2015/16 Winter Term Season Highlights

Wow-- hard to imagine that our third season of Winter Term is in the books. Despite the fact that we received little outside assistance from Mother Nature this winter, it was an amazingly successful season for all of our 37 Winter Term athletes. Congratulations to all on your many accomplishments this season, in and out of the classroom. Hard work pays off!

Be sure and take a look at our season highlight video, hot off the press!

Looking for great photos from this season's action? Look no further than our NYSEF Snowsports flickr page... all the highlights from Copper Mountain all the way through closing weekend!

And don't forget, "next season" is already upon us. It's no secret that good ski racers are forged in the off-season. Cross-training and making activity (all kinds of sports!) a part of your daily routine will have you in the best possible shape once the snow flies. You'll be faster, healthier, and less prone to injury. Questions about what activities or workouts are best? Email or call your coach! They're here to help, all season long.

Of course, we've got a whole menu of on-snow opportunities (freeride and alpine!) lined up this summer to help log much-needed mileage. Check the NYSEF website for updates, but be in touch soon for one of the remaining slots.

Wanna train here this summer? Yeah. We do too! Join us! 

Lastly, it's the perfect time to start completing your application for next season's Winter Term! The program description and application have been finalized, with a July 15th deadline. Spots are filling fast, so be sure to be in touch!

16/17' Winter Term Program Description

16/17' Winter Term Application

That's all for now. Have a great spring, enjoy the awesome weather, and come join us up here for some mountain biking soon! 

Be in touch with any questions, 

--The Winter Term staff

It's not the size of the dog in the fight...

OK, here's a little engineering experiment for you, dear faithful Winter Term blog readers.

Supposing you had 12 wooden popsicle sticks and some hot glue. You could arrange them however you liked. How many kiligrams would your structure be able to support? Keep in mind that your little pile of materials weighs in at a measley .89 ounces. Mon dieu!

This little guy right here!

Okay, so your guess?

7kg?

15kg?

30kg?!

Get out!

Well, we went to the weight room... and piled on the plates.

And KEPT on piling on the plates! 

And there you have it... total collapse... at, you guessed it... 104.5 KILOGRAMS! That's 230 pounds! 

That's a really honkin' strength to weight ratio! So just remember when you're grousing about larger kids skiing faster in a ski race... it's not always the size of the dog in the fight... it's the size of the fight in the dog that matters!

Thanks Jordana and Randy for the awesome science project! 

Some Fun Photos from U14 States

It was a fantastic weekend for our WT U14's at NY State Champs at Bristol last weekend. Here are a few photo highlights from Sunday's GS action:

Cote... drilling it.

It was a pretty phenomenal weekend for Jaden Klebba!

Gaby's amazing pole/glove explosion... and she finished.. and rocked it!

Klebba driving it.

Hats off to Magnus for a job well done last weekend. 

Ski-cross sensation Audrey Higgins-Lopez getting some invaluable experience in the GS course. That will pay off big time at Cross Nats this year.. .we know it!

Julia Geraldi has stepped up huge this year. Congrats Julia! 

A brilliant weekend for McDonough... Mr. Consistency. AKA #theking

McDonough

Cote, sans pole/glove

The Norwegian Sensation

#progress #hardwork

Nicely done, U14's! Hats off to coaches Jimbo and Eves as well... on to Champs! 

A Really Sweet WT Off-Day!

Winter Term athletes took advantage of a rare off day (rain can't stop us, Mother Nature!) to pair up some dryland training with an awesome trip to the Cornell-Uihlein Maple Syrup Farm, just around the corner from the OTC. Mike Farrell (Husband of Winter Term Mathematics Professor Emeritus Andrea Farrell) gave us a fantastic tour of the facility, which is now in full production mode with warm temps a-plenty. 

Listen up. Maple syrup is a big deal. 

Over 72 miles of vacuum pressured tubing connect the Maple and Birch trees behind the OTC. Who knew?! That sure doesn't suck... 

Tubing galore! The main vein. 100 years ago this forest was leveled to turn maple trees into charcoal. Today it has regrown... and it produces awesome syrup!

Trees can be tapped every season. Yup! 40 gallons of sap to one gallon of syrup. Quite a ratio! 

U14 ladies try not to fall into the sap collection vats

Where air is released from the vacuum lines, and sap is filtered pre-boiling.

#Grade-A #dagoodstuff

Samples. Yeah, they're all delicious.

Noice.

The evaporator! So awesome!

#Fancy

The sap boiled over! It was wild! Thankfully no persons (or pancakes) were harmed. A really sticky situation...

Testing! This rocked. So fresh. 

The fruits of our labor...

How sweet is this? 

Thanks Mike and crew for the awesome tour, and for one of our tastiest off-days yet!

Pep Talk from Gold and Silver Medalist Bill Demong

Winter Term athletes enjoyed a spontaneous pep-talk discussion with 2010 Olympic Gold and Silver medalist Bill Demong (NYSEF and NSA alum) at the OTC this afternoon.

No stranger to setbacks, the highlight of Bill's chat was when he described a fractured skull suffered during what he thought was the "prime of his career," an injury which forced him to step back from the sport he was "addicted to" and do some serious thinking. After a season off-snow spent building homes and planning his return to the sport, Demong set some lofty goals which led FAAARR down the path... and which culminated with a record medal haul at the Games in Vancouver.

The moral of the story? 

1. Don't be afraid to fail, but don't focus too hard on the things that might make you fail, either.
2. An injury is only the end of the road if you let it be just that. 
3. Set some big goals, come up with a plan, and make it happen.

Thanks Bill! 

More Action Pix from U16 State Champs

THANKS to John and Fiona Burkard for all the awesome shots from last weekend's races!

Great shot! Lots of former and current Winter Term ladies in here...

Awesome run for Andrea!

Magnus shredding. Great opportunity for U14's to ski full-length Draper's in race mode...

Hanna on top of one

Charging. Also, note the Minerva Missile in the background....

Inez cranking to the line

Andrea in #beastmode

Capping off a great weekend!

Petro

Jumpin' Jimminy!

Winter Term ladies, dissecting a frog. Awesome!

#womeninscience #crosstraining #jumparound

Awesome weekend at U16 State Championships!

They're just something really fun about hosting State Championships at your home mountain... especially when you get to shred full-length Super G, GS and Slalom over the pitch a million times!

First, a huge THANK YOU to the hard working staff at ORDA and the NYSEF Race Crew for keeping our venue in AWSOME shape all winter, despite... well... a distinct lack of winter.

We'll let the results speak for themselves, but we're really proud of the entire crew on a job well done this weekend. #hardworkpaysoff

Results:

Men SG

Women SG

Men GS

Women GS

Men SL

Women SL

Women's SL podium

Women's GS podium

Overall Podium

Women's Super G Podium

Champs crew!

Finals crew!

Whole Eastern Champs Squad!

Neron in action

Yes! U14's! McDonough charging.

Sheffield

Geraldi

Team CX! Audrey Higgins-Lopez cranking some serious Super G!

Coombs

Reynolds en route to 2nd

Petro en route to the win

Burkard ripping!

Hats off to Matthieu Cote (NWS) on his victory in the Super G

NWS athlete Sarah Bennett had a stellar weekend! Nicely done!