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Hollywood stuntman Justice Hedenberg flips out, tricking for a photo shoot. Learn more about this Hinesburg native who combines freerunning, martial arts and gymnastics in our story "The New Ninja Warriors," on page 18. Photo by Eric Banash
5 The Start
12 Gear
24
Vermonters are versatile. And becoming more so as our climate changes.
Our annual guide to the best gifts to give and get from the Green Mountains (sponsored content.)
Riding across Central America, the Mundo Pequeño trio face torrential rains, earthquakes and
Weather or Not
9
News
New Huts & Backcountry
This winter there will be more new huts and new backcountry terrain to explore on skis.
10 Health
The Second Most Powerful Fitness Tool How much sleep do athletes really need? New studies hold some answers.
Made in Vermont
14
other adventure. (Part II)
Feature
Jr. Athletes of the Year
Keep an eye on these 10 athletes. They're already winning big.
18
Feature
The Long Road Home
Feature
The New Ninja Warriors
They leap, tuck, roll, flip off tall buildings and swing from ropes —meet the new all-around athletes, Vermont's "Ninja Warriors."
31
Calendar
Race & Event Guide
34 Endgame
When Winter Comes Poet Donald Hall on New England's winters
ADVERTISERS! The deadline for the Jan/Feb issue of Vermont Sports is December 18. Contact ads@vtsports.com today to reserve your space!
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 3
ADVENTURE TRAVEL Explore beyond the tracks with Offtrack skis and boots from Fischer. Lightweight constructions, full length metal edges, and our secure Offtrack Crown waxless pattern will provide the stability, control and climbing power needed to elevate your next skiing adventure.
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THE START
WEATHER OR NOT different ways. Some weather may be bad for farmers or crops, but for man all kinds are good. Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating. —John Lubbock, The Use of Life, “Recreation,” 1894
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Kick Up Your Heels in Woodstock, Vermont this Winter!
SKI AREA OPENING DATES NOVEMBER 4 | Rikert Nordic Center, Ripton 11 | Okemo Mountain Resort, Ludlow 17 | Stowe Mountain Resort, Stowe 17 | Craftsbury Outdoors Center, Craftsbury 22 | Mount Snow, Dover 22 | Stratton Mountain Resort 24 | Bromley Mountain
The Woodstock Inn & Resort’s Nordic Center grooms 45km of trails for cross-country skiing in the hills surrounding the picturesque village of Woodstock, Vermont. Nearly half of the groomed trails are located in the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park providing a truly unique skiing experience. • Classic & Skate Skiing
DECEMBER
• Rentals & Lessons
9 | Cochran’s Ski Area, Richmond 15 | Pico Mountain Resort, Mendon 16 | Magic Mountain
• Ski & Stay Packages 802.457.6674 • www.woodstockinn.com Route106 South, Woodstock, Vermont
R
O
1 | Trapp Family Lodge XC Trails, Stowe
• Snowshoe & Fat Biking Trails
CK INN & TO
T SOR RE
24 | Smugglers’ Notch Resort, Jeffersonville 24 | Killington Resort, Killington
N
I’m writing this by candlelight. The worst windstorm to hit Vermont in recorded history took out our power for the last five days. Like more than half of Vermont, we’re hunkered in, conserving power, grateful that the temperatures are still warm. Here in Vermont, we’re used to the wild vagaries of weather but even so, this storm took us by surprise. In terms of power outtages, it was worse than Tropical Storm Irene and worse than the great ice storm of 1998. Around the state, crews were cleaning up roads and working hard to restore power. At ski resorts and Nordic centers, they were clearing downed trees on trails and hiking and mountain bike clubs, many of whom thought trail work might have been wrapped up for fall, were out in droves trying to reclaim the paths they’d kept clean and clear all summer. As this strange, warmer-than-ever fall drifts into winter, we need to look ahead at what is to come. As Donald Hall, our New Hampshire neighbor, a poet who lives just across the Connecticut in the shadow of Mt. Kearsarge writes in Endgame, p. 34: “It once snowed it once snowed in New Hampshire every month of the year. In 1816 it snowed and froze in June, in July, in August—the Poverty Year, season of continuous winter, when farmers planted over and over again.” If you love snowsports as much as I do you may long for those winters, white Christmases and storms like we had last season, when the world was blanketed in a deep layer of powder. Those days will come again, we hope, this winter. But in the meantime, Vermonters are doing what we always do: we adjust, tighten our belt and reluctantly prepare for climate change. Nordic ski centers such as Rikert are adapting by welcoming fat biking. Mike Hussey, who runs Rikert, describes the scene there: “It’s like the early days of telemark skiing and snowboarding, there’s such energy around this new sport and
SMOKED BREWERY SMOKEDMEAT MEAT LIBATIONS LIBATIONS BREWERY
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but in reality no weather is bad.
camaraderis.” On page 6 we mention just a few of the many Nordic centers that are creating trails for riding and annual festivals around fat bikes. We are also seeing a new generation of Vermonters who are equally good at summer sports as they are at winter ones. Of the 10 Junior Athletes of the Year, several are competing at a high level in two or more sports year-round. Ski cross champ Mazie Hayden is on both the U.S. Ski Team and was invited in 2017 to be part of the U.S. Team headed to the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships. Gaelen Kilburn is as strong in the fall and early winter sport of cylcocross as he is in road riding and mountain biking. For so many Vermonters, when the weather and the seasons change, our passion for being outdoors and the intensity we devote to a sport doesn’t change–just the tools we use to deploy those. One thing you can be sure of: whatever the weather and the winter bring, we’ll be out there. —Lisa Lynn, Editor
WOOD S
We often hear of bad weather,
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NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 5
GREAT OUTDOORS
SKI CENTERS EMBRACE
FAT BIKES
WITH MORE AND MORE NORDIC SKI CENTERS OPENING TO FAT BIKES, CAN LIFT-SERVED WINTER DOWNHILLS BE FAR BEHIND?
A
t Rikert Nordic Center, high in the Breadloaf Wilderness near Middlebury Mike Hussey is gearing up for winter. He’s cleaned fallen trees from October’s windstorm, has snowguns ready to blast out a 5k loop of manmade and is ready for the fifth annual FatBike Round-Up on December 9—a day of group rides, cookouts, and camaraderie. “Fat biking might be the perfect shoulder season — it really doesn’t matter if we have snow or not,” says Hussey. Rikert is one of a growing number of Nordic centers that are welcoming fat bikes to their trails. “Honestly, as long as the snow is hard, the tires don’t damage the trails. We’ve found fat bikes and Nordic skiers go about the same speed and honesly, fat bikes take up less room on the trails than skate skiers,” Hussey explains. All 55 km of Rikert’s terrain are now open all season to both, with another 10 km of groomed singletrack and Rikert has a small rental fleet. Trapp Family Lodge's Nordic Center in Stowe has been one of the hosts of Überwintern, a festival of fat tire fun that returns to Stowe for its fourth year on January. 7.
6 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
Over at Woodstock Inn’s Nordic Center, director Nick Mahood is also looking to build up the fat bike scene. This season will see a reprise of the “Fat Tuesday” night rides—group rides for all abilities, featuring head lamps and a casual dinner after—and Fatstock, formerly a race, will be a full-on festival this season, held on Feb. 25. Mahood is also excited about plans to groom three or four of the Center’s 8 miles of singletrack for fat biking this winter and to build out mountain bike trails on nearby Suicide Six in time for the 2018 summer season. In Killington, Alpine Bike Works, which operates the winter Fat Bike Vermont rental program is working with both the Mountain Meadows XC Center and Killington Resort to build out a network of groomed singletrack. “We just see this growing and growing,” says owner Tony Accurso. And it's still in the works but Killington Resort is considering adding lift served "ski biking," (allowing a contraption that uses a front ski and rear ski on a bike frame) on some of its 29 miles of mountain bike trails. Stay tuned.
Rolling across Rikert, fat bikes take on some of the most spectacular terrain in the state. Photo courtesy Rikert Nordic Center
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 7
MOAB FST ICE+
#CREATEYOURTRAIL
8 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
BITES INTO ICE DURING WINTER HIKES.
NEWS
A rendering of VT Huts Association's proposed first hut, scheduled to open next summer. Courtesy of Vermont Huts Association
VERMONT’S BACKCOUNTRY EXPANDS On Oct. 19, the Vermont Huts Association held its season launch party. They did it with a bang—hosting 170 people in a standingroom-only party at the biggest event Outdoor Gear Exchange has ever seen and formally announcing the first hut in the system. The organization, formed a year ago, aims to take Vermont’s “individual trail systems and unify them by linking a cohesive network of backcountry accommodations – where huts, cabins, yurts and lodges will exist to enhance our outdoor adventures.” Executive director RJ Thompson gave a status update for the first project, a hut which is slated be built on Green Mountain National Forest land in the Chittenden Brook area between Killington and Brandon Gap. With $22,000 already raised from grants, private donations and membership fees, VT Huts is well on its way to tackling the hut’s $60,000 budget. With a kitchen and propane heat, the hut will bunk 10 people year-round. Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Waitsfield is already constructing the hut at their school and, paperwork pending, the hut is scheduled to open in the summer of 2018. VT Huts website lists 11 already-built and bookable cabins in their network, including Bryant Camp in Bolton Valley,
Hadsel-Mares Camp in the Northeast Kingdom, and the nine cabins located in Rupert that are associated with Merck Forest and Farm Center. (All of these huts are managed by other organizations.) In the future, VT Huts plans to feature an interactive map of huts on their website. Those interested in getting involved can buy a membership ($35 per person, $65 for a family), to get early booking access, reservation discounts, and access to more huts. Donations, which all directly fund the planning and construction of the huts, can be made online at vthuts.org.
NEW STONE HUT RESERVATIONS AVAILABLE Known for its mile-long waiting list, Stowe’s newly-renovated Stone Hut, which is managed by Vermont’s Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation, has a new system for reservations this year. During Phase I, which was held from Sept. 5 until Nov. 10, the reservation system was lottery-based. Applications, along with a $225 per group per night payment in full, were accepted through the mail. Phase II, new this year, starts Nov. 17 and includes reservation on a first-come, first-served basis by telephone for any and all available dates. Call (802) 253-4010 to make a reservation.
High Pond ski area in Hubbardton is being revived by a private owner while Readsboro's Dutch Hill (below) is coming back as a public backcountry ski area.Photo courtesy of DHASH
‘LOST’ SKI HILLS COME BACK Dutch Hill, a small ski hill off Route 100 in Readsboro that closed in 1985, will reopen this winter as a backcountry trail system. The revival marks the beginning of a several-year trail maintenance project led by the U.S. Forest Service and the newly-founded Dutch Hill Association of Skiers and Hikers (DHASH). In the fall of 2016, the US Forest Service designated an 87-acre section that covered the north half of the Dutch Hill Ski Area for non-motorized winter recreation. The area is now an official segment of the Catamount Trail Association, and this year, the terrain, with a 570-foot vertical
drop, will include glades and 12 former ski slopes suitable for intermediate skiing and snowshoeing. Plans even include enlarging the sledding hill that has been a local favorite for decades. DHASH members will host touring days on the first and third
Sundays of January, February and March, with a group skin to the summit and lunch at the top. And on Nov. 4, DHASH will be holding a public information session from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Readsboro Central School in Readsboro, VT. dhash4vt.org. And in Hubbardton, another closed ski mountain is coming back online. High Pond Ski Area operated for nearly a century both publicly and privately until it closed in the mid-1980’s. Peter Dartley, a principal with Dartley Investments in Katonah, N.Y., bought the 300-acre property from Kristian Srb in July 2016 for $1.3 million. Dartley, 71, is the former managing director of the now-defunct Pequot Capital Management, Inc., one of the world’s largest hedge funds in its day. But don't expect this to be open to the public. Brandon Economic Development Officer Bill Moore reports, based on conversations he has had with neighbors and workers at the property on High Pond Road, that Dartley is developing the hill for private use. High Pond’s vertical drop is 300 feet with a summit elevation of 1,400 feet. In the 1960s and 70s, there was a small based lodge, a warming hut, a T-bar and three rope tows, a ski shop and snack bar, and parking for 200 cars.
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 9
HEALTH
THE SECOND-MOST POWERFUL FITNESS TOOL GETTING ON A HEALTHY SLEEP SCHEDULE COULD MARK THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GOOD ATHLETE AND A GREAT ONE. BY EMMA COTTON
T
here is a growing trend among today’s top athletes—the ones you look at and ask, where did she come from? How does he keep landing on the podium? At the end of the season, they’re still going when everyone else is burnt out. Turns out, these athletes get more of one thing than the average person, and it’s pretty simple. Sleep. Sure, there are plenty of other factors. Mikaela Shiffrin, the reigning champion of slalom, is known to train longer hours and push herself harder than most other ski racers. And Mat Fraser, three-time CrossFit Games champion who continues to widen the gap between himself and all other CrossFit competitors: He has a rigorous training regimen, a balanced diet and pre- and post-workout rituals and actually focuses on sleep. LeBron James, known for getting 10 to 12 hours of sleep every night, goes to Versaclimber, spin and pilates classes in the off-season to stay in shape. But when you get down to it, the most successful athletes are the ones that commit themselves to a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle. They literally eat, breathe—and sleep—their sport. “Sleep is the number one recovery technique for body and mind,” says Mike Day, Shiffrin’s coach. Shiffrin has told the media: “I try to go to bed somewhere between 8:30 and 9 at night. Sleep is huge for me. It’s my best, main and favorite form of recovery...I need eight and a half to nine hours of sleep to feel my best.” After placing second twice in the CrossFit Games, Fraser was ready to do anything to win gold. The main thing he changed? “The regular sleep schedule—not staying up until 2 a.m. watching Netflix,” he told Vermont Sports last December. Leading up to the 2016 Games, Fraser went to bed and woke up at the same time every day, whether he was training or on vacation. And the results paid off: Fraser won the Games by 200 points—the largest margin
10 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
Between training, travel and life's demands, it can be tricky to focus on sleep. But according to researchers, it could be worth it. in history. In 2017, he won by 216 points,
patterns of day and night—and fighting
With a natural dose of melatonin, the
beating his own record.
these patterns could create consequences
hypothalamus and the parafacial zone in
for our health.
the brain prompt slow-wave sleep (SWS)
So can sleep really make the difference between a good athlete and an all-time
But for athletes—those of us who use our bodies rigorously on a daily basis—
champ? “I certainly think it makes a difference in
getting sleep is extra-important, and it isn’t
separating the great from the really good,”
always easy. There are a lot of unanswered
says Matt Gammons, a sports medicine
questions about sleep, but scientists are
specialist at Rutland Regional Medical
beginning to nail down answers about the
Center and a consulting physician at Green
amount and quality of sleep that an athlete
Mountain Valley School in Waitsfield.
needs to perform at his or her best.
adolescence, sleep is an opportunity for players who have potential to fulfill that potential. Take Mikaela. This season, sleep could make the difference between first place and second place in a GS race for her." And for the kids Gammons sees at GMVS, not getting enough sleep could derail the opportunity they have to be the next Mikaela. Recently,
scientists
have
realized
exactly how powerful sleep can be for our health—powerful enough that, in early October,
2017,
researchers
Jeffrey
C.
Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on circadian rhythms, which regulate sleep. Their discoveries explain, on a molecular level, how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it’s synchronized with Earth's revolutions. More than ever, it is clear that our bodily functions are naturally aligned with the
our consciousness shuts off. After
that,
we
enter
rapid-eye-
movement (REM) sleep. The first cycle usually occurs 70 to 90 minutes after we fall asleep, and the average sleeper experiences between three and five REM cycles per night. An entire cycle lasts between 90 and
“The margin at elite levels is such a fine thing. And if you look at sleep through
and when the cells in those regions turn on,
110 minutes. During those cycles, our bodies
WHAT IS SLEEP?
regulate hormones that control our hunger
This seems like an obvious question. Sleep is what you do at the end of the day, when you close your eyes and dream about the gold medals or the significant other or the monsters under the bed. But in reality, scientists are still fuzzy about sleep’s exact purpose—why and how we do it, and what exactly it does for our bodies. The conclusions they have drawn include the following: Sleep reenergizes
(ghrelin), blood-glucose level (insulin) and the development of our muscles and tissues (growth hormones). So it might not be surprising that athletes—people
who
physically
exert
themselves, rely on precise movements and learn new skills on a daily basis—need to pay particularly close attention to their sleep habits. Sleep provides several things that are
our bodies on a cellular level. An influx of
important to athleticism, according to
cerebrospinal fluid washes into the brain
Michael Seteia, active emeritus professor
during sleep, clearing away harmful waste
of psychiatry at Dartmouth’s Geisel School
proteins like a dishwasher—which explains
of Medicine. “It's essential to providing
why scientists recently linked chronic sleep
a
deprivation to Alzheimer’s and dementia
motivation,” he says.
positive
emotional
state
and
high
(both have been connected to a building
Think about your training: it’s much
up of plaque in the brain). Sleep supports
more likely that we’ll be motivated to do
emotional drive and promotes motivation,
that last rep, take that last run or push
the ability to learn and remember, and even
ourselves just a little bit harder, if we’ve had
controls appetite and libido.
a full night’s sleep.
Sleep starts, ironically, when certain regions
of
the
brain
become
active.
“Then there’s the somatic aspect,” Seteia says, “which is metabolism and
glycogen synthesis and storage, and being able to efficiently fuel muscle cells that are required in intense athletic competition. In the past, we didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the role of sleep in metabolism. Now, of course, we understand that sleep plays a very critical role in metabolism, and with insufficiencies, metabolic function is less efficient than it should be or could be. That, in turn, will have an obvious effect on athletic performance, especially for endurance athletes.” The last thing sleep does for us, he says, is improve cognition; it helps us with procedural learning, and it sharpens our hand-eye coordination and muscle memory. In 2014, Cheri D. Mah, a researcher at Stanford, experimented with the idea that sleep improves cognition. Her subjects were Standford's men’s basketball team. Eleven players wore wristbands that tracked their sleeping patterns. She found that, on average, the athletes slept 6.5 hours per night. For two weeks, they kept their regular sleep schedule while Mah monitored their performance on a 282-foot sprint drill, free-throw drills and threepoint shooting. Then, the athletes were told to do everything they could to increase their sleep, still tracked by their wristbands. The team average moved from 6.5 to nearly 8.5 hours of sleep per night. The players’ performance improved significantly. Free-throw shooting improved by 11.4 percent, three-point shooting shot up by 13.7 percent, and their 282-foot sprints were 0.7 seconds faster, on average. That’s the kind of improvement that might come with performance-enhancing drugs or decades of training.
THE IDEAL SLEEP SCHEDULE If sleep can make that much of a difference, it may be even more important than athletes originally thought. So what kind of sleep schedule should an athlete have? The short answer: it varies. The amount of sleep an individual needs depends on age, amount of physical activity, stress level, diet, personal preference—the list goes on. While it’s impossible to propose a sleep schedule that works for everyone, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests that adults get a minimum of seven hours per night, and as many as nine hours. Adolescents, who rely on the growth hormone to regulate puberty, along with the growth of muscles and tissues, need more— about nine hours per night. Though athletes exert themselves more than the average sleeper, there is no evidence to suggest that athletes need more sleep than anyone else. Some people may naturally sleep longer, and some studies indicate that athletes are more likely to achieve a better, deeper quality of sleep, but LeBron James’ 12 nightly hours aren’t necessarily the key to athletic success. “It would be tempting to say, ‘Gee, if everybody gets 10 to 12 hours of sleep,
they’re going to be like LeBron James, and obviously that’s not true,” Seteia says. “The fact is that LeBron James could be, intrinsically, a longer sleeper, and not everybody would be even capable of getting 10 to 12 hours of sleep.” The key to a successful sleep schedule is the same for athletes as for anyone else: making it regular. “An ideal sleep schedule is one that’s consistent,” says Gammons. “So if you go to bed around the same time and get up around the same time, these things, over time, tend to build better sleep patterns and make you more tolerant to interruptions in terms of being able to get yourself to sleep.”
and then the World Cup touring begins.
IT’S EASY, RIGHT?
of getting deep, restful sleep. If possible,
Between jet lag and her training schedule, she has to work to make sleep a priority. The rest of us have it easier, though we still have to balance sleep with work, social lives, family time and some amount of training. But that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. “Consistency is important if it’s possible,” Gammons says, "but if you can’t have an exact pattern, you can have consistency in your rituals and planning in terms of how you sleep—turning off stimulation a half hour to 45 minutes before you want to go to sleep, not taking caffeine late in the day, those kinds of commonsense things." A few habits will increase your chances
While sleeping might sound like the simple part of the eat-train-sleep-repeat cycle—less complicated than developing a balanced diet, and surely less strenuous than running drills—it’s surprisingly difficult to get enough of it. For elite athletes, schedules shift both seasonally and daily, and getting a good, steady amount of sleep might be considered the hardest component of the sports lifestyle to achieve. Again, take Shiffrin: in the summer, she travels to New Zealand and Chile. In the fall, she’s off to Europe,
avoid exercising in the hours before you fall asleep. Before bed, do something relaxing— take a bath, put on some calming music— forget your stressors, if you can. And by all means, avoid what Seteia calls “the kiss of death:” “If people are really having trouble sleeping, they shouldn’t remain in bed awake for extended periods,” he says. “It starts to potentially result in increasing insomnia problems, because you begin to associate the bed with wakefulness and frustration. That’s not a good thing.”
can’t seem to nail down a regular schedule, Gammons says it’s possible to make up for what he calls “acute sleep debt,” which accumulates over time, but it’s much easier to make up for a short-term lack of sleep. “If you’re traveling for a couple of days,” he says, “it’s relatively easy to get back on track with a few nights of good sleep. What seems to be harder is the athlete who’s chronically sleep deprived. Just taking a nap isn’t going to make up for that. It really requires a lifestyle change that basically, over a couple of weeks, will start to reset the system.” But for adults who exercise regularly, avoiding chronic sleep deprivation and keeping to a consistently generous sleep schedule could be the key to a powerfully healthy lifestyle. “Getting on a regular sleep schedule is nice from an athletic standpoint, but just from a life standpoint, sleep patterning is probably the second-most important thing we can do,” Gammons said. “You’d be surprised at how much exercise and sleeping well can moderate other things. If you were going to do three things for your health, exercising moderately most days of the week, not smoking, and getting good sleep—those are probably the most powerful things we have.”
For those who travel regularly, or who
THE QUICK FACTS: HOW TO BE GOOD IN BED 4 TIPS FOR GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP 1) CONSISTENCY, CONSISTENCY, CONSISTENCY If there’s one thing that most scientists and doctors agree on, it’s that your sleep schedule should be consistent. Keeping an irregular sleep schedule will knock you off your natural circadian rhythms and make it more difficult to fall asleep and wake up. A 2015 study by The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism studied 447 adults and found that those who kept a regular sleep schedule were likely to have better cholesterol levels, smaller waist circumference, lower body mass index and less insulin resistance. “There’s no question about the fact that, if you’re trying to sleep at odds with your circadian rhythm, things are going to be seriously disrupted, and that, in turn, is going to impair performance,” says Michael Seteia, active emeritus professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. 2) PUT IN YOUR HOURS While there’s no magic number that determines how much sleep you need, most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. (This number represents between three and five full cycles of REM sleep, each lasting about 90 minutes with non-REM sleep in between). Athletes should experiment to find the number of hours that feels right. When possible, get to bed at a decent hour, then, without setting an alarm, time how long you sleep. Do this several times, and you’ll start to understand your patterns. With work, family and social lives, training and other demands, it's difficult to make sleep a priority, but the rewards are high. Matt Gammons, sports medicine specialist at Rutland
Regional Medical Center, says many doctors agree that sleep is one of the most powerful tools we have to stay healthy, and short-changing it can affect nearly every one of your major body systems. 3) POWER NAPS—DO THEY WORK? The short answer: yes. “Naps built into a regular schedule can be very beneficial, but you shouldn’t use them to make up for chronic sleep deprivation,” Gammons says. This could explain why companies like Ben & Jerry’s, Zappos, Uber and Google all host napping spaces in their headquarters. Naps can make up for the loss of alertness and motor ability that results from a sleepless night. A study published in the Journal of Sleep Research in 2009 found that even wellrested adults can improve reaction time, logical reasoning and symbol recognition with a nap. Even sleeping briefly— say, a 20-minute power nap—helps reinforce learning. And if you have the time, a 90-minute nap (during which you may experience a full REM cycle) can give you the same learning and cognition benefits as a full eight-hour sleep cycle. 4) WIND DOWN Athletes who travel from one time zone to the next are bound to experience a shift from their natural circadian rhythms, but there are still ways to get a restful night’s sleep. To start, practice a relaxing pre-bedtime ritual, conducted away from bright lights and noise. Separate yourself from triggers that cause excitement, anxiety and stress. If it’s possible to control, set the temperature in your room to between 60 and 67 degrees. To accomplish all of this while traveling, consider eyeshades, earplugs, white noise machines, humidifiers and fans. For these rituals to be most effective, begin practicing them before the travel begins, and keep them consistent.
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 11
SPONSORED
ifts Made-In-Vermont
W
E LIKE TO SHOP LOCALLY
all
year
round. But when it
comes time to pick out holiday gifts, we make an extra effort to find the best of what Vermont has to offer. Check out the merch — both new and old — from some of the best 802 brands. You're sure to impress with one of these picks —
GIVE YOUR FAVORITE ATHLETE THE BEST OF THE BEST.
or maybe a few!
DION SNOWSHOES
North Bennington, VT — (802) 753-1174 — dionsnowshoes.com
Designed, built and used by experienced snowshoe racers and hikers, these tough, lightweight snowshoes are comfortable to wear and can adapt to a wide variety of terrain and snow conditions. What makes Dion Snowshoes unique is that they are sold as separate components. They offer several different frame sizes, bindings and cleats that are interchangeable depending on your needs. Dion's exclusive blend of performance, durability, and comfort is found in every snowshoe model they offer. By combining an innovative design with quality materials and craftsmanship, they offer a “custom” snowshoe at a “pre-fab” price. Model 121 Frame with QuickFit Binding and Deep Cleat shown. Starting at $230; Model 122 starts at $195.
SKIDA HAT
Burlington, VT — (802) 540-8100 — skida.com
Skida Headwear & Accessories, founded in 2008 by ski racer Corinne Prevot while she was at Burke Mountain Academy and Middlebury College, believes in local production, limited edition products, and a fresh perspective. The original Vermont Collection is still produced locally in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, while a new cashmere line is produced in exclusively for Skida in Nepal. Their best selling insulated piece, the Alpine Hat, is the perfect weight for colder days. The printed poly-blend outer fabric is fully lined with cozy mid-weight fleece — it wicks moisture, cuts the wind, and always leaves you high and dry. Great for chilly runs, hitting the slopes, or just cruising around town. This hat goes from casual to performance without skipping a beat. $36
CONCEPT2
Morrisville, VT — 800-245-5676 — concept2.com/ski
Since its humble beginnings, Concept2 has been making world class training products here in Vermont. Brothers Dick and Peter Dreissigacker started building rowing oars in a Morrisville dairy barn in 1976 and since then, have expanded the product line to include the Concept2 Indoor Rower, the SkiErg and the new BikeErg. Plain and simple, we love what we do, and we work hard every day to design and manufacture innovative, high-quality products. The Concept2 SkiErg provides a quality aerobic workout while building ski-specific strength and endurance. Whether you’re an elite cross-country skier looking to improve your poling power, a weekend enthusiast wanting to get into shape for the ski season, or just someone looking for a great workout, the SkiErg will help you achieve your goals. $770 SkiErg (wall mount option), additional $180 SkiErg Floor Stand (shown) SPONSORED CONTENT
WHITEROOM SKIS ”UPSLOPE”
Hyde Park, VT — (802) 371-7871 — whiteroomcustomskis.com
WhiteRoom Skis, handcrafted by Vin Faraci at his Hyde Park, Vt. home, are known for their sheer beauty. He uses locally sourced hardwoods, with beautiful word veneers and inlaid semi-precious stones to create his designs. But his custom skis, also are top performers. The new UpSlope ski has won recent national recognition by ski testers who rated it among the best in class. It excels in powder, trees, crud, corn and carves a solid GS turn at high speeds, they said, but also makes shorter turns without excessive effort. All-in-all this is a great ski for advanced and hard-charging experts, who enjoy a responsive yet damp ride that doesn’t get tossed around in mixed conditions. The UpSlope features a 30cm rocker tip with slight reverse sidecut, with 4mm of camber and sidecut underfoot transitioning to a slightly up turned tail and a skin notch. The flex of this ski was designed with medium-plus flex, but can easily be customized to fit the preference of any customer. These weigh in at 4.5 pounds per ski, which makes them respectable on the uphill and still a high performance on the downhill. Standard dimensions are: 180cm, 137/106/122, but it's all custommade and be designed to suit your taste. $950
DODGE SKI BOOTS
DARN TOUGH SOCKS
Northfield, VT — (877) 327-6883 — darntough.com
One family. One mill. One mission. For almost 40 years the Cabot family has been knitting socks in Northfield, VT., and they know how to make socks. It’s what they do. They’re so good they offer a lifetime guarantee. Darn Tough is dedicated to creating the world’s best socks, and prove it by standing behind them unconditionally. Their endurance socks have been forged on a platform of performance and protection, designed to withstand any element and every obstacle. President Rick Cabot has taken the company to new heights in recent years, as it has expanded its reach across North America and beyond. Shown here: Mountain Over-The-Calf Light. $24
Essex, VT — (802) 662-2102 — dodgeskiboots.com
At Dodge Ski Boots, they love skiing and it drives local owners David Dodge, a former racer, and Bill Doble to make skiing more fun. That fuels their passion to make the best ski boot in the world, and the first hand-crafted graphite ski boot, which make them incredibly light and responsive. Every pair of Dodge Ski Boots is custom-fit and hand crafted at their Essex facility. Whether you're a beginner or a racer, Dodge promises their boots will be the best performing and most comfortable you’ve ever skied. Exclusive Free 3D Fitting Assessment and Money-Back Satisfaction Guarantee. Available direct from Dodge Ski Boots online or factory fitting center, your boots are custom fit by the people who make them. $995
TURTLE FUR
Morristown, VT — (802) 888-6400 — turtlefur.com
Since 1982 Turtle Fur has been a leading headwear and accessories brand in the outdoor, snow sports, hunting/fishing, and lifestyle markets. Located in the shadows of Vermont’s highest peak, Mount Mansfield, they know tough weather. By creating comfortable, quality products, these cozy little garments help you stay outside longer to enjoy the things you love to do. Turtle Fur prides themselves on holding true to their roots of quality, comfort, creativity and community... all while having fun. Kids Double-Layer Shellaclava Curly Fur Fleece. $29.99.
MAD RIVER ROCKET
Warren, VT — (802) 232-2555 — madriverrocket.com
The Mad River Rocket, designed by well-known Waitsfield architect Dave Sellers back in the 1980s, keeps revolutionizing sledding with design characteristics that make these sleds among the best in the world. By kneeling on the sled, you steer by leaning or weighting an edge, using your hands for stabilization. The design of the sled's hull makes it easy to execute sharp turns, which is essential for dodging trees on forested hillsides in Vermont and everywhere else. The plush kneepads soften big-air landings, and the knee strap ensures that you and your sled stay together. Go to the website to watch videos on how the experts do it and you’ll want to get a sled and head out yourself. Model Killer B. $179.99 SPONSORED CONTENT
MEET THE VERMONTERS YOU WANT TO KEEP AN EYE ON: THE ALLSTARS UNDER 21. year,
Vermont
Photo by Jesse Mallis
Sports
dedicates our 10 Athletes of the Year to those under 21. These
are not just “up and comers.” In many cases, these athletes are already close to the top of their game and beating
THE
T
his
Mac Forehand shows his signature big air grab.
JUNIO R ATHL E OF TH TES E
some of the best in the world. Keep an eye on them and watch for our Olympic preview – showcasing Vermonters who are likely to compete in the Pyeong Chang Olympics— in our next issue.
CAROLINE CLAIRE,17, SLOPESTYLE When she was in eighth grade, Wilmington's Caroline Claire had a chance to meet her idol, Devin Logan, who came to Mount Snow where Claire was training. "Devin came up to me and said 'I know who you are,' and showed me her medal—I never thought she would know who I was," Claire remembers. In the next few months, Claire will be competing for a chance to join Logan as one of the four women on the U.S. Ski Team to compete in the Olympic Slopestyle event in PyeongChang, South Korea. Claire stands a good chance. The Stratton Mountain School senior has been pretty much unstoppable the last few years. A member of U.S. Freeskiing's The North Face Rookie slopestyle team, in 2017 she earned her first World Cup podium—a bronze in Seiser Alm, Italy— and four Toyota U.S. Revolution Tour podium appearances, including three wins. In March, she capped off a stellar season by winning a bronze at the FIS Freestyle Ski Junior World Championships in Valmalenco, Italy. "I was just excited to be at my second World Cup, and then to make the finals," Claire said about the Valmalenco event. "I landed a trick I never thought I could do off this huge 70-foot jump—it was the run of my life!" she says. Claire, who also is a leading scorer on her soccer team, wants to keep competing, but she's also applying now to Dartmouth and University of Vermont, so the there's a good chance we'll keep seeing her on Vermont's slopes for a while.
MAC FOREHAND, 16, BIG AIR “Mac Forehand isn’t just one of the best junior freeskiers in the country, he’s one of the best freeskiers period,” says Stratton Mountain School coach Jesse Mallis. Mallis should know. A former coach at
14 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
YEAR
At 17, Caroline Claire already has a World Cup bronze. Photo by Jesse Mallis
Mount Snow, Mallis has worked with such stars as Olympic medalist and World Cup winner Devin Logan and now coaches both Forehand and Caroline Claire, the Stratton Mountain School skiers who were named to the U.S. Junior Freeskiing Team in 2017.
Forehand grew up skiing at Stratton and started at Stratton Mountain School at 14. “I built a base of alpine racing and mogul skiing before moving into freeskiing,” he says. He’s currently ranked among the top 22 in the world in Big Air (tricks off huge
jumps) and among the top five in the U.S. In 2017, he was named to the U.S. Junior Team and earned a spot at the Worlds in Italy but was sidelined just weeks before the competition with a broken collarbone. So far, the highlight of 2017 for Forehand was winning the Aspen Open Big Air Competition. The event, held on the X Games venue, was open to both pros and amateurs. Forehand finished ahead of Japan’s Yuuki Satou and took home the $2000 first place prize. He now skis for Faction skis. Forehand’s next competition will be the FIS World Cup Big Air in Milan in midNovember. In October, when we reached him, Forehand was just back from training in Switzerland, his first time in Europe. “I’ve been working on a switch, double cork 1440 – that’s going off backwards, doing two flips, and four full rotations while grabbing your skis.” At Milan, he hopes to up that to do a triple cork 1440 or 1620 (adding another flip and another half rotation) airing across a 70- to 80-foot span. After that, the sky’s the limit.
Ty Walker is aiming high for a chance to compete in the first Olympic big air competition this winter in PyeongChang, South Korea. Photo courtesy
TY WALKER, 20, BIG AIR
Ian Clarke, competing at the Ski Mountaineering World Championships in Italy.
IAN CLARKE, 19, SKI MOUNTAINEER Ski mountaineering, a race that takes skiers up, down and across all terrain, is a relatively new sport—aiming for Olympic inclusion in 2022—and growing. Growing right with it is University of Vermont junior Ian Clarke. Clarke, who grew up near Killington and raced alpine at Killington Mountain School, didn't pick up ski mountaineering (ski mo) until last year. Since then, he's placed in just about every event around New England. In February, 2017, Clarke was the only junior named to the U.S. national team and invited to compete at the World Championships in Italy in March. He finished 23rd there against some of the top Europeans. More than just a competitor, Clarke has been a booster for the sport. He organized the first SkiMo and Mountaineering Club at UVM and has been working with the Catamount Trail Association and other groups to get others involved in the sport.
Coaches Luke Mitrani and Nick Citro flank Huber and his parents.
While the alpine background has helped Clarke on the downhills, his experience as a road cylcist has built up endurace for the uphill portions of the race. This past summer, racing Cat 2, Clarke earned a second, third and fourth in three stages of the Green Mountain Stage Race. And when he's not on his bike, he's a commercial glider pilot and instructor at Sugarbush Soaring in Warren.
HANS HUBER, 14, ALL-MOUNTAIN RIDER At age 10, Hans Huber already had footage airing on Teton Gravity Research. Since then, Huber has been pretty much owning the podium for his age group in a variety of disciplines at the USASA Nationals at Copper Mountain each year and has earned sponsorship from Burton and A Line. This year, for the second year in a row, the seventh-grader at the Stowe Middle School took home top overall honors in the 14- to
15-year-old division, having earned points in nearly every discipline, from halfpipe to slopestyle to boardercross to racing—an “all-mountain” rider. Huber excels at racing (he won slalom) and boardercross (he finished 8th out of 157), but he’s focusing now on improving his slopestyle and big air. “Progression is a goal and while I’m not the greatest at everything, I can do all discliplines pretty well.” Huber has been practicing in the backcountry at Loveland Pass. “I’m working on a double back flip – perhaps the hardest thing is committing to those double back flips. You just have to go with the mindset that you are going to land it.” That’s a mindset Huber has been using since he was 3. Born with Type 1 diabetes, he won his first halfpipe event at age 6. He also plays lacrosse, flag football and soccer. “What I’m most proud of is how he manages everything in his life,” says his mother, Sandy Huber.
It's hard to believe it’s been four years since we watched Ty Walker, one of the youngest Olympians in Sochi, flying high to earn 14th in the Olympic snowboard slopestyle competion. She was just 16 then and living in Stowe. Now, she’s 20 and balancing being a pre-med student at Brown University while aiming for a spot at PyeongChang in a new event—big air. Walker has already been named to the U.S Team and this past fall, she was the first athlete in any sport to also be named a Young Change Maker by the U.S. Olympic Team. As such, she’ll represent the U.S. Olympic Committee throughout the year and at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2018. Since the last Olympics, Walker has faced some injuries, including a torn ACL that kept her out of competitions but not before winning a World Cup Big Air in Istanbul. In 2016, while training for the Big Air Fenway, she crashed and fractured a vertebrae in her back. This past year Walker’s taken a leave from Brown to focus on her training and to keep up her nutrition blog, Excellence in the Kitchen, where she’s been interviewing Olympic athletes about their nutrition tips and recipes. And she still rides Stowe – for fun. As she told VT Ski + Ride magazine, “Stowe, specifically, is where I go. I’ll go up to the mountain with my family and friends and explore the mountain. There, I’m not a professional athlete anymore, just another person who loves snowboarding."
AUGUST 2017 NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 15
GRACE WEINBERG, 19, LUGE Another Olympic hopeful to watch, if not for 2018, perhaps for 2022, is Pittsfield’s Grace Weinberg. Since appearing on the cover of Vermont Sports last year, Grace “G-Force” Weinberg has been training hard in Lake Placid, learning how to finesse a sled that under her guidance has hit 82 miles an hour on sheer ice. That training paid off in September when Weinberg finished second in USA Luge’s annual indoor start championships, behind Olympic bronze medalist Summer Britcher and beating third-place finisher and reigning world women’s sprint champion Erin Hamlin. Weinberg has a powerful start, which in luge can mean everything. She grew up in Pittsfield training with her dad Andy Weinberg, former Spartan Death Race director and founder of The Endurance Society. She got into luge at age 11, during a “slider search” and has been hooked ever since. “It was a pretty big advantage for me because when you’re young and your body hasn’t developed, it’s easier to learn because you can grow into the sled. It’s an experience-based sport, so the more experience you have the better,” she said in an interview with Vermont Sports last year. That experience earned her silver in the Junior World Championships Relay in 2016.
AIDAN CASNER, 18, DOWNHILL MTB RACER Aidan Casner was just 17 when he stood at the top of his first World Cup downhill race in Lourdes, France, in April 2016. More than 245 riders from 27 countries had come to the tiny town in the Pyrenees to watch the
Weinberg has a strong start which recently earned her second at the national indoor start championships in Lake Placid, ahead of women's sprint champion, Erin Hamlin. Photo courtesy Grace Weinberg race: a 1,447-foot descent down two miles of course — what pro rider Marcelo Gutierrez called “the gnarliest track of the year.” The average speed: 36 kilometers an hour. While Casner didn’t qualify for a final run, it was a start. Now 18, Casner just completed his second season on the World Cup circuit, racing downhill courses from Switzerland to Quebec. This past September, he was one
of four Vermonters to be invited to compete on the U.S Team at the UCI Mountain Bike Worlds in Australia. That’s not bad for a kid who grew up riding the trails near his home in Montpelier and doing lift-served downhills at Sugarbush and Killington. “My first mountain bike downhill I was 9, riding a rented bike and it was the best day of my life,” Casner, now a freshman at Western
Washington University, recalls. “My first race was at Killington at age 10 and I was terrified and probably fell 10 times.” That didn’t stop in him. In 2017, Casner finished 16th overall (and was the second American) in an international field of the best juniors in the world at the UCI World Cup in Mont Sainte Anne, Quebec. He went on to finish fifth in his age group in the Nationals in Snowshoe, West Virginia in July. After being invited to race in the UCI World Championships in the jungles of northern Australia, he finished 26th. A member of the Mad River Glen Freeskiing Team, Casner credits riding in Vermont and having to pick tight lines through the trees as one of the reasons for his success. But that’s only part of it. “There are a ton of really good riders in Vermont and they let me ride with them,” he says. “Riding with better people pushed me to get better. I always looked up to guys like Alex McAndrews, Dylan Conte and Andrew Allaire. One of the biggest things that helped me get better was just riding with guys outside of the race environment, not taking it super seriously and remembering that you do it for fun.”
MAZIE HAYDEN, 17, MTB AND SKI CROSS CHAMP Pittsfield native Mazie Hayden had no idea she was even being considered to be part of the U.S. Team when she was invited to the UCI Mountain Bike World’s in Australia, this past September. “I’d only done one UCI World Cup, the one in Mont St. Anne, Quebec, in August,” the Killington Mountain School senior said. She finished
Aidan Casner catches air on a downhill in Switzerland Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
16 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
Michael Davis at target practics Photo by Trent Campbell
Mazie Hayden is at home racing on two wheels as she is on two skis. Photo by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur second there. That result, combined with a steady stream of podium finshes in the Pro Cat 1 categories in four Vittoria Eastern States Cup events and a fifth overall (not just in her age group, while competing against pros) at the U.S. Nationals in West Virginia, secured Hayden the invite. Which was fortunate, because she just happened to be planning to go to Australia in September anyway. Downhill mountain biking is Hayden’s second sport. Hayden’s first sport, ski cross, was what took her Down Under to train this fall. Hayden started out her ski cross (an event that sets four competitors out on a course at once, with jumps, waves and steep turns all thrown in) season with a bang, finishing in the top eight at the Toyota Grand Prix Nor Am Cup in Solitude, Utah. Her results were consistent going up all season, with an 11th in the Junior World Championships in Italy in March and then two third-place finishes in the Australia/ New Zealand Cup in Australia this past fall. She also took sixth in the Canadian Nationals. Hayden grew up skiing and mountain biking around Killington, where her father works. She earned her first USASA national championship title in 2012 at just 11 years of age, and has won every USASA National title since. As for doing competing in two sports at the international level, Hayden acknowledges it can be a challenge for scheduling her races and training. But, as she says, “I have so much fun biking and I really enjoy competing in ski cross. There
are lots of the movements you do for both, like ‘popping.' And the most important thing is the mental preparation for each race and that carries over for both seasons and overcoming the fear,” she says, adding. “That said, it's better to fall on snow.”
GAELEN KILBURN, 17, CYCLIST Cyclists who are good at one discipline— say road riding—are often quick to pick up another, such as cyclocross or mountain biking. But it may take a while. Galen Kilburn, excels at all three. “I started mountain biking at the Catamount Outdoor Center when I was 5 years old on a single speed with 20-inch wheels,” says the Burlington High School sophomore. Since then, he’s been religious about attending
the Wednesday night rides, which he credits with building up his skills. That work paid off. In 2017 Kilburn took second in the Junior Division at the Mountain Bike Nationals in West Virginian and also second at the Canada Cup in Mont Tremblant, Ottawa. He was invited to be part of the U.S Team at the UCI World Championships in Australia in September but declined, in part, because he had already committed to riding in the Green Mountain Stage Race, the road race, in Vermont. As much a road cyclist now as he is a mountain biker, Kilburn was recruited to be one of 10 members of the elite Hot Tubes development team after a coach watched him take second at the the 2016 Cyclocross Nationals in the Juniors, 15-16 age group. In 2017, Kilburn focused on road riding and earned fifth in the road race of the Junior Cycling Nationals, two third places in the Green Mountain Stage Race, and a second in the Overland Grand Prix. “I really love that race because it has a little bit of everything,” Kilburn says. It also allowed him to race neck-and-neck with his heros. “It was pretty cool to be the final breakaway group with Mike Barton, Kevin Bouchard-Hall and Tim Johnson,” says Kilburn – all former pros with Johnson being a former bronze medalist at the Cyclocross Worlds. Kilburn beat Johnson and Bouchard-Hall to finish second. But the race he is most proud of is the
2017 Tour of Ireland. Racing against more than 100 top juniors from all over Europe and as far away as South Africa, Kilburn earned second. “It’s made me want to go back and do some more races in Europe next year,” he says.
MICHAEL DAVIS, 15, MARKSMAN This November, 15-year-old Michael Davis of Vergennes heads for the hills to hunt, and hopefully win a deer for the first time. He’s been shooting since he was five years old, primarily shooting geese with his father, Timothy Davis, a champion National Guard marksman who helped the Vermont team win a national title about 30 years ago. Odds say Michael won’t come home emptyhanded. This past September, Michael headed to Virginia to compete in the NRA Shooting World Championships and took gold, earning $1,000 and the title of NRA World Champion. Not only did he best a dozen other juniors in a 12-stage, multi-discipline contest designed to test all-around shooting ability, but Davis also finished 63rd overall in a field of 325 that included sponsored professionals and active military and law enforcement experts. Davis also took fourth overall in one event. Davis, who has been shooting competitively for at least seven years, described the NRA championships as a unique challenge. “This world championship is every major type of shooting combined in one competition,” Davis said. “This is the only competition that does this. You do not shoot your own guns, which is a big challenge, because you don’t know how they shoot. It’s a level playing field.” And it’s also an event that Davis acknowledges is virtually tailor-made for him: “A lot of shooters only focus on one or two kinds of shooting, and not many do everything,” Davis said. “I am one of the very few shooters that shoot most different disciplines.” Davis, an aspiring police officer, hopes to represent the U.S. in the Olympics. “I want to shoot skeet or biathlon,” Davis said. —Lisa Lynn and Andy Kirkaldy
Kilburn pulling away at the Green Mountain Stage Race criterium in September. Photo by Benjamin Bloom
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 17
THE NEW
NINJA WARRIORS
VERMONT’S GYMS ARE SPAWNING A NEW BREED OF ATHLETES WHO ARE AS AT HOME LAUNCHING OFF ROOFS, RAILS, CLIFFS OR HAY BALES AS THEY ARE TUMBLING IN A GYM. BY LISA LYNN
18 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
Randolph-born Justice Hedenberg shows his Vermont roots doing one of the backflips that helps him make a living as a Hollywood stunt man. Photo by Tyler Killer
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 19
Noah Labow, who has appeared on American Ninja Warrior, takes it up a notch at the Green Mountain Training Center where he coaches the UVM Freeskiing Team. Photo by Oliver Parini
I
t’s 9 p.m. on a Monday night and Noah
clumsiness, and a few grunts.
skier who has competed in pro-am big air
are practicing classic gymnast moves:
Labow moves like a leopard on the
Labow is 37. The students are mostly
contests, moguls, halfpipe and extreme
handsprings, back flips, cartwheels. In
hunt. He’s on all fours, scuttling along
15 to 20 years younger and members of the
skiing competitions, watches and works
another corner, there is what looks like
a line on the floor, hands and legs flashing
UVM Freeskiing Team. After warming up,
with them. “Hold your knees in,” he tells
the remnants of a movie set: A castle-like
quickly along a ribbon of white, less than
they’ll take to the trampolines and foam
a freshman, who two weeks ago had never
“tower,” a rack with a variety of handholds,
six inches wide. He reaches the end of the
pits, practicing corks (spinning tricks),
been on a trampoline. She tries again, and
giant blocks, mats and giant foam shapes.
line, springs forward, arms straight like
flips, grabs and the other moves they’ll
nails a corked 720.
Superman, and then tucks and rolls. He is
transfer to the snow this winter. Labow, a
Elsewhere
weightless, graceful as a dancer, soundless. His body, as lean and ripped as a climber’s, flows from one move to the next without a pause. Behind
him,
nearly
two
dozen
University of Vermont students follow, scrambling across the mats of the Green Mountain Training Center in Williston. They do so with passion, varying degrees of
As a kid, Chris Tower was told he'd never walk without leg braces. Today, he's the lead coach at Regal Gym's American Ninja Warrior program in Essex Junction and rides and tricks in the backcountry as much as 10 months of the year. Photos by Angelo Lynn (left), courtesy Chris Tower (right)
20 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
around
On another night, you might find Labow the
gym,
girls
in this corner, swinging up from a hand ring
(doing acrobatics) off obstacles on the way.
on the rack, grabbing a rope that hangs from
“If you want to see the ultimate
the ceiling, swinging back to spin around
demonstration of freerunning or parkour
a metal pole up to the top of a “tower” (a
with guys flipping off walls, landing on
structure made to look like a castle tower)
stairs and all on concrete, watch the Red
and then leaping off to land with a tuck
Bull Santorini parkour contest,” says Labow
and a roll and then a standing front flip—
(see vtsports.com/ninja for a clip).
like Tarzan moving through a converted
Since
warehouse jungle in Williston.
"American
Ninja
Warrior"
premiered in 2009, the show has seen
This is the Ninja/parkour section of
applications soar from 1,000 to more
the gym that Labow calls home for much of
than 70,000. National Ninja League hosts
the winter season. Seven years ago, Green
qualifiers at gyms and obstacle courses
Mountain Training Center was a classic
around the country. In Vermont, gyms
gymnastics gym and Noah Labow was
formerly focused on gymnastics, such as
coaching freestyle skiing at Carabasset
Green Mountain Training Center and Regal
Valley Academy in Maine. A Johnson State
Gym in Essex, have been gradually adding
College grad, he got a call to come home and
obstacles, walls, ropes and ladders and
coach at University of Vermont. He took
outdoor centers.
the job and started training at the Green
Like skateboarders who trick off urban
Mountain Training Center.
ledges, curbs or rails or skiers and riders
That was also about the time that
who trick off a terrain park, these gyms and
American Ninja Warrior was in its second
shows are spawning a whole new generation
season and invited Olympic mogul skier
of athletes who are using both gyms and
Jonny Mosely to host.
the natural world as launching pads for
“I saw the show and thought, why not?”
acrobatics.
says Labow. He put together a demo reel of
And some of the best of these athletes
himself, skiing, zip-lining, doing tricks and
are from Vermont.
free running. “I was at Copper Mountain right after a competition when I got the call inviting
LADY MIGHTY MOUSE
me to a casting call in Los Angeles the next
Last March, at the National Ninja League
week.” Labow made the cut and appeared
showdown at the VertiQuest gym in New
on Season 5 of the top-rated show.
Jersey, McKinley Pierce beat the two topranked women in the nation to win the event, at the same time earning enough
THE NEW ATHLETE
points to take third place overall for the
Ninja warrior, obstacle racer, parkour
season. Nicknamed “Lady Mighty Mouse”
practitioner, free runner, freeskier—Labow,
(Ninja Warriors often get nicknames) the
a bit of all of these, is one of an emerging
5'1" dancer breezed through a course that
breed of multi-talented athletes. “All of
had her bracing her feet against two walls,
these sports teach you, basically, how
swinging along monkey bars, swinging
animals move—and how humans used to
from one rope to grasp a thin grab on a wall
move—through the landscape,” Labow says.
and skipping along bars set two feet apart.
“What we’re trying to do is to get back to that
Pierce, who grew up in Warren, Vt.,
primal strength and freedom of movement.
came into Ninja Warrior competition in
“What I love is that there is something
a round-about way. A dancer, and part of
so free and non-competitive about this,”
the troupe that won “Vermont Has Talent”
chimes in Isaac Marks, a 14-year-old with
in 2013, she trained at Regal Gym in Essex
thick-rimmed black glasses and an already-
Junction, Vt., (which specializes in training
powerful upper build. Marks, a protégé of
for American Ninja Warrior and Spartan
Labow’s, has been training here since he
events) and then started competing in 2016.
was nine. None of his family are athletes– “they are all tech nerds,” he says. “I love this place, I come here three or four times a week,” he says, then demonstrates a “trick” placing a hand on
She won her first event. In her first year competing on the National Ninja League, Warren's McKinley Pierce finished third in the nationals. Now ranked second in the League, Pierce coaches at Regal's American Ninja Warrior program Photo courtesy McKinley Pierce
pits and trampolines. But there’s another
the floor and tumbling with a flip and a spin,
had little in common with historic ninjas,
the early 1900s when a French Naval officer
around it. “It’s a great conversation starter
Japanese mercenaries who in the 15th
named George Hebert tried to create an
and I just like being able to do that." Then he
through 17th centuries ignored the time-
approach to workouts that simulated the
adds: "But sure, yeah, I’d love to be on Ninja
honored customs of samurai warfare to play
skills he saw in native African tribes.
Warrior someday, too."
by their own rules. The moves in the modern
Parkour involves running, swinging,
verison are more akin to the depictions
climbing and jumping through an obstacle
of the superheroes in cartoons—men and
course. It has become as much an ethic that
women who leap off tall buildings, throw in
espouses freedom of movement using your
martial arts moves and swing across urban
total body as it is a workout. As its recent
canyons.
popularity has spread, parkour has spawned
THE NINJA REVOLUTION The TV show, "American Ninja Warrior," evolved from the Japanese show "Sasuke," which challenged contestants to climb, swing and balance their way through a series of ever-more-creative obstacles. It
from
free running as well—running through an
parkour, a sport that has been around since
urban or natural landscape—and “tricking”
The
show
borrowed
Regal is a gymnastics training site with a vast room filled with mats, bars, foam
heavily
area, an entire room dedicated to the types of obstacles to conquer with names like Walking Wind Chimes, Double Salmon Ladder, the Wobble Totter and Ultimate Cliff Hanger that focuses on Ninja tricks. “I love the fact that this gym has so many really creative obstacles in a small room,” says Pierce, who is one of a few women in Vermont doing Ninja training. “It takes a lot of upper body strength and a lot of balance and every technique comes down to how you move your body. It never feels
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 21
like working out, it’s just fun.” After earning $500 last season, this season, Pierce is going for the $2,000 first prize and is applying to be on the TV show
growing up he skied, but it was his mother,
American Ninja Warriors.
of balancing tricks there—like balancing
Elizabeth Deutsch, who pushed him to get into gymnastics and to go to Circus Smirkus’ youth circus arts program. “I learned a lot chairs and perching on poles.”
GOING PRO AS A STUNTMAN While there’s no real pro circuit for Ninjas, the training can lead to other lucrative careers. “I love the fact that I can make a living doing all the sports I love to do at once,” says Justice Hedenberg, a skateboarder, freeskier, free-runner, martial arts practitioner and gymnast from Hinesburg, Vt. When he’s in Vermont, Hedenberg helps out coaching at Green Mountain Training Center teaching parkour. But when I reached him by phone, the 25-year-old was in Los Angeles, waiting at a casting call for a movie role as a stuntman. Hedenberg has already played a National Guardsman in Ghostbusters (2016), done fight scenes in the Netflix series Daredevil, crashed through a table while fighting Donnie Wahlberg’s stunt double, cartwheeled his way through a Verizon commercial and been catapulted (literally) on-stage to land on a skateboard while touring with Marvel Universe Live. “That last one was a little scary,” Hedenberg admits. Hedenberg’s father, Todd, was the freeskiing coach at Mad River Glen and
At 13, Hedenberg started training with a Czech gymnastics coach, Stefan Hruska “He’s the one who really taught me
flips while spinning and still land, you’re chump change,” says Hedenberg. Still, one of his favorite things to do is teach other kids and he does so at GMTC when he’s back in Vermont. “I love it when someone who is waist-high sees me do a trick and comes up and says, “whoooaa, I wish I could do that,” and I look at him or her and say, “yeah, you can.”
a lot about how to move your body,” says Hedenberg. “He was this jolly, happy guy who understood that gymnastics was not just about competing but applying what you learned to other sports. He would always tell me, in his thick Czech accent: “You need more explohshion, more explohshion.”
Hedenberg began taking what he
learned in gymnastics and martial arts and applying them to skateboarding. His demo reel shows him riding up a bowl in a ramp, leaping, then landing on a second skateboard, four feet from the lip and skating away (a move which earned him airtime on the website/social media empire, PeopleAreAwesome.com.)
Recently,
he
perfected going up a skateboard ramp, doing a double aerial flip with a spin — a “Rudi,” in gymnastics terms — and landing on the ramp's top lip. “It’s
amazing
how
things
are
progressing. I look on the Internet and am blown away by what I see kids doing today. When I was a kid. It was crazy to do a 540 — a spin and a half. Now, if you can’t do two
terrain the way other riders use a terrain park. His most recent release “Through My Lens” (2016) tells his story and shows his unique style of riding through the tight backcountry trees and the gnarliest terrain of Mt. Mansfield’s western slopes. One year, judging from his pedometer, Tower estimates he logged 1,500 miles snowshoeing up to snowboard down. And that was before he got a splitboard. “I haven’t bought a lift ticket in 13 years,” he
TAKING IT BACK TO NATURE When Chris Tower was a kid, he was told he might never walk without leg braces. Today, he’s an American Ninja Warrior instructor at Regal Gym and one of the instigators in bringing Ninja training to Vermont. Tower was born with Legg–Calvé– Perthes disease (LCPD). He was told he’d never be able to run, ski, ride bikes or even walk without leg braces, but at age 5, he kicked them off and set out on a bike. He later took up skiing and then snowboarding. “I was a little like Forrest Gump,” says Tower, now 36. “Once I got out there, I just kept going.” Tower fell in love with snowboarding and started competing regionally. “I built my own terrain park in my backyard,” he says. He tricked off anything he could find, improvising and filming a lot of his moves with his amateur film crew, Green Mountain Rippers. The films show him taking hits off trees, flipping off rocks, using fallen tree trunks like rails. He rides backcountry
says proudly. “It’s all human powered.” When his mother and stepfather opened Regal Gym, Tower saw an opportunity. “There were a ton of kids, mainly little girls, who wanted to do gymnastics there,” he says. He saw a chance to bring in a new type of aspiring athlete, the Ninja Warrior, and worked to set up the Ninja Warrior room and training at the gym. Gradually, the gym has added different obstacles to its training room and increased its training schedule. “It’s still mainly kids, but we’re starting to get some adults coming into train as well,” says Tower. He and McKinley Pierce are two of the primary trainers. But for Tower, the gym is just the practice site. The real tricks are to be done out in nature, away from the crowds, somewhere in the backcountry. “Riding is what makes me happy,” Tower says, simply. “Life’s too short to be serious. Why not ride every day you can?”
New for the 2017-’18 Season:
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In-house
skiing, Bolton Valley Resort is making a move to become the hub of East-Coast backcountry skiing and riding.”
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Check the BV website for a complete list of events and dates!
Group Backcountry Clinics: Weekly Group Clinics and Guided Tours “Get Out & Backcountry” Instructional Series February 4 and 11
Free Guided Tours with BVBC Director and local ski guru, Adam DesLauriers
Private Guiding and instruction: Bolton Valley now makes it easy and approachable for someone at any experience level to safely explore thousands of acres of high-mountain wilderness terrain, while learning the ins and outs of alpine touring, backcountry safety, and self-reliance.
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Celebrate the 50th Anniversary
Celebrate 50 years of our Cross Country Ski Center! From January 19 to January 26, 2018 we’ll celebrate the first 50 years that made Johannes von Trapp’s vision a reality, and we’ll set the course for the next half century. Join us on the trails and in the Bierhall as we festively commemorate the occasion with our many friends, both old and new. Visit trappfamily.com/activities for more details and an event schedule!
800.826.7000
Trappfamily.com NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 23
LONG ROAD HOME MUNDO PEQUEÑO:
The
PART II
AFTER BIKEPACKING THE LENGTH OF SOUTH AMERICA, THREE BUDDIES CONTINUE ACROSS CENTRAL AMERICA ON THEIR WAY HOME TO VERMONT. STORY and PHOTOS BY ELI BENNETT, NOAH MCCARTER AND CAMERON RUSSELL.
O
n January 18, 2017, Cameron Russell of Burlington, Vermont, and his friends Eli Bennett and Noah McCarter set out from Patagonia, near the southernmost tip of South America, to bikepack their way back to Vermont and the Canadian border. In the June issue of Vermont Sports, we told the story of the first part of their journey and shared a list of what they carried and the gear they used (see vtsports.com/mundopequeno/). In this second part, they tell of their ocean crossing to Panama, their trip through Central America, surviving torrential downpours and Mexico’s worst recorded earthquake and, at last, the border crossing into Texas.
24 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
After leaving the highlands of Peru (shown here), where we last left them, the trio bikepacked through Ecuador and Colombia before taking a boat to cross over to Panama.
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 25
After biking the length of South America and five days crossing aboard a boat, Eli and Cameron surf Panama's beaches and collect coconuts.
THE SEA CROSSING: COLOMBIA TO MANAGUA, NICARAGUA
A
t the end of our adventures in South America and Colombia we were faced with the challenge of traveling to Panama. The Darian Gap marks the no-man’s land between the two continents—a wilderness with no roads and notorious for cartel activity and smuggling. Our choices for travel were between air and water. We boarded the Wild Card, a 60-foot steel hulled sailboat, to make the crossing from Colombia to Panama. Cameron had flown on ahead but we (Eli and Noah) would spend the next five days living on the ship with 20 other passengers, four crew, and a one-year-old dog named Max. Our first two nights and full day on the boat were spent on the open sea. The experience of being out of sight of land was new to us and reminiscent of the feeling of the two days we had spent crossing the salt flats in Bolivia. There was nothing but the horizon line in all directions and no reference point other than what you were immediately surrounded by. There was sense of drifting in a void—a feeling of being in a place not meant for humans. Of intruding upon an empty world of wind and open sky unbroken
26 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
but for the occasional pod of dolphins or school of flying fish. Aboard the boat we passed the time watching the waves and getting to know our fellow travelers. We awoke after our second night of rolling in our bunks to the sight of the San Blas Islands, a chain of 378 islands off the Caribbean coast of Panama. With crystal clear water, white coral sand beaches, and
lolling palm trees they embodied a vision of paradise. We jumped off the boat to swim to shore in water only slightly cooler than the tropical air and spent the rest of our day snorkeling and lounging on the beach. The next few days passed in much the same way. Days were spent on paradise islands enjoying seafood and coconuts in the sun, exploring the bright and lively world under
the water with snorkels, and lots of rum. When our voyage came to an end, we were ready to get off the confined decks of the boat and to be back on the mainland. The trip had been a good adventure but it felt good to be loading up the bikes again. This would be the first time that the road we set out on would eventually lead us home. After waiting for Cameron to rejoin us in Puerto Lindo, we put tire to pavement again and crossed from coast to coast ending our ride in Panama City. We regretted not having enough time to explore more than a few blocks, but enjoyed a night stroll through the historic district, a strange mix of the dilapidated and abandoned, standing shoulder to shoulder with refurbished and modernized opulence. This was a pattern we would see more of as we crossed the country—a mixing of two worlds: the American dream (roadside shopping centers, mega outlets, and new car dealerships) standing stark against trashlined streets and corrugated iron roofs. We passed a protest march demanding to improve the local school because it had dirt floors and no running water, while just down the road stood billboards for half-amillion dollar beachfront condos. It was unsettling to see a vacation destination
in the process of being transformed into something resembling Florida, rising up next to shacks and farms where people still live off the land and sea.
THREE MEN, NO PLAN, A CANAL — PANAMA! Our next day riding took us to the crossing of the Panama Canal. We were halfway over the bridge, walking our bikes along the sidewalk when we were stopped by the police and told that bikes were not permitted across the bridge. They said we would be arrested if we tried to cross, and the only solution was to go back and hire a taxi. This marked the fourth time in two days that we had been stopped and questioned by Panamanian law enforcement. The second time we had been informed that bikes were not permitted to pass, contrary to any indication otherwise. We were not happy campers as we spent the next hour trying to hitch a ride across the bridge. Eventually, we were picked up by two Spaniards in a small mobile home. We piled our bikes in and chatted as we drove over the Panama Canal. When they dropped us off, we asked why they had helped us. They left us with the moving answer: “Help is the greatest coin in the world.” We have found this to be true again and again over the last seven months. It is a truth that transcends all divisions. The act of giving help when you can is a gift anyone can give. It is an important truth to remember as we face a world becoming more and more divided by differences. The Pan American highway stretched ahead of us and we rode. Through traffic, dirt shoulders verging on ditches, and sweltering heat we rode on, the kilometers dropping away as we put in long hours. We thought we had experienced rain before, but the rainy season in Panama took things to a new level. The daily downpours came in sheets of water that turned the shoulder of the road into a literal stream. The soaking storms came as a relief to the dripping heat and humidity. Our days were spent half drenched in sweat and half in rain. After a few days of rinse, wash and repeat, we took a lovely rest day camping on the beach. At Playa Las Lajas we enjoyed the sun and practiced surfing on the gentle waves. We watched beautiful sunsets and felt like we got to see a different side to Panama than what the highway had to offer. Our ride to and from the beach was rolling farmland and lush jungle. An escape from the rushing shipping lane of the Pan American.
ONE OF THE WILDEST PLACES ON EARTH Then it was on to Costa Rica. We crossed the border and took a ferry across to the Osa Peninsula, a part of the country notable for the Corcovado National Park, one of the most biodiverse wildlife preserves in the
After a quick crossing of Nicaragua (top), Eli, Noah and Cameron (left to right) stop above the crater of the Volcan del Salvador in El Salvador. world. While we did not have time to enter the park itself we did get to ride around its edges and see scarlet macaws and toucans flying over our heads. We chose to take a “shortcut” and found ourselves on a dirt road less traveled and steeper than any road we have seen so far. This single lane dirt track was at such a steep angle that at times we all were forced to walk our bikes—something that none of us had done before on the trip. The loose gravel would make wheels spin out and kill momentum. As we sweated and dragged our bikes along step by step, the rain came. We could hear it sweep across the jungle with
a rushing sound of downpour on leaves. When the curtain of water reached us it turned the little dirt lane into a full stream of muddy water running inches deep in places. You would take three steps forward pulling the weight of the bike behind you only to slip back two. The 17 kilometers of road took over three and a half hours to complete. It was that three and a half hours that made us thankful: after seven months on the road we were ready to face challenges and conditions that would normally leave someone defeated. We rode into the night, surrounded by the strange noises of the jungle and the
calls of distant howler monkeys, eager to reach our destination. Noah’s family was meeting us for a week-long visit in the little surf town of Dominical. They greeted us late that night with great excitement and welcomed us to the house they had rented for the week. It was a beautiful place nestled in the jungle right next to a little waterfall and walking distance to the beach. It felt decadent to have so much space and modern amenities. Air conditioning and internet! The novelty of our very own washer and dryer—what luxury indeed! This was the longest any of us had spent in one place on the trip so far. It was a welcome change to the constant stress of travel that we had lived with for the past seven months. It was a moment to spend enjoying the place we were in instead of just riding through and a welcome rest for body, mind, and spirit. We went on a guided nature walk in the jungle and saw whiteface monkeys, two types of sloths, poison dart frogs, and many more strange creepy crawlies. We rented kayaks in the mangroves and snorkeled with the tropical fish. We played in the waves and surfed. We hiked through the rain to a large waterfall and ate fruit that foraging monkeys tossed down to us. But with well over 7,000 kilometers left to ride and only so many days and weeks before the snow, it was business time. Cameron had left from Dominical a few days earlier to ride north to Managua, Nicaragua solo. Crossing the border, he posted a photo and this note on his Instagram: “Feeling sentimental - 11 years ago, during the first semester of my senior
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 27
year of college, I studied abroad with SIT (School of International Training, based in Brattleboro, VT) in Nicaragua. I lived with Mamita and her two grandsons, Jorge and Luis. I’ve visited mi familia Nicaragüense every couple of years since 2006... during those visits, I often proclaimed that one day I’d arrive to Managua by bike enroute from South America. Tomorrow is that day! Though we all wanted to spend more time exploring this region, Managua would mark a jumping off point for making tracks towards home, with the goal of crossing the U.S. border by mid to late September.
In Honduras, locals carry their firewood by bike as Cameron rides to catch them.
THE NICARAGUAN PELOTON With the three of us riding together again, we set off from Managua, looking forward to quickly making progress north, cycling through Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. In ten days, we would reach the border of Guatemala and Mexico, our last passport stamping before entering the United States after nine months of travel. The first day was easy-going as we pedaled the flat roads of the Pan American Highway, a road we first traveled months ago in Chile. During the last few hours, we spied a group a Lycra-clad cyclists going twice our leisurely pace. We looked at each other wondering if the group warranted a chase. Why not? It’s good to keep touring interesting with some race pace efforts. Accelerating, we caught them, and as Cameron started talking to them, they dropped the pace so we could easily hold their wheels. It turned out one the riders was Nicaragua’s Under 23 National Champion. It was great to ride with some local cyclists and get a good workout to finish the day. The next day, we left with the plan to reach the border town Somotillo and cross into Honduras the following day. As we reached Somotillo and began to explore the small town, we were picked out by a man who was determined to invite us to his hotel. We were instructed to follow him in his minivan. Not knowing what to expect, but being comfortable as we have become accustomed to this type of situation, we followed out of the town until the road turned to dirt. We soon arrived at his driveway. The room had everything we needed; a few beds awkwardly placed, a bathroom with about five bars of opened soap and, most importantly, a working AC unit. After a somewhat disappointing mission to get dinner, we settled with a few beers in a makeshift backyard bar before walking back to our room.
HOSPITALITY IN HONDURAS We left our room in Somotillo after a few cold Nescafe coffees and some leftover snacks—enough to hold us over until reaching the border. We had been talking about how it would be possible to cross Honduras in one day, as we were riding
28 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
along the short southwestern coast. But we would have to see how the day played out. Perhaps, we argued, we owed at least one night in the country. After quickly being processed into Honduras and a breakfast of baked yucca and meat we began looking for a quick stop to get some water. The heat and humidity of Central America often had us drinking six or more liters of water during an entire day, along with sodas and Gatorade. We found a busy little shop and each filled our six-liter MSR Dromedary water bags. When we returned the empty bottles to the shop, we were each gifted a cold carton of orange juice. Once we started on our way again, leaving the busy border behind; we thought it might be best to spend a night in Honduras as we had such a great experience in a few short kilometers. Once the heat of the day began slowing us, we found some shade beneath a tree beside the road. After a few moments, a man carrying a heavy load of firewood he had gathered for cooking stopped to rest under the same tree. I offered him some water from my steel cup and gave him the remaining chips I had been eating. We watched a few others pedal past, also with wood they had gathered, as the three of us enjoyed a few last minutes of rest from
the sun. We said goodbye and set off on our way as the man began his walk home once again. That night we ended up stopping in Nacaome. We had planned to continue but once the heat of the day hit us we decided not to push for the border before nightfall. The next day we biked 35 kilometers to the border with El Salvador and continued to the city of San Miguel.
AFTER SUNSET IN EL SALVADOR In a few Central American countries we had been warned that we should always reach a hotel or hostel before dark. In San Miguel, it was clear this cautionary advice held true. We arrived within a few hours of sunset to a busy city with vendors on the streets. By seven o’clock, as the sun was dropping, the streets emptied, stores closed, and the hotel staff waited for guests to return for the night before shutting the doors to the parking area. This served as a reminder that places can change quickly and to remain aware of how people are acting around you. After interacting with hundreds of people along the thousands of miles of
roadway in South America and now Central America, body language had become a key component in reading a situation— especially when the language barrier came into play. In rural regions of Bolivia and Peru, people often looked at us with a sense of fear and uneasiness. In other places, folks would react with excitement and curiosity. Some would rather ignore us all together. In Central America, more often we would sense people having concern or fear for our safety. However, we can now say that we traveled through this entire region without feeling directly threatened by anyone. Our next stop in El Salvador was a day and half spent in San Salvador with Noah’s uncle’s partner, Cecilia and her family. She had grown up in San Salvador and was excited to show us the city. This stop also served as a history lesson and reminder of the ill effects of U.S. involvement in many of the countries we had been traveling through. We heard first-hand experiences of living through the civil war during the 1980s and had time to ponder our country’s influence on the lives of so many. We had contrasting hotel stays during our two nights in Guatemala—another reminder of the constant uncertainty of what our next 24 hours of travel might
bring. The first night we happened upon a hotel and restaurant on a small secondary road we had been traveling. With beautiful gardens and clean rooms with fresh sheets, it was more akin to what you might expect in a countryside B&B back home, but for a fraction of the cost you would pay. Our second night we found a roadside motel on the Pan American Highway with rooms available per hour or the night. The rooms each included a framed poster of a scantily dressed woman and too many mirrors on the ceiling and walls. For dinner we cooked outside our rooms in the parking lot, each eating a few ramen soup cups, adding an egg and chopped onion to each. The next day we had about 140 kilometers before the border with Mexico. We woke and rolled out as the sun was just rising. At some point during the day we had a meal that resulted Noah and Eli spending 48 hours in a hotel after crossing into Mexico.
VII ROADSIDE TEQUILA The crossing into Mexico went smoothly. The food poisoning that Eli and Noah came down with that night did not go as well. It was the full-deal, six-hour-body-cleanse kind of night. By the time the morning came around, both men were completely drained and barely able to stand. They had no choice but to remain in the small border town for a day to recuperate and rest from the ordeal. Our trip was often full of fun and beautiful adventures but there were also many moments like these where the unexpected and unpleasant come to call. The hardships and challenges were just as important for us as the joys. When we got back on our bikes we found Eli and Noah had lost a lot of strength and we only managed to limp to the nearest town the first day. After that, they slowly improved as strength returned. We found Mexico to be one of our favorite countries (other than Colombia) to ride in. The road conditions improved from what we had become accustomed to in Central America, and we were warmly welcomed. So many people had warned us about Mexico being dangerous but, as it had been in so many countries before, we never experienced any incidents where we felt unsafe or in danger: only friendly people interested in us and our trip. Southern Mexico was hot but flat riding, the landscape of rolling jungle broken by grasslands and distant hills. We spent another rest day on the beach to say goodbye to the west coast before heading inland. Then it was up into the mountains again as we headed for the city of Oaxaca. We found the mountains to be beautiful and the towns we stopped in to be relaxed. As the evenings came, everyone would go out into the streets to walk and visit each other. There was a feeling of peace and community. This was a drastic difference
The trio hit the 10,000 mile mark just south of Selma, Ala. before crossing the border into Texas. When they finish at the Canadian border in midNovember, they will have ridden nearly 12,000 miles. from what we had found in many of the towns we had passed through in Central America, and a welcome change. An experience that stood out from this section of riding was stopping for lunch in a tiny mountain town with only a few houses. There was a man at a roadside table selling homemade tequila and mescal and he called us over. He asked us about our trip. He wanted us to try all the different flavors he had for sale. We had to stop after only a few because it was the middle of the day, and the drink much stronger than what you would find in a store. There aren’t many regulations when you grow, harvest, and distill your own agave in the mountains of Mexico. We made sure to eat a large lunch before getting back on our bikes.
EARTHQUAKE IN OAXACA We got to the city of Oaxaca after a long day of riding and finished in the dark and rain. We found our hostel and made friends with our roommates before settling down. As we lay in bed, all of a sudden, we felt a growing vibration. Everyone in the room looked at each other and then, as the sensation grew, we quickly agreed it was an earthquake. The next two minutes were some of the scariest we have had on this trip. The entire world was rattling, like driving fast on a bumpy dirt road. It was so strong that it was hard to stand. It wasn't just the movement that was scary, but the feeling of being powerless and in the hands of fate. There is not much else you can do in a natural disaster than to try to stay calm and hope for the best. When the world stopped moving, we found that, luckily, there was no damage to the building and we were all fine, other than being badly scared. It turned out this was
Back in the U.S. of A., Eli pops a wheelie after crossing into Texas. the worst earthquake to hit Mexico in the last century, and there were many deaths and injuries around the country. We had been incredibly lucky because the epicenter had been just off the beach town where we had spent our rest day, just four days earlier. The shockwave had decreased a lot by the time it got to us and the damage was much more extensive closer to the source. We spent the next three days in Oaxaca and took a rest break to act as tourists for a little while. We toured a pre-Colombian Zapotec temple ruin and crawled into one of its tombs. We learned more about the difference between tequila and mescal and
how they are made. We visited the home of a local rug weaver who showed us how all the dyes she used were made from natural materials she had gathered. We also visited the city market and ate spiced grasshoppers from a street vendor. It was a good view into aspects of Mexican culture and history. When we set out again, we separated for a few days of riding alone. When we spend so much time together, taking time apart is often a needed break for us. It is also a different way to travel and experience a place when you ride on your own. When we rejoined in Puebla outside of Mexico City, we celebrated Mexico’s
NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 29
Independence Day and then set out again together for our last stretch of riding in Latin America.
THE BORDER CROSSING As we set off from Puebla, we were all a bit weary of the long miles we’d put in and knew that we still had a good section to ride before we’d make it to the U.S. From Puebla, we’d planned to stay up in the altiplano or high plains of Mexico, because the altitude gave relief from the stifling heat. On our first day out of Puebla, we rode at our own paces and eventually made it to the small town of Emiliano Zapata, where we stayed a cheap hotel and enjoyed some pizza together. The next morning, we hit up the town square for some amazing tamales before getting back to the main route. It was a bit of a grueling day, but we finished early and ended up at a hotel in the town of San Francisco. We hit the hay pretty early as we’d planned to put in Noah’s first ever 100-mile day the next day. The next morning, we were off a bit late, but the descents were aplenty and we made good time. This was also the day of the second earthquake in Mexico. We were riding and didn’t feel it at the time, but in retrospect, we all agreed that we felt particularly unsteady on a descent at the time of the earthquake and wondered whether we had felt it without realizing it.
It was weird to think about how, again, we were just days ahead of an earthquake that took lives and destroyed buildings. We had planned to be in Mexico City on the day when the earthquake struck, making it all the more surreal. That night, after completing the 100-mile ride and celebrating, we all slept soundly in a nice quiet hotel in the town of San Jose de Iturbide. The following day, though intended to be a rest day, turned out to be a bit of an adventure. From San Jose de Iturbide, we headed north on back roads, hoping to avoid the highway for a day. Eventually, after passing through a small town, the road turned to dirt and gradually became more and more rocky. After coming to a gate that was designed for cattle herds, we knew we’d reached rural Mexico. Too late to turn back, we soldiered on into the evening, praying that our nearlybald tires wouldn’t suffer flats on the sharp rocks. Eventually, at dusk, we arrived at a small lake that had all but dried up. We thought we might find some cabins to stay in, but the town was nearly deserted and we had to make camp for the night in a small park. We talked to some locals and were assured that we’d be fine and that no one would bother us. Fortunately, we had the foresight to pick up dinner supplies that morning, and enjoyed our pasta by headlamp before bed. After a restless night’s sleep in the park, we had a weary day pedaling the highway
[ MANSFIELD
again. We’d been at it for long enough to feel like we needed a break, and not long enough to get one, knowing that we still had nearly a week before we’d cross into Laredo, Texas. That day, we’d make it to a roadside hotel just north of Ciudad Hidalgo. The real treat would come the next morning: an allyou-can-eat buffet at the side of the main highway. It was worth the $8 each for the several plates we each had. The last several days of this section continued in similar fashion as we rode the high plains of Mexico. Our energy at this point of the trip suffered at times. We’d spent a lot of time together, but we still had a long way to go. While we were looking forward to crossing back into the U.S., there were also dilemmas about how it would feel to be back in a country that we knew had had such conflicting relationships with many of the Latin American countries we’d come to love. Our bodies were tired, our butts sore, but we didn’t have an excuse not to make good time on the mostly flat terrain. When we crossed into Laredo, we were surprised at how simple it was: no scans, no significant bag checks, just a look at our passports and we were off. In some ways, that was great, but we were admittedly a little disappointed when we asked for a picture with the border patrol guards and weren’t allowed to take one. Though one of the guards had been willing,
O R T H O PA E D I C S
he was soon told by the supervisor that that wouldn’t be allowed. For better or worse, we couldn’t help but chuckle at this being our welcome back to the good ole U.S. of A.
MEET THE CREW:
Cameron Russell: After growing up in the heart of the Green Mountains, Cameron inherited a passion for biking from his father. He graduated from UVM in 2007 and began teaching at a small boarding school in the Berkshires. The Mundo Pequeño became his dream after he rode solo from the Oregon coast to Boston to raise money for an organization called Trips for Kids. Eli Bennet: Eli grew up in an intentional community on the border of Massachusetts and New York State. Before Mundo Pequeño, he cycled 700 miles from New York State to Bar Harbor, Maine, and in 2010 he biked across the US. He says he embarked on his South American journey to discover his place in the world. Noah McCarter says: "My hope is to use this trip to bring people together and spread awareness around conservation and sustainability issues we encounter all along our journey. I want to share the way people live in relation to nature and the effects that those life styles have around the globe." Join the Mundo Pequeño at Skinny Pancake in Burlington on Nov. 19 before they ride to the Canadian border. For more on their trip, see vtsports.com/mundopequeno.
]
Experience when you need it most: Bryan C. Monier, MD & Saul Trevino, MD Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Specialists “I joined Copley Hospital because I wanted to work with this team. They are collaborative, committed to excellence, to cutting-edge work, and dedicated to getting patients back to doing the activities they love.” BRYAN C. MONIER
AO Trauma Fellowship: John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, Australia Foot and Ankle Fellowship: University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle Residency, Orthopedic Surgery: University of Vermont Medical Center Medical Degree: University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine Bachelor of Arts: Williams College in Massachusetts Conditions treated: arthritis, bunions, fracture fixation, foot reconstruction, ankle instability, and sports related injuries of the foot and ankle. He is also trained in total ankle replacements.
Orthopaedic Surgeon Bryan C. Monier, MD joins Copley Hospital as Dr. Saul Trevino transitions to a non-operative clinical practice.
To make an appointment with a Mansfield Orthopaedic Specialist at Copley Hospital, call 802.888.8405 ARTHRITIS CARE | FOOT & ANKLE CARE | HAND, WRIST & ELBOW CARE | HIP & KNEE CARE SHOULDER CARE | JOINT REPLACEMENT | FRACTURE & TRAUMA CARE | SPORTS MEDICINE
555 Washington Highway, Morrisville, VT
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EXCEPTIONAL CARE. COMMUNITY FOCUSED.
30 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
copleyvt.org
RACE & EVENT GUIDE
VERMONT
SPORTS
LISTING YOUR EVENT IN THIS CALENDAR IS FREE AND EASY. VISIT VTSPORTS.COM/ SUBMIT-AN-EVENT OR E-MAIL EDITOR@ VTSPORTS.COM. ALL AREA CODES ARE 802. ALL LOCATIONS ARE IN VERMONT, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. FEATURED EVENTS, IN YELLOW, PAY A NOMINAL FEE.
RUNNING NOVEMBER 4 | Fallen Leaves 5K #1, Montpelier The first race in this low-key, three-race series. The flat and fast 5K race course begins and ends on the Montpelier High School track and incorporates the Montpelier bike path. The second and third races take place in the same location on Nov. 11 and Nov. 18. cvrunners.org 5 | Inaugural Vermont 10 Miler, Stowe Enjoy a scenic 10-mile race course, then celebrate at Sushi Yoshi. Your $20 ticket includes Vermont’s fine craft beers, sushi appetizers and a hot buffet. vermont10miler.com 5 | Fall 5K/10K & Half Marathon, Shelburne RaceVermont hosts this superhero-themed half marathon, a loop course that begins at Shelburne Field House. You’ll run into the countryside, past Shelburne Farms and to the Shelburne Shipyard where you’ll turn around and head back home. racevermont.com 11 | The Doe 5K Women’s Run/Walk, St. Albans On opening day of deer season, head to this inside course, hidden from traffic. Super safe and family friendly. Untimed event with lots of raffle prizes. Three age categories: Adult Doe, Student Doe and Fawns & Button Bucks with Mama. Costumes are not mandatory however, there are prizes for best costume. Profits to benefit female athletic scholarships. facebook.com/TheDoeRun/
19 | Middlebury Turkey Trot & Gobble Wobble 5K and 10K, Middlebury These races start in downtown Middlebury and feature chip timing, t-shirts for all entrants, raffle prizes and 20-pound turkeys for the winners. middleburyfitness.com
23 | GMAA Turkey Trot, Burlington A certified 5K on the University of Vermont women’s cross country course. Walkers are welcome in this race benefiting the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. Race starts at 11 a.m. at the Gutterson Field House. gmaa.net 23 | Goggle Wobble Turkey Trot, Websterville 14th Annual Thanksgiving morning 5K Run/Walk race. Prizes for top two winners and first place runners in age categories. Supports the local mission outreach in Barre. eventbrite.com 23 | Gobble Gobble Wobble 5K, Stratton Stratton Resort hosts a Thanksgiving 5K around the base area. stratton.com 23 | Running of the Turkeys, Arlington A scenic Thanksgiving 5K starts and ends in Arlington village at the Fisher Elementary School. bkvr.net 23 | Jarred Williams Turkey Trot, Richmond A 5K and 10K run starting at the Round Church in Richmond benefits the Jarred Williams Foundation. runsignup.com 23 | Killington 5K Turkey Trot, Killington The town of Killington hosts a 5K run/walk benefitting local charities. killingtonturkeytrot.com 23 | Zack’s Place Turkey Trot, Woodstock The race begins in front of the Woodstock Elementary School and meanders through the historic Village of Woodstock, on towards Billings Farm, and back around the Town Green. zacksplacevt.org/turkey_trot.php
24 | Turkey Hangover Climb, Mount Snow A free running race to the top of the Yard Sale trail with prizes for the top finishers as well as the best costumes. mountsnow.com
25 | Trot It Off 5K, Ludlow Avid runners and recreational walkers burn off the calories from that extra slice of Thanksgiving dessert at Okemo’s base area. okemo.com 25 | Jingle Jog 5K, Shelburne All racers will be provided with jingle bells and a Santa hat. The course will be posted soon. active.com
DECEMBER 9 | Moonlight Hike, Ludlow Naturalist Joe Karl guides hikers up Okemo’s Jackson Gore. Return to the fire pit at the Jackson Gore Inn to roast marshmallows and share stories. This event is free for participants with snowshoes. Rental snowshoes will be available for a nominal fee. okemo.com 9 | RiRa Santa 5K, Burlington Grab your Santa suit (it comes with your registration) and head to downtown Burlington for this festive 5K. Free Irish breakfast after the race courtesy of RiRas. vrpro.ca 9 | Jingle Bell Jog, Brattleboro Jingle bells are provided to all participants. The out-andback course starts downtown at the Brooks House and runs along the Whetstone Brook. brattleborochamber.org
JANUARY 21 | Komen Race For The Cure, Stratton The Komen Vermont Snowshoe for the Cure returns to Stratton Mountain’s Sun Bowl area. It will feature a competitive 3K race as well as a 3K and a 5K snowshoe walk. Snowshoes aren’t even required; free loaner snowshoes will be available from Snowshoe for the Cure’s Official Snowshoe Partner, Tubbs (first come first serve). komennewengland.org
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NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 31
DECEMBER
SNOWSPORTS
1 | Curious & Cool, Stowe The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum opening party is 7-9 for its new winter exhibit highlighting extraordinary and unusual objects the Musuem's Collection. vtssm.org
NOVEMBER 4 | Vermont Backcountry Forum, Rochester The Vermont Backcountry Alliance, the Catamount Trail Association and the Rochester Area Sport Trails Alliance gather for a full-day, bigger-than-ever meeting focused on developing Vermont’s backcountry and cross country skiing. Complete with a ski swap, a bonfire, vendors, a potluck, a raffle and a cash bar. rastavt.org
9 | Green Mountain Skimo Training Camp, Bolton The Catamount Trail Association, Bolton Valley and Ian Clarke (who represented the US at the World Championships in Italy last season) host a one-day training camp on Bolton’s Nordic trails to gear you up for the coming skimo season. catamounttrail.org
17 | Projected Opening Day at Craftsbury The northern Vermont ski area welcomes cross-country skiers back with a week of snowmaking and training for clubs and teams. craftsbury.com
9 | Rails 2 Riches at Killington Resort, Killington The East’s most lucrative rail jam, Rails 2 Riches, officially kicks off the shred season for pro and amateur skiers and riders from across the US and Canada. killington.com
18 | The Big Kicker, American Flatbread, Waitsfield Mad River Valley’s two ski areas start the winter season with a rail jam at American Flatbread along with food, drinks and giveaways. sugarbush.com
9 | SheJumps Ski and Ride Day, Stowe Ladies take over Stowe Mountain Resort with discounted passes ($76). Costumes are encouraged. eventbrite.com
19 | Loaded Turkey Rail Jam, Killington Killington starts its park season with a rail jam contest that awards a frozen turkey plus Thanksgiving fixings to the winners. First place competitors also get free entry into Killington’s Rails 2 Riches. killington.com 24-26 | Audi FIS World Cup, Killington Skiing greats from around the world take to Superstar trail in this FIS slalom and giant slalom event. The weekend also features free movie premieres, concerts by bands such as Dispatch and more. Spectating is free. killington.com
11-12 | Test Fest, Killington Test out the latest ski and snowboard gear for free at the base of Superstar Trail, then head to the after-party at the Wobbly Barn. killington.com 16 | Sugarbash, Sugarbush Celebrate Sugarbush’s birthday with a party at the Gate House Lodge including drinks, appetizers and plenty of dancing. sugarbush.com 16 | Demo Day at Mount Snow, West Dover Skiers and snowboarders can test out the latest gear from top manufacturers at this annual event. mountsnow.com
Sunday, January 21 Stratton Mountain, VT 3K & 5K Snowshoe Walk 3K Snowshoe Race Kids Snowshoe Dash Bring your own snowshoes or we will provide you with demo snowshoes (while supplies last).
Register at komennewengland.org Presented by
Official Snowshoe Partner
Susan G. Komen New England P.O. Box 2496, 1009 Depot Street Manchester Center, VT 05255 PH: 802-362-2733 Email: LManess@komennewengland.org
32 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
Photos by Lee Krohn Photography
17 | Winter Wild At Magic Mountain, Londonderry An uphill event with a downhill twist. Join the wild fun in skis, snowboards or snowshoes. winterwild.com 27 | Grommet Jam, West Dover Avid 12-and-under skiers compete in the first of three rail jams at Mount Snow. Prizes and raffles follow at Carinthia Base Lodge. Following dates are 1/15 and the Grommet Jam Finals on 2/19. mountsnow.com
JANUARY 6 | Annual Ski The East Junior Qualifier, Jay Watch future champs send it on Jay Peak’s toughest terrain. jaypeakresort.com 6 | NE Rando Race Series at Magic Mountain, Londonderry Two courses include a full course with 7,000 feet of vertical, and a shorter recreational course with about 1,500 feet of vertical. nerandorace.blogspot.com 7 | Winter Magic Snowshoe Race, Londonderry Magic Mountain hosts a 3.5 mile snowshoe race on the trail around Lowell Lake State Park. Dion Snowshoe rentals are available. magicmtn.com 8 | Pico Telemark Clinic, Mendon This course, for all ability levels, from beginners to advanced skiers, will emphasize skill demonstration, practice, and technique evaluation. catamounttrail.org 13 | 10th Annual Ladies Nordic Ski Expo, Ripton Rikert Nordic Center hosts this fun, social event taught by women for women. Instruction in classic, skate skiing, backcountry and telemark techniques. catamounttrail.org
26-28 | Smuggs Ice Bash, Smugglers’ Notch Winter’s biggest climbing event happens at the Notch and at PetraCliffs in Burlington. Sign up for free gear demos, clinics, slideshows, competitions, a party and prizes. smuggsicebash.com 25-27 | Telemark World Cup, Warren Sugarbush hosts this 3-day event featuring world-class, international competitors. Racers will participate in classic, sprint and parallel sprint races throughout the weekend. sugarbush.com 30 | Memphremagog Skate Marathon, Newport Kingdom Games hosts 1, 5, 21, and 42K races plus a 42K untimed skate. The 1 and 5K races are free and open to the public. kingdomgames.co 30 | Craftsbury Marathon, Craftsbury This classic ski marathon is a wave start cross-country ski race of 25 or 50K, held on a 12.5K loop. craftsbury.com
FEBRUARY 9-11 | Canadian Ski Marathon, Buckingham, Quebec Three days of long-distance ski touring across harsh, windswept terrain. The marathon follows a point-to-point format. Depending on which of four options skiers choose, you can travel up to 20K each day as the tour skates, kicks and glides towards Lachute, Quebec. csm-mcs.com/en 10 | Memphremagog Women’s Pond Hockey Tournaments, Newport Kingdom Games, Eastside Restaurant, and Newport City Inn & Suites host two days of pond hockey on Lake Memphremagog. memphremagogpondhockey.com
10 | Boarder/Skier Cross, Smugglers’ Notch The Northern Vermont Tour of USASA hosts a BX/SX. with high banked turns and jumps. usasa.org 18 | Winter Wild Race Series, Ascutney, A 3.1-mile trail run with 800 vertical feet of climbing. The course, designed by Jim Lyle, contains steep climbs, singletrack, double-track, winding descents, all to be navigated by headlamp. winterwild.com 24-25 | 33rd Annual Kåre Andersen Telemark Festival, Peru Ski with some of the east’s best teleskiers in this two-day festival, chock-full of clinics and free-heel camaraderie, with a classic race on Sunday. bromley.com
specialolympicsvermont.org
NOVEMBER 9 | Rikert Fatbike Roundup, Ripton Rikert Nordic Center hosts a day of group rides on the trail network. Fatbikes are available for rent and the day concludes with a bonfire and a cookout. rikertnordic.com 5 | 27th Annual West Hill Shop Cyclocross Race/2017 Vermont State Championships, Putney A challenging course over dirt and cornfields with one spirit-crushing hill for the title of Vermont Cyclocross Champion. Divisions range from 30 to 45 minutes. westhillshop.com
SKI SWAPS NOVEMBER 4-5 | Cochran’s Ski Sale Drop-off: Nov. 3 6-8:30 p.m. Sale Hours: Nov. 4 from 8 a.m. - 4p.m.; Nov. 5 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. 18-19 | Cambridge Rotary Winter Sports Sale Drop-off: Nov. 17, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Sale Hours: Nov. 18 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Nov. 19 from 8 a.m. - noon 11 | Waitsfield PTA Ski & Skate Sale Drop-off: Nov. 10 from 4-7 p.m. at the Waitsfield
Race. Coach. Volunteer.
17-19 | Okemo Mountain School Swap Drop-off: Nov. 11, 12 and 15 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. in the Sitting Bull bar. Sale hours: In the Clock Tower Base Lodge Nov. 17 from 4-7 p.m.; Nov. 18 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Nov. 19 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
BIKING
25 | Winter Wild Race Series at Okemo, Ludlow The 3-mile course has 1,022 vertical feet of gain for skiers. winterwild.com
we all belong in the game. Learn more at
Elementary School. Sale hours: Nov. 11 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Waitsfield Elementary School.
11 | eCheese Grater Gravel Ride, Grafton Two routes along gravel roads throughout Grafton, and both feature a rest stop with snacks and water. Benefits the mountain bike skills park. graftoninnvermont.com
JANUARY 7 | Uberwintern Fatbike Festival, Stowe Mountain Bike Vermont hosts a day of fatbike group rides, demos and hearty brews around a warm fire. mtbvt.com
FEBRUARY 10 – 11, 2018 LAKE MEMPHREMAGOG NEWPORT, VERMONT
Teams of 6 + 1 Referee and Solo Entrants Captains’ Online Registration is now open First five teams: $200; Second five teams: $250
Next 10 teams: $300 Final ten teams; $400
Solo entrants welcome at $50
kingdomgames.co NOV/DEC 2017 | VTSPORTS.COM 33
ENDGAME
WHEN WINTER COMES
IN NEW ENGLAND, THIS IS THE SEASON THAT DEFINES US.
BY DONALD HALL
W
e know ourselves by winter. For some of us the first true snow begins it; for others winter begins with the first bruising assault of zero weather. There is yet another sort, light-lovers, for whom winter begins with dark’s onset in mid-August. If we wake as we ought to at 5:30, we begin waking in darkness. Some of us, on the other hand, cherish the gradually increasing dark, which we wrap around ourselves in the prosperous warmth of woodstove, oil, electric blanket, storm window, and insulation. Often October has shown one snow flurry, sometimes even September. For that matter, it once snowed in New Hampshire every month of the year. In 1816 it snowed and froze in June, in July, in August—the Poverty Year, season of continuous winter, when farmers planted over and over again, over and over again ripped out frozen shoots of corn and pumpkin. An 1815 volcanic eruption in Indonesia did it—though at the time our preachers thought the source more local and divine wrath explicit. Winter starts in November, whatever the calendar says, with gray of granite, with russet and brown of used leaves. In November stillness our stonewalls wait, attentive, and gaunt revenant trunks of maple and oak settle down for winter’s stasis, which annually mimics and presages death for each of us and for the planet. November’s palette, Braque’s analytic Cubism, squared with fieldstones, interrupts itself briefly with the bright-flapped caps of deer hunters and their orange jackets. Always it is modified by the black-green fir, enduring, hinting at permanence. Serious snow begins one November afternoon. South of us Mount Kearsarge gradually disappears into white gauzy cloud, vanishing mountain, weather-sign for all of us to its north. For one hundred and eighty years the people of this house have looked south at dawn’s light and again at sunset to tell the coming weather, reliable in 1803 when the first builder put in the south windows and reliable still. When Kearsarge disappears the storm comes closer. Birds gather at the feeder, squabbling, gobbling their weight. When they are full they look for shelter, and we do the same, or at least we bring wood from the shed to stack beside the old Glenwoods and the new Jøtul. Every year the first snow sets me dreaming. By March it will only bring the grumps, but November snow is revenance, a dreamy restitution of childhood or even infancy. Tighten the door and settle a cloth snake against the breeze from the door’s bottom; make sure the storms are firmly shut; add logs to the stove and widen the draft. Sit in a chair looking south into blue
34 VTSPORTS.COM | NOV/DEC 2017
twilight that arrives earlier every day — as the sky flakes and densens, as the first clear flakes float past the porch’s wood to light on dirt of the driveway and on brown frozen grass or dry stalks of the flower border. They seem tentative and awkward at first, then in a hastening host a whole brief army falls, white militia paratrooping out of the close sky over various textures, making them one. Snow is white and gray, part and whole, infinitely various yet infinitely repetitious, soft and hard, frozen and melting, a creaking underfoot and a soundlessness. But first of all it is the reversion of many into one. It is substance, almost the idea of substance, that turns grass, driveway, hayfield, old garden, log pile, Saab, watering trough, collapsed barn, and stonewall into the one white. We finish early in November the task of preparing the house for snow—tacking
poly over the low clapboards, raking leaves against the foundations as high as we can rake them. When the first real snow arrives, no dusting half inch but a solid foot, we complete the insulation, for it is snow that keeps us warm. After a neighbor’s four-wheel-drive pickup, plow bolted in front, swoops clean our U-shaped driveway, and after we dig out the mailbox for Bert’s rural delivery, it is time to heap the snow over leaves and against poly, around the house, on all sides of the house, against the granite foundation stones. Arctic winds halt before this white guard. When bright noon melts inches of snow away from the house, reflecting heat from the snowy clapboard, it leaves cracks of cold air for us to fill when new snow falls all winter long. But November, although it begins winter, is only winter’s approach, with little
snow and with cold that announces itself only to increase. The calendar’s winter begins at the solstice, Advent’s event: the birth of the child who rises from winter to die and rise again in spring. November is autumn’s burial, and the smoke of victims sacrificed is thanks for harvest and magic as we go into ourselves like maples for winter’s bear-sleep. We make transition by way of feast and anticipatory snow, toward the long, white, hard hundred days, the true winter of our annual deaths. We wait for December to feel the cold, I mean c o l d , for longer than a week, but now we are ready for snow. Donald Hall is the former poet laureate of the United States. Excerpted from “Why We Live Here,” from Here at Eagle Pond, by Donald Hall, copyright 1990. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
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