Colby Carnival 2018

It's a cliche among New England skiers that January is always good for a thaw somewhere along the way.  I don't know if weather data backs this up, but in my experience it's certainly held true.  This year, after two weeks of beautiful skiing, we got one of the most intense thaws I've ever seen - two days of super warm weather with pouring rain and a nasty snow-eating fog.  Sadly, it happened right on the eve of our first carnival of the year, the Colby Carnival at Quarry Road.  Our first race had to be cancelled, but the race crew did an amazing job to patch up the course after things froze up again. We ended up with a nice 1.7k loop, which held up remarkably well for the 5/10k skate despite hundreds of laps.  Our team had a mixed day - some people really killed it, while others didn't quite have the snap needed to take advantage of fast and squirrelly conditions.  Elliot and Renae were our top skiers in 13th and 21st, respectively, with Gabby just outside the points in 32nd - very impressive start to their college careers!  Fiona scored a PR, finishing 51st in a large and deep field, and Cirque came back strong after missing almost all of last season, posting a 55th place finish.  We were 6th in the team scoring, which tied our best ever finish (2011 Colby Carnival) - pretty exciting considering that this was only an OK day for us.  I'm super fired up to see what this team can do when we sharpen up a bit!

We had a lot of enthusiastic supporters at the race, most notably a great group of parents who set up a fantastic post-race tailgate.  Every year I'm struck by how lucky we are to have such a supportive group of parents, and this year is no exception.  Thanks so much, Bowdoin Nordic parents!

Here are some photos courtesy of ski team friend Dan Strodel '20:

Now we're enjoying some great skiing at Pineland - they survived the thaw nicely, and a storm today has us back in good shape.  Looking forward to the St. Mike's Carnival this weekend!