Skier. Athlete. Wife.

These were some of the identities members of the GMVS community shared during an event led by author, athlete and diversity trainer, Mirna Valerio. Valerio was the point person for a day of exploring how we match up the outer and inner versions of ourselves and how we present them in the world.

Valerio kicked off her time with GMVS sharing her unlikely rise from teacher to sponsored athlete. Her path to becoming an ultra runner started with a 2008 health scare. Her cardiologist told her in no uncertain terms that she had to take better care of herself or her life was at risk. Running had always been a passion of hers and that’s where she restarted her focus on getting healthy. She worked her way from 5ks to 50ks and started a blog “Fat Girl Running” to chart her progress. She reminded the GMVS crew that “You can do incredible things with your body” and not to take this for granted.

Thanks to her strong storytelling in both pictures and words, Valerio built a huge following on social media (check her out on instagram @themirnavator) and turned her passion project into a career. She now speaks about bringing diversity to outdoor sports and organizations. She has expanded her reach with high visibility contracts with brands like Leki, L.L.Bean, REI and most recently, Lululemon.

Originally from Brooklyn, Valerio now calls Montpelier, Vermont home. She’s well aware that as a plus-sized, Black Vermonter, she stands out when she’s hiking, biking and trail running. And she uses this to start conversations. Seeing a plus-sized Black athlete become the face of huge brands is a momentum shift and just might be the impetus for new young athletes to feel included and invited. She’s comfortable in her role as an ambassador for the outdoors and for outdoor athletes that have been ignored or underserved. “I appreciate life and the ability to move,” said Valerio, she’s one to see opportunity, not obstacles.

“We can choose to be stagnant, or we can live our lives to the fullest,” said Valerio. She led the Gumbies in conversations about identity and inclusiveness. As a mom and former teacher (she spent 18 years working in New England private schools), Valerio had ease talking with both young athletes and the professionals who coach them at GMVS. With characteristic charm, she quickly had the groups sharing how they defined themselves and diving into how identity shapes our world view.

Students reflected on what they learned from Valerio. “Don’t let negativity bring you down,” said one 10th grade student. Another chimed in, “Be aware of your privileges, don’t take them for granted.” A third shared that, “It’s really important to bring in outside voices to GMVS.” As it turns out, only by knowing and naming our identities and blind spots, can we be good friends, teachers, parents, and community members.

To learn more about Mirna, check out her website HERE

Born from ice, Bode Miller, is a New Hampshire native who grew up racing on the Eastern slopes, and eventually became one of the greatest ski racers in U.S. history. With 33 World Cup wins, two overall titles, four world championships, and six Olympic medals, he is known as the most decorated male in U.S. ski racing history.

On a cool fall day, a group of GMVS boys traveled through the Eastern hills and windy roads of Vermont and neighboring New Hampshire to visit the iconic Bode Barn, to experience training the Bode way. The barn is situated on family property and houses a home-made contraption that was designed to help Bode build strength and muscle mass through eccentric movements, ultimately translating to power and speed on on the hill and in the race course. Channeling their inner Bode, the GMVS boys worked through one of Bode’s workouts, lifting heavy, slowly, and with focus on speed in the race course this season.

In the words of Matteo Bassi, GMVS U19 Boys Coach, “To travel over there is like a field trip to an iconic slice of U.S. skiing history. This was the place where a lot of blood and tears were shed by arguably one of the greatest skiers ever.”

With isolation and separation now our new norm, to say GMVS’s conditioning programming has gotten creative is an understatement.  GMVS High Performance Director of Conditioning, Dani Koch, moved into high gear to retool our Phase 1 conditioning plan to function remotely, with on-line educational tools available to the athletes at all times.

After building the programs, Dani led workshops via Zoom with each training group and their coaches to describe the why, how and what of the Phase 1 plan, breaking the program down into five main components: Movement Prep/Dynamic Warm Up, Jump Progression, Strength Training, Aerobic Training, and Core Strength Training.

In Phase 1, we emphasize the foundation of proper movements and timing of muscle activation, while improving joint mobility and body stability. For aerobic conditioning, Dani explained that basic, low intensity (A1) effort is the goal for this twelve week block.  Guided by data from heart rate monitors, the athletes (who generally tend to go too hard in this phase), moderate their effort to drive training in the proper metabolic pathway.  When most people think about core strength, the classic “six pack” comes to mind.  Core training in reality encompasses basically anything other than the body’s extremities, with a goal of allowing for dynamic extremity movement (think ankle, knee, hip movement in a ski turn) while stabilizing without compensatory spine movement.

Each level’s schedule of two-a-day workouts and program is conveniently shared in a google folder for the athletes to refer to as needed.  Recognizing that we cannot rely on demonstrating and correcting movements as we typically can in this phase, Dani has included a library of video clips of each exercise in the shared folder.  Importantly all of these exercises can be done at home, without the equipment that can commonly be found in a gym.

Coaches are checking in with their athletes several times per week.  In an additional effort to remain connected with our athletes, we are offering remote live conditioning programming (via Zoom, Instagram live and other platforms) for many of our morning training sessions–and tracking of aerobic training sessions through team Strava accounts.

All ski racers who achieve their personal best in the sport share many traits in common.  They are passionate about their sport, they love hard work, and despite common adversities, they strive to be their best.  One additional defining characteristic that is now being tested is a willingness to embrace hard work in isolation.  Most athletes respond positively to the voice of a coach urging them to get better and to work to that end.  In this period of separation and isolation, athletes who will achieve their best will have to internalize that voice.  This is the real test.

To follow our conditioning program “live,” be sure to follow gmvsski, gmvsxc, and winthegym on Instagram

Each spring, the New England Nordic Ski Association celebrates the athletic accomplishments of the prior season by nominating athletes to their Elite and Development Teams. The criteria set forth to name the NENSA Elite and Development Team represents pathways to regional, national and international success. Athletes named to these teams are invited to regional training camps and races, and are part of a broader team that continues to excel at all levels.

Congratulations to Elite Team members Greg Burt ’18, Brian Bushey ’21 and Development Team members Ian Moore ’14, Elliott Ketchel ’17, Josh Valentine ’19, Aidan Burt ’21, and Trey Jones ’23.

GMVS was well represented at the U.S. Junior Alpine Championships with 5 boys and 3 girls competing for junior national crowns. Athletes Moro Bamber PG ’19, Rowen Ainslie ’20, Ryan Beardsley ’20, Sebastian Segre ’21, Nevin Vilandrie ’20, Charlotte Maurer PG, Lydia Riddell ’20, Samantha Trudeau ’20 were joined by coaches Matteo Bassi and Charlie Powell.

The events held in Snowbasin (site of the 2002 Olympics) were SG/GS/SL followed by another GS and SL for the boys and two slaloms at Snowbird for the girls.

The National Junior Championships has all of the best juniors from across the three U.S. Ski & Snowboard regions competing against each other. Many of the top juniors at the event are members of the U.S. Ski Team. A big part of the competition is the Regions Cup, given to the region with the most points after all of the events.

GMVS sent a fairly young team to the championships. Many of our athletes still have two or three years as a Junior Competitor. Against a strong field, Nevin Vilandrie placed 20th in the SG. Lydia Riddell placed 3rd in the Women’s Giant Slalom (1st 2 places were USST Members) with Charlotte Maurer in 15th. The boys had a bit of a rough go in the GS with some top 10 results in the first run and dnf’s in run 2. In the boys slalom, Rowen had a good finish in 16th place starting 40th. Charlotte finished in 16th in the slalom. In the National Performance series that followed the National Junior Championships, Rowen finished 11th in the slalom and Moro finished 12th. The girls had 2 Slaloms after the NJC. Charlotte finished 5th and 3rd in the first SL and 12th in the second SL.

It was a great race series for the boys and girls to be able to compete against the best of the regions and the USST Juniors. It gives them a good gauge of where they stand and where they need to go. The coaches were very encouraged by the skiing and some of the results they came home with.

We were fortunate to welcome John Morello and his one man show to campus on March 3. John wrote the show “DIRT” and has spent the last several years performing for schools across the country. John plays several different roles, using small costume changes (a hat or a jacket) to seamlessly shift from one character to the next. The individual stories and characters weave together and overlap, asking us to think about our own connectedness and the power those connections can yield. He shares his story to remind us of the importance of compassion and kindness and that we have the opportunity to be the author of our own stories which we can constantly draft, edit, shift, and share because, ultimately, we each hold our own pen.

Part stand up comedy and part storytelling DIRT touched on many of the issues that hit home for all of us and his hope is that each of us in the audience could find at least one storyline or character or moment that might resonate and reminded us of the power of having compassion for others and ourselves and the power and comfort in seeing our own experiences or feelings reflected. We are grateful to John for sharing his story.