August 18, 2013 – Here’s the latest from the US and Canadian teams from their training camp at the Snow Farm in New Zealand courtesy of Noah Hoffman; an update from the BKL and SMS junior summer camps via Jessie Diggins; and a touching commentary by Holly Brooks on the tragic loss of Bonni Curran… plus some Tweets to get things started.

Cruising the Bow Riv after our track intervals.
4,000 feet of climbing with Sadie, Rosie, and Kikkan.
Cardrona Hotel Feed station.
Helmets anyone… ?
Devon “Kersh” Kershaw on training.

An evening playing Settlers of Catan with the Canadian men. © Noah Hoffman

Noah Hoffman
Arrowtown
I’m rooming here in New Zealand with my teammate Andy Newell. Andy is a great singer and guitarist. He’s also getting into song writing now. It’s fun to be his roommate and hear him play. Both yesterday afternoon and this morning we had two hour skate sessions. We did a little bit of video and technique. Yesterday evening I played the board game Settlers of Catan with the Canadian men. We have been frustrated with the grooming here at the Snow Farm. The staff has chosen not to groom on multiple occasions. The decision not to groom has made training difficult and less productive. When they have groomed they have done a limited number of trails. This morning they did not groom because it was “too foggy to see”.

Read more here.

Muddy males…dirty dudes…they had fun in the mud © Lilly Caldwell

Jessie Diggins
SMS camp, Fast and Female, and “dirty dudes”
What a week! I came back to the east coast after bopping around from one cabin to another, and jumped right into the BKL and SMS junior summer camps being held at the school. Since I caught a cold, I wasn’t able to do quite as much training and helping out with the BKL camp as I would’ve liked, but at least I could be a counselor for the SMS camp! We also had two awesome Fast and Female PowerHours. Not to be outdone, the boys had “dirty dudes” for the BKL camp and “guys with goals” for the SMS camp, which was sweet. Thank goodness there were pictures from the events.

Read more here.

Bonni

Holly Brooks
Life is so darn fragile….
I never met Bonni Curran personally but I did write her some post cards over the winter, from the road.  Bonni, along with her husband Peter are supporters of NNF, the National Nordic Foundation.  Last year as a member of the US Ski Team B team I was completely unfunded for the entire winter.  NNF stepped in to help me foot the hefty bill of traveling and racing 5 continuous months in Europe.  NNF was able to do this because of the generosity of people like Bonni and Peter. So, while I never met Bonni face to face I feel connected to her because she believed in what I am doing – and helped make it possible.   On August 6th Bonni’s life was tragically cut short when she was struck and killed on her bike.

Read more here.