Northwood School Hires JP Daigneault

Jean-Pierre Daigneault will join the Northwood School faculty as Alpine Program Director this fall. Former Head Coach for British Columbia’s Women’s Alpine Team, J.P. brings over 12 years of professional coaching experience to his new position at Northwood. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he was captain of the Dartmouth Alpine Ski Team and is a four-time All-American, NCAA Division I skier. J.P. was previously Head Coach of the Québec Ski Team Men’s Alpine Team and Alpine Coach for Green Mountain Valley School (GMVS) in Vermont. Both NYSEF and Northwood are thrilled to welcome him aboard!

Daigneault says of his new position, “Northwood School’s alpine skiing success in the years to come will be due in large part to the work of Guy Middleton who has been at the helm since 1993, all the while building a solid foundation for the future of the program. It is a privilege for me to come to Northwood and have the opportunity to add to the legacy of its storied skiing program.”

JP joins the staff in September 2014

ABOUT Northwood School, a partner of NYSEF and located in the Olympic village of Lake Placid, is co-educational independent boarding and day school serving students in grades nine through post-graduate year. For more information on Northwood’s academic and athletic programs, contact Tim Weaver, Director of Admissions at (518) 523-3357.

2014 Chile Camp Highlights

Last Day: Smackdown in La Parva....

All good things must come to an end..... Tomorrow will be our last day on snow - we'll be heading down to Santiago after tomorrow's morning SL training session and flying back to JFK. Needless to say, we've had a great time and maybe even learned a thing or two! 

Here's a group shot from today under the HUGE Chilean flag on the mountain.

Now... On to the Main Event. NYSEF Smackdown 2014! Just before sunrise, La Parva will see the biggest battle this side of the Equator. The epic battle will take place in a Dual Paneled SL format on Manzanito. Below are the matchups (drawn from a Ducks Unlimited hat....) for the first round. Tune in to NYSEF/La Parva radio for the live feed.....

'Ralphie' Reynolds vs. 'Lips' Piper

'Montclair' Lily vs. 'G-Liddy'

'Venus' vs. 'The Moon'

'Queen Latifáh' vs. 'Da Nurse'

'Roadrunner' vs. 'Raj'

Red Course Ready......Blue Course Ready...... Racers Ready???

See ya'll soon...... NYSEF Chile 2014 signing off till next time....

The Home Stretch...

Today was our much needed off day after five days of GS training and free-ski drills. Since we last checked in, we had one day of difficult GS with with plenty of offset - everyone's limits were pushed. We then finished our GS progression with a double session yesterday: full-length GS in the morning, paneled SL in the afternoon to get ready for our upcoming SL block which starts tomorrow.

Here's a couple videos of training yesterday - GS and Paneled SL:

 

 

On Sunday night, we treated everyone to a fondue dinner - cheese fondue, meat fondue and finally chocolate fondue for dessert. What a meal! Check out the crew - the clean up ok, huh?

They clean up nicely, huh?

Last man standing....

On to our Slalom progression where our objectives will be: 1. Upper Body Discipline, 2. Pole-plant/Recenter, and 3. Ankle Flexion. 600 SL turns for everyone tomorrow......

The Supermoon from La Parva

Break at mid-station

2014 Hood Camp Highlights

One Down - One To Go!

Checking in from Chile.....

We're a little over halfway through our two week camp. Over the last few days, we've had unbelievable skiing and training. After four days of free-ski drills and paneled SL, we started our GS progression and have had three AWESOME days of GS training. Our main focus has been to develop good pressure on the outside ski above the gate and create good turn-shape. We've used various locations for "helper" brushes to teach turn placement, where to maximize pressure, where to release pressure, etc.... With gate training in the morning and continuing work on free-ski drills in the afternoon, each athlete is great making progress. 

Just so y'all don't think we're slacking off down here, here's a recap of our typical day: 5:45am wake-up... 6:45 shuttle up to the Vegas poma lift in the dark.... Course is set and we're warming up on snow before sunrise!

Overlooking La Parva

Valle Nevado in the distance

The morning warm-up.

Then we get right into training time... La Parva gives us plenty of time to get training in with the poma lifts providing a lightning quick turn-around (just ask coach Smith how fast the poma lifts go...). On Thursday and Friday we trained 30 gates of GS on Tòrtola Sur and got upwards of 10 runs each day. Today, Saturday, the crowds come up from Santiago so we have to pull the course at 10am - we still got 8 runs of 30 gate GS in on Nevada Bajo. (Check out the trail map here for a reference). Here's some pics from GS training.....

Alex Akoundi

Frenchie Neron

Sunny Sheffield

 After training, it's lunch at noon and back out skiing/drilling at 1pm for an hour or two. Then, dryland usually at 4pm for an hour, dinner/meeting at 6pm, and we jam video, ski tuning/waxing, and even a call home once in a while.... Needless to say, our days are packed with activities - but extremely productive. 

Here's a few more random pics - be sure to check NYSEF Snowsports on Facebook for more.

Blake enjoying snack time

Peter - prepared for his run...

Andrea working the one-ski drill in the afternoon

Chloe working the up-and-over drill

Lily teaching Liddy a new drill

Olivia (OYE)

Till the next time...... Adiós!

WINTER IS BACK!!!!

In anticipation of weather and some much needed rest, we took today off after 4 productive days of free-skiing, drilling and paneled SL training. It turned out to be a good call - we woke up to this.....

The view outside our condo mid-morning

Yes, looks like normal winter now! About 8 inches of snow fell throughout the morning which will help coat the trails and freshen up some of the areas in need of snow. We're looking forward to starting our GS progression tomorrow morning. 

More ski pics the next time we check in (many have made it to the NYSEF Snowsports Facebook), but I'll leave you with a few "fresh" live views from La Parva!

NYSEF at La Parva - Days 2 and 3

Just checking in....

We've had three awesome days of skiing at La Parva so far. Although there's less snow than during a typical year, we've definitely been getting some top quality skiing and training done. On Sunday after the fog blew off, we free-skied all over the mountain and got to know the area. The mountain is huge with plenty of terrain and breathtaking views in every direction. Check out a few photos below. 

  
We did a number of drills all around the mountain - traverses, wedge turns, and just having fun in this beautiful place.

Enjoying the view at 12,000 feet!

After skiing, we did another spinning/stretching session for dryland and then dinner. We have a chef preparing three meals a day for us here - so far, the food has been excellent and nobody has gone to bed hungry!

Today the clouds were back but visibility was excellent and we started our training progression with some SL corridor work and paneled apex SL on "Parva Chica". The main focus has been (and will be!) developing a good balanced stance and position on the skis as we move into gates with proper turn shape. More of this tomorrow....

Paneled apex SL today

The base area - Santiago in the distance...

Looking forward to another great day tomorrow - will check back with you in a day or two...

 

P.S. Every night after dinner so far, we've watched some unbelievable sunsets. Here's tonight's with the lights of Santiago to the left.... Not bad, huh?

Buenos Dìas!

Greetings from the Southern Hemisphere!

We arrived safely in Santiago on Friday which began our 2014 Chile Camp in La Parva, Chile. After a 42+ switchback ride in a van, we arrived in the village of La Parva and checked into our condos. 

After unloading all our bags and getting settled in, we had some dinner and a team meeting - also witnessed one of the area's famous sunsets (watched another one tonight - what a beautiful place!).

Today the weather was not ideal... Strong winds made the skiing up high very challenging so we didn't waste any time and got into free-ski drills on the lower mountain - wedge turns, traverses, ya know - the fun stuff ;). Plenty of valuable runs. After skiing, the weather moved out and we spent a bit of time recovering on spin bikes from our perch high in the mountains...

 Here are a couple shots from on snow today - check in for more tomorrow......