From the Castle

Several HURT nordic skiers made there way up for the annual start-of-ski-season event on the Whiteface highway known as the Climb-to-the-Castle.  The press was out and about snapping pictures and snagging interviews and the following pictures and captions tell the tale...

The ex-Director thinking about how much more bovine hemoglobin he can realistically pump into his doped wheels.

Mr. "I will never do this event again" Huneck looking pleased that he nailed the clothing for the weather this year....shorts: warm and sunny at the bottom...ski suit top: windy and cold at the summit.

Owen "was this really my idea?" Putman skiing strong to the finish

We don't know what is going on here, the colors are too dull to make anything out.

HURT men gettin' it done on tough day! (Missing top HURT finisher and SLU stud

Will Frielinghaus...he is doing repeats of the hill.....Congrats to all)

This is the "Ugh...sorry coach...yes, we did come al the way up to Lake Placid with our rollerskis in the car only to stand up here and watch people ski by.  Now, how many pushups do we have to do?" picture.

ex-Director leading the way for the HURT juniors. 

Senior Stud Frielinghaus Shows his Skiing Stuff for SLU

Underdogs?

Can a four-time reigning champion be an underdog?  The HRT newsroom was shocked when the AP Polls were released this week following the annual NY "Welcome-to-Nordic-Season" event known as the NYSEF Climb to the Castle rollerski sufferfest.

The top five preseason ranked teams...

AP Preseason NYSSRA Nordic Rankings: 
1) Peru Nordic - new additions and a strong endorsement from nordic champion/mountain goat/USSAbadass L. Stephen
2) RNR - reloaded and always a lot of Junior talent
3) HURT - we can't kick the champs out of the top 3...yet
4) ADK Vauhti - New kids on the block. Lots of enthusiasm
5) Cayuga Nordic - lots of age group points from this team of nordic stalwarts

(for full rankings of all the nordic clubs visit www.iamwastingtimeatworklookingatnordicskirankings.com)

News has been swirling this off-season that this may be the end of HURT nordics championship run...with a high graduation rate, departure of all the members of famed "Three-headed-monster" (and all its derivations), and the schism caused by the formation of upstart Adirondack Vauhti... this has all left HURT nordic looking leaderless and directionless entering fall rollerski season.  This is not helped by the fact that the brothers-Koziol (Jackson and Travis) seem to look increasing alike...The HRT newsroom spent the last two hours taking to "The Director" about the upcoming season*...

HRT: What are your hopes for the upcoming season?

D: I like sledding.

HRT: Can you recover from the loss of so much team talent?

D: You know whose got talent?  America.  I saw that on TV.

HRT: How has training been going?

D: CHOO! CHOO!

*(There is a chance we may have interviewed the wrong Koziol...we are looking into it.)

How will HURT Nordic Respond?  What will be the new teams identity? How will the new landscape of NYSSRA Nordic be formed this race season?

We look forward to answering all these questions as the season ramps up.  It all starts this weekend at the Fall bi-annual NYSSRA meeting where race dates and season calendars get laid out.  Come be part of the process and help grow nordic skiing in NY.  Visit this page for full details: http://www.nyssranordic.com/nordicskiracing.html.  We'd love to have your input and help.

Another friendly reminder...if you, your parents, brother, sister, dog, neighbor, classmate or friendly neighborhood Olympian has not signed up for NYSSRA and HURT...encourage them to do so. https://www.skireg.com/Net/nyssra-nordic-membership-2012-2013

Stay tuned for information on the upcoming race season and fall training events.