Canmore

This morning I did an hour and a half double pole only (a classic technique using only my arms) by myself. Some of the hills on the 1.8 kilometer loop are tough to double pole up. It was a bit of a strength session. We got to ski in the opposite direction which made it feel like a whole new loop! I had good energy and a good session.

This afternoon we did an hour and a half skate. Unfortunately we were back to skiing the loop in the old direction. I had a tough session. The snow was hard to stand on and hard to find the edge of the ski without washing out. My motivation was low and the time was not passing quickly. It was my least productive session of the camp.

My teammate on Ski and Snowboard Club Vail’s Team Homegrown (SSCV), Sylvan Ellefson, enjoyed himself!

As did Eric Packer of Stratton Mountain School T2 Team:

This evening SSCV and U.S. Ski Team Teammate Tad Elliott and I played chess. Amazingly, this was our first time ever playing each other.

I squeaked out a victory, but Tad is very good. The sweet design on Tad’s hat is the course map for the 2011 World Championships at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway. Oslo was both of our first World Championships and Holmenkollen is the most storied and famous Nordic venue in the World. There were 120,000 people lining the course for our 50 kilometer race!