Rena has almost been on skis as long as she has been walking. After moving from the Alaskan Tundra to Vermont she was brought along on many excursions through the woods with her parents and sister. When she was awarded the adventure scholarship she was at the Green Mountain Valley School in Waitsfield Vermont, and used her scholarship to train in Park City Utah at the invitation only National Elite Training Group alongside U.S. Ski Team athletes and coaches. She has been a member of the nordic skiing community for quite some time, racing when she can and pushing herself to new levels. She can be found enjoying her teammates and training hard.
“This year I was once again selected to attend the National Elite Training Group nordic ski camp in Utah. However, I made the difficult decision of not going because I have just started the new and exciting adventure of college! I am a first year at Dartmouth and skiing on its nordic team.
While I don’t have any competitions coming up in the near future a few weeks ago I had a terrific time racing the App Gap challenge. NENSA has really put an effort into establishing roller ski races in New England these past few years and the races are a great opportunity to prep for the winter race season. Here is a link to the NENSA page about the App Gap Challenge.
https://www.nensa.net/2018/08/16/app-gap-challenge-2018/
Also had some great news as I was awarded the Gatorade cross country runner of the year award for Vermont and the NENSA Gallagher Cup. Here is an article about the Gallagher Cup:
https://www.nensa.net/2018/06/04/2018-gallagher-cup-and-eastern-cup-champions
Lots of excitement at Junior Nationals this past season in Utah. My two teammates Callie Young and Phoebe Sweet (both from Vermont) and I took the top of the podium in the relay. We were thrilled. Here it is on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgJ4XEChcUw/?hl=en
The next big adventure that I am looking forward to is a team training camp in Siverstar British Columbia where I have never been. It’s at the end of November and we are hoping for lots of snow.”
Last month I traveled to Silverstar with my team for the second year. It was a great camp with many card games played, baked goods made and of course lots of skiing. One of my favorite parts of camp was the night skis that we went on. Skiing at night makes me feel very speedy and the music that was being played in the stadium made everyone very excited to be out there even though we were very tired from the mornings intervals. We also had quite a lot of fun making the silly music video I have linked below.
I have just started the winter term of my sophomore year at Dartmouth and I am both excited and a little nervous for the whirlwind of a winter ahead of me. I am on the Dartmouth Women’s Nordic Ski team and this means that most Fridays this winter I will be traveling to different parts of New England to race. On top of this I am taking a full class load so it will definitely be a busy winter. Hopefully I will be able to get out for some long adventure skis on the trails at Oak Hill though!”
Rena and teammates with pink hair died for one of the Dartmouth carnival races.