This weekend's UVM Winter Carnival 2009 brought fast skis and fit racers to the courses at Stowe Mountain Resort and the Trapp Family Lodge. We caught some of the action at the Men's 10K Freestyle cross-country race on Saturday at Trapp's.
It was the inaugural event on Trapp's newly designed race course. It starts in the field right outside the cross-country center and proceeds down the practice slope, then sharply left and over to a long hill near Deer Pond. From there, the course switchbacks up the hill among the maple trees near the sugarhouse—popping out a couple of times at the edge of the practice hill so that spectators can catch a lot of action in one spot. It was very exciting to watch because the race was an interval start and there was never a dull moment.
Dartmouth skier Nils Koons, number 44 in the photos, came in first with a time of 26:05.1 while second place went to Sylvan Ellefson of Bates. Glenn Randall of Middlebury came in third. The top UVM finisher, Cole Talbot, crossed the finish in 16th position.
There were a lot of skiers taking part today because the race was also a USSA Super Tour race.
Earlier in the day, University of Vermont nordic skier Caitlin Patterson won the Women's 5K Freestyle race on the same course. Unfortunately the Skimeister and I hadn't finished our ski tour early enough to see that race. On Sunday, Patterson would also win the 10K classic race. Impressive!
On Sunday afternoon, EISA reported these team results for the UVM winter carnival.
1. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE /DAR/ 919.0
2. UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT /UVM/ 798.5
3. UNIV OF NEW HAMPSHIRE /UNH/ 735.5
4. MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE /MID/ 717.5
5. WILLIAMS COLLEGE /WIL/ 647.0
6. COLBY COLLEGE /CBC/ 596.0
7. BATES COLLEGE /BAT/ 586.0
8. ST LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY /SLU/ 515.5
9. ST MICHAELS COLLEGE /SMC/ 322.0
10. HARVARD UNIVERSITY /HAR/ 203.0
11. BOWDOIN COLLEGE /BOW/ 160.0
Find all the alpine and nordic <link http: www.eisaskiing.org bart results09 uvm09.htm external-link-new-window>ski racing results here.
Here's some video of the men's cross-country ski race. Check out how these guys step turn around the fast corners. Wow.
[youtube pVO7I4g7MGc]
