It was a great weekend of racing up at Galena Lodge just north of Ketchum, ID for this year’s Christmas NRL Races hosted by SVSEF.  Each day close to 100 competitors took to Senate Meadows where the famous Boulder Mountain Tour starts in February.  We haven’t had a storm in weeks, but as it goes around here with the cold nights, the nordic tracks were still in great shape, and fairly fast.  Saturday’s event was a 3.6km skate prologue.  There were some familiar faces on the top of the results sheet and a few young studs who skied fast as well.  Mikey Sinnott (SVSEF) skied to his fourth victory of the young season clocking a time of 8:16.  Will Wicherski a Boise native now attending Williams, showed he did some training last year abroad in Norway and finished a close second in 8:22.  While Cole Morgan (SVSEF), Karsten Hokanson (Wasatch Nordic) (a J2!), and Kevin Bolger (SVSEF) rounded out the top five.

In the Women’s race Nicole DeYong (SVSEF) skied away with a big win in 9:29.  Annika Miller (Payette Lakes) took second overall and was the first junior, followed by Sloan Storey (SVSEF), Kristen Monahan (SVSEF), and Carrie Heagney (MSU) to round out the top five.

In the hotly contested first annual alumni race with lots of pushing, course cutting and heavy breathing Michael Llyod skied a clean race for top honors in the men’s, while Lexie Pragastis was the top female.

Sunday was another beautiful day and temperatures were rising fast for the mass start classic races.  While some teams found a couple layers of extra blue to be adequate, others bumped up to violet.  The tracks stayed in good shape throughout the day, and many thanks to Nate Scales and the BCRD for putting many hours into buffing out the trails for us.  The men skied two laps for a 7.5k, while the women raced a 5km loop.  Upping the purse and adding to the action, Galena Lodge sponsored two $50 preem’s which Sinnott and DeYong won respectively.  In the women’s race, DeYong again took top spot in 13:36.  This time followed by J1 Sloan Storey (SVSEF) in 2nd, Makayla Cappel (DU) in 3rd, Kristen Monahan (SVSEF) in 4th and Jessi Knori (SVSEF) in 5th.

In the men’s race there were a couple of new faces on the start line as some fast U of Utah Utes showed up, but again Sinnott took the victory in 18:59.  Will Wicherski (Williams) followed closely in 19:06  edging out Cole Morgan (SVSEF) at the line for 2nd.  Didrik Smith (Utah) and Scotty Phelan (SVSEF) rounded out the top five.

Here’s some pictures from Saturday’s races, and check the www.svsef.org site for full results to be posted soon.

Prologue Start

Eli Jensen in the gate- Top J3 in Prologue

Jessi Knori charging up Nello's Cut

Robert Parker, former Junior National Champion, bringing it home

Alumni and their ribbons

Cool frost in the morning

I was sort of hoping we’d be getting away from the internet up in this beautiful wild place, but alas, it’s here, so I’ll give an update on what SVSEF’s been up to.  The Sun Valley Post Grad and Comp teams are now on day 4 of our Haig Glacier Camp which is located near Canmore Alberta.   The SV crew hasn’t been up here in at least 5 or 6 years, so for this group, it’s been a totally new experience.    The camp sits at around 7,500′ and the each morning we make the scenic hike up to the glacier which sits at around 8,500′.  We’ve had some soft conditions and some fast hard conditions but for September skiing, it doesn’t get much better than this.  After two distance sessions and some strength, we had our first interval session today, 3-5x8min threshold.  Legs are starting to get a little heavy, but we’ll keep the pedal down till we hike out on Monday and rest at home.

For some of our Post Grads, who’ve decided to take a year off from school and live the life of a ski racer, this is our first camp together.  But after just four days, it seems like a super tight group.  This year’s PG class consists of Kelsey Dickinson (Methow Valley, WA), Cole Morgan (Bozeman, MT), Jack Steele (Whitefish, MT), Kevin Bolger, (somewhere in Wisconsin and proud of it) and Evan Martell (Burke, Vermont).

Here’s some pics from the week:

Steele, Bolger, Morgan

Stopol, Knori, Atkinson, McQueen

our accommodations

hiking up to the haig

McQueen’s wicked core routine

pThe Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s Olympic Development Team is teaming up with the US Ski Team and other elite athletes from Craftsbury/Green Team, CXC, Methow Olympic Development and the Swedish National Team for a training camp here in Sun Valley, Sept. 9th-17th. /p pIt’s been awesome having this crew here… watching these athletes push each other to excel has reminded all of us of the value of partnerships like these. /p pHere are some pics…/p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3931.jpg”img style=”border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px” title=”IMG_3931″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_3931″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3931_thumb.jpg” width=”904″ height=”605″ //a /p pPlaytime – Chris Grover (USST Head Coach), Andy Newell (USST/SMS), Mikey Sinnott (SVSEF) and Noah Hoffman (USST) take time to play with local SV Junior Skiers/p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3947.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_3947″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_3947″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3947_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p pPlaytime II – Morgan Arritola, (USST/SVSEF), Jessie Diggins (CXC) and Matt Gelso (SVSEF) doing some heavy lifting./p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3994.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_3994″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_3994″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3994_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p pNewell in the dogpile./p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3837.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_3837″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_3837″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3837_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p pUSST Coach Bryan Fish and SVSEF XC Program Director Rick Kapala – Wheelbarrow Dream Team./p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/Rodgers.jpg”img style=”border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px” title=”Rodgers” border=”0″ alt=”Rodgers” src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/Rodgers_thumb.jpg” width=”904″ height=”598″ //a /p pGametime: Newell, Rodgers, Hoffman, Sinnott, Reynolds/p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3346.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_3346″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_3346″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3346_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p p/p pstrongDistance Double Pole/strong – front to back: Simi Hamilton (USST/SVSEF), Colin Rodgers (SVSEF), Mikey Sinnott (SVSEF), Torin Koos (MOD), Tad Elliott (CXC) (Sam Naney (MOD) and Naoh Hoffman (USST) to the right. Andy Newell (USST/SMS) is in there too somewhere).#160; /p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3383.jpg”img style=”border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px” title=”IMG_3383″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_3383″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3383_thumb.jpg” width=”904″ height=”607″ //a#160; /p p/p p/p pstrongDouble Pole Intervals/strong – front to back: Katie Bono (SVSEF), Lisa Larsen (Swedish National Team), Ida Sargent (Craftsbury Green Team/Datrmouth), Nicole DeYong (SVSEF), Liz Stephens (those white boots… USST)/p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4196.jpg”img style=”border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px” title=”IMG_4196″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_4196″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4196_thumb.jpg” width=”904″ height=”607″ //a /p p/p pstrongClassic Speed/strong – Newell, Hamilton, Rodgers… CMal on the vidcam./p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4323.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_4323″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_4323″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4323_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p pstrongSkate Prologue/strong – Morgan Arritola (USST/SVSEF)/p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4401.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_4401″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_4401″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4401_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p p/p p/p p/p p/p pClassic 10 km TT – Rodgers, Koos./p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4375.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_4375″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_4375″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4375_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p pClassic 10 km TT – Time Reynolds (Craftsbury Green Team)/p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4384.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_4384″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_4384″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4384_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p pClassic 10 km TT – Ida Sargent, (Green Team / Datmouth) – very impressive camp…/p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/USSTStaff.jpg”img style=”border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px” title=”USST Staff” border=”0″ alt=”USST Staff” src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/USSTStaff_thumb.jpg” width=”904″ height=”607″ //a#160;/p pUSST Staff: Bryan Fish looking good in his new coat, Matt Whitcomb, Chris Grover./p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3353.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_3353″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_3353″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_3353_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p pPete Vordenberg paying attention to the details./p p#160;/p pa href=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4285.jpg”img style=”border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px” title=”IMG_4285″ border=”0″ alt=”IMG_4285″ src=”http://blogs.fasterskier.com/svsef/files/2010/09/IMG_4285_thumb.jpg” width=”516″ height=”772″ //a /p pSVSEF Coach Chris Mallory, brought to you today by the color Orange./p

Some of the guys on the team created this video.  Its hilarious, check it out.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt0DGQ7f0Gs

The first annual Sun Valley Nordic Festival is happening this week.  Its been a big success, and will be on again next year for sure, so mark your calenders.  It kicked off with Ski the Rails last weekend, where several hundred skiers took to the BCRD groomed bike path.  This week theres already been  a skate sprint and snowshoe race at Sun Valley Nordic Center;  John Morton spoke at the library, telling some great Olympic stories;  and this evening there was a free outdoor concert with some fun night sprints in front of a huge crowd.  Saturday the Boulder Mountain Tour is happening, and this year theres already 1000 entries!  If you’re into Nordic skiing, this is the place to be this week.  This is the website for future reference  www.svnordicfestival.com

As for the SVSEF racing scene we’ve got Sun Valley Juniors headed to Boise next weekend for the final Intermountain Junior National Qualifier and SV ODT athletes Morgan Arritola, Nicole DeYong, Simi Hamilton, and Mikey Sinnott are racing up in Canmore at the World Cup this weekend.  Then Simi and Morgan are headed to the big show!