Who's in the Burrow?

Nordic Girls Sweep...Again!

The Nordic girls once again flexed their muscles, taking the top four places yesterday at Auburn Ski Club's combination race. This video clip shows the mid-race ski switch from skate to classic, or vice-versa...

Mulling The Past of Photography

Here's irony for you: one of SBA's biggest technophiles - the guy who is always making movies with his GoPro cam, MacBook, and Final Cut Pro - has taken a page from what may be fourth-century B.C. photography technology. 

Student/Athlete Skyler Mullings has made a pinhole camera for Chris Close's Physical Science Class using an oatmeal canister.

Mullings' make-shift darkroom for cutting 8x10 inch sheets of photographic paper Friday to fit his canister was the boys' bathroom, and visiting prospective student/athlete Daniel Pompa voluntarily assisted in the procedure. 

Close said she found the photographic paper at a shop in Tahoe City. Originally priced at $25.59 for 25 sheets, the photography shop pitched in the paper for free. 

The next step in the process is to find somebody with the darkroom and chemicals necessary to develop the photo that Mullings took with his pinhole camera on Friday. Suggestions are welcome.

Little-known fact, BTW: Worldwide Pinhole Camera Day will be celebrated on April 29th. 

Prospective Student/Athlete Danny Pompa
and Skyler, before heading into pitch black

8x10 sheets of photo paper and the canister

Scene on Campus: Nordic Open House

Sugar Bowl Academy hosted an open house for some of Truckee's finest young Nordic skiers. 
Hannah Halvorsen, Jared Murphy
Carrie Bradley, Syra Fillat

Hartley Publishes Poetry

Congratulations go today to SBA Student/Athlete Camille Hartley, whose poetry has just been published on CrashTest.

CrashTest is a biannual online magazine "by and for high school students" which strives to publish poetry "that tests limits, asks questions, rejects the easy answers, risks obliteration, believes in failure, is suspicious of scripted success."

Camille's poem is entitled Seattle Moon and is inspired by her grandfather, "one of the best people I have ever known."

The site includes a brief autobiography with some interesting reflections on life as a ski academy student.

Click on the small screen capture of that bio below to see it full sized:

Kudos, Camille!

DeRyk Podiums as Marmot Dad of the Month

Riley Plant in second!
The following report of Marmot mastery of snow at Mammoth last weekend comes courtesy of student/athlete Riley Plant, who missed the top of the podium at left by a mere 0.02s.

Additionally, based on this report, Marmot Man feels compelled to nominate Carl DeRyk for Marmot Dad of the Month. Do I hear a second to that motion?

***

Although this weekend at Mammoth was tedious and long, the SBA Alpine team pulled together some great results. The weekend kicked off on Friday with a broken Sprinter Van for the men's team. About 3 hours later, we were on the road with the help of Augie DeRyk and his dad, Carl DeRyk. They provided us an extra car and a trailer large enough to fit about 42 pairs of skis and 16 skiers' gear. Thank you, DeRyk family! 

In the two preceding two days, 7 races were held, 3 of which were rescheduled from Sugar Bowl a couple weeks ago. On the first day, the men and women ran one Super G race and one Slalom race. Top 15 finishes in the Super G included Brian Francis (6th), Marc Talbott (10th), Dylan Murtha (13th), Owen Wattenmaker (14th), and Julia Bjorkman (9th). 

Julia Bjorkman in second!
Later that day, in the Slalom, our women's team crushed it: Julia Bjorkman finished with a strong 2nd followed by Lauren Dunn in 6th, Maya Crosby in 8th, Grace Hutton in 9th, and Alexandra Alvarez and Annika Berg rounding out the tope 15 in 14th and 15th, respectively. 

Much of the men's team had trouble with a very tricky first run course, however, some strong results were still shown. Riley Plant was edged out of 1st by just 0.02s. Dylan Murtha finished 5th, Augie DeRyk and Fraser Hannon showed some of their best runs of the year, landing them in 8th and 10th, respectively. 

The next day, men and women both raced the final Super G, while the women continued to do one more Slalom race before heading home. The men finished with Brian Francis in 4th and Dylan Murtha in 6th. The women showed strong results from Julia Bjorkman in 5th and Lauren Dunn in 10th. The girls continued to have another great day of Slalom with many top 15 finishes; specific highlights included Julia Bjorkman in 2nd and Lizzie Ryan in 5th.

SBA went home with lots of medals and smiling faces- except those rooting for the Patriots.

***

Thank you, again, Riley, and to the DeRyk family!