St. Olaf Nordic Team

In case you didn't know how awesome skiing at St. Olaf is.... all of these pictures are taken on and around campus. (Photo pics courtesy of Emma and Sophie) Our groomer and snowmobile are currently in the process of being figured out so we can start making some awesome trails soon. But who needs trails when you have a blizzard? Visiting the cows  Rachel, Nels, and Nora Nora and Amelia.. how gorgeous is this? The team on the quad (Buntrock and the chapel in the background) Snowman on the quad Julia Evan, Nora, Amy, Rachel, Nels, Eli, Paul

SNOW has hit the Hill! The team went romping around campus on skis this weekend, and actually did a workout on campus on Tuesday. The parks surrounding us are groomed, as is Carleton (sort of), and Minnesotans are loving it. Some of our juniors are headed to Wausau this weekend, others are headed to the Test the Lungs race on Saturday. Results will be posted. We're battling finals and sickness. I (Paige) have mono, and multiple people on the team have colds/fevers/etcetera. But by Tuesday we'll be on our way home for some much needed rest from school. Winter at St. Olaf Photo by Kyle Obermann. Like our new jackets?! Photo by Kyle Obermann. Romping around!

We woke up to an multiple Facebook posts, tweets, and emails about how the JOQ/CCSA races at Ironwood are cancelled this weekend due to lack of snow on the course. This is the first time in many many years that these races haven't happened, and we're kind of bummed out. With a few of us sick and injured, however, it's kind of bittersweet. We aren't sure what the plans for the weekend are yet, but possibly Hoiggard's Relays? In other news, there's a new "Give to the Team" link on our side page where parents, alumni, or just people who care and want to help St. Olaf skiing out, can donate to the team! It's on the ride side. Just remember to specify "Nordic Skiing" or "Alpine Skiing" when giving. If you want to give to both, write "DJ Tengdin Endowment Fund". Thank you! We can use any help we get.

First off, happy December 1st everyone! Snow is rare but the temps are cold, so we're praying for a little bit of precipitation. Today we hit the road bright and early (seriously, at 5:15 a.m.) to make it up to Elm Creek for a time trial against the Gustavus team. The first girls went off at 7. It was still dark out! Thank gosh for the lights on the course at Elm Creek Park Reserve, which has about a 1.25ish? kilometer loop of snow right now and opened yesterday. Anyway, we put a whole new meaning to "racing under the lights". It was an interesting race considering there were hoards of master blasters, high school skiers, and general skiers trying to enjoy the snow while we were racing, so we had to dodge a constant flow int he middle of the trail. It felt more like playing football than ski racing.. but it was still worth the good effort. Results and pictures are below.  GAC/STO Time Trial Men's Results GAC/STO Time Trial Women's Results Ole and Gustie...

We would like to take a blog post to thank the Hochtl family for their generous donation of HWK ski wax to our team. We have used a couple of the HWK sticks in the past, and they have always been at or near the top of every glide test, so we are very excited to try out some more HWK this year. Brothers Kevin and Karl Hochtl began importing HWK this year, and we couldn’t say no when Kevin offered to donate nearly a year’s supply of wax for both the Alpine and Nordic teams.    The Hochtl family has always been very generous in their support of the Nordic team, and we would like to express our continued gratitude. For more information about HWK, visit their website at  http://hwk-skiwax.us/ . If you would like to add your support to the team, contact Nordic Coach Tom Jorgenson at  jorgenso@stolaf.edu  or Director of Skiing Kevin Cook at  cookk@stolaf.edu . THANK YOU!

Today a bunch of us amazingly dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:30 in the morning and hit the road to drive to Trollhaugen ski area in Dresser, Wisconsin. Let's just say it was still dark when we started skiing. If you could call it that. We quickly established that rollerskiing is indeed drastically different from snow skiing. We were hit with freezing rain, slush, ice, and clouds. But the four hours of driving was worth it because WE SKIED ON SNOW! After getting over our initial excitement and everyone had fallen at least three times, we worked on a little technique with Tom. After two hours of hills, we headed home, but not without some pumpkin pie made by Gretchen. Yummy. Oh! Also, this weekend was the NCAA Cross Country Regionals races at St. Olaf. The men took both the individual and team titles, and the women were second. Emma Lee was 5th! Both teams head off to DIII Nationals, so wish them good luck if you see them. Women's Regionals Results Men's Regionals Res...

First off- HAPPY NOVEMBER! The race season is approaching faster than we know it. The snow forecast for the U.S. is already looking better than last year, even Olaf has had it's first snow (just flurries, but enough for us nordies to get excited about). This weekend our old coach Mark Skildum came down to help us out with technique and a specific strength workout. It was fun to catch up and joke around with him again. We each worked on video and took turns pulling each other up the hill. It was a gorgeous day and an awesome Saturday morning workout with the team.   Mark shooting video Double pole crunch up the hill Synchronized? Pulling each other up the hill Team pic! Somehow we managed to get everyone in the air with one take.. except Liam. #princessprobs Welcome to Northfield- fields, wind, and cows.  Team meeting. Uhh Liam?  After the workout in the morning a few of us drove up to watch the MIAC conference race at Como Park. Some of...

Sorry for the lack in posting! As the fall kicked in and midterms hit, we were busy studying and training hard. In case you didn't know, fall in Northfield is absolutely gorgeous. (See pictures below). Julia and Amelia skiing up the Ole hill One of the many campus running trails Training has been going fantastically! We've gotten into the time trial and strength test season, and as the temps drop we are getting more and more excited for snow. We've done one time trial at Murphy so far, and next weekend we have a repeat trial to see how we're progressing. This week has been rainy and gross so we battled bounding intervals in the rain and mud yesterday. On Tuesday we worked on  a skate agility course set up by Tom. We've managed to survive a few crashes, and we always manage to break some equipment.  The girls team after very muddy and rainy intervals We are all getting very anxious for our teammates abroad to come home! (Kelsey Cork, Joel...

This weekend we were out on our classic OD and Julia got a leaf stuck in her front wheel when we were headed through town. After unsuccessful attempts to stomp the leaf out, Julia's ski hit the ground and the wood split! We tried to force the wheel backwards but the entire ski broke in half... Oops. So we switched up skis, and I (Paige) skied back to campus on one classic ski while Julia skied on two with one pole, holding her broken ski in the other hand. We got quite a lot of looks from drivers and kids on campus, but we made it! Think of the two miles back to campus as a balance/agility/strength workout? The team is battling sickness right now, as with any first few months of college. But we're surviving! Julia's poor ski... Weird kids in the back of the pack

Happy Homecoming! Today after an interval session in Sogun Valley the nordic team met up with the piners (alpine team) at one of the alpine team member's houses for a joint team alumni barbeque! We had delicious tacos and Honeycrisp apples and too many chocolate chip cookies to count. It was awesome to see a few of our alumni - Hillary Boyce, Ian Gunsolus, Brandon Piechowski, Zach Hudson, and Anders Nienstaedt all came down for the festivities. And don't forget Tom Jorgenson, who is now our coach! It was a great day with family and friends. Will, Nate, Gretchen, Eli, Amanda, Amy, Kai and Paige (left to right) Alumni! Zach, Hillary, Ian and Brandon (left to right) Gretchen, Robert, Emma, Nora, Nate, Allie, Elise, Will, and Julia (left to right) Ian and our new coach Tom :) The official season starts the first week of October, and with a team around 25 people, we are super excited to start training with Tom. Captains' practices are going well, and snow i...