Western Adventures

After our glacier camp in Alaska, I spent a few relaxing days at home before heading out west for twelve days of adventure training. I did the most skiing I had ever done in a week while in Alaska and finished the camp tired, but psyched about skiing and our team. I took some time to rest and let the training sink in and then I flew back out west to visit some friends and family in Montana and Colorado. One of my favorite things about our sport is that you can cross train in so many ways. My time out west was the perfect mental break from ski specific training, but I was kept busy each day chasing people around the mountains. My sister and I visited our cousin Anya in Bozeman and we woke up each day, picked a mountain to climb, and spent most of our days above treeline "bagging peaks" as Isabel would say. After Bozeman, I went to Colorado for six days for some more adventures including climbing my first 14er, attempting rock climbing, riding a horse for the first time in ten years, and SUPing (which is a great way to be on the water without actually being in it).

Anya brought us up to 10,000 ft on Blackmore Mtn straight from the airport when we arrived in Bozeman

Sunrise coffee with Anya, Kelsey, and Isable

Kelsey and me giving Lander a kiss on top of Hard Scrabble

Our buddy Ellery came for a visit! (me, Ellery, Anya)

Rock climbing up Sphinx Mtn.

Anya doing a handstand on top of the Briders

Anya was a trooper and did ski walking intervals with me one morning

We got really close to a goat when we climbed Sphinx Mtn. I was pretty excited about it.

Summit Sisters in Colorado

So many pretty wildflowers

Taking a break above the trees

Checking out the burn zone

After Alaska, the SMS T2 team had a vacation week, so a lot of people went home, but we're finally all reunited back in Stratton. It's great to have the team back together and we're lucky to have been joined by Ida, Caitlin, and Liz of the Craftsbury Green Team for a few days as well as the Canadian National Team men who are training in Stratton for a couple weeks. I'm ready to get back to rollerskiing and building strength and this stretch of beautiful VT weather is making it easy to spend a lot of time outside. The SMS camps start this week, so we've been helping out with the camps when we can. We also hosted a Fast and Female at SMS before camp started yesterday. It went very well and we owe a big thanks to Jessie for organizing it all!

Skate speed day with a big group of girls at BMD

Showing the Craftsbury girls one of our favorite places to ski on a beautiful VT evening

The Fast and Female crew

Attempting some human pyramids

A group of my favorite little buddies at SMS camp

Be sure to check the SMS blog this week for photos from the SMS Camps and you can read about our Fast and Female event on our SMS T2 website! We will be training in Vermont for the next two weeks before heading to Lake Placid on August 25th for our next USST camp.