Canmore- First 4 days

Well, it seems about time we dusted off the ol' blog. This is our fourth day in Canmore for our early snow training camp. The trip started off at 5am Sunday morning and the long drive from Winnipeg to Canmore began. Megan, Elise, Lucas, Casey, Levi W, Conor and Lisle were joined by Levi N, Pauline and Imogen in Brandon. The drive was largely uneventful with a stop at Costco in Medicine Hat, which for the most part consisted of Megan, Elise and Pauline shopping for groceries, while the rest hunted the store for free samples. Van activities included Conor learning how to play "Go Fish" and Simon battling the team for control over the music.

The ok sunset over a majestic Costco

The camp really kicked off with a classic ski at Lake Louise.

We skied up beautifully bumpy, twisty trail.

 

Some pretty incredible leaf-like ice crystals had formed from the morning fog coming off the snow...

At the end of the trail, we found a different trail called Moraine Lake road, which is a long, uphill mountain road in the summer and a ski trail in the winter

Group pic on Moraine lake road

 

After returning from Moraine Lake road, we regrouped at the parking lot and went in search of trails by Lake Louise

Unfortunately we couldn't find a groomed trail, so went back and skied a bit more where we originally were.

Monday night we were joined by Ian Murray (CRTG coach) for dinner, and then Dom and Amelia, came over for a visit.

Tuesday morning we went for a skate ski with Ian Murray and pre skied our race course for the weekend.

Levi W showing off his modelling prowess

The afternoon we went for a skate ski with some speed in the biathlon stadium. Drama ensued when we couldn't find the van key. After turning the wax room inside out and looking up and down the trail, the other van (which had already left the Nordic center) rolled up and Levi N tossed us the key. Thankfully it turned out the key had been found and someone had brought it to the help desk.

Tuesday night was an eventful one with burritos for dinner, which involved a heated argument over who had the best wrapped burrito. Simon displayed some highly controversial wrapping techniques.

Tuesday night we tested each others skis, attempting to determine which skis would be best in certain conditions

Levi W expanded his modelling portfolio with some interpretive dance

Today we all had intervals planned. We decided to head back to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake road to do some skate zone 3 and to watch the giant slalom World Cup training runs afterwards.

Levi N and Simon woke up early to fuel the team with pancakes. Elise was especially exited.

After our intervals we headed to the Lake Louise downhill resort to watch some of the best female downhill skiers in the world do their training runs before the real race on the weekend.

On the way back we took a moment to be tourists in Banff and then Lucas, the Levis and Conor went to do a double poling workout at the Nordic center while the rest of the team went to Safeway.

At dinner we were joined again by Ian Murray and by Colin Ward, a Nova Scotia skier who's staying for with Ian for the week. Additionally, the legendary Steve Scoles arrived about an hour ago with all
his official Federation Internationaux de Charades Association (apologies for the lack of accents on the 'e's).

That's about all for now, goodbye from Canmore.