To the SLUSKI Parents…As a parent,
one always wonders what happens at ski camp. Your child is missing
from the Thanksgiving Day table…and you are thinking…. is there
enough food to eat, is she sleeping enough…has he been run over by
a moose… or at a minimum…what do they do all week up there???
You want information, but they are in college, notes don’t get sent
home from the teachers or the coaches, and the nearly-adult child
does not like to talk.
While there is a little bit of “what
happens in Canada stays in Canada…” as a fellow parent who is
spending a week up here cooking….this is what I can say…
The team is
staying in one house in a lovely ski valley called Stoneham; the
coaches are in a house next door. The house is about 40 minutes NW
of Quebec City at a downhill resort area and there are views of the
mountains and slopes from the windows. The team ski house has a big
upstairs and downstairs with bedrooms, and a main floor with a large
living room/dining room and pretty big kitchen,
Upon arrival there is the ritualistic
shaving/trimming of heads (mostly men...see Isaac on the left the photo) . Typical day involves getting
up in time for a 7:00 Run… then a nice hearty breakfast of oatmeal
made by Adam Terko, his specialty. Team usually leaves here by 8:30
every morning to travel up to Foret Montmorency, a 40 minute drive up
into a national park. This park is so beautiful, especially when
there is enough snow to ski the 25K or so of groomed trails . It is
mostly a spruce forest, very boreal. Sunday was very crowded, with
many Quebec ski clubs, along with the college teams from Bates,
Middlebury, St. Michaels, UVM, and others. If the team does a double
session, they have down time in between and sleep on the floor in the
buildings up at Foret, and get back here by 3 or 4 PM. On horribly
rainy days, like today, they ski one session, and then are back for a
late lunch with a strength training session inside.
We try to have a nice warm soup for
them upon arrival. They then have some down time for studying,
computer, a quick run before dinner. Dinner is at 6ish, a team
meeting, and then quiet hours at 10:00. There are a number of people
that play board games, a lot of computer work.. You know that the
hard training is catching up to them when they get quieter and
sleepier and the hijinks are fewer between workouts. The Coaches
house, where we are staying, is a quiet refuge
.
In September of this year, the coaches
asked if I wanted to be team cook (along with my husband Chris). Of
course I said yes!!! An exciting challenge to see if I could cook
healthy bountiful meals (with a few yummy snacks) for 20 people for a
week, including two gluten free and one anti-onion/tomato people ……
on a budget. Consider that each skier is expending 5,000 calories a
day…x 17 skiers plus four adults… that is upward of 100,000
calories a day to cook. I brought nearly all my kitchen equipment…
the car was so full. I think this is like eating an elephant, one
meal at a time, with lots of planning. But so far so good, I think.
We have had ham and scalloped potatoes (thanks Debbie Mulcahy),
carrot ginger soup (perfected by G-Town), pork tenderloin, roasted
potatoes, green beans, salad, brownies and ice cream… Tonight is
munch-a-bunch of healthy bowl…with birthday cake for my son. And I
will promise a homemade Thanksgiving Day dinner with all of the
fixings…and the team will say what they are thankful for before
they consume massive quantities of calories.
One of the things I
know they will all mention is you…their parents…who they secretly
miss very much on that special day. I will hug each and every one of
them on your behalf.
The team enjoying a hearty meal from our great chef! Of special note is Blaine (3rd from left) with his awesome mowhawk, and Isaac (4th from left)...you cannot tell in this picture but that is a SLU shield shaved into the top of his head...
