West Yellowstone Update

We have been in West Yellowstone for almost a week now and while the snow conditions haven't been ideal, we're making it work! The skiing on the plateau was actually beautiful this morning - the best we've seen it yet. There still isn't skiing in town but we've made the trek up to the plateau almost every day. It was a little rocky the first day and we learned the hard way but it's gotten better each day. Hopefully we get some more snow before the races but that is out of our control so we've just been enjoying the skiing we do have for the moment. Traffic can get a little hectic driving to and from the plateau but the organizers sent out a very detailed shuttle and driving schedule so today we had a seamless commute. Once Isabel joined us in West, we obviously had to do our annual Dartmouth bikini ski. It's supposed to be our first time on snow and Annie, Erika, and I had been skiing for awhile but it was Isabel's first time on snow after looking at rocks all fall.

Erika and Annie went to Bozeman to pick up Sverre and Gino and do an OD at Bohart but Isabel and I stayed behind with the boys and did a nice 3 hours skate up on the plateau.

cousins! (Isabel, Paddy, Sophie)

Isabel

snowy trail

We had an off day yesterday and I'm glad we won't have too many more of those because there isn't a ton to do in West Yellowstone but we entertained ourselves for the day. This morning we did skate speeds that felt good and were very fun. We narrowly avoided what could have been a disastrous pile up during one speed but Isabel made an impressive last-minute move to catch her balance. Gus told us we had to stay focused during out workout so we tried not to do too much socializing but it was fun to zip around and say hi to some friends between speeds.

speed  day

Izzy and Issy!

The boys watching a video or Jordan and Skyler wrestling

Gus modeling his pretty new dress

We have some intervals tomorrow, a very easy day on Wednesday, and then a pre-race ski on Thursday before our first races of the season. There will be a skate sprint on Friday and a 10k skate on Saturday. I think we're all excited to race and the Thanksgiving feast the night before should guarantee that we have plenty of fuel (don't worry, Erika has made a spreadsheet complete with a shopping list and cooking assignments)!