Another day, another snowstorm….  Mother Nature dropped another 12 inches on the Trapp Family Lodge trails today, much of it falling during the race.  The course stayed reasonably firm which made for a great day.  First years Caitlin Patterson and Alex Howe lead the way for the Cats today finishing 4th and 5th respectively in strong fields.  Caitlin picked up where she left off last weekend at the Bolton opener skiing a strong race right from the gun.  Her finish today was especially impressive as she took a detour into a ditch when she tried to take a turn a little too tight.  Jennie and Kat also skied into the top 10 with Mary and Johanna not far behind.  Franz, Eric, and Chris also skied well showing some toughness on a day when everyone was feeling a little flat after finals.  Rest and travel is the first order of business for the next couple of days.  Everyone is headed in different directions for the next couple of weeks.  Fritz is headed home with Franz to Germany, Mae is headed to Wyoming next week to spend sometime with Ellery, and everyone else is headed home for some easy distance and intervals.  Cole, Caitlin, Alex, and Jennie and I will be in Anchorage for Nationals and almost everyone else will be getting together in January for a short camp before school starts.

You can find a lot of good pictures at flyingpointroad.com and results from today’s race at nensa.net.

It’s been a long week for all the athletes with many finishing up their last final yesterday but the Eastern Cup openers are at Trapp’s this weekend so it’s tough to pass up the quality racing opportunity.  The snow was a little thin early in the week so I joined a few people to help the crew up at Trapp’s shovel snow on Friday knowing that the more work we did, the harder it would snow Friday night.  Mother nature came through and dropped a foot of fresh snow on the trails and Bill Henchey and company had a good sprint course buffed out for us this morning.  It was only a kilometer but finished with a long gradual hill that put everyone in difficulty.  Jennie proved to be the strongest of the women on the hill and cruised through the heats to the A final.  In the A final she started the hill in 5th but over-powered Dartmouth’s Sophie Caldwell and Ida Sargent on the final hill and powered away for the win.  Caitlin, Johanna, and Mary all skied well and qualified for the heats with Caitlin skiing through to the B final and a 10th place finish.  For Mary I think it was probably her highest finish in an Eastern Cup and for Johanna it was a good start in her first Eastern Cup.  Laura just missed qualifying for the heats by a few seconds.

Jennie cruising in one of her heats. (photo credit flyingpointroad.com)

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