Bend Wrap-up

The Bend, Oregon portion of the May 2009 US Ski Team Camp is coming to a close as we pack our bags and the team vans for a four hour drive to the coast.  I skied at Mt. Bachelor eight days, with one recovery day off snow (also our golf day, pictured below) during the middle portion of the camp.  Of all those sessions, only one day did we encounter less-than-perfect weather.  Mt. Bachelor surely didn't disappoint and neither did Bend, with both proving to be great places to train this time of year.  I look forward to training here again in the future!

Below are a few shot from the ten days I've spent here...  Thanks to Chris Grover and Jason Adams for providing the pictures.  I was too preoccupied skiing, golfing, and enjoying the surroundings to get many good photos of my own.

  

Last Thursday we spent the afternoon golfing.  The team (pictured above) dressed for the occasion standing in front of one of the lava tubes on one of the courses.

Prior to golfing we checked out the lava tubes.

On Sunday we crust skied back to the bowl below Broken Top Mountain.  Lots of other skiers training here in Bend joined us for this 3 hour adventure.

The approach (pictured above) involved skiing down the trails from the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Area, through the forest, across a lake, and up a steep hill, before we made it out onto the flat open expanse in the foreground of Broken Top.  It was a beautiful day.

So that's the news from Bend.  My trip is almost over now, with just a few more workouts with the team before heading back to Alaska.  It's been great spending time in a new place.  Thanks to all the people who have made this camp possible, generously inviting us to BBQs, arranging for the great skiing/grooming, etc., etc.

Golfing?!?

Yep, you read correctly!  Today we went golfing at "one of the best courses on the West Coast."  It was our recovery day, so after a easy morning run, breakfast, a walk around downtown Bend and a trip to Whole Foods Market, followed by lunch, we all piled into the cars and went...golfing!  A local Bend skier (and golfer) went out of his way to get us a free round of golf and rentals at the beautiful Prong Horn Club outside of Bend.  We started at 3pm and played "best ball" for 9 holes, finishing just after 6pm.  It was a warm, sunny day out on the green and a very nice course for me to try my hand at my first few swings.  I was in a group with Koos, Whitcomb, and Kuzzy and really appreciated the coaching and encouragement from each of them.  I'm happy to report that there was significant improvement- although that's perhaps to be expected when you've never swung a golf club.  I had no problem making contact with the ball; sending it in the right direction to a specific distance was another story.  My shots were pretty haphazard, but it made for some good laughs...I think there might have been a few instances of beginners lucky, and I avoided losing my ball to the pond, but there's still plenty of room for improvement next time!

After a long afternoon we were warmly welcomed to a BBQ/potluck hosted by one of the ski clubs in town.  It was great to put faces to the numerous Bend-skier names I've heard, but never met.  Vordenberg gave slide show full of artist and motivating ski photos, and we enjoyed some wonderful food.  These experiences are the reason the Bend ski community has made a lasting impression.  It's great to see so many people up skiing at Mt. Bachelor, and it's inspiring to see so many people involved and loving skiing.   Thanks to Bend for being such a good host!

More to come...(and maybe even some golf photos!)

More good training at Mt. Bachelor

US Ski Team ladies jump for joy at the prospect of another Mt. Bachelor ski day.  

(Photo credit: Pete Vordenberg)

Today was day #3 skiing at Mt. Bachelor, and like the first day, it was absolutely beautiful weather.  The rainy/snowy, windy, foggy weather we skied through yesterday made me appreciate the perfect conditions today that much more.  We arrived to firm trails dusted in a light layer of new snow and were joined by many other racers and local skiers out enjoying the great late spring training.  It feels good to be logging kilometers on snow, seeing friends from around the country, and interacting with my US teammates and coaches.  There's nothing better than on-snow skiing year-round...  Next stop (next week), the Oregon Coast, followed by a brief Salt Lake visit, and a little over a week after arriving home, I head up to the glacier with my APU team for even more time on the snow!

 

Bend Camp

Yesterday I arrived in Bend, Oregon for my first US Ski Team camp of the new season.  Mt. Bachelor still has quite a bit of snow, so we're skiing every morning up high and dryland training in Bend in the afternoon.  Today was my first day back on snow in a few weeks, and my first time classic skiing since Distance Nationals in Fairbanks, and it was a great day to get back at it!  We arrived to blue skies, sunshine and firm tracks that quickly broke down into great soft klister skiing.  In addition to my other US teammates, there was a large XC Oregon contingent and numerous other racers from around the country out on the trails at Bachelor today.

So I've been back into training in Anchorage with APU, my club team, since April 27th, and I feel as though I've already made some good gains since then, but it's always fun to travel to a new place for a while.  It's my first time in Bend, and so far I'm quite impressed with the quality of "summer" skiing and the great weather up at Mt. Bachelor.  Stay tuned for more updates, and, hopefully, some pictures to come!