After graduation Maren Askins (Class of 2012) became a ski instructor at the Snow Farm, a cross-country ski area in New Zealand that seems to be quickly turning into a hub for Bowdoin skiers. Here's what she has to report from the far side of the world:
Greetings from Wanaka, New Zealand! Everyone’s spirits are high today because the sky is dumping snow on the mountaintops. Winter so far has been looking much like it did in the States last season. This is the first storm we’ve had since June, which yielded 20cm of snow and had been melting in the spring-skiing-esque conditions we’ve had up until today. Despite the lack of snow, southern hemisphere winter has been fantastic thus far. I arrived in Wanaka in the middle of June, and I’ve been working as a ski instructor at Snow Farm, the only nordic ski center in the country. Although my primary job here is ski instructing, my duties have included of a little bit of everything to keep a small ski area running: waxing skis, mounting bindings, de-mounting bindings, vacuuming, shoveling, washing tables, mingling with customers, etc. In the teaching realm of things, I mostly work with the kids. I’ve been supervising the “midi merino” program, which is for 6 to 10 year olds. We play games and ski around all day on Saturdays. This past Saturday, we played in igloos all afternoon that a Polar Medical group had made to camp in.
Yes, I get paid to do these things.
My coworkers are pretty awesome, too. There is the German, Ronny, who I call Ronny the Bear, coming straight from life in the Blue Vic (the off campus house me, Spencer, Wilson and Chris, among others, lived in the last two years). There is Luca, the Italian biathlete. Naturally, since the biathlon world is even smaller than the nordic world, the first thing I asked him was if he knew Walt Shepard. And equally naturally, he said yes. He’s also been to Presque Isle. Small world, hey? Then there is Jonah, who is from Colby. Again, small world? There’s a pair of old Canadians and a handful of super cool kiwis that I work with as well. Last but not least is the famous (or infamous?) Alexei. Like most old Russian men in my life, he’s gradually becoming my best friend and mentor. I had a Russian conductor growing up, who took me under his wing and advised me in useful ways, saying things like, “you must go into medicine. That’s where all the money is.” Alexei, too, told me to become a doctor. He’s also been having me test Salomon prototype skis, telling me crazy stories about crazy awesome skiers, teaching me things like how to mount bindings and how to be a better instructor. In general, it’s been pretty awesome getting to know these people from all over the world—both from working with them and teaching them how to ski.
Basically, life out here is "sweet as." I get to ski everyday, whether it’s nordic at work or alpine on my days off. I’ve gotten into the bread making trade because it’s cheap (fyi, food in New Zealand is wicked expensive). People say that as you get older, you become more and more like you mother or your father, or both. Well, it appears that as I’m getting older, I’m becoming more and more like Spencer and Wilson. I’ve also been climbing a lot at the local gym, under the tutelage of my little brother and Steezey Ben. Speaking of steezers, Wanaka is steeze capital. Everywhere I look there are tall tees, giant hats, and bright colored snowpants—in the
grocery store, at the bar, even on the nordic trails! The steezey alpine workers make fun of me for skiing up hills all the time, justifiably questioning my steeze factor, but we’ll see who’s crying when we have a Cardrona vs. Treble Cone nordic race at Snow Farm (those are the two local alpine resorts). In the race category, my nordic steeze is far from bust. We have a little races every Saturday, with distance and technique decided approximately an hour before the races start. This means that my pre-race warm up has consisted of shoveling, running up to the staff room to change my boots, then running to the start line. The Snow Farm regulars usually compete, which includes all the instructors, the development team kids, their masterblaster parents, other masterblasters, and New Zealand national team member Andy Pohl. I cleaned up the women’s side in the first 5k skate race, not too far behind my male counterparts. Last weekend, we had skate sprint heats. I was pitted against Colby’s Jonah Belk and 3 other male masterblasters, and I’m proud to say that I lead the heat for the first half of the course. Not wanting to get girled, Jonah maneuvered around me heading up the last hill heading towards the finish, and I settled for second (he was on his race skis, mind you, and I was on rentals).
Needless to say, the New Zealand chapter of the Bowdoin ski team gave the NZ Colby team a bit of a shake down, and next Saturday could be an upset, now that my carbonlites are waxed up. In all seriousness though, it’s nice to know I still have a bit of a racing edge despite the few months in my life where I replaced working out with working on my honors project. It’s also nice to know that racing is still fun, even as a (gulp) masterblaster.
Well, tomorrow brings lots of new snow and lots of new adventures. I’ll try to keep Chris posted as often as my energy allows, not without his virtual arm-twisting, though. My parents are arriving in this beautiful country next Monday, which will bring lots of non-ski related journeys. Also arriving next week are several national teams, including but not limited to the Russians, the Italians, and the Koreans. They are gearing up for FIS races occurring here, another event that Alexei has been heckling me to participate in. Only time will tell what races are in this ex-Bowdoin-skier’s future.
Greetings from Wanaka, New Zealand! Everyone’s spirits are high today because the sky is dumping snow on the mountaintops. Winter so far has been looking much like it did in the States last season. This is the first storm we’ve had since June, which yielded 20cm of snow and had been melting in the spring-skiing-esque conditions we’ve had up until today. Despite the lack of snow, southern hemisphere winter has been fantastic thus far. I arrived in Wanaka in the middle of June, and I’ve been working as a ski instructor at Snow Farm, the only nordic ski center in the country. Although my primary job here is ski instructing, my duties have included of a little bit of everything to keep a small ski area running: waxing skis, mounting bindings, de-mounting bindings, vacuuming, shoveling, washing tables, mingling with customers, etc. In the teaching realm of things, I mostly work with the kids. I’ve been supervising the “midi merino” program, which is for 6 to 10 year olds. We play games and ski around all day on Saturdays. This past Saturday, we played in igloos all afternoon that a Polar Medical group had made to camp in.
Yes, I get paid to do these things.
 |
| Snow Farm |
My coworkers are pretty awesome, too. There is the German, Ronny, who I call Ronny the Bear, coming straight from life in the Blue Vic (the off campus house me, Spencer, Wilson and Chris, among others, lived in the last two years). There is Luca, the Italian biathlete. Naturally, since the biathlon world is even smaller than the nordic world, the first thing I asked him was if he knew Walt Shepard. And equally naturally, he said yes. He’s also been to Presque Isle. Small world, hey? Then there is Jonah, who is from Colby. Again, small world? There’s a pair of old Canadians and a handful of super cool kiwis that I work with as well. Last but not least is the famous (or infamous?) Alexei. Like most old Russian men in my life, he’s gradually becoming my best friend and mentor. I had a Russian conductor growing up, who took me under his wing and advised me in useful ways, saying things like, “you must go into medicine. That’s where all the money is.” Alexei, too, told me to become a doctor. He’s also been having me test Salomon prototype skis, telling me crazy stories about crazy awesome skiers, teaching me things like how to mount bindings and how to be a better instructor. In general, it’s been pretty awesome getting to know these people from all over the world—both from working with them and teaching them how to ski.
Basically, life out here is "sweet as." I get to ski everyday, whether it’s nordic at work or alpine on my days off. I’ve gotten into the bread making trade because it’s cheap (fyi, food in New Zealand is wicked expensive). People say that as you get older, you become more and more like you mother or your father, or both. Well, it appears that as I’m getting older, I’m becoming more and more like Spencer and Wilson. I’ve also been climbing a lot at the local gym, under the tutelage of my little brother and Steezey Ben. Speaking of steezers, Wanaka is steeze capital. Everywhere I look there are tall tees, giant hats, and bright colored snowpants—in the
grocery store, at the bar, even on the nordic trails! The steezey alpine workers make fun of me for skiing up hills all the time, justifiably questioning my steeze factor, but we’ll see who’s crying when we have a Cardrona vs. Treble Cone nordic race at Snow Farm (those are the two local alpine resorts). In the race category, my nordic steeze is far from bust. We have a little races every Saturday, with distance and technique decided approximately an hour before the races start. This means that my pre-race warm up has consisted of shoveling, running up to the staff room to change my boots, then running to the start line. The Snow Farm regulars usually compete, which includes all the instructors, the development team kids, their masterblaster parents, other masterblasters, and New Zealand national team member Andy Pohl. I cleaned up the women’s side in the first 5k skate race, not too far behind my male counterparts. Last weekend, we had skate sprint heats. I was pitted against Colby’s Jonah Belk and 3 other male masterblasters, and I’m proud to say that I lead the heat for the first half of the course. Not wanting to get girled, Jonah maneuvered around me heading up the last hill heading towards the finish, and I settled for second (he was on his race skis, mind you, and I was on rentals).
Well, tomorrow brings lots of new snow and lots of new adventures. I’ll try to keep Chris posted as often as my energy allows, not without his virtual arm-twisting, though. My parents are arriving in this beautiful country next Monday, which will bring lots of non-ski related journeys. Also arriving next week are several national teams, including but not limited to the Russians, the Italians, and the Koreans. They are gearing up for FIS races occurring here, another event that Alexei has been heckling me to participate in. Only time will tell what races are in this ex-Bowdoin-skier’s future.
"Well, it appears that as I’m getting older, I’m becoming more and more like Spencer and Wilson" lolol
ReplyDeleteMerrnnn I miss you!
-Erin