A New Season is Fast Approaching

Hi everyone,

So its already happening. The days and nights are consistently getting colder, the leaves are beginning to change, and the first frosts have started to turn up all over northern New England. Sunday River is also feeling the early season itch, they started testing their snow guns on September 26th this year, nearly 1 month earlier than last years first tests on October 19th!

Up at Bates things are moving along very well. Rogan and I are starting to get things prepped for the season (our season officially starts on November 3rd, already less than a month away!), and I think we are both happy to have a little more downtime compared to last year when we were getting everything all set for NCAA's.
We have decided to change things up a little bit for our early season this year deciding to try our luck hosting our Thanksgiving camp at Sunday River instead of the usual trip to the large mountains of the west. The past few years we have gone out either to Colorado or to Mount Hood, but since the skiing during that time has always been superb at Sunday River, we are going to save some time and money and hope this year is a repeat of the recent past. Our skiers will also have the chance to eat Thanksgiving with their families for the first time in a while (Sorry Ben, Thanksgiving in Vermont will be delicious too!).
Looking ahead our team is looking young but talented, with strong returning members and several Freshman who are eager to compete alongside their new teammates. We will have 6 returning Juniors in men's co-captains John Canney and Ben Manter, women's co-captains Micaela Holland and Lauren McAllister and consistent contributors Ross Brockman and August Felix. For Sophomores we have Bump Heldman, Alex Jones, Josh Fancy, and Kristin Waddle all looking to outperform their class' impressive showing of last year. Finally, our Freshman are looking ready to make an impact on the circuit right away, including Jeff Lathrop, Stefan Lyons, Zoe Livingston and Caitlin Forbes. Overall our team looks strong. Even though we only have 4 women we are not worried, we are instead extremely excited about what kind of results all of our athletes will bring to the Bates Alpine Team this season.
We would like to say 'Hi' to several of our aforementioned team members who are seeing what things are like on the wild side, deciding to go abroad for the first semester of this year. Micaela is currently sweating it out in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, August is taking care of things in the north, traveling around Copenhagen, Denmark, and Ross is pretending to be abroad while getting jacked and tan somewhere in Hawaii. Regardless of where they are, they are missed and the whole team can't wait for them to get back.
Along with a new season comes the realization that we don't have everyone returning. With the end of last school year and the start of this new one, the Bates Alpine team has been forced to say goodbye to graduates of the class of '09: Megan Papineau, Liz Thompson and Emily Sampson. This group of girls was the focal point of perhaps the strongest 4 years in the history of the Bates Alpine Women's team. To say they will be sorely missed is an understatement. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to have 2/3rds of that class come visit on homecoming weekend, where Liz was the recipient of the senior citation award for her amazing contributions to the team over the past 4 years. (Thanks for coming Liz and Emily, and Megan we know you are busy with school but are very excited to see you at some of the races this season.)
Finally we would like to do something that is long overdue. We would like to thank everyone for helping us put on a great NCAA's last year. Everything went smoother than we had anticipated and were it not for all of your help, it would have been impossible. Thank you all again for your continued support, we can't wait to see you on the hill again this year.

-Dan and Rogan

P.S. It was great seeing all the parents this past weekend, thank you for toughing out the gross weather and coming to visit. We hope you enjoyed the bbq for both the food and for the much needed warmth those coals were providing. See you soon.