Rallying around our co-captain

The competition has come and gone. We're all home now back to homework and missing each other and thinking of our teammate Aaron who is recovering from a broken leg. The U of A was the first team to go down the hill at the beginning of the races. The hill was long, steep and the stopping distance was short. Our awesome sled ripped down the hill, crossing the finish line at warp speed.

Our brake was not sufficient to stop the sled in time and it sped into the icewall at the end of the track. Four of five riders walked away and Aaron was taken to hospital.

After our crash, we took a big break in the races and the staring line was moved about half way down the hill. After this the races went on with fun, excitement and safety. We continued to watch and cheer, with teammates going to visit Aaron throughout the day.

All in all it was a great competition, we really enjoyed ourselves and are very proud of all that we did. We walked away with the "Most Spectacular Run" trophy and Aaron got some battle scars to commemorate four years of GNCTR.

Thanks for all the supportive thought headed in Aaron's direction--we're all hoping for his speedy recovery.

-Andrea Badger

Passing tech expo with flying colours!

Day 3 is over. Friday was technical exposition day. It's the day where the
engineer in each of us really shines.

Teams set up a display based on their team showcasing the technical elements of their sled. The University of Manitoba Jets had a hockey rink set up. U of C You Ain't Nothing but a Houndbogg had a Vegas wedding both and an interactive treasure hunt.

Our tech display was lit up with over 200 LEDs and we had Tron the movie playing all day. We spent the day, cheering, dancing, playing games and talking about concrete. I really like tech ex day because I love to see how different all the sleds look. It's amazing how many different designs there are, no two sleds look the same. It's also impossible to predict which sled is going to be the fastest. Except our Tronboggan of course. ;)

Tech ex is also the day for technical judging. All the sleds are judged by three groups of judges. The three categories are concrete, superstructure break and steering and safely. The concrete and superstructure design leads give five-minute presentations to the judges and answer any questions. Thanks to our awesome engineering, we passed with flying colours.

Now it's on to tomorrow which is RACE DAY! I can't wait to tell you all about it.

-Andrea Badger

Day 2: Tron-tastic spirit results!

Here we are at the end of Day 2, and what a fantastic day it was! We all got up bright and early at 6 a.m. to get on the busses that took us to Nakiska Mountain Resort and Banff. Those of us that chose to ski or snowboard were dropped off at Nakiska for a full day of shredding corduroy.

At the ski hill, the spirit judges presented us with the first challenge of the competition: form a group of three with two people from other schools, track down five members of the host committee and collect unique stamps from each.

There were a total of nine winners on three teams and a Tronbogganer was on
each of the winning teams! That should score us some serious spirit points.

A few happy Tronboggan folk got together and built a snowman to wave at the
chairlift passing overhead.

In Banff, all participants were split up into teams from different schools and participated in various challenges. These challenges included curling and a scavenger hunt. All in all it was an action-packed day for all participants. I think we can all agree that the day was a success an many new friendships were formed.

It’s always a treat to see familiar faces from previous years of GNCTR and
today was a great opportunity to catch up with old acquaintances.

Tonight it’s a pizza supper and then off to Ranchman’s for a Cowboys and Aliens party. Then Saturday it’s up at the crack of dawn again to head to the U of C campus for the Technical Exposition. Hopefully we’ve all got enough stamina to make it through.

We’ve been asked to tweet the spirit judges throughout the competition, check out #GNCTR2012 to see what’s going on.

--Andrea Badger

Day 1: Making concrete connections

Day 1 of competition has arrived and the U of A is here to win!

We had a lot of fun today. There are teams, from UBC to SAIT to McMaster to Dalhousie. In total, 19 teams of engineering students from across the country are represented here. The opening ceremonies were fantastic. We were introduced to the host committee, the volunteers and, most importantly the spirit judges!

There will be several spirit challenges over the course of the competition, so our spirit captain is really going to have to bring it. The opening skits ranged from funny YouTube videos to improvised dances, ours fell somewhere in between. Our Tron-inspired performance was full of morph suits, LED glasses, light cycles and wicked beats. We’re all really happy to be here.

Interacting with other students from across the country is one of the best aspects of the competition and the opening ceremonies are a great way to break the ice. The energy in the banquet hall was incomparable—it’s a room full of 500 happy, outgoing people who are prepared to put a lot of energy into learning, competing and having fun. It is impossible to describe the positive, excited atmosphere of the first night of competition.

Now, off to bed for a good night’s sleep before competitor interaction day tomorrow at Nakiska ski resort. In past years competitor interaction day has been spent on the host university campus, playing games and getting to know members from other teams. This year, Calgary took advantage of their proximity to the mountains and is bringing everybody to Banff for the day. It should be a great opportunity to get to know students from across the country and showcase the beauty of the province.

GNCTR 2012 promises to be a great event, our team is competitive in all aspects of the competition, we are a lot of fun and are here with great spirit. We’re all looking forward to the next 3 days! I’ll keep you posted.

--Andrea Badger

The U of A’s GNCTR 2012 Tronboggan team is ready to go!

We’ve been working really hard since September and now the competition week has arrived.

The competition is multi-faceted and our diverse team has been busily putting the finishing touches on all competition elements. The tech display, depicting a Tron-esque light cycle is painted, wired with hundreds of LED bulbs and lit up.

The skit for opening ceremonies, a dance featuring some of U of A’s finest dancing engineers, has been rehearsed. We’ve come up with some great cheers and are working on memorizing them so that they can be called out at all hours of the day throughout competition.

The tech report describing all the effort, technical and otherwise that the team has put into the competition has been submitted and, barring no serious grammatical errors, should pass with flying colours.

The costumes, which are morph suits hand painted with glow-in-the-dark paint and decorated with strings of LEDs are ready to glow. Each team member has sworn to never take their costume off and use their 4 Frisbee weapons wisely.

The concrete skis for our sled were poured in December so they have cured long past their 28-day maximum strength. The concrete was designed to be strong under dynamic loading – perfect for sledding! We’ve even got a spare set of skis in case of emergency on race day.

The superstructure of our sled is made of aluminum and has passed FEA requirements so we know we’ll be safe under our strong roll cage. We’ve completed three test runs with our sled and it’s fast, the steering works and the brake promises to deliver. All 30 members of the competing team and nine members of the non-competing team are looking forward to an exciting, fun-filled competition.

--Andrea Badger