Austria 2.0

It's always exciting to get back on skis, but it's especially exciting when that happens in September! At the beginning of the month, my team and I headed to Austria for our second annual camp in Ramsau. Our main objective was to get in as much on-snow time as possible. Unfortunately, when we first arrived, there wasn't any skiing to be had on the Dachstein glacier. However, after a few days of low temps and considerable precipitation, we were good to go. Our race season begins fairly early and it's quite beneficial to have the opportunity to work on transitioning technique changes from rollerskis to real skis before diving into our first race.

Some scenic rollerskiing while waiting for snow
(photo: Nick Brown)

Looking up at the Dachstein Mountains from the tram base.
The top of the tram is on the tallest peak at the far right.

Riding up to the glacier!

Liz and Caitlin enjoying the ride on top of the tram

Views in all directions!

Looking down onto the Dachstein glacier and the 3k of
switchbacking ski trails. Each switchback ended with a
sharp 180 degree turn which was good practice for
cornering espcially on the icy days. We had to ski on a
different section of the glacier this year as the part we
were on last year was full of crevasses.

Skiing in September!!! (photo: Caitlin)

Team picture on the glacier (photo: Caitlin)

On a few mornings it was quite foggy in the valley, but
on the glacier we were skiing above the clouds!

Short adventure ski to the
Seethaler hut above the glacier

Our guesthouse which doubled as a small farm

Having pigs in the backyard made us feel right at home!

The youngest members of the herd

Burger night on the patio
(photo: Caitlin)

First clear evening in Ramsau

View from our backyard. I actually painted
this last year... I brought my watercolors to this camp,
but unfortunately didn't get around to painting.

Midway through the camp we had a day off and visited
the exceedingly quaint town of Hallstatt

The village was nestled in the mountains on a beautiful lake

Lunch in Hallstatt

There were colorful flower boxes on almost every dwelling!

Some roadside flowers in
Ramsau Kulm

We had good skiing for about a week, but a rise in temperature caused most of the snow to melt off the glacier leaving only ice and dirt. Fortunately, the dryland training options in and around Ramsau are fantastic so we kept quite busy with long run/hikes in the mountains and quality rollerski workouts on the track and local roads.

Liz and Casey hiking up
to the Silberkar hut

Looking back towards the Silberkar lake

Mike enjoying the view

The summit of Mount Sinabell

The Guttenberghaus

Monkshood (Aconitum)

Chiltern Gentian (Gentianella germanica)

Looking down on the valley towards Ramsau

Back below the tree line

The forests here are really
beautiful with lots of thick
moss and lichen, and very
tall pines

Finishing up the hike along a farm track in the valley

One of our more memorable rollerski workouts was a 3,000ft climb (1,600ft of which we double poled) from the bottom of a nearby valley to the base of the Dachstein tram.

Liz and me at the top 
(photo: Pepa)

Skate speeds on the rollerski track
in Ramsau (photo: Nick Brown). The
track featured some sharp s-turns that
were quite scary at first glance (especially
since the nearby trees were plastered in
padding), but were actually quite fun
as the turns were so well banked. 

Casey, Liz, and Mike after the climb up to the ridge
during our final OD of the camp

The valley behind the ridge was dotted with Moss
Campion (Silene acaulis), which is a low-lying
herbaceous perennial found in alpine and arctic
tundra throughout the northern hemisphere.

One of the few Moss Campion plants that still had flowers.
These plants are early colonists and take over disturbed areas
in the environment such as glacial moraines
(Billings and Mooney, 1968). Due to its long life span and
 cushion growth form, there's been an interest in using
this plant for dating substrates and past disturbances
(Benedict, 1989; McCarthy, 1992). My seeming
obsession with this plant stems from the fact that I
researched it while studying in the Norwegian Arctic.
Our study investigated the demographics and patterns
of colonization in two populations and linked the findings
with environmental characteristics and past climatic events.

Thick valley fog

Descending back into the cloud layer

That's all for now. We're back in Craftsbury for a few more weeks before heading off to Park City. I'll leave you with a video (curtsey of Pepa) of our most pleasant day on the glacier. Thanks for reading!

Benedit, J.B. 1989. Use of Silene acaulis for dating: the relationship of cushion diameter to age. Arctic and Alpine Research 21: 91-96.

Billings, W.D.; Mooney, H.D. 1968. The Ecology of arctic and alpine plants. Biol. Rev. 43: 481-529.

McCarthy, D.P. 1992. Dating with cushion plants: Establishment of a Silene acaulis growth curve in the Canadian Rockies. Arctic and Alpine research 24: 50-55.

Trying New Things

Living at the Outdoor Center has provided me not only with the opportunity to train full-time for skiing, but also the opportunity to try new sports I might not have otherwise been exposed to. This summer, I've enjoyed rowing, mountain biking, and shooting. In August, some of us non-biathletes put our basic shooting skills to good use and competed in the US Biathlon Trials, which was quite a fun experience. I did the sprint, which is a 7.5k race with two shootings - one prone and one standing. I went into the race with the mindset that any target I hit was a bonus and one less penalty loop for me to ski. I ended up hitting two targets and was quite pleased.

Emily, Caitlin, Heather, and me after a workout at 

the range in Jericho 

(photo @greenracingproject Instagram)

Racing at trials
(photo: Paul Bierman)

While I have rowed and mountain biked on occasion prior to this year, I decided to do more of both this summer in an attempt to improve my mediocre skills. I would say my mountain biking has now gotten to the point that when I head out onto the Center's singletrack trails, I spend more time actually biking than walking my bike. Twice this summer we've done OD (over-distance) workouts where we rollerski to East Burke and then bike on the Kingdom Trails which has been a fun way to mix up some long workouts. I can't say my rowing has improved all that much, but it's always helpful to have the GRP rowers around to give technique advice.

Rowing on Hosmer - I need to work on sitting 

up straiter... 

Here are some more photos of summer training and various other activities.

Providing the chickens and geese with entertainment 

in the form of grass skiing speeds in Elinors Field

(photo: Caitlin)

We finished up our most recent testing week with the 

Race to the Top of VT. Here are some of the GRP 

ladies at the summit with SMS-T2 

skiers Erika and Annie.

At the end of July, we hosted a BKL camp.  Here is one 

of the adventure race teams running down

Ruthies in their PFDs.

Each team of campers had to close five targets
as part of the race, in addition to a variety of other
adventursome activities.

Picking (and eating) lots of blueberries at Brown's

(photo @greenracingproject Instagram)

Our skeletal tomato plants after

considerable leaf-removal in an 

effort to combat the dreaded blight

Despite the blight, we've harvested

many tasty tomatoes

Braiding garlic before hanging it to dry

Some colorful mushrooms we came across on the 

singletrack trails during one of the Center's 

wildflower walks. I'm not much of a mycologist 

so I'm not exactly sure what they are...

Yesterday we arrived in Ramsau, Austria for an on-snow camp on the Dachstein Glacier. It has rained a considerable amount in the valley today, which means it's likely to be snowing on the glacier. Hopefully we'll be able to ski in the morning!