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Another Brandon Gap Time Trial in the books. Click the link below for photos.

10/19/08 10/25/09

Simi Hamilton 32:21 -
Noah Brautigam 32:40 33:55
Mike Mommsen 32:52 32:40
Taylor Sundali 33:19 34:47
Patrick Johnson 33:26 33:14
Tom Stark 33:35 -
Chase Marston 34:42 34:18
Cam MacKugler 35:03 -
Dane Johnson 35:18 -
Graham Egan 37:07 34:05
Martin Breu 37:10 35:49
Anders Meyer 38:23 -
Doug DeBold 38:45 32:54
Jimmy Levins - 36:33

Robyn Anderson 40:52 -
Mali Noyes 41:13 -
Sophie McClelland 42:05 -
Cassidy Edwards 42:31 -
Kate Barton 44:00 -
Dana Tower 46:14 47:01
Lauren Fritz - 42:26
Hilary Rich - 44:03
Keely Levins - 45:30

Flickr Photos: Brandon Gap

Doug Debold with a breakthrough ski.

Keely Levins getting it done.

click to enlarge Patty J in Placid. (Pete V. photo)

So we've been rolling as a team for a while now. We're starting to gel. Here's what I know: everyone came back fitter than I've seen since starting to coach at Middlebury. People followed the plan. Across the board we've seen strength gains. (If bench press translates to better skiing, we'll crush people this year. Bench press challenge any team? I'd take my guys against anyone in a pounds to bench press pounds competition. We're getting huge. Ok not huge. We're getting really medium.


Patty J. enjoyed some training with the US guys over in Placid not long ago. He had this to say:

This fall I was invited to train with the US Ski Team at their October camp at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. Over a 12 day period I was able to spend eight days training with the national team at their final dry land camp before the season started. This provided an exciting opportunity to workout with skiers who will be fighting for medals this winter in Vancouver. Training with these guys really creates the motivation that allows me to continue to push my limits even after the camp is over. As well, it was a great opportunity to pick up training and technique tips that I could bring back to the Middlebury team and implement into our training plans.



We've shot a ton of video this year. The crew has had a chance to see themselves in classic, skate, speed work & bounding. A few uphill tts and some time trials and we're after it.

Double TT this weekend against UVM.

Former ski team member selling skis:

Atomic RS-11
190cm. Q1.3 grind. 160-180lbs.
Used exclusively as race skis for 3 seasons. New grind for last winter. Immaculate bases that have seen a good amount of race wax.
$225

Atomic World Cup Classic
206cm. LJ02 grind. 160-180lbs.
Used exclusively as race skis for 2 seasons. New grind last winter. No scratches on bases, cleaned of kick wax, travel waxed.
$250

Atomic World Cup Multi
206cm. L25 grind. 170-190lbs.
Race skis only for two seasons. These are a specialized ski so they’ve hardly been used. The bases are scratch free and well-waxed.
$250

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What is 350.org?

350 is the most important number in the world—it’s what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Two years ago, after leading climatologists observed rapid ice melt in the Arctic and other frightening signs of climate change, they issued a series of studies showing that the planet faced both human and natural disaster if atmospheric concentrations of CO2 remained above 350 parts per million.

Host an event. Click the link below.


How will it make a difference?


October 24 will put the focus where it needs to be: on the science and the citizens, not the special interests and the backroom deals.

On that day, people will send in thousands of images of citizens gathering at important places around the world—from the melting glaciers of Mt. Everest to the sinking beaches of the Maldives—displaying the number 350 in a creative way. 350.org will be getting those pictures and putting them on the big screens in Times Square and projecting them at the UN headquarters. We’ll also be getting them into newspapers large and small on October 25th—the same newspapers that politicians all over the world use as a barometer of public opinion.

But more importantly, we’ll be able to use them in the weeks before the huge UN Climate meeting in Copenhagen to remind our leaders that they need to take physical reality—and not political expediency—into account when they’re making decisions about our collective future. 350 is a clear and specific goal (unlike vague demands to “stop global warming�) that helps move the negotiations in the direction science and justice demand.

We’ll also deliver copies of the images—and the stories that go with them—to national delegates and heads of state the world over. We’ll make sure your voice is heard and this debate is re-framed in time to make a difference.

October 24th, 2009

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“Ok team, what have we all learned from today?”

Lessons of Orienteering

1) Don’t grab the fences, they’re probably electric.
2) If Doug can jump the stream, you can’t.
3) We should all take a lesson from Taylor, and take more leaps of faith without considering the outcome…or the landing…beforehand.
4) Chase and Noah have opposite magnetic charges—they will end up together even when they start minutes apart.
5) Maps don’t lie, but sometimes the guy who sets the course does.
6) Myra Handy is a saint, and her cookie bars will give any wet, cold orienteer immediate satisfaction and blood clots.

Sitting in the back of a van with the Adirondacks in the windshield, bright sun making the computer screen unreadable, and trashtalk getting tossed around in the front is a good place to be. Three days into October camp and this team is most definitely a TEAM. Everyone was a little unsure when Andrew told us we would be doing an orienteering race on Saturday, but despite all dire predictions and warnings, they supplied compasses at the start, and team coherency shot way up as a result. Thanks to Shelburne Farms for the event. App Gap classic intervals were yesterday, with Mommsen taking no prisoners up the final pitches of the climb. Besides the awesome workouts, we’ve all been spending a lot of time together, mostly watching really (good) movies and throwing epic soda parties. Adirondacks and Chateau McClelland burgers and sauna tonight. Hell yea. Time to go join the trashtalk.

Links and Resources

Head Nordic Coach

Andrew Gardner

Gardner enters his fourth season at the helm of the men's and women's nordic ski teams. He came to Middlebury from Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS) in Carbondale, Colo where he was Nordic Program Director. Since coming to New England, he acted as the wax tech for the 2008 Junior National Team, a coach at regional development camps and serves on the U23 NENSA board. Gardner is the coordinator for sustainability in athletics, serving on the college's environmental council. In the summer he enjoys road racing for the MetLife cycling team.

agardner@middlebury.edu

o: 802.443.5963

Assistant Nordic Coach

Patty Ross

Now entering her 23rd year as a full-time coach of Middlebury nordic skiing, Patty came to the College after four years of world-class competition. She was one of five American women nordic skiers to compete in the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984; she also competed internationally with the U.S. national team from 1983 to 1986. Patty graduated from the University of New Hampshire, where she was an All-East collegiate skier and captain of the Wildcat team. While at UNH, Patty competed in the World University Games in Sofia, Bulgaria. As a coach for the International Special Olympic Games, Patty received a Distinguished Service Award in 1984. She acted as a coach for the U23/ World Junior Championships in Italy in 2008.

o: 802.443.5006

Team Archives