Yukon Life!

In non-Covid times, our ski team's alpine delegation would let me tag along to their training camps so I could get my fill of metal-edge knifing and plastic-bashing. After years of holding our annual pre-season training camp in Colorado, we discovered our very own local training base in 2018 in a secret location along the muddy banks of the Yukon River. It's colder, darker, and more remote than any other place we know, and it's the perfect place for us! Ever since we discovered this place, we've been coming here for training whenever the Canadians will let us enter their country. And this time they did.

The only hiking we do is when we miss a gate. This place has a chairlift!

For $49.99 a piece, I had assumed these plastic sticks were ready for racing. You can imagine my disappointment when Morten and Sparky told me we would spend the evening putting these cloth thingies on all these plastic sticks.

The finished product. In place in the northern wilderness.

Could you run a World Cup GS on this hill? Yes, you could.

Us coaches spend most of our day hauling stuff around and standing around in the snow. So it's usually after dark before we can get out for a little exercise. Sparky and I have been going out for night rides.

We are out at the crack of dawn, sticking those plastic sticks in the snow.

Here's Morten, my volunteer assistant counterpart on the alpine side of our Seawolf equation. All week, he's been teaching me alpine-coach stuff, like how to carry two bundles of plastic sticks at once, and how to carry a couple of drills and a backpack full of timing gear on the lift, without falling off.

We're in Canadia, which means we're measuring stuff in metric. This is how I dress when the temperature is -31 Celsius. That's nine layers of clothing, two of which are down parkas.

Sparky's got plenty of skiing advice to give. Here's Leon, getting his daily quota.

Ashleigh Alexander - freshman.

In covid times, they keep us separated. Here's our base lodge. It's working just fine.

Jan Ronner.  Freshman.

Not only is it cold, but there's ice fog. That's Sparky back there.

Kristina Natalenko

Hunter Eid - freshman.

Moro Bamber

Ashleigh

Leon Nikic

Between runs, we review video

And we compare our bruises.

Nicole Mah

Didrik Nilsen - senior