Is This Heaven?

Today was the end of the 2009 UW Nordic Summer Ski Camp. The Summer Camp is put on by the UW Nordic Ski Team for high school skiers. This year at camp we had 30 high school athletes, 10 college athletes, 7 coaches and 2 Heroes who some people call Dick and Evelyn.

Reunions and introductions filled the first day of camp. As the drive to camp is no simple task even from Laramie, there was no workout planned on Saturday. However, there was an amazing dinner prepared by Dick and Evelyn with help from Ashley and others. Following dinner, Rachel and Christi gave a lecture over training. For a bedtime story time, I played a stick figure movie I made about Junior Olympics 2006 for anyone who wanted to watch. I hope everyone wasn't bored to tears! After the movie, lights went out in the lodge and we all headed up to our cabins for a chilly heatless night in the mountains.

The main attraction of the camp is skiing the crust at Libby Flats. Libby Flats is a place located in the Snowy Range west of Laramie. At 10,800 feet, the snow doesn't melt completely until mid to late July. Sunday morning wasn't a particularly cold day. Unfortunetly, the snow had crusted over with many pot holes. It made skiing difficult and there were a great many painful falls. Surpassing adversity, everyone generally had a good time and as far as I know, there was no broken equipment on Sunday. We even managed to get in a technique lesson. We returned from skiing to a warm breakfast prepared once again at the hands of my heroes. Following breakfast we had a discussion about skiing in college and a Yoga session lead by Gracie. It was raining so we had to do it in the lodge. Not everyone could see Gracie but it didn't matter, we all twisted and stretched in ways we never thought possible! After a delicious lunch we headed out on a long slow distance run. For the people running with me, or near me, it was a fun run marked by rapping and joking. As far as I know, everyone had a fairly enjoyable run in the Wyoming weather. When we began our run, it was sunny and warm. The saying "If you don't like the weather in Wyoming, wait 15 minutes" could not have been more true. A few minutes into the run, it started to rain, rain turned to snow, snow turned to sun and then the end of the run was sunny. And just for the record, Gracie never dropped her key into the bog, we just wanted to run a little more. We returned to camp and a wonderful dinner. We went to bed in a rain storm.

Monday morning was another day of skiing. We always hope for a beautiful crust but it doesn't always work out that way. The night brought two or three inches of fresh snow. Without sun, the new snow didn't turn to crust. Did that stop us? Never! We all put on our skis in the frigid wind. The main course of skiing on Monday was a little game taught to me by a Russian. Zhyena taught me how to play a game which we quickly dubbed "Russian Biathlon." I taught everyone how to play Russian Biathlon. We had a great time playing a great game. Monday wasn't as nice to us as Sunday. We broke two skis. However, there was a noticeable lack of pot holes so that made things a little easier. To comfort our pain, a comforting breakfast was served after our ski! A short talk about training logs was followed by a strength circuit. It was raining so we held it inside. After our circuit we ate another amazing lunch. After lunch we ran natural intervals. It could be said, we didn't need showers after that run. It poured on us. At 8,500 feet, rain in June is not warm. It was a cold day of intervals but true to their nature, our athletes did very well. Unfortunately, we suffered our first injury on the rocky trials. Kyle rolled his ankle. A cold run is best remedied with a warm meal, and we weren't disappointed. After dinner, Angela formerly of the Wellness Center at UW gave a wonderfully informative speech on injuries and injury prevention. At this point, it had been raining all day which meant it was snowing all day up on top. Coaches gave us a choice, to sleep in or to try and ski even though the skiing might be horrible. Almost unanimously, they voted to get up and try even if it meant a hard day on snow. There's just something about Nordic skiers isn't there? Monday night was the last night of camp and that could only mean one thing. Dance Party!

When the trumpet sounded off on Tuesday morning, it was hard for most everyone to get out of bed but we did it and we made it up the hill. At the top, we were met by a few inches of new snow but it turned out to be the best skiing conditions yet! Though of course, the wind was blowing like crazy. It was a windy cold ski but totally worth every second of being on snow in June. We posed for a picture on the castle lookout tower. When we returned to camp, the most amazing thing happened. We got to eat Evelyn's cinnamon rolls! I truly do not think I’ve eaten a better tasting breakfast in my life. Next up was the team's competition. We competed in a series of relays and games such as a three legged race, an egg toss, an egg carry and other fun relays. At the end, the victors got first pick in their clean up duties. As the teams competition came to a close, parents started to arrive. We ate lunch with a few parents and then started to clean up camp. After camp was clean we all left never to forget the great time we had at Summer Ski Camp!

If I had to sum up ski camp in a five words they would be; Rain, Snow, Fun, Friendship and Delicious. So to answer my question, is this heaven? No, it’s Wyoming!

P.S. I would really like to thank Dick and Evelyn for everything they do for us at Ski Camp, without them none of this would be possible.