Burke has had a lot of snow in the past week and things look good on that front. USST coach Matt Whitcomb and athlete Liz Stephen have each confirmed their participation in Burke’s xc Christmas Camp from 18-21 December. We have four remaining spots for this great opportunity. It is perfect for anyone not headed North to Presque Isle. The chance to work one on one with Matt Johnson from BMA,  Matt Whitcomb from the US Ski Team and team athlete Liz  Stephen could be a great investment in the rest of the season.

Contact Matt Johnson at Burke Mountain Academy. mjohnson@burkemtnacademy.org

Burke Nordic is planning a special trip for the spring break. In mid-April there are two FIS races in Sweden, a sprint and a 30 km race, followed by a fun ski-cross in which a downhill run determines qualifiers for a roller-coaster sprint; three races in three days in the heart of some of Sweden’s best terrain. The opportunity to enter FIS races in Scandinavia offers invaluable experience for our kids and this is a perfect chance to get speed and distance. These races wrap up the FIS season in Sweden and they are always well attended by both Norway’s and Sweden’s best.

What is different about this year’s trip is that while it is about racing it is not only about racing. We will spend the week prior to the races in long tours and enjoying what skiing is really all about…whole days in the sun and the snow…an hour or two at a “vaffel stugo” a waffle/coffee hut out in the hills. A journey from one town to another. a trailside fire for tea and ‘dogs; things that are the heart of cross-country skiing and the part that gets more precious as the miles click by.

Swedish Spring Skiing

The other thing that is different is that we are inviting parents and friends. We have limited openings, and the BMA Team will have first pick, but we would like to have new folks along to cheer, or to race, and to share two weeks in the Swedish mountains.

We will have two rental vehicles but the idea for this trip is get to the mountains and then to minimize travel time. Lodging is at the Walles Mountain Hotel, a comfortable small trail side hotel with fabulous food. We have access to a complete kitchen, but the price includes breakfast, a pack lunch we build ourselves, and dinner. The rooms are double occupancy with wc and shower, and plain but pleasant. The village of Funasdalen is a short drive or a fun ski away, and farther up the valley is the extensive Alpine resort of Raamundberget.

Flight is likely out of Boston to Stockholm and return and at the moment Icelandair is the front runner. It is an easy trip with a mid-way stop in Iceland which allows for a nice stretch of the legs.

Projected cost is $3275 inclusive. Race entries, road food (food while traveling), and beverages at dinner are individual expenses. Approximate dates are 8, April to 21 April.

Give this some thought. We could put a good group together, and it could be a lot of fun and educational for you to play and watch the game in its homeland.

Visit www.funasdalen.com  and www.walles.se to get a peek at the hotel and the area, and let me know if you might be interested. We have good time but not time to waste to pull the trip together.

Best, Pete

Peter Phillips

Head Nordic Coach

Burke Mountain Academy

pphillips@burkemtnacademy.org

gamlefisken@yahoo.com

518-524-4127 mobil

802-626-1516-ext1012 Office

USST Coach Matt Whitcomb with Alumni and BMA Team on the Campus.

Burke Mountain Academy is holding its second Christmas Camp for J2, J3 and J4  skiers December 18th through the 21st on the Burke Campus in East Burke, Vermont. Joining us here on the hill will be US Team Athlete and BMA alumna Liz Stephen, and US Team Coach and former BMA Head Coach Matt Whitcomb. Matt and Liz were here last year and their contribution was a highlight of the camp. For them to take time in the Holidays to include the Christmas Camp in the busy days before Anchorage and Vancouver is something we certainly don’t take lightly. The camp offers a wonderful opportunity to get three full days of personal coaching with Matt and Liz, Burke Coach Matt Johnson, and several Burke college skiers. Call Matt Johnson or Pete Phillips at BMA for more details of the Camp. 802-626-1516 ext 1012. mjohnson@burkemtnacademy.org pphillips@burkemtnacademy.org

Burke Mountain Academy’s schedule is designed around blocks of intensive class room work followed by the opportunity for intensive training camps. This year for our October camp we decided to head west to Idaho, to train with the Sun Valley team, to enjoy the nearly fifty miles of no-motor-vehicles bike path for roller skiing and to hike in moderate altitude. This is the “big trip” for the training season. It certainly hasn’t been a disappointment.

The team on the way to Griffin Butte in Ketchum, Idaho

The weather started to turn cold three or four days ago and we awoke yesterday to snow. We gave it a day to dry out and then with quickly “hairied” borrowed gear headed north to Prairie Creek. It was darn good! We skied for two hours through the woods breaking our own trail.

Striding out on the Boulder Mtn Trails on October 5th

 All along our path our tracks joined those of a wolf. Great Galloping God, they were big! Once people start to stride out youth and age separate pretty quickly so I usually find myself putting along at the end of the train…the very end by quite a distance. Thinking about how the packs are reputed to zero in on the old and the weak had me shaking in my boots…old, weak, and fat to boot. Tasty. On the receiving end of the old wolf joke; “I don’t have to outrun the wolf. I only have to outrun you!” And everyone had.

I made it though. I skied like Miehto trying to catch Wassberg for about a hundred meters when I heard a stick break in the woods, and Oskar started barking.

Good fun, good camp. Big Thanks to the Sun Valley Team and Rick Kapala.

Burkies and guests are gathered in the Adirondacks for the August Nordic Team Camp. The weather is beautiful but really hot and really humid. Water.  Drink a lot of water.  Swim. Stay in the shower. Save the hard work for early and late.

Some of the crew on the "Governor Aiken" crossing Lake Champlain on the way to New York and the Adirondacks. Nice Day!

The core team is made up of three returning junior boys, two new PG’s and two new girls bringing us to the same size as last year and looking at a core that will be with us for at least two more years…a good thing. Three guests have joined us and alums and friends are showing up for different workouts and to help welcome the newcomers. We opened with a “trials day”; a day of not so much testing but of assessment. The purpose is to let both atheltes and coaches know where we are and what kind of strength specific work would be most beneficial before the snow flies. We look for weak links in the chain and try to design ways to bring them into line. Events took the shape of a standing broad jump, pull ups, bar dips, deep push ups (hands and feet on rails, allowing the body to go below hand level), rail hops and the “brutal bench”, a hanging curl up. We began with a 3000 meter run…which wasn’t 3000 ( top time 9:16!) so that part we had to throw out, but the heart rate info was good and will help us later on.

Patrick Joslin, a new BMA PG, has at the "Brutal Benken".

Evan Martell works the Deep Push Up

Our "Long Man", Jordan Buetow from Fairbanks, sizes up the Deep Push Up as Burke Coach Matt Johnson does the numbers.

Trials day finished, tonight we looked at some excellent video clips  to give us mental images for tomorrow’s double pole work and introduced thoughts about a focus for the rest of dry land and for the on-snow time to come. We want to concentrate on some basics; balance, weight shift, efficient movement…a lot of no pole work. It can be as helpful for the vets as for our new convert from Alpine. Speaking of converts from Alpine it looks as though an earlier BMA convert, Liz Stephen, is headed for Vancouver in February! Well done! That’s what these camps are all about…finding out if you want to get there.

Time to call it a day. More tomorrow. All the best!

We have been home for almost a month now. Everyone has slipped back into the stateside routines and hopefully is continuing with a happy training regimen. The final part of the trip, the journey from Solleftea to Sognefjell, and our brilliantly sunny week in Norway’s mountains was in part overshadowed  by the tragedy in Maine, but there are things to tell, and I finally think I can sort it out well enough to share it.

The camp in Solleftea wrapped up with a disco night with “trade off” music…two Swedish songs, one North Am and occasionally everyone liked the same one. The head DJ was Robin Bryntesson and he said it was a great success because the Yanks got into it and got the dancing going. Trip vets Lucy Garrec, Mitch Prevot, the “Nates” …Niles and Fuller, and Kelsey Nichols all knew the ropes and the steps and things went on into the wee hours. Where was I? Hiding. I’m old. I hate people and dancing.

Sprint intervals the next morning were a little sleepy, but good. As usual we finished our trip with a BBQ at Bengt Stattin’s home…long game of “Kubb” and the night up at the hunting cabin in the woods. The wake up…I love this about sleeping over there…was a cuckoo…a real one. We drove to Ostersund early in the morning, had lunch and pulled in to Erik Nilsson’s cabin in Bruksvallarna in easy time for dinner. We ran into Erik’s neighbor, Anders Sodergren, while he was walking his dogs, Alfons and Nils. He was beginning the active part of getting back on the horse after back surgery and was starting to train seriously but cautiously. He was interested in who we were and what we were doing and invited the gang to join him on a mountain run the next day. His Level One carries him through the bogs and rocks at a pretty good clip but several of our gang hung in for the whole 2.5 hours. Dogs and kids returned with tongues hanging out.                                                                                                 

The Gang with Anders Sodergren and Alfons and Nils at Erik's cabin

We got an early start the next day and made the drive to Sognefjell in easy time. No issues with Norway’s finest and the ridiculously low speed limits…and that is ME talking! Me! the object once of a ” Hey! Grandma! Hike up your skirt and DRIVE!” from the backseat of a Sun Valley van. The limits are so low that one is tempted to think they are kidding but Matt Whitcombs Visa…payment on the spot please!…has probably still not recovered from his 8 k’s over the limit five years ago!

It was a beautiful afternoon when we arrived at the Sognfjell Hytte. The trails were full of skiers, and the sunshine had the fun meter on high. Our Swedish guest coach, Johanna Ojala, and athletes Micke Ojala, and Martin Liljemark arrived shortly after we did and we settled into our rooms and headed to dinner. The food at Sognefjell is superb and there is a lot of it, four times a day! Things were looking good for a great training week.

Drink Belt Row, Sognefjell, Norway. June '09

Mitch Prevot from Burke about to log a good time in the Hallsta Test in Solleftea, Sweden.

The Hallsta Test is a time trial up a long two km of road that starts near the base of the ski area here and ends midway up one of the steeper pitches. It is a long standing tradition at the Ski Gymnasium, and many World Cup and National Team athletes from Sweden have times in the book. Fifteen second interval starts send the athletes running and ski-walking for personal best times. The staff of the ski gymnasium uses it as a measure of engine capacity. It is tough. A Swedish team skier called home from the Olympics in Calgary to talk to coach Bengt Stattin, and said “Bengt, the courses here are really, really hard!” ” Are they harder than the Hallsta test?,” was the reply. A thoughtful silence followed and then the athlete said, ” No. They are not. Thank you. I’ll remember that.”

The men’s record is in the 7 minute range and women’s in the nines. Those were Olympians. Our kids all had strong performances led by Jack Hegman, with a 9:53, and Mitch Prevot in 10:01. Winning today was the Vancouver World Cup sprint relay gold medalist Robin Bryntesson with a 9:18. Hannah Boyer was our first girl at 11:11. Our two youngest were the two fastest today. Working as a team  blind skier Zebastian Modin and his guide Albin Ackerot, an alum of the Summer Ski School and now in the Sport science program at the University in Ostersund, finished in a respectable 12:10.

We’ll follow up on the Classic Ski, Raft trip, and today’s 3 hour bog run in the next post.

Solleftea Coaches Tony Gustafsson and Bengt Stattin timing the Hallsta test.

Best, Pete Phillips

Pictures By Erik Nilsson

Good Morning,

0500 here in Solleftea.  A little misty.I am looking out over a field of dandelions gone to seed occasionally launching little clouds of tiny parachutes into the breeze. Hanging birch, lupen, and a heavy bodied work horse taking his ease or whatever it is horses do when they simply stand and let things happen. He has been there for awhile now.

The camp officially starts today. Short meeting, move in, lunch and then an afternoon of hill bounding, orienteering and circuit strength. Athlete-coaches on hand are Tio Soderhielm, Charlotte Kalla, Emil Jonsson, Robin Bryntesson, and Britta Nordgren. All the real McGoo! Great skiers and having watched them work with kids for the last few years, great people and great coaches. Old guard coaches include Bengt Stattin, Tony Gustafgsson, PO Andersson, Tobias Laangberg, and Kaare Korpela. Erik Nilsson is working directly with the BMA gang this year and will be with us for both the Swedish and Norwegian legs of the trip.

 Yesterday we opted to stay close to town. Minimum driving and it was nice. The kids visited the park on the river and watched their Swedish counterparts graduate from highschool…fun celebration, very traditional…white peaked caps, lots of song, open-bed trucks, the beds bordered by freshly cut birch boughs and blue and yellow Swedish flags and ballons, were signed with various school class logos and not a few had tables set up in the middle complete with champagne and food. At the finish of the formal ceremony a wide blue and yellow ribbon bounding the area where the students stand to receive their diplomas is cut by the headmaster “releasing” the kids to their parents and the world. Trucks fill up, corks pop, and the parade begins. Some of the singing would seem to indicate corks had been popped some time before. The general mood is one that would send most North American school people and the more conservative of us tsk-tsking with disapproval or fleeing in search of another place to lay down stern law, prosper and dominate our fellows and our world.

Later in the day we went up to Hallstaberget to try out the roller ski loops and to get a little exercise. All good…still a little cobbling things together as one or two were still missing gear. “How big are your feet? you can use my skate poles, the wheel just fell off!” etc. The roller ski track in Solleftea is arguably one of the best I’ve ever seen for instruction and technique training; many transitions and opportunities to short-loop back around to keep working on a hill for intervals or on a drop-in and climb for tempo changes.

For dinner we went to a forested park on the island, Hagestaon, in the middle of the river. We walk across the bridge nobody jumps off and set up a fire pit, grill chicken and sausage, have salad out of a bucket, Mitch eats two full baguettes of fresh bread before anyone catches him; ” I only ate four ends!” How many ends do two loaves of bread have? Conversation runs the gammut from serious to absurd…college stories, different schools across New England and bits of news from Alaska. Old man lies. We decide the gang in the shelter across the river for whom the caps have been twisted and thrown away are the “poor-me’s” from the party we hear sub-woofing somewhere downstream. “Even the cat won’t stay with them,” observes Lucy. “Look at him…he’s stalking off in disgust!”

Ten o’clock rolls around and we clean up around the fire and head back for our bunks. The easy day has been a good idea. Later, all of our gang long asleep,  the music dies down and this wonderful stillness settles in with the pale light of northern June midnight. Down in the river valley two geese are black specks over the lemony colored water and make a long curving flight toward the north. A big horse plods into the meadow next to our hotel.

I’ll try to keep the week on record here. It gets busy…wet too I have a feeling. That’s ok. As Bengt says “We aren’t made of sugar or paper. We won’t melt.” Let’s get it out of the way before we head to Sognefjell and the snow.

all the best for a great summer

Pete Phillips

Burke Mountain Academy’s “Green Mountain Run”;

A Tradition Adjusts, Changes and Continues.

Yanked from sleep by a thundering on the stairs above my apartment in Witherell Dorm I land on misshapen old-man feet and sore ankles and scratch my head, staring stupidly about the room. Oskar comes out of his box and does one of those wonderful dog stretches that must feel really good…front legs out straight, head down between them with the jaws in a huge yawn and the butt up in the air, hindlegs almost on tip-toe. It is a little after 5 AM. There is a brief hammering on my door and an Alpine coach charges in; “Pete, where is the back seat of the Mini-van?” Burke Mountain Academy’s Green Mountain Run, the “GMR”, is about to begin.

It is the end of my third year as Head Nordic Coach at Burke, and in many ways I still count myself a new kid…(about the only thing new about me). The particulars of the tradition are not written down but “GMR” T-shirts in the pre-run lunch parade went back to the late seventies, so it has been part of Burke for a long time.

The gist of it is that as a year end wrap-up and a time to work together at a long and fun physical adventure BMA students run the North-South, or more exactly the South-North length of the State of Vermont on State Route 100. From the start at the Massachusetts’ line to the Canadian border at North Troy, the route winds along the spine of the Green Mountains. It takes just about twenty-four hours. Athletes run 4-5 mile legs in relay fashion and the crowd grows as parents, alumni, and vans bringing fresh runners join into the convoy. Along the way athletes who have finished their runs, hop out and run in support of those who are completing their segments. Times are kept and everyone is trying for a new fastest leg for “Jamaica Dipsy Doodle”, “Terrible Mountain”, “Killington Pass”, “Mt. Norris Descent” and the final “Run to Canada”. The run continues through the night gliding along, sometimes not quietly enough, past darkened farms and villages, along rain-slick roads through miles of fields and woods. At sunrise the run is in the vicinity of Waterbury and all nine vans are in the convoy, some pulling in to join again after a mandatory rest stop. The crowd thins at night, but no one ever runs alone. Around ten in the morning all the vans except the Mini, the pace van, pull ahead of the final runner and meet in North Troy where the athletes and ‘roadies’ ….parents, alumni and friends…form an arch of arms. The “Run to Canada” runner charges through the arch and it folds in upon itself and the whole school joins in to complete the “GMR”.

Athletes pick the run they want to do, with seniors given first pick and so on through the classes. People are divided up among vans and schedules are set. Van One leaves the Burke Campus in the Northeast Kingdom with the first five runners and two drivers at 6:00 to make the 10 o’clock start time, Van Two follows at 7:00 and so on through the day. This year I am driving Van Six and we leave at 7:30 PM to join the run around Stockbridge.

It is raining this morning and coming down pretty hard right now. That’s too bad. It doesn’t faze the runners but part of the tradition is that every van team picks a theme and mixes poster-paint with dish soap (so it washes off easily) and decorates the van. So far this morning the first Van took off in a livery of black and white checks and “Check Out our Vans” as the slogan…it even had wedge-shaped panels to imitate the popular “Vans” shoe. The second went out with a very good reproduction of “Starry Night” and “VAN GO (sic…of course)” painted on it and Don McLean’s song drifting into the morning. The rain is sad because it doesn’t take long until road-speed, soap and paint leave the vans looking like a senior girl with a little too much make-up and way too many sentimental Prom tears. No Matter. The Run runs.

Over the years traditions grow. Change comes hard and among the hardest people to convince that change is necessary are the youngest. Tradition is the stuff of stories. It is the connection to a past they have heard about, and of which they want to be part. Things around us change though and this year we have had to make some adjustments. Traffic is building on Route 100. It used to be on a sunny afternoon that 30 runners may have been supporting the athlete going for the run record on a given stretch. Even in the dark of night we have had as many as ten or twelve pushing the pace, trying to beat last year’s time. There is always a pace van with flashing lights and “Runner’s Ahead” moving with the runners. Reflective vests have been added and this year, sadly, we decided to limit the number of support runners. It is simply a matter of safety, and it is the right decision. Of course we can’t get in the way of family members wanting to jog along, or alumni that appear out of the blue to take part again in a favorite run, but we are trimming our own numbers to keep the show safely on the road.

Another change has been added that kids are swallowing a little more easily, because of why they are here and what their goals are. BMA is a ski academy. Athletes come to improve at Alpine and Nordic skiing, and to continue to develop academically at a level that makes them more than competitive for admissions to the college of their choice. In the past kids have hopped out of a van whenever they had caught their breath to run with a friend; coaches have determined to run a little with every one their own athletes; by the end of the run not a few have chalked up 30, 40 or even more miles. The kids are fit, but for what we need to do next, for the demands of summer training that is planned to be a progression into the work of the next season, 40 miles of pavement isn’t a good idea. Caught up in the enthusiasm and camaraderie of the event a Nordic athlete last year left himself unable to effectively train for much too big a part of the summer. A lesson. The Nordic training year, the building up for next season began in mid-May. The summer months have some of the most hours of the year and are among the most important for the returning athletes, the ones who have chosen to chase skiing as the main sport. It is a shame to let an over-use injury put one on the sideline. The Alpine teams will be on snow in two weeks, and several of the Nordics will be in a training camp both on and off snow in Sweden and Norway for the last three weeks of June. We have limited total running to 12 miles per athlete to keep wear and tear down and bodies ready to charge into the summer. BMA athletes have big projects ahead of them and because of that a tradition changes shape a little. But it is still a BMA tradition and I am guessing from the care and creativity of the van-painting, and the happy sounds of the stampede down the stairs this early morning that in one form or another, the Alpine and Nordic skiers of Burke are going to keep the “GMR” running along just fine!

At the first break in the rain we have to Paint Van Six and hit the road.

The Start. May 24, 10:17.