The Callaghan Valley Training Centre along with the NTDC Thunder Bay and a few awesome additions from XC.com, Indi-2010 and Lakehead University spent this past week training hard at the Haig Glacier near Canmore, Alberta. The 6 day camp started off with cold and wet weather, followed by a terrifying thunderstorm, where athletes had to race off the glacier to the safety of camp as fast as possible. Fortunately, our luck changed, and we were then blessed with a 10 cm snow fall and mid-winter skiing conditions for the rest of the camp.
As with the first Haig camp, the goals were simple. We were aiming for more volume than the first camp and a large emphasis was placed on technique. The daily schedule consisted of breakfast at 7:00am followed by a hike up to the glacier (35-60min), ski (1:30-4:00), hike down, lunch, nap, video review or core strength, dinner, fun and games, and usually yoga.
It was a great camp with plenty of humor. It was nice to have a variety of top level athletes at the glacier so everyone could test out their fitness and see how they were stacking up against the competition. A huge thanks to Joel Knopff for excellent grooming, food, and support and to Erick Bailey, head coach for the Thunder Bay NTDC, for all of his help in making this a successful and rewarding camp. Also, hats off to all the athletes at the camp for their hard work, dedication, and good sense of humor. It was a great week!
