Sean's first Quebec City experience

First-year skier and king of sleeping Sean Delaney sent in a quick write-up of his first SLUSKI trip to Quebec City:

By Sean Delaney '18

Wednesday, more commonly known as hump day, was host to the most important training session of the week: Go kart racing. This session took place far from the snowy trails and frosty pines of Foret...Instead, we traveled to the concrete jungle of Québec city, where Etown may or may not have plowed through a roadblock to get us to the venue. 

Discussing the best Kart to drive...

Racers speeding by on course!

We split up into three groups of six and raced for ten minutes each. Kyle took home the gold with impressive control in the bends.  

SLUSKI Go-Kart footage:

Afterward, we headed to the old city, where we hoped the thick walls might provide us some protection from the raging Ebola epidemic.

We didn’t see any citizens bleed from their eyes, so we went to the pub. Our luck would inevitably run out at some point, so we left after burgers for dinner...but the iconic American McDonalds sign lured us in for McFlurries on our trek back to the bus and van. We realized this to be a slight mistake as an ice-cold gale blew in from the north and threatened to blacken the fingers of our McFlurry-holding hands. Slizzerd was especially vulnerable to the biting cold due to her bold decision to double-fist the McFlurries. 

I should not be relied upon for an account of the night after we returned to the bus, because I saw a golden opportunity for a nap. 

Isaac's report from training camp

By Isaac Wright '18 (photos added by Coach Terko)

The days leading up to Canada Camp 2K14 were a struggle for many. The days were being counted down one by one. However, soon Friday arrived and only a day remained before leaving. In the afternoon we went to Higley for an easy skate ski and a game of speedball on skis: full contact!

Coach Terko groomed out an official Speedball court for practice...good times were had

After the ski we headed to the Cactus Grill in Potsdam for a team dinner. The food was great: lots of hot and spicy Mexican! After a now-annual trip to Wal-Mart on the way for home for funny T-shirts, ninja turtle hats and one-piece zebra suits, the rest of the night involved packing for the days to come.

As holders of the slowest lap-times in the annual Quebec City Go-Kart race, both Dana (pictured) and Isaac had to ski a workout in the ninja turtle hat...Dana rocked it for even longer than the bet lasted for: "it kept me warm!" she said 

The next morning around 8 we departed from school and started the long drive to Stoneham. Half of the team drove in a van, the other half drove in a mini bus, and E-Town drove the trailer with all of our bags and skis. On our way we picked up Morgan Holland, a junior who was abroad in New Zealand.  Most of the ride consisted of sleeping, listening to music, or playing games. 

Around the 5^th or 6^th hour you could tell people were getting pretty desperate and bored when suddenly we came upon the Middlebury ski team caravan along the highway. Lets just leave it at, "many asses were pressed up against windows".

We finally arrived at our house in the late afternoon. After settling in, the team went for a run around the resort to shake everything out. We were staying around the base of Stoneham ski resort. There was tons of snow and the amount of it was very apparent when the van tried driving up the steep drive way. It got stuck, and after numerous attempts of the whole team trying to free it, we decided to let the snow harden up and try to move it later.

The view out the front door (photo by Dana)

The house we were staying in was very spacious, which helped because we had a lot of stuff. The boys slept upstairs, the girls slept downstairs, and the coaches had the neighboring house. There was a nice open dining/living room for team meetings, meals, and down time. We also had a big garage to store all of our skis, wax, and benches, which helped tremendously. In our free time people slept, ate, did school work, watched TV, played Settlers of Catan and chilled out.

Garage/wax room chaos! (photo by Erin)

The night we arrived, the team got right into their 'ritual' of giving haircuts courtesy of Austin. At the end some of them looked pretty solid...others were the "you should probably shave your head before you go back to school" type. 

Hair extraordinaire Austin Meng worked his magic in the barber chair to shave a SLU shield into Isaac's head

After going to various ski races, like Eastern High Schools, and J2s, I sort of knew what to expect. Sleep, Eat, and Ski are the three key things during camps like these. Sure, there were some things that were new to me and others, but the upperclassmen and coaches helped with that. I think that this camp has definitely not only brought us closer together as a ski team but also helped our relationships as regular college students.

Solid tracks and solid training! (Photo by Erin)

Team photo! (Photo by Kate)