Clubhouse Chronicles: AVSC senior spotlight — Nordic
Clubhouse Chronicles
AVSC/Courtesy Photo
As the 2023-24 winter season comes to an end we want to congratulate and celebrate all of our graduating Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club (AVSC) seniors. To celebrate their careers and dedication to AVSC, we asked each of them a few questions about their time with the club and what lifelong values they will carry with them from their time with AVSC.
Below are some responses from our graduating Nordic athletes, Lars Earl (LE), Edwin Ryerson (ER), Ben Oldham (BO), Sam Friday (SF), and Devon Blanchard (DB).
AVSC: What standout moment or memory at AVSC will you cherish the most as you reflect on your time here?
LE: I remember the first preseason training camp over Thanksgiving. Staying with the team, cooking together and getting to know them all showed me their connections to one another, and what it means for them to be on the team. I remember thinking, a year later, that it felt seamless being there with them again, that I felt like I was a part of the group after only a year.
ER: My favorite memories with AVSC revolved around team trips. Specifically, at the end of my junior year, our trip to Bend, Oregon, stands out as the time I cherish the most. The Nordic team heads to Bend in the spring/early summer to get a block of on-snow training and dryland volume in a team setting. It is fun to get back on snow, but the time with the team is the best part. The week is a great time to hang out and cook with our teammates in a fun and relaxed setting toward the beginning of the training year. This camp is usually done with other teams from across the West, and we get to do joint training sessions and then hang out with our friends on different teams, which is a lovely aspect of the trip, highlighting the amazing community of Nordic skiers. It is also fun to mix Nordic with that spring skiing feel in late May/early June and get out in the sun and warmth. We generally ski in the morning while the snow is firmer. We usually run to a cool waterfall in the afternoons, do strength/games with other teams, go roller skiing, and hang out in town.
SF: Most definitely the trips out to Bend, Oregon with most of the past seniors and being able to ski in warm weather with snow on the ground.
DB: A stand-out moment for me at AVSC would be coaching the roller skiing practices with August.
AVSC: Among AVSC’s core values of Commitment, Integrity, and Teamwork, which one has had the most profound impact on you personally, and how?
ER: The core value of Teamwork has had the most profound impact on my time at AVSC. Nordic is distinctly an individual sport (other than relays), but Teamwork is still crucial. We spend 50 weeks of the year with our coaches and teammates so that relationship and ability to work together and support each other is significant. The Nordic team is very close socially, and I spend a lot of my time outside of training and racing with my teammates. In training, teamwork helps push each other to become better athletes and work together on techniques. Then, in race season, the team does a fantastic job supporting each other’s goals and individual race cheering, pacing, and general teamwork. This community extends beyond the race team into the Devo team, with whom we got to race together with at Soldier Hollow this year. It was a lot of fun to share my love for the sport and the community with the middle school Nordic skiers, the same way the race team skiers shared with me before. This cycle of leadership and sharing the love for the sport benefits the camaraderie and connection of the team enormously.
SF: I would probably say commitment. My team and my Nordic sport have shown me I need to keep up with both school and training in a perfect balance so I can continue both in the future. And this is an important lesson for me to master for college and what not.
DB: A core value that has really impacted me would be commitment and teaching me the importance of showing up to things that you have said you were going to, and how it can impact the people around you.
AVSC: What aspirations do you have for your future endeavors, and how do you see AVSC contributing to those aspirations?
LE: I got to be part of a community at AVSC and I will always try to find people that match the values shown to me by the team. I know what it feels like to have healthy friends and that is more valuable to me than any of the competitions and athletics. As a group I feel the team would have been healthy in any landscape.
ER: As I continue skiing, I look forward to training with the AVSC Nordic team during the summer and spending time with my teammates. I look forward to racing with some of my current and former teammates out East and seeing the team at other races during the winter. I hope to share my love for Nordic as a lifelong sport with the younger racers at AVSC.
BO: I hope to keep developing as a skier and maybe one day race for my country in the Olympics or World Cup. These are of course long-term goals and for now, I will be racing in college, but I hope to keep AVSC as a home base that I can come back to in the summers and even during some breaks to remind me of my roots and reset to keep myself on my dream path.
SF: I would like to move forward into college skiing. AVSC has helped me in countless ways to prepare for this step in my career, from learning how to train on my own to even academic work.
DB: I can see AVSC, making a difference in my future because it has taught me a good work ethic, and also taught me the importance of the relationships with the people around you.
AVSC: Reflecting on your journey at AVSC, what advice would you offer to younger athletes just starting their journey with the club?
LE: Always focus on developing your own goals and understanding of how you are doing in relation to those aspirations. Everyone is working on what they need to and doing their best, so do that for yourself.
ER: My advice to younger athletes starting their journey with the club is to try new things and see what you enjoy or what works for you. This attitude is well reflected when meeting new people. Your teammates will likely be some of your best friends, and spending so much time in a sport you love with your close friends is sweet, so focus on making new friends within your sport. The same goes for your competitors; you will compete with them for years to come, and it is awesome to see your friends from other teams at competitions, training camps, and outside of your sport. You have a lot in common with these other athletes, which is a great avenue for making new friends. I feel lucky to be friends with Nordic skiers across the US, and I look forward to seeing them for years to come. I hope you all lean on your community and make new friends in your sport.
BO: I would tell them to trust the process and believe in their training. Skiing is so hard and we rarely have races where we were able to do everything right. On top of that even if we do everything right we still might not win or even come close. Losing, crashing, and pushing yourself into a pain cave so intense that you don’t think you can move any further are all part of the process and we have to trust that with the work and a little luck on a good day, we will be successful. This has been hard for me to do sometimes but I have caught glimpses of success and know it’s something I must abide by as well.
SF: I would offer to the younger AVSC ski kids to enjoy the moment with training and racing — it all goes by so fast. Make sure to make friends where you see fit and work on your training and perseverance skills.
DB: Advice that I would tell younger athletes is to remember that competing doesn’t have to be all of your sport, and you have to be able to find joy in your sport and not take over your whole life.
AVSC: If you could sum up your AVSC experience in one word or phrase, what would it be and why?
LR: “Fun.” I ski for a reason: I enjoy training, competing, and spending time in the Nordic world, which are incredible experiences. The time spent exploring the mountains in our valley and across the US has been amazing.
SF: One word to sum up my Nordic racing would be “unforgettable.” The AVSC team and community have become a family to me through thick and thin, leaving me with amazing experiences and found new passions for my sports.
DB: If I had to describe my AVSC experience in one word it would be “rewarding” because everything I did, whether it be training or a volunteer trip to the Fritz and Fabi huts or just having dinner with the team, I always felt like everything we did was very rewarding and always made me feel very good about what I was doing.
AVSC: What is next for you?
LE: Taking a gap year in Sweden/Europe to ski and travel.
LR: Next year, I will be attending Williams College in Massachusetts. I will ski for their Nordic Ski Team that competes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association, the eastern region of NCAA D1 skiing. I plan on studying computer science at Williams. I am super excited to keep competing in college.
BO: I am going to be attending the University of New Hampshire where I have been offered a spot on the ski team and some scholarship money as well. I will continue skiing out on the East Coast, racing at the collegiate level.
SF: I will be moving on to focus on college skiing, at a high level and move to study business or medical world as the other side of my Nordic training.
DB: Well, now that I am done competitively skiing and almost done with high school, I have started my wildland firefighting school and will be going to fire Academy and EMT school in the fall.
