The Fork in the Road
Some Numbers
More snow in VT
Spring Series Pictures
More Pictures from the Midwest
Kate's Birkie
Midwest (2)
Season Wrap Up - Midwest
Some Photos - Midwest
From Nationals to the Midwest
Season Wrap Up - A lot of places
Season Wrap Up - West
Pictures - West Yellowstone
The Year in Pictures - Alaska
Season Wrap Up - Alaska
The Beginning of the End
Spring Series
Eastern High Schools
It Is Never What You Expect
Skiing in Westmanland
Birkie Week
80K Classic race
Life in a Small Village
Eastern Cups
Skiing in the County
Fairbanks Sprint and Pursuit
Alyeska Sprint
Alyeska Skate
West Yellowstone Sprint
West Yellowstone Classic
Canmore Sprints
Silver Star Night Sprints
Craftsbury Opener
Sovereign Lakes World Cup
Canmore World Cup
Trapp's Sprint and Skate
US Nationals
Capitol Square Sprints
Sugarloaf Skate
Colby Carnival
Mt Itasca
Telemark
U-23 World Champs
The Fork in the Road · Apr 19, 05:58 PM
by Tom Keefe
Once I graduated college I had to choose between skiing or joining the everday work force known as the”real world.” I obviously chose skiing, but it was a difficult decision to make. However, I now realize that choosing to ski was a fairly easy decision; one that I have no regrets making. Recently I have stumpled upon an old idea which is now becoming a reality, and a turning point in my life. Also known as, “a fork in the road.” ....
Comment [9]
Some Numbers · Apr 14, 09:29 AM
by Brayton Osgood
140 – Days from the first race in Fairbanks to the last race in Fort Kent
25 – SuperTour races through the winter
9 – States visited for racing
4 – Countries visited for racing
-3.6 – Coldest “official” race day high temperature (Fairbanks)
89 – Highest place at US Nationals (Steve, 10k skate)
7 – Lowest place at US Nationals (Colin, Sprint)
5:3 – Ratio of MWSC racers to coaches at US Nationals
120 – Highest place at any race (Colin, Engadin Marathon)
1 – Lowest place at any race (2 SuperTour, 2 Marathons, 2 Eastern Cups, at least 4 Aroostook Cups, and a few I’m forgetting)
80 – Length, in kilometers, of the longest race (Tom at Sam Oullette)
700 – Length, in meters, of the shortest race (Steve, Colin and Kate at the pre-World Cup night sprints in Silver Star)
9 – Number of races in the Midwest
6 – Number of times Colin fell (while racing) in the Midwest
2 – Number of times Tom crashed in the 15k at Spring Series
2 – Number of broken poles for Tom in the same race
3 – Number of poles broken by Dave Chamberlain in the finish of the City of Lakes Loppet
1 – Number belonging to Dave
669 – Current cost, in dollars, of a one way flight from Presque Isle to Fairbanks, October 24, 2006
4665 – Length, in miles, of that trip
18:14 – Duration, in hours and minutes, of that trip
Comment [6]
More snow in VT · Apr 14, 09:15 AM
by MWSC
A season ending report from Colin. A few days old at this point… 
Colin and the buffalo. It was a great ski into the park. Madison Hot Springs is easier to get to than Old Faithful.
Spring Series Pictures · Apr 14, 09:03 AM
by Brayton Osgood
No stories about Spring Sereis, it just happened! Here are some of the pictures we didn’t get out while it was happening. There was some praise for the organizers on the NENSA web site a little earlier. 
Comment [6]
More Pictures from the Midwest · Apr 14, 08:56 AM
by Brayton Osgood
Kate's Birkie · Apr 12, 06:13 PM
by MWSC
My race schedule for the 2005-2006 season enabled me to take part in my first marathon; something I had been looking forward to since childhood. A marathon, in cross-country skiing, is defined as a race over 30 kilometers. The race I entered was the US Birkebeiner, a 50k. Having no idea how I would stack-up, my strategy was to stick with the lead pack as long as I could. “You are probably going to bonk, you might as well be in the lead pack when it happens” was the advice from my coach. It was a race; I had to go for it.
Comment [6]
Midwest (2) · Apr 12, 06:06 PM
by Brayton Osgood
If you haven’t raced in the Midwest, then you have to understand, it’s not like racing anywhere else. It’s plenty hard, but it’s just different. In general, there’s not a lot of terrain to work with (alpine hills that are small enough to race from bottom to top in a 5k are as big as it gets), and everyone seems to lay out trails the same way. The basic recipe for your midwestern race course is like this. Some herringbone steep climbs, equally steep (and frequently uninteresting) downhills and a lot of flat mixed in. Add to this a curviness factor that’s like John Morton on steroids and blend. The result tends to be courses that are really hard to establish a rhythm on, and you can go really hard without going really fast. It can make for very tight racing (especially in the mass starts, where there are no Hermod Hill style climbs), and you really need to find that groove where the transistions flow without any loss of speed.
Season Wrap Up - Midwest · Apr 12, 08:52 AM
by Brayton Osgood
I could probably just write a list of all the places we went, people we stayed with and races we did, and that would cover the midwest post for a solid three or four paragraphs. A month is a long time to travel around any area, especially long since we were hitting races every weekend.
Some Photos - Midwest · Apr 11, 11:22 PM
by Brayton Osgood
To get through the Midwest SuperTour we relied on the generousity and hospitality of more people than we could ever reasonably expect. To everyone who helped out, thank you so much, and if I forgot you, please let me know.
To Mimi and CW Acher in Madison, Jim and Janet MacNeil in Mt Itasca, Bob Cattanaugh in Telemark, Doug and Mickey and Scottie Scott and Don and Will Brunnquell and Sally Scoggin in St Paul. You all go above and beyond as hosts. We couldn’t do it without you. And special thanks to Jeremy Sartain, we’ll be back to test out some new students next year.
No snow in Madison but we raced anyway. What a sweet venue. Pray for white next year.
From Nationals to the Midwest · Apr 10, 06:58 PM
by Brayton Osgood
It’s a lot easier to write about races that went really well, than ones that don’t go as planned. Unfortunately, for most of us, Nationals fell into the second category. It’s hard to really say what went wrong, but I think I speak for everyone when I say I didn’t put together the race series that I wanted or as good a one as I’m capable of. There were some really good results for sure. Kate had a breakthrough day in the 15k skate, Colin was not far from the podium in the sprint and Steve found out again that 15k classic is not such a bad race. Those were just the highlights, and we went in expecting a lot more, so it was disappointing to come away with so little, especially after the relative successes in the early season.
So what was it like? Well, we were spoiled, that’s for sure. Jens found us a ridiculous house, and I use the word “ridiculous” in the “this-is-rather-amazing” sense and we got John and Will to come out and help wax. Spoiled doesn’t begin to describe it. The ad was a bit misleading and didn’t mention the high altitude (around 8700’), so we ended up with long drive and sleeping conditions that affected some more than others. (I was one who didn’t do well with staying up that high, and had a really hard time getting rest). But, like I said, the house was amazing and it was pretty cool to get the royal treatment.
Waxing was hard, really hard, at Soldier Hollow this year. Nobody got it everyday and even the locals (like USST) missed horribly a couple of times. If you read the comments over at the FSx website, you can see just how tough it was. If grinds, wax and ski construction can’t make it work then I don’t know what you do. Our staff (it was sweet to have a wax staff) did a pretty admirable job. Changing conditions through the days and different conditions everyday, even without changing snow, didn’t so much bring out the waxers and show who got lucky. Well, that and bring out the really tough skiers. Babikov crushed people on slow skis. Southam was pretty tough too. Me? I never thought my skis were out of it, but my legs were so far gone until the pursuit it was hard to tell.
What do you do when you set up to have everything go well at Nationals and then it doesn’t? You get fired up. There is no motivational tool, at least that I’ve found, like anger. Racing angry, if you can channel it, can give some amazing results. And that’s where we were at the end of Nationals. Fired up and ready to prove that we were better than we’d just skied. We all missed the Olympics, and after our performances in Utah, I wouldn’t want to argue the case that any of us deserved a trip to Italy. Fortunately, Nationals end with a lot of season left. Steve headed off to U23s to try to get some experience with an international field, while the rest of us went to the Midwest to try and extract some revenge from the SuperTour.