - The Rookies

Nathaniel

Glenn

Katie


We will look to get some more in depth profiles and/or interviews with the rookies in the near future. And perhaps find out what is behind some of these pictures.

The Team

Here is a quick glance at the athletes that are training and competing with the team this season.

The Rookies:

Glenn Hartman
Hometown: Stratford ON
Program, Year: Civil Engineering, 1st

Katie Madden
Hometown: Parry Sound ON
Program, Year: Knowledge Integration, 1st

Nathaniel Reilly
Hometown: Stratford ON
Program, Year: Knowledge Integration, 1st


Returning Athletes:

Alison Stephenson
Hometown: Ottawa ON
Program, Year: Kinesiology, 2nd
Years on Team: 2nd

Derek Hartman
Hometown: Stratford ON
Program, Year: Mechanical Engineering, 4th
Years on Team: 5th

Martha Sutton
Hometown: South Porcupine ON
Program, Year: Biology, 4th
Years on Team: 4th

Ryan McNamara
Hometown: Ottawa ON
Program, Year: Mechanical Engineering, 2nd
Years on Team: 2nd

Tim Hughes
Hometown: Duntroon ON
Program, Year: Computer Science, 2nd
Years on Team: 2nd

Tim Rhodes
Hometown: Deep River ON
Program, Year: Kinesiology, 2nd
Years on Team: 2nd

Athletes on Coop, but training/racing with the team in the winter:

Jess Stevenson
Hometown: Calgary AB
Program, Year: Chemical Engineering, 4th
Years on Team: 3rd

Nolan Beanlands
Hometown: Ottawa ON
Program, Year: Nanotechnology Engineering, 3rd
Years on Team: 3rd


Also training with the team and potential racing:
Cam Moore
Greg Cartmell

Time Trial

To get a little race pace into the training, a roller ski time trial was held this past weekend. 30 sec individual start race, on the road out to Bamberg. Injuries and school commitments limited the number of participants, but here are the results.

As always with roller skiing, the type of ski can greatly influence the results.

What the.....?

You will notice that there is a new poll! Here at the UW Nordic we value your feedback in order to create the best possible reading experience for you. Let us know what you want most, and we will try to accommodate you.
Except if you like really weird things. Then we can only refer you to the team psychologist. If that is the case, please email glenmacintyre@unlicensedpyschology.com.

Thank you!
UW Nordic News Management

Glen asking about your problems.





What you are reduced to afterwards.

Guest Editorial!

Today we have a guest editorial from former UW Nordic skier Kieran Jones. In his day, Jones was an avid racer, even more avid blog-writer, and had the reputation of being the fastest man on the team over 100m, and being the proud owner of a mini-van.

For the last four years, the University of Waterloo Nordic Ski Team has been a pretty cool part of my life. Now, some may remember my first few outings with the team, where I gasped along, blaming frosh week, after-frosh week, and just about everything for my lack of cojones and skiing ability. I whined about how the ski team did different things than I was used to, was a different group of people than I was used to, and above all how awesome I was.

Kieran was so awesome when he first joined the ski team, he made pies.

Some things haven’t changed – I still talk about how awesome I am, the ski team still does different things, and above all, the group of people could definitely be called ‘different’.

However, a month into graduation from the ski team, I’ve realized a few things. This is my first fall in four years not suffering through Mountain Mania at fall camp, rollerskiing out to Bamburg on a crappy road full of angry church goers, running on North Campus in geese shit, or fighting traffic – foot and motorized to get to practice on time. No more wet, stinky and muddy Craft shirts, tights, and socks cluttering up the floor of my room at the Barn, rendering it practically uninhabitable.

Some lads year one.

It’s also meant some other things. No fall camp tuna melts, or hiking on the Bruce Trail into the caves where somebody tries to crawl through a small whole and inevitably gets stuck. No Mennonites in carriages, crazy dudes on gigantic scooters, or Glen handing out banana’s at a corner in the middle of nowhere on a long rollerski. No discussions about the value of an Arts degree, the chances of getting sick after swimming shit creek from Student Services to Ron Edyt Village, or chirping people who are playing Beginner Campus Rec soccer while doing running on North Campus. No more debate about whether it’s possible to pick up girls when you are on rollerskis and they aren’t. No more afternoon naps on the massive couch at the Barn while you watch The Matrix, or Top Gun, or The Green Mile on free cable for the second time in two weeks.

Over the time that I was on the UW Ski Team, there were too many people to name or count. People who had nothing to do with skiing, but came out to hack around anyway. People who knew they sucked at skiing, or weren’t in great shape, but were out because they wanted to get better. People like Surabhi, who was obsessed with lower backs and having a shit-storming good time. Natasha, who no matter how enthusiastic she was, seemed to always get injured. Yudai, who started out as the man with the awesome calves, but turned into the man with the killer climbing skills. Mike, with his fancy car, his mad gym workouts, and taking his chirps as the old guy. Andrew, who came in with little ski experience and a truckload of heart and hustle, and left as an OUA All-Star.

Standing around after crawling through some tight spaces

In my four years of fall training, I learned that it is possible to puke every Saturday morning after an interval set, and still feel good about yourself. That wearing tights in residence gets you some odd looks, but because everyone else is still asleep when you get back from practice, it’s not a big deal. That showing up for a 3 hour rollerski practice after having eaten a granola bar and some water isn’t a lot of fun. That just because you think you know how to ski doesn’t make you any better or any faster than the guy who goes out and does the work. That doing your laundry on a regular basis is a good idea. That $200 in groceries is a lot, especially when 4 people with the same amount have to jam it into one car. That kites which can lift a 110lb person off the ground in a strong wind are awesome. That sometimes it’s difficult to remember what you’re actually at school to do.

It's possible to fit two grown people into a deep freeze. I shit you not.

Basically my message for those just getting on the team is; go out there, get into it, and suck it up. In four years, you might look back and realize you took something out of the experience, even if it was just the fact that there are some weird people in Waterloo, and that rollerskiing in a thunderstorm is a bad idea. For those on the team now, realize that the time on the ski team can be whatever you make it to be. If you want it to suck, then it’ll suck. If you want to go out and have a rad time, then do it. Maybe I never jumped off that concrete pad into Laurel Creek swamp on my rollerskis, but it sure wasn’t for lack of talking about it.

Fall Camp Part II- Mountain Mania Horror

Sunday morning brought out a nicer day than the previous, as the rain had ceased. It also meant that it was time for mountain mania. For those unfamiliar with mountain mania, it is a roller ski race from the town of Duntroon, nearly completely uphill for 4.6 km to the top. This makes for a grueling long climb.



While this photo does not quite do mountain mania justice, this is about the gradient of the hills that are seen for about half of the course.

This year there were 10 participants willing to accept the challenge that mountain mania presented. Double poling was the most popular option this year, however no one is really sure why, as double poling is in no way the easiest way to transcend mountain mania. At points, it is very much a struggle to keep moving up the hill. There are also rumours that someone’s arms have in fact fallen off when double poling mountain mania, however unverified at this point. Even with this in mind Ryan summed up his reason for double poling as “Sometimes you just need to show the hill who is boss and conquer it without the use of your lower body.” (and sometimes you need to show Andrew JeffERY what’s up and beat his double pole time)

Everyone took off and managed to survive to the top without issue, only with the pain that mountain mania dishes out.

The results are seen below:


Impressively Natalie managed to take the win in 12:03, which appears to be a new record for the course. She also did this the day after beating dad, Justin, in the AHS fun run, where she narrowly lead him wire-to-wire and just outsprinted him at the end for the W.

Strick managed to set a new running record for the course by 1:10, while Tim Hughes also set a new road biking course record, taking down the previous time by 1:37.

One none participant was Head Coach Colin Rhodes, who wimped out of mountain mania for the much, much easier task of running the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. He completed it in 3:06:09 and therefore crushing his personal best and qualifying for Boston! Congrats from all here at UWNN.

No one was up for round 2 of mountain mania, so all headed back to the farmhouse for the process of eating all of the remaining food. An impressive dent was made in the remaining food, however ultimately all were unsuccessful in this challenge. This was followed by cleaning up of the farmhouse and after some down time, it was time for the final activity of the camp, a trail hike on the Bruce Trail to visit the caves.

The caves give the opportunity for a little climbing, crawling and squeezing through a number of small crevices and cracks between the rocks.




Photo Credit: Heather Foley. File Photo.

After the caves, it was back to Waterloo, where everyone would proceed to crash and recover from the camp.