Holly Brooks felt like she had been punched in the stomach when she heard the news from Alaska Pacific University (APU) development coach Charlie Renfro. One of their skiers, 13-year-old Mary Robicheaux, had been hit by a car while riding her bike the night of Aug. 28, and it was unclear whether she was going to survive. A driver ran a stoplight and struck the eighth grader, who was in a crosswalk with the traffic...
The countdown has truly begun.... in just a short 29 days I will be headed on another 30-hour travel to Europe to kick off the 2012-2013 ski season. With less than a month to go, nerves and excitement are starting to brew in my belly and the anticipati...
The countdown has truly begun.... in just a short 29 days I will be headed on another 30-hour travel to Europe to kick off the 2012-2013 ski season. With less than a month to go, nerves and excitement are starting to brew in my belly and the anticipati...
It’s here: the first skiable snow of the season fell over the weekend in Anchorage, Alaska, much to the delight of area skiers and envy of everyone in the continental U.S. Rock skis were still necessary, but the close access, crisp air and fresh powder ushered in that first-snow excitement even for athletes used to skiing throughout the summer on Eagle Glacier. “I was a little blown away by the snow,” said Alaska Pacific University’s...
Yep.... woke up to snow! Saturday, September 29th! Some folks went skiing to round out the "ski every month" challenge. Lauren and I went to run up the South Fork of the Eagle River. Turns out running single track in fresh...
Okay, I grew up in Washington (Seattle specifically) but moved North to Alaska shortly after I graduated from College. Since that day, I have considered myself closely associated with Alaska if not, purely Alaskan. Many times this has put m...
Hey ya'll! We're halfway through September but all this stuff still applies! If you want to check out my training notes for this month (or just this period of the year) go to my monthly guest post on XC Ski Girl's blog here: http://xcskigirl...
Last week in Anchorage, a freak windstorm rolled through that would have devastated most mainland Americans. Gusts estimated at 130 miles per hour spewed trees across Alaska’s largest city, leaving at least a thousand residents without power through Saturday – almost four days after the storm hit Tuesday night. In a phone interview, U.S. Ski Team member Kikkan Randall said the electricity and all the lights at her home came on at 2:15 a.m. Saturday....
Calling all Alaska High School skiers! Check this out - First Tracks Ski Camp is the last weekend of October in Fairbanks! This will be the second annual camp and trust me, last year was AWESOME. Fairbanks weather in October is really nice and last yea...
Calling all Alaska High School skiers! Check this out - First Tracks Ski Camp is the last weekend of October in Fairbanks! This will be the second annual camp and trust me, last year was AWESOME. Fairbanks weather in October is really nice and last yea...
I wrote this article for NNF, the National Nordic Foundation regarding our training camp in Sweden. NNF funded a large aspect of the trip, therefore making it possible for me to attend. I'm super thankful to them and to everyone that has donated ...
The first day of Swedish training camp we woke up to pouring rain. We were handed a topo map with a couple of arrows, and told that we would be going on a three-hour bog run. Luckily, everything worked out great; they didn’t ditch...
Check it out if you're interested! http://www.xcskigirl04.blogspot.se/Post from Sweden coming shortly. I'm almost half way through the camp and it's been a great experience. Tomorrow 5x10 minutes classic roller ski intervals, threshold. PM strengt...
As always, the last couple of weeks have been busy..... I spent an awesome week on Eagle Glacier with my APU teammates. This was my second camp on the summer and after a 9-hour weather delay in Girdwood due to bad weather, it turned out to be an AWESOM...
This is the last of several previews in a quick-and-dirty series on U.S. elite teams. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. Teams were presented in no particular order. Team name: Alaska Pacific University (APU) Nordic Ski Center Coach: Erik Flora (head coach/director) Roster: Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team A-team), Holly Brooks (USST B-team), Sadie Bjornsen (USST B-team), Becca Rorabaugh, Rosie Brennan, Kate Fitzgerald, Erika...
I can honestly say that the past few weeks have been some of the busier in my life.... but I am not complaining but I've been able to do some wonderful, amazing things with awesome people. Rather than do a full account of everything I've failed to post...
My monthly post about June is up on XC Ski Girl's website. Check it out here if you're interested:http://www.xcskigirl04.blogspot.com/Also, I was finally able to put my classic max test on youtube if you want to witness some of the pain I experie...
The last two and a half weeks have been (another) whirl-wind of travel, training, testing & visits. Here it is, in pictures: After a red-eye flight and (three) airplanes to get from ANC to SLC for my first round of US Ski Team testing I ...
dwatts@alaskapacific.edu) for registration and further information.
So, I can finally talk about it, it's official. As is everything on the Internet, right? I'm officially a member of the 2012-2013 US Ski Team! While I trained and traveled with the squad last year and all winter, I was a guest. Everyone made me f...