Ever since last year's UAA Alpine Team Pre-Season Training Camp in Colorado, I've been begging the coaches to let me come back and drag panel gates around the ski areas of Summit County with them. They finally gave in and now I'm spending the week chasing the Alpine team around Loveland Pass with a video camera on a pair of skis that Conor loaned me. Thanks, Bucky!
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| Every day begins with a team warm-up. |
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| Taco Night at the house. |
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| It's no secret there are a lot of Canadians on this team. We've got satellite radio in the vans. And it's usually tuned to this. |
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| The alpine coaches, Sparky and Anna, have been letting me listen in on their strategy sessions. |
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| UAA Base Camp |
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| On the hill. During the first couple days on snow we've been focusing on the basics... |
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| ...and when we're talking about alpine skiing basics, we're talking about drills. Here's Sparky demonstrating one of the drills. I think this one is called "the sprinkler". We've got all kinds of drills, and they've all got great names. I'd show you pictures of the skiers doing the drills, but this is all proprietary stuff, invented by Sparky and Anna, and they wouldn't want their trade secrets out in the public domain. So I'll substitute some of the drills' namesakes: |
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| There's the Cornholio... |
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| ...and the Shiva (AKA the Björk)... |
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| The Björk. (In this picture, Björk is actually doing the Cornholio.) |
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| There's nothing wrong with the skiing here - or the weather. |
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| And as always, the alpine skiers are "sending it". |
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