Summer Fun!

Our season officially finished off with our end-of-the-season banquet, where we come together with the Alpine team to celebrate... and more importantly, eat! We also gave out some awards, chose our captains for next year, and took some classic pics. 
2016-2017 Captains: Shelby Ahrendt, Liza Dawley, Leif Hanson & Mitchell Miller

2015-2016 MVPs: Nora Gilbertson and Leif Hanson

Matt Haugen Award: Bri Paulson

 Banquet! 

A beautiful spring rolled in, and us Nordies took to the roads, pools, trails and tracks. Between mountain biking trips, road biking adventures, track meets, the annual Challenge of Champions, a full team game of mafia, our Culver's rollerski adventure and the St. Olaf Triathlon, we kept ourselves plenty busy. 



Culver's Rollerski (or rollerblade... or bike... or run...) 

St. Olaf Nordic takes Triathlon 


Speaking of adventuring, the team has been busy this summer, covering all corners of the country, as well as the globe. 

Liza: Once again, I have been spending my summer at our family home on Cape Cod. This summer's weather has been absolutely beautiful - if not a tad dry (i.e. draught) - which means beautiful roller skiing and biking! I've also been working at a marina as a launch driver, and have been doing some sailing races with my dad. 

  

Jeremy: Greetings from McCall, Idaho! This is my second summer away from home, but I've spent it in a much different fashion this time. 6 Ole cross country guys and I are staying in a cabin and working and training here in small-town Idaho. I have managed to fit in a little rollerskiing, much to their dismay, and paired it with more miles in these past two months than I've done in any summer previously. In our spare time, we have gone hiking, mountain biking, and beach DJ-ing! However, with no access to any weights, we manage to do core daily, and strength through body weight squats, lunges, and "pushups til doot." Tarzan and I share the post-run pushups til doot record of 55, but hopefully by the beginning of Nordic season I can do many more than that (and him)! For work I have been landscaping, meaning I am getting more strength training in an unorthodox fashion. Shoveling rock and rolling sod might even be better than weights! It has been a great summer of running, landscaping, not showering, and enjoying the great(?) state of Idaho. I love it here, but I am also excited to get back to campus and rollerski Windmill again, as well as crush some food I don't have to cook in the car!  

A little ibuprofen and whiskey to get you through the miles 

Me and the Bear Lake overlook 

Back at my family's cabin, having fun roller skiing

Mitchell: My Dad, my friend Lexi, and I embarked on an 8-day, 100-mile backpacking trip on the Superior Hiking Trail. Emotions rose and fell as dramatically as the elevation on our journey from Cascade River State Park to Beaver Bay. We made some new friends on the trail, including a raccoon that ripped open Lexi's bag for a nice trail mix treat.  

Danny: I've been working for Explo at Wellesley as a guitar instructor. I haven't done as much training as I'd like, but I've been trying to spend some time roller skiing and hitting the gym.  

Laura: I've been working doing oceanographic chemistry (analyzing coastal carbon cycling) at Oregon state university. I am the only roller skier in the entire city of Corvallis- which is pretty funny because nobody knows what it is! It's even windier than Northfield out here though, and always in the same direction.  I've also been going on some awesome hikes out here!  

Dan: I've been working in Montana this summer for the forest service. I get to be outside and lead high schoolers around all day! On the weekends I go backpacking, oftentimes at Glacier National Park!

Andrew: I found the snow whilst canoeing in northern Canada on the Kazan river! Unfortunately, I was unable to ski on it.

Now, your poor blogger, try as she might, did not seem to be able to get the female representation she so desired while composing this blog. So she took some liberty and, with the help of a little Facebook stalking and stealthy text message re-reading, she concocted some stories about her fellow teammates. Are these true tales, or are they myths? That is for the reader to determine...

Bri took off to New Zealand for the fall semester, and has been doing some serious tramping, which is apparently another word for tracking. Or hiking. So far she has been accomplishing an impressive 80/20 adventure to school work ratio. We're rooting for ya, Bri! 

Shelby: Shelby took off on a Boundary Waters Adventure - capital A - immediately following (or was it during??) finals. There, she conquered her fears, as well as new lands... or rocks. After returning to St. Olaf, she participated in a CURI project doing earthy things with computers. In her words, since your blogger clearly knows very little about science, she has "learned a *lot* about glaciers and satellite data and computer coding which I wouldn't trade anything for". She also bought a mountain bike and competed in a bike race! Go Shelbs!! 

King of this large rock, according to FB.