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publisher commentary

by Angelo Lynn

The effort and passion athletes put into their favorite sport
can be awe-inspiring, and their accomplishments amazing.
This issue features four stories of athletic prowess and ac-
complishment that raises the bar for all of us — or, at least,

serves as inspiration.
**********
Serena Ketcham of Hanover, N.H., is 4 feet, 6 inches tall

and weighs 66 pounds. She’s also 11. Even so, she’s becom-
ing a titan in the sport-climbing world. In her first year of competitive climbing,
she advanced to the USA Sport Climbing Series National Competition in Atlanta

in July.
She’s climbing 5.12s and 5.13s. Daily practices start with bouldering laps
around the lower portions of the gym; if you fall off, the rule is to pump off 50

push-ups, then get back up there and continue. To build strength in her fingers,
hands and forearms, she does “mileage” skills in which she’ll work on the same
climbing problem for 15-20 minutes without a break. Touching the ground or
hanging on the rope is met with penalty burpees.

Despite the rigor, she exudes passion for climbing, and, for a fifth-grader, has
lofty goals: place in the top five in the Nationals SCS championship (she was
23rd her first year) and make the USA Climbing Team. Oh, and to compete on

the world stage: “that would be awesome,” she says.
**********
In a completely different world, 29-year-old Bethany Bosch of Rutland, Vt.,

finished a long-held goal when she swam from Dover, England to France across
the English Channel. It took her 17 hours and 35 minutes — but the prelude
was years of dedicated swimming long distances to develop the kind of strength,

stamina and mental toughness needed to meet the challenge.
Water temps started out at 64 degrees in Dover and dropped to 62 degrees by
the time she arrived in France. She swam through the night. The wind was calm
that night, but picked up in the morning making the surface “a little lumpy, but

nothing I’ve never swum through before.... The hardest part was fighting the
tides. While the swim distance is only 22 miles, my track (was) actually 41.7
miles. I got clotheslined and was swept past the finish, so what was supposed to

be a 15-hour swim became closer to 18.”
And here’s the kicker: For the last seven hours of the swim she was sick —
vomiting and having a hard time keeping her food and drink down. Her re-

sponse? “It’s hard, but you don’t ever think about stopping. You think that this
is what you bargained for and you go until you finish.”
**********
Featured in
Alison Zimmer, of Lincoln, Vt., is one of two featured Reader Athletes in this
Wall Street Journal,
issue, and she’s on quite the ride as a professional mountain bike rider. Broken The Globe, Montreal Gazette
bones are par for the course, as is a challenging schedule of races as a recent WINNER Boston and Sur le Pouce
member of the U.S. team and competing in Norway as this issue goes to press. 2012 Best New Restaurant 2013 Best Bartender

She is also juggling her family life with her husband and daughter.
“Best beer town in New England.” - Boston Globe
**********
Our other Reader Athlete, Jeff Spring, works at Smugglers’ Notch Resort in
Located in Waterbury, the food and beverage crossroads, we feature New England’s

Jeffersonville, Vt. He’s not fighting to cling onto a rock face, or doing 40-mile largest & best curated selection of craft beer, proper cocktails, eclectic wines with a
ocean swims, or routinely landing big jumps on a mountain bike going 20 mph full menu featuring barbecue, vegetarian and cozy American fare.
down a narrow, rocky single track. Rather, he’s perfecting his disc golf game
24
and getting really good at it. He’s consistently one of the best players in Ver- Including beers from Hill Farmstead,
mont, has competed in national competitions and hopes to bring one of the
world competitions to Vermont in the near future — perhaps to the course he Lawson’s Finest Liquids,
The Alchemist “Heady Topper” and
designed at Smugglers’ Notch.
TAPS
All are impressive, and each story is about rising to the top of a chosen sport, our very own Prohibition Pig Pale Ale
and the drive that it takes to get there. It’s inspiring — and fun to read.

It’s fall in New England, so we also post eight of our favorite fall hikes in
Vermont to whet the appetite of locals and visitors alike to get outside and SUPPER 7 NIGHTS Brunch Specials
enjoy the autumn splendor; we preview a few items of winter gear for the 2015
season; and we reveal a few of the secrets of the hiking and climbing found in Lunch Fri, Sat & Sun
SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS

Smugglers’ Notch.
Love the fall, and as winter comes, be inspired, get outdoors, and get ready to $4 Fernet draughts everyday
embrace the snow!
23 South Main Street Waterbury Vermont
• •
prohibitionpig.com

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