Canmore the rest of the story

Wednesday and Thursday the team skied twice each day.  On Wednesday morning Levi N and Conor joined in with the Winsport group for some intervals under the watchful eye of Eric de Nys.   Eric is a  former National Team coach and he is leading the newly formed Winsport junior cross country ski team.  The intent is to bridge the gap between High School and National Team Development Centers. The remainder of the Manitoba looked great in their interval sets.  Wednesday afternoon was a downhill technique session with Rich Pettit.  We should have had a before and after video (3 of 7 skiers missed the first corner of the session and luckily no one plunged over the edge . . .it was a bit dodgy though).  The skill on downhills improved significantly, with a focus on "control the hill, don't let the hill control you".

Thursday saw some speed work on skate skis, with the group showing some great snap!  By late Thursday afternoon we had news that the planned weekend Alberta Cup races were cancelled due to extreme cold temperatures predicted, and lots of new snow on the way which promised to make driving treacherous.  And the snow fell.  And fell.  Strangely the snow machines continued to pump out new snow all the while.

Friday was to have been a more restful day in preparation for races.  The weather was extremely hostile, with lots of snow falling and howling winds.  We had planned to join the Newfoundland team and do a session with Lisa Patterson.  Some of the team were fixin to mutiny, but Lisa sent a message "suck it up" so out went the team.  Levi's description is that it felt like skiing in the Arctic on the frozen tundra.  Elora had a nice random skier give her a hot paw for her frozen hands.  Word was that you could ski zone 3 on the downhills.  We did a drill with Lisa and finished off with some sprints, working on shooting the foot at the finish.  We were just a bit happy to get inside and warm up. Conor had painfully cold feet and some unorthodox methods were tried in order to help him warm up. There may have been a reference to child bearing.

Canmore Howling

All afternoon the weather got worse and the roads were pretty bad.  We moved to new accommodations as the Alpine hostel had still not got their water sorted out.  Banff Boundary Lodge gave us quite a bit more space and especially a bigger kitchen area.  One of the rooms accommodated floor space for a much needed yoga session in the evening.

Highlight of the day on Friday was the arrival of Steve Scoles, who had endured a scary slow drive in from Calgary to join us.  Steve continued to be the highlight of Saturday as his arrival heralded the "Downtown Nordic World Cup Season Opener"  time trial.  Joined by the hardy Newfoundland team, Manitobans did a fun 4 km time trial, handicap start.  A Newfoundland girl won the coveted Downtown Nordic buff and awards took place in the Canmore club house  (unsuspecting locals joined in the applause).  Steve was thankful that Team Newfoundland came all the way for this season opener,

 The team spent Saturday afternoon at Canmore's indoor climbing (bouldering) and the guys (Steve leading the way) hit the pool afterwards.  Steve screamed louder than anyone on the water slide and coach Alan had to drag him away from the slide to go home.  Evening entertainment consisted of sherades as organized by Steve.  Team Ratchets took on Team Tool Belts.  Sam proved his acting abilities with "Dora the Explorer" and Levi somehow acted out LF4 (wax).  A good time was had by all.

Today (Sunday) is gloriously clear but still very cold.  The team are maxing out their km's and skiing twice on all the freshly groomed trails.  Highlight so far was helping to push a van on the road near the Nordic Center, 99%  sure they got help from Becki Scott.  Ahh.  Only in Canmore.

Photos to come once Elora gets going.  The season is under way!! Looking forward to a good one!!

What is a good ski unless you can share it with a good friend!