Vanishing Act

We had snow and were skiing here in town on pretty good conditions for about a week. But the snow has melted away now and we're back to dirt. A lot of people are saying it'll snow in town again this week. We'll see what happens with that. In the meantime, here's what we've been up to.

Of course we'd rather ski than run, but the running here in town hasn't been so bad.

This morning, it was time trial time.

Toom and Jenna

Corey

Michaela and Tuva

Espen

World Junior Champion Gus Schumacher skipped Alaska Winter Stars practice to race with us today. We're fortunate to be able to compete with fast skiers like Gus.

Helen

Trevor

JC double-poled and ran most of today's course. This was one of his double-pole sections.

Magnus with 500 meters to go

Austin

Transition

We've been on a giant slalom jag for the first half of the week, but now we've made the switch to slalom. 

Dom

Nicole

Mike

Drills

And more drills

Setting a slalom course. Sparky, Anna and Canadian Rod.

OK Nordies, here's a quiz:  What's the correct route through this slalom course?

Winter

Fiegl

I think we were laughing because this may have been right after Li failed to execute a clean dismount from the chairlift...

There was video analysis at the end of each day, and often between runs.

There was a lot of video analysis...

Near the end of the week, Sparky and Anna even let ME coach for a few minutes. Naturally, my topic of choice was *hiking.

note:  *hiking, in slalom parlance, is when you crash and slide past or miss a gate, and have to hike back up the hill to continue your slalom run.

The girls

The girls and the boys

The girls and the boys and the coaches

The week was a big success. We got a lot of good work done. The alpiners will spend a few days in class this week before going back to our secret training grounds for another week of intense alpine preseason training.  And I'll be back with the nordic team again tomorrow.

Here's my favorite moment of training camp this week:  We'd been making fast laps all day to try to squeeze in as many slalom runs as possible before the end of camp. Dom, Liam and Mike caught the last ride on the lift before it's shut down for the day. As soon as the boys get off the chair at the top, the lift stops. And all goes quiet. It's snowing and it feels like real winter.

It's the last run, of the last hour, of the last day of training for the week, and we'll be on a plane home in a few hours. It's only Mike left at the top of the slalom course, and Anna and Sparky. One last chance to lay down a great slalom run.

Mike charges out of the starting gate, and there's nothing left to do but watch him go.

Bugging Out

UAA's alpine team has traveled to its top-secret preseason training facility.  They have agreed to let me come along as long as I don't disclose our location. Anyway, everything here's awesome!  We're in a remote location where we can train in peace without any drama about traffic, road closures, lift lines, or getting hit by out-of-control skiers.  Basically, we're skiing at a closed ski area, with a lift and a full run all to ourselves, with perfect, firm man-made snow top to bottom. It couldn't be any better.  Literally, it couldn't.

Early morning. Sparky and Anna

Strategy session

I told them this photo could never be in the blog because it's contrived and posed. But here it is anyway.

Anna in full-on coach mode.

Anna again. Not doing anything in particular.

Our secret training venue is a pretty nice place to be.

Team dinner

Hey, check out our new training bibs!  Thanks, Waddell & Reed!

Here's Nicole

Chloe

Li

Georgia

Liam

We were provided our own ski tuning room at the bottom of the ski hill.  The whole situation is totally dialed.

Video analysis back at the team house.

Anna and I do our apres-ski out on the nordic trails.

Soleil

Chloe

Mike

It's Taco Tuesday!

And the tacos are made out of crickets!  We've been eating nothing but insects around here this week.  It's been sort of an experiment.  It takes a little getting used to, but after just a few days as insectivores, our insides are bathed in formic acid and we're feeling great!  It's been a real eye-opener for me, but after dining on crickets, grasshoppers and black ants, I'm looking forward to bringing what I've learned about bug-eating to the nordic team when I get back together with them next week. Get ready to have your minds blown, Nordies!!

Hauling gates. A Sisyphean task.