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
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 5th or 6th 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)
No comments:
Post a Comment